Author Topic: David Glanzer UT SD 4.4.12  (Read 5698 times)

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David Glanzer UT SD 4.4.12
« on: April 04, 2012, 07:55:59 PM »
This is an interview printed in the UT San Diego on 4.4.12
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Months before the costumed Darth Vaders, Spider-Men and scantily clad Wonder Women invade downtown San Diego, Hollywood’s elite in tow, tension among devoted Comic-Con fans builds to peak levels.

Painfully aware that the July convention will sell out within hours, if not minutes, would-be attendees from multiple time zones brace themselves for the heart-pounding, nerve-jangling process of purchasing a ticket online. And then it happens, the inevitable computer glitches and overloaded servers that exasperate fans desperate to score a coveted one-day or four-day pass for the annual pop-culture extravaganza.

The good news, Comic-Con organizers say, is that the ticket-buying process has improved since last year’s convention, when online sales had to be shut down twice before a successful sale could be launched. While in 2011, it took seven hours to sell out the four-day convention - which drew 130,000 attendees - badges were gone in just one hour and 20 minutes during last month’s online sale, said David Glanzer, the spokesman for Comic-Con International, a San Diego nonprofit that runs the annual event.

Still, many buyers were unable to connect to the ticketing site for several minutes, and a second resale last month in which additional badges were released was also beset by computer problems.

Organizers are contrite about the process but stress that it remains a simple case of demand far outstripping supply. Comic-Con has committed to staying in San Diego through 2015 but is hoping a planned expansion of the Convention Center will be completed sometime after that.

Glanzer, who has been affiliated with Comic-Con for 28 of its 42 years, spoke with the U-T about the convention’s growing popularity and how organizers are responding to the challenges of an event that commands worldwide attention.

Q: Throughout the country, there are multiple comic-themed conventions, many using the Comic-Con name. If there are so many of these gatherings, what is it about the San Diego convention that makes it still so enormously popular?

A: For one, our age. We’re one of the oldest events in the U.S. And we can deliver on what we try to accomplish. People are used to seeing the exhibit floor, but a lot of the heart and soul are the panels, from breaking into the comic business, acting classes, drawing workshops to celebrities like Angelina Jolie. We get the lion’s share of coverage, compared to other conventions, because of what we have, over 600 hours of programming over four days.

Q: Last year, you used extra meeting space at downtown hotels for some events and panels. Will you be doing even more of that this year?

A: We were able to accommodate another 4,000 people last year and hope to do that this year. Right now, we’re in the throes of programming, so we really won’t see how that all plays out until we’re closer to the show. Petco Park’s parking lot was used for people who couldn’t exhibit on the floor, but we have not used it for programming.

Q: You recently held your WonderCon event at the Anaheim Convention Center instead of San Francisco’s Moscone Center as you normally do because of construction going on there. Anaheim had been in competition with San Diego to host future Comic-Con conventions. Did your experience in Orange County make you think more about relocating the Con there after 2015?

A: We were so focused on making WonderCon the best possible show, we weren’t really looking at this as ‘Oh, how would Comic-Con work here?’ It really was because we didn’t have dates at Moscone. WonderCon is really a Bay Area show.

Q: If San Diego does indeed expand its center, is it likely Comic-Con will remain here in the future?

A: If the expansion happens, I can’t think of a reason why we would move. I take my hats off to the Convention Center, local hotels and Mayor (Jerry) Sanders for rolling up their sleeves to make the best of a really challenging situation. And it’s not just that the current center can’t handle these mega conventions, but it’s hard handling multiple conventions. When we were in Anaheim, there was a national cheerleading competition and volleyball competition all at the same time as WonderCon, and we didn’t bump into each other.

Q: We need to talk about the process for purchasing badges. Much was made of last year’s aborted efforts, and while things went more smoothly this time around, there were still problems with people connecting to links that wouldn’t open. Why the problems?

A: It’s difficult to say that we didn’t accomplish our task. Could it have gone more smoothly? Yes, it could, but when you have an event that’s so incredibly popular and so many people bombarding the system at once, the possibility of there being an issue escalates, especially when you don’t know what that demand is. We did our resale, and that was done in less than half an hour.

After the two aborted events last year, we learned that each person had a multitude of browsers open. That’s going to create a bottleneck no matter what you do. Were there issues? Are we trying to work on them? Yes, we are. I think people’s anger is understandable, when all they’re trying to do is pay someone for a badge to attend an event and they can’t do that. We do test after test, and lo and behold something will happen. But (selling out in) an hour 20 minutes shows us we’re getting a handle on it.

Q: Can you explain why requiring people to register first for a member ID helps prevent scalping of badges?

A: It helps tremendously. If you’re a scalper, you’d buy however many badges you could, and now you have to have their name and member ID if you want to buy it for someone else. It’s more cumbersome but now less easy to sell badges at a higher value. We get a lot of suggestions, and there’s no suggestion that doesn’t deserve merit. Is this the way it will be done now and forever? I couldn’t say whether it will always be this way.

Q: Would you consider going with a larger company like Ticketmaster that is used to handling hugely popular events?

A: It doesn’t mean we haven’t looked at a multitude of solutions to an issue or that we haven’t negotiated with other companies. We’ve looked at different companies, but that doesn’t mean they all want to work with us.

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