Being new to the convention circuit especially in terms of video interviewing there are many things that we would do differently at future conventions.
Wear comfortable shoes.
Let me say it again… Wear comfortable shoes. You are going to be WALKING A TON or standing doing interviews / video recording and lining up shots. If your feet are hurting and you are limping, get running shoes with really good cushions that make your feet walk on air. They and your brain will thank you for that in the long run.
Plan out your convention interview schedule.
If there is a floor plan, print it out and map out which interviews you would like to get done. In fact use that excel program to map it all out in a day by day spreadsheet with multiple columns in case you have to re-schedule.
When taking a break still pound the carpet solo with business cards.
I know I spent much of my time on lunch between interviews just going around making myself known, passing the business cards around. It was great to see people that I had no idea who they were but I was observing proper protocol dealing with the PR reps and everything like that…
How many business cards are too many?
Answer: I had 500 business cards. I went through at least 300 of them at this convention and I didn’t even hit up all the Comic book stores / resellers… Goes back to planning really. I collected at least 75 – 100 cards from other people. It’s about the social networking.
When should you get your interviews done?
If you are given a three hour window on a Friday and the public doesn’t get a crack at them until 1PM… Do your favourites or whatever on Friday… There were about three tables that were just swamped with people, fans three to five deep.
Limit yourself to short interviews
If you have only a few interviews scheduled for the day, then see if you can get in ten minute interviews. If not five is about the limit you should try for, unless you have more questions and they allow it.
Get your hotel months in advance
It so happened that we were suggested the same hotel that Byron, Dawn and Antoine were in as well, so I booked it in advance and man was it worth it. Small and packed Deli, workout room, clean and spacious rooms and Queen beds. Only have to deal with the Loop trains itself or say someone’s snoring but worth it going to the South Loop Hotel we stayed at and just six – seven minutes from McCormick place by car.
I went through Expedia.com and I’d do that again in a heartbeat.
Don’t be shocked by the cost of parking in Chicago
Even when we were warned it still came to a bit of a shock. One night we headed out downtown and parked at a place we were told $14. It was really $29. That was because we didn’t get out of that parking lot by 7PM or the fact that we didn’t park there between 5:30AM-8:00AM… Lesson learned.
One time we paid $0.25 because the meter wouldn’t take any more money after 9PM CST. If you plan on parking on the street look at the amount of time is left in the day.
McCormick place had underground parking and it was All day (for that day you parked) at $19. That was actually extremely reasonable. About the same amount if you were going to cab it.
All in all we had a blast doing this C2E2 and we would gladly do that again.
Next article I’ll write about the Con wrap up.
а в каком это городе,какой стране??очень креативненько!!!!!)))))