RICC 2014 Review – ‘Go Big or Go Home’ Isn’t a Management Strategy

Rhode Island Comic Con held its third annual event this past weekend, and, unless you weren’t paying attention at all, you have seen the reports of how dysfunctional the crowd management was.

But not everything was horrible at RICC 2014, and the drastic overcrowding was actually a boon to some. With that in mind, below is my review of the convention as a whole.

First, though, let’s get the big problem out of the way. You can read about the overcrowding problems and the issues that raised here, but the gist of it is that reports stated the Fire Marshal stopped the Rhode Island Convention Center from allowing anyone to enter the facility just shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday, because the crowds had reached approximately 20,000. I can personally confirm reports from friends on Saturday who were denied re-entry — panelists, press and staff, as well as attendees.

While there have been a lot of numbers tossed around about the actual capacity of the center, based on its own promotional brochure PDF, adding up all of the available spaces using the most generous numbers (everything set up with theater-like seating) you get about 12,500 people able to fit in the entire facility.

The Fire Marshal lifted the restriction just before 5 p.m. on Saturday, but not before social media exploded with complaints from people who had spent hundreds of dollars on VIP tickets and had driven hours to attend, only to be denied entry.

Sunday, attendance was lighter, and the convention center officials managed the crowds more actively, stopping entrance to the dealer’s room a number of times in the few hours around noon, and only once locking down entrance to the whole facility, for less than an hour.

And let’s be clear here — it was the convention center, based on the requirements of the Fire Marshal’s office, that made the decisions to stop anyone from entering the dealer’s room or the building, not the con staff or the volunteers. However, the conditions for that happening — oversales of attendance tickets, no matter how much the convention tried to deny it on social media Saturday — was entirely the fault of the convention itself.

Mr. Bright Side
On Sunday I talked to a number of cosplay guests, artists and comic book store booth vendors, and they all said that the huge crowds on Saturday — which led to people telling me they took 15 minutes just to get from one end of an aisle to the other — added up to great sales for them. While there is no question such overcrowding was an actual safety hazard, it forced people to stop and check out the vendors and guests, and that helped boost their sales.

Unfortunately, those huge crowds also led to the concession stands in the dealer’s room to run out of hot food by the middle of the afternoon. Which is a shame, because the Rhode Island Convention Center has, relative to other con centers, pretty decent food.

The crowds were partly so large as a result of the amazing celebrity guests the convention was able to get, including the first time William Shatner and George Takei were at the same con at the same time in decades. There was no replay of the Adam West debacle that happened last year, when the con staff and the people who had bought VIP tickets for Adam West were told last minute that autographs and photo opps were going to be cash only.

Those large crowds also meant the panels and events were very well attended, from the Q&A sessions with the likes of Eliza Dushku, Michael Jai White and William Shatner, to the “These are the Voyages” panel with Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols, to the Halloween pre-con party that featured appearances by con guests Linda Blair, creature maker Mark Dodson, and Clerks star Brian O’Halloran, who sang a karaoke version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

The number and quality of cosplay outfits was also a highlight of this year’s con, and the Cosplay Contest Saturday evening was an unqualified success. You can see the entire contest in one enormous video here. You can expect cosplay galleries from Saturday and Sunday to be posted in the next few days.

Fixin’ To Fix It
Earlier today, Steven Perry, the president and CEO of Altered Reality Entertainment, which puts on the convention posted a very long mea culpa on Facebook that was refreshing in how it acknowledged the problems, addressing specific needs that this year’s convention made obvious, and most encouraging, what it would do to fix them.

The best thing Perry says in the post is that he is finally accepting experienced help.

A highly respected, long-time, convention-appearing, celebrity agent decided to share their many years of wisdom, improvements and suggestions for future conventions ranging from floor layout, ticketing, traffic flow, signage, and staff training. Many of these recommendations are already being put into place for future events

The biggest key items there are “ticketing,” “layout” and “staff training” in that order, in my opinion. Drop Ticketmaster and go with EventBrite or some other more modern solution. Cap pre-sales. Clear all of the cars, bands, etc. out of the hallways and lobbies, and move them into the space where the celebrity autographs are now, because you will move the celebrities into the Dunkin Donuts center floor. And make sure all volunteer staff have printed booklets with maps, schedules and answers to common questions.

Most importantly when it comes to staff, have at least one or two volunteer coordinators whose sole job will be to answer those questions that the average floor volunteer has to kick up a notch. Always available, with total knowledge and the ability to reach the top staff if a concern has to reach that level.

Also, it would be a great idea to give every single convention center security guard a pre-printed card with the most common answers they would need to deal with, like where the different registration locations are for exhibitors, staff and attendees. After all, they are the ones guarding the entrances and therefore the first contact for the convention (even if they aren’t convention staff) that most people encounter.

I can’t fault anyone for reaching higher every time they try something, and much of that extra reach Rhode Island Comic Con pulled off very well. But there is no question that the areas in which it fell down, it fell down hard — possibly hard enough to keep some people from coming back. Which would be a shame, particularly if the problems do get solved as Perry indicates they will.

Rhode Island Comic Con 2015 will be the real test — more unmanaged growth or a smoothly running machine. Fingers crossed for the latter outcome.