Keep in mind as you read this that I only did general admission on Saturdayy (along with three sons to manage) so I attended no panels and could not go to any of the exclusive General package events (such as awards night, casino night, preview night, etc.).
My sons and I did the con on Saturday, stayed the night and went to World of Coke this morning (we are less than an hour
away from downtown but decided to give the wife a break and to do a hotel package deal – free breakfast, free parking and world of coke tickets included with the room for $250 total).
LOTS of complaints heard in person and on-line about the location. The hotel room rate was cheap, but the hotel was in downtown Atlanta, with several events occuring on Saturday hindering people’s ability to get to the venue. The cost of parking was a minimum $10 a day, and parking at the hotel was $24 a day – quite a bit of change if you stayed there. Adding insult to injury was the most convenient fast-food was closed after 6 on Saturday and not open at all on Sunday (the hotel is in the middle of a business district).
I still wonder if the club considered the Marriott conference center at Stone Mountain, just east of Atlanta. It’s got a huge number of hotel rooms (AND a spill-over hotel if they sell out is nearby), free parking, TONS of conference space, more convenient to lots more people, and you’ve got, well, the Stone Mountain Park… Buddy, if you’e reading this, consider this for next year’s Joelanta venue. TRUST ME, it’ll work… And, of course, I have the luxury of not only hindsight, but not having to do any real WORK on the convention (and it is incredibly easy to be critical).
The show seemed to – well – peter out on Saturday afternoon. Huge general admission line at the opening and then most of the people were gone after lunch. I did not see anyone lined up this morning, but Joelanta last year was the same way (and I had a table there). I bought a couple of items from the club to help out but I really think the location (and a parade that shut down large chunks of downtown on Saturday) hurt turnout…
Did the collectors club do alright in the end? I hope (and think) so. But I was really surprised at the amount of time we ended spending in the pool or the hotel room rather than the sales floor. May be just me, but the selection on the show floor was not the best i’ve ever seen… Lots of the same items at multiple tables and lots of stuff you would see at ANY toy show. What made the Joe con special in the past has been the fact that dealers brought their A+list items to sell, and it was a blast to see some extremely rare items there. Saw ONE rare figure this time I’ve coveted, and LOTS of small Joes (3 3/4″ size) and their vehicles. Lots of folks on the Joe newsgroup aren’t too happy (that group skews older and are more focused on the 12″ line).
Looking forward to getting some info from Lanny on how things went from the club’s perspective… More (possibly) to come, but here’s some pics:
AND lots more photos from my flickr feed at my tumblr site.