Author Topic: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017  (Read 26975 times)

Offline hikanteki

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #165 on: April 23, 2017, 10:46:35 PM »
Good analysis from the Mercury Times. I agree with pretty much everything:

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And here's another review:

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Quote
Silicon Valley Comic Con CEO Trip Hunter said Sunday that while the numbers were incomplete for this weekend, he thought they would be as strong as or stronger than 2016, when more than 60,000 attended.

Hunter reiterated that no matter how popular the convention gets, it won’t ever move to San Francisco or Los Angeles, like the last big Bay Area convention, WonderCon, did a few years ago.

“We’re not moving. That’s Woz’s directive,” Hunter said of the Silicon Valley resident, who has taught fifth-grade computer classes in local schools. “He just doesn’t have interest in doing this somewhere else.”
« Last Edit: April 24, 2017, 12:36:28 AM by hikanteki »
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Offline edwinfabian

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #166 on: April 24, 2017, 11:08:41 AM »
My pics of cosplayers from SVCC are up!

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #167 on: Today at 07:19:01 AM »

Offline Mario Wario

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #167 on: April 24, 2017, 11:10:24 AM »
So I must say, this year was really good. Sure, I had VIP; however, this con was done really well. The panel lineup was great and having certain ones over at the City National Civic was perfect. Now there are some minor things that need attention, but those issues are so small. They should be able to fix those--just look at Year 2. They did a lot to make the con even better so fast. Therefore, can't wait to see what next year brings! Oh yes, I'm going back and likewise for my brother. We had so much fun and it was relaxing, too. Btw, I really liked both NASA booths--the store and their other one. For example, I was able to talk to a NASA pilot about SOFIA. It was cool!

Also, it should stay where it's at. Unless space becomes an issue in the future, its current location is fine. Not so crazy about SF; SJ is better in my book.

Finally, call me crazy if you want, but SVCC '17 > WonderCon '17. I still think WC had the better show floor, but SVCC had better things overall, that made it awesome. Again, so many panels to pick from I couldn't believe it. I also had fun meeting certain guests as well. Having the VIP badge helps, too, hehe!

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It was great to see Mario, Mark and Janray at dinner tonight. Thank you all for coming! Hope to see you around the con tomorrow!
The dinner was awesome! Thanks again for setting it up TJ!

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Thanks for organizing the dinner! Was great to you all. Mario also unwittingly provided the idea for the next fantasy football writeup.

I have two apologies to make. 1. I never sang, (this might not be that bad of a thing.) 2. I had 10 astronaut ice cream sandwiches in my backpack the whole time and forgot completely about it until I got back to my car.  :(
Lol! Glad to help!  ;) And no problem about the ice cream. Next time!
« Last Edit: April 24, 2017, 03:48:36 PM by Mario Wario »
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Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #168 on: April 24, 2017, 11:34:09 AM »
I agree with Mario, this was a much better con for me than WonderCon this year. The variety and quality of panels are number one for me at any con, and SVCC had that in spades. Tech and science panels, celeb and entertainment panels, and so many that I had to make hard choices as to where I wanted to be. I certainly didn't have that at WonderCon this year!

The exhibit floor wasn't as big as WonderCon, but I thought it was just as good, if not better. In place of Dark Horse, there was NASA and SETI. WB actually gave away proper swah to nearly every attendee. The Buzz Aldrin VR experience and (hearsay... I never got the chance to do it) the Acura experience were a lot of fun. In the park, the Playstation and Facebook VR demos were well received, with long lines. There were no 'experience' booths at WC this year other than Comic Con HQ, and certainly no offsites like SVCC had at the park.

There were a few small issues, but everyone at the Talkback panel was very complimentary (even as they made their complaints) and said that the con was significantly improved from last year. The few complaints people had were relatively small, and things that the program director promised to fix for 218. IMHO, this con is a contender. Next year will really be the turning point for this con, and it may easily become a 'destination event' by the end of the decade.


Offline mark

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #169 on: April 24, 2017, 12:09:26 PM »
Some quick notes. More good than bad, and I was happy at the improvements over last year. Might even go VIP next year?

Good stuff

Unique things. Sesame Street cast, Buzz Aldrin, Adam West & Burt Ward, Drew Struzan.

I like the integration with the city of San Jose. Information booths, "city concierges," participation of the public library and San Jose State.

