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Further Confusion: Nope
10 years ago
General
So, the hubby 
karmakat and I went to FC 2015 and had a lovely time. We decided that we’d like to attend the upcoming year and take a shot for a dealers table. Since we come from Europe, American conventions are quite an expense for us - so we need to make at least some return. We’d also planned to spend a few days in southern California with my family beforehand and drive up to San Jose.
When dealer registration opened, I read over the dealer’s den rules and the information about their new jury selection process. Our thoughts were, “Ok, cool. That’s one way to go. Something besides first come, first serve.” I filled out the application and we waited for convention registration. Not long after we’d registered for the convention (about a week if memory serves), I got the notification for our dealer’s application…
Denied. Zero votes.
What, seriously? Did I really need to know that a panel of people who have probably never seen our merchandise, other than the few photos on our blog, didn’t find enough interest to even give us one vote? Ok, fine