More artists, more comic vendors, collectibles, etc. compared to last year. Lots of movie props.

Moving the security/badge checkpoints outside. You were (mostly) free to move around inside, and there weren't the bottlenecks of last year.

Better use of convention center space. Floor layout was good and even had some places to relax.

More sponsorships this year but they were not too intrusive.

So much NASA, and really friendly people at their booths.

Still not overly crowded. Short lines (in exhibit hall) and was easy to talk to people.

Lots of large "Cosplay is not Consent" notices. There were clear details on what behavior won't be tolerated and also clear details on what was allowed and not allowed with costumes. (I had never even heard of a "dance belt.") There was even a Negan clause stating that no wooden or aluminum Bats were permitted.

The Earth day timing was nice, although I got snagged up in traffic from the parade.

People haven't discovered my super secret lunch spot.
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Large gaming area with (local?) bands. Quirky :) I completely geeked out the the Q*bert game still has the thing that thumps inside the case when you fall off the pyramid.

Things they could improve on

I would have done more days and scheduled in more panels if I had known details in advance. Some details, like guests and panel presenters were not filled in until the last minute. For example there was what looked like a really strong panel with Bronze age creators like Ron Wilson, but the description of who would be at the panel was not filled in until the day of the panel.

Add a schedule to the paper program.

Give badge incentives at the beginning of the sale, I know some people who bought early and were upset that they missed a discount or a free shirt later on.

Some things were tucked away in corners, make them easier to find with signs and a better map in the program.

Give artists better floor location. I would have liked to see them more in the center of the floor, rather than along the wall.

Have a consistent "weapons" policy. I saw some people turned away from the plaza for having fake weapons as part of their costume. Security is important of course and this may be unavoidable but people were frustrated that a costume that was fine in the convention center was not permitted in the plaza.

Would like to see some CBLDF and Heroes Initiative presence.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #170 on: April 24, 2017, 12:48:28 PM »
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People haven't discovered my super secret lunch spot.
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On a similar note, I had lunch yesterday at the
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and it was uncrowded, but served up a fabulous caprese panini and tomato basil soup. Two thumbs up!

Offline hikanteki

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #171 on: April 24, 2017, 02:41:51 PM »
Last year I volunteered one day (which let me attend the other days for free), but after seeing how great SVCC was, I decided it was worth full price and paid for a weekend pass this year.

It did not disappoint. Just when we were already looking forward to what we thought was the complete guest lineup, they announced additional guests closer and closer to the show...and again...and again. Production value was high. The SVCC banner across the convention center made everyone know that this was the event they came for. Once again, the exhibit hall was carpeted. The panel rooms were professional looking, with blue lighting and a setup with the SVCC logo on a black background.

The new layout was all kinds of awesome, and fixed the most glaring issues from last year. The smaller rooms had more space than last year, and the use of the City National Civic was genius. I really hope they use the Civic every year. People lined up for the main room outside rather than take up space inside the convention center. In addition to the seats set up in front of the stage, there's permanent side and balcony seating with comfy tiered seats (similar to the arena in Anaheim). It was also a good decision to move Registration to the South Hall, which is in general a big and useless building but perfect for picking up your registration band and not much else. They also allowed pickup on Thursday and earlier hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As they mailed our badges we didn't have to go, but I did not hear of the registration problems of last year.

Moving the tag in station to the front doors and side doors rather than upstairs was another good decision. This allowed them to use the long hallway space on the first floor (which is a waste of space almost all of the time for other conventions) for convention activities, such as the Kids STEAM Lab. There were also artists set up on the first floor.

Panels are my favorite part of any show and this convention had among the best. There was no shortage of featured guest panels as well as interesting smaller panels. In the main hall, I attended Star Trek, Breaking Barriers with Pam Grier and Erica Baker (Nichelle Nichols was added at the last minute, then cancelled at the even more last minute due to transportation issues), Buzz Aldrin, Grant Gustin/Tom Felton, and Sesame Street. All fantastic. None of them were completely full, although I estimate that Star Trek, Buzz, and Grant were about 80-90% full. I was actually surprised (and disappointed) that Sesame Street didn't get a bigger turnout...here were five of the original cast members looking at about a 20-30% full auditorium. :-\ My favorite smaller panel was "Marvel versus DC: Who is the most powerful superhero?," where they featured two scientists who were consultants for actual movies and TV shows (i.e. Ant-Man) and a writer from The Flash. I also saw "The Future of Humanity in Entertainment," screenings of "Star Trek Continues" where they showed episode 8 with many of the cast members, "Dramaworld" with a discussion from the marketing team and "Better off Dead" with a discussion from nobody. The real strength of the panels at SVCC to bring renowned people from different shows/careers/fandoms to get their perspectives on a common topic.

There were no long lines, and we were able to get into every panel we wanted to when arriving right on time (or even a few minutes late.) I did not have VIP but had no trouble getting into anything. They also clarified their policy to not clear rooms before panels unless they are Premier Panels (i.e. ones where they charge extra.) This year it was was a moot point, as the only Premier Panel (Star Trek) was the very first one on Saturday.

The free festival in Cesar Chavez Park was also great and very convenient. Having the Food Trucks was as good of an idea as using the City National Civic. They also had a stage with live performances and SVCC Merch and Vendor booths set up.

The Video Game area (where registration was last year) was a lot of fun and kept on going Saturday after everything else shut down. It was a much better use of space than registration in my opinion. There were also a couple video game-rock performances by bands such as Super Soul Bros.

The Exhibition Hall had a lot of interesting booths. Right in front we were greeted with the Acura VR experience. I ended up being one of the last people to get in line Sunday before they cut it off. The wait wasn't too bad, only about an hour but it was a lot of fun! NASA had a big display and SETI was there. The Warner Bros/Allied Integrated Marketing returned and gave out swag that was easy to get (I ended up with a poster and an Everything Everything bandana). Other swag I got included a cell phone stand from Joby, and a frisbee from Kika Keyboard. I also ended up buying a Uamou from an indie toy vendor which are rather difficult to find. The biggest vendor was probably Bluefin/Bandai, and Fugitive Toys and Animetasia were also there with good selections of hard to find Funko Pops. There were more comic vendors than last year though still not too many. However, I felt the layout was a little sparse. Many of the companies that booked big spaces near the entrance didn't use the entire space, so at times the hall felt a little deserted. This was most noticeable on Friday when attendance was the lowest. (On Saturday it was much better.) There were only about 15 rows of exhibitors, and most of the rows were not even that deep. The exhibit hall used more space than last year, but it didn't feel like there was more going on. They could have easily put 1.5x as many rows. There were also a couple of random scattered venues outside the exhibit hall (i.e. Fez hats) and it did not seem like there was any rhyme or reason as to why they were placed outside.

This leads me to my next observation: with all the extra space, the convention didn't feel as bustling as last year. From my estimation, attendance was similar as last year but more spread out. There is also no way to tell who attended the free festival but not the convention, although I guess that doesn't really matter. In any case, better too much space than too little like last year. As this is backed by Woz, they certainly have the resources to do whatever they want, and they've also shown that they have the aspiration to be what this area needs. They should not move from San Jose; this city has fully embraced them and has shown a willingness to work with them. They broke the convention center last year, but they found ways to get more space to make things better for attendees as well as include people who don't want to/can't afford to pay full price for a badge. Their current space is fine for next year, but when they need more space again, they will find it. For instance, they can use some of the ballrooms in the Hilton, Marriott, and Fairmont (some of the rooms in the Fairmont are especially sizeable.) They were originally going to use the California Theater, but ended up not needing it. They can revisit the idea again when they need it. Other possibilities for space are the SJ Rep, partnering with some of the businesses on South First to hold events such as Cafe Stritch and the Zero1 Garage, and taking over the Camera 12 building if they haven't done anything by then.

The only issues I can think of are minor. The biggest one was waiting until the last minute to finalize the schedule. The first draft of the schedule was up about 1.5 weeks beforehand (which is in line with other conventions) but most did not have descriptions at that time. The descriptions, as well as additional panels, started to trickle in over the next week. A number of panels were moved from the original time, even some of the big name ones (i.e. Sesame Street, Robert Englund). It's pretty clear the schedule was still a work in progress up until right before the show. This is why they listed descriptions but almost none of times in the program, and instead said "refer to the app." Last minute changes happen at every convention, but it would have been very helpful to have a schedule with times in the official program with a paper insert showing the changes...or if they really can't print the schedule in the programming book, they could at least on print it on a paper insert included in the program book. It's annoying having to look at your phone every time you want to find a panel, not to mention by the end of the day the battery could be low/dead, and WiFi/4G/LTE is not going to be reliable with that many people.

Also, if they offer incentives/lower pricing at all then it needs to be for the early supporters, not the people who come in late in the game. For example, the T-shirt bundle could be offered from the time tickets go on sale all the way through Christmas, rather than just shortly before Christmas. Even though the Goldstar discounts were minor, this event should not appear on Goldstar (or similar sites), period.

Charging extra for the Star Trek panel in itself didn't bother me, but then opening it up to non-convention attendees and charging the exact same price that they were charging attendees did. If they can't get 3000 people who have already paid $100 admission to pay another $10, then they need to not charge extra, rather than open it up to non-attendees.

While I really liked the science focus, it seemed like it came at the expense of some of the types of panels I most appreciated last year, in particular "Tim & Blur Studio's Tips on Winning the Deadpool" and "From Fandom to Figures with Loot Crate". I had no trouble finding interesting panels all weekend, but it seemed like 90% of the non-celebrity panels were required to squeeze in (if not fully be about) science...but this is still a comic con, and there's room for mindless geek-related corporate pop culture entertainment and consumerism alongside panels dissecting the scientific elements of your favorite TV shows and movies. I'd like the Loot Crate panel to come back and be an annual thing actually.

Last year, SVCC hit the ground running. Following the lead of conventions such as Denver and Salt Lake, it showed that comic cons no longer need to start small and take years to "get there". Right off the bat it proved that it was the Bay Area comic convention that everyone who missed WonderCon has been waiting five years for (something that Wizard World, Big Wow, San Francisco Comic Con, Heroes/Villains, and the various anime or single fandom conventions could not pull off) and it showed that some things really are worth the wait. It has been fully embraced by San Jose City Hall, the citizens and organizations of San Jose, and geeks all over the Bay Area, and looks to have a successful future here in San Jose.

And Silicon Valley Comic Con has one additional benefit to me that WonderCon never did -- I can walk back home from the convention. :)
« Last Edit: April 24, 2017, 02:48:14 PM by hikanteki »
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Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #172 on: April 24, 2017, 03:42:37 PM »
You made some great points, Hikanteki!

Just so people know, if they want to make suggestions for next year, they can email info@svcomiccon to make them. They will read those suggestions and note them. (This was announced at Talkback).

Hikanteki, you and i clearly had different experiences with room clearing. While I didn't see room clearing in the smaller panels (e.g. NASA panels) in the bigger rooms, notably 230, there was definitely room clearing and only the VIP were allowed to remain. So it seems the policy was inconsistent.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #173 on: April 24, 2017, 03:56:24 PM »
For those who are interested, my review of SVCC has been published on the FoCC Blog.

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Offline DRWHO42

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #174 on: April 24, 2017, 03:58:19 PM »
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For those who are interested, my review of SVCC has been published on the FoCC Blog.

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Fantastic article!
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Offline edwinfabian

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #175 on: April 25, 2017, 08:52:50 AM »
All pro's and delta's of this con have already been addressed in above responses. All I have to say is that I think SVCC is becoming my favorite con and I can't wait to go again next year.

Offline omraged9

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #176 on: April 25, 2017, 10:40:39 AM »
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For those who are interested, my review of SVCC has been published on the FoCC Blog.

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Nice write-up and pictures  :)  At the panels, did they have big screens of the panelists behind them? I only see the Silicon Valley logo screen behind them.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #177 on: April 25, 2017, 12:22:15 PM »
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Nice write-up and pictures  :)  At the panels, did they have big screens of the panelists behind them? I only see the Silicon Valley logo screen behind them.

They did in the BIG theater (City National Civic) but not the other rooms. They were apparently supposed to have them in 230 (the second biggest room) but never did. I saw the screens being used for slides in 210 (the 'science panels' room).

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #178 on: April 25, 2017, 01:48:01 PM »
The big Chewbacca at SVCC....

.... was Adam Savage.

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Offline janray

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Re: Silicon Valley Comic Con - San Jose CA April 21-23, 2017
« Reply #179 on: April 25, 2017, 05:36:03 PM »
Awesome!
Looking forward to next year's fun and surprises.
In fact, already booked a back up room at Hilton  ;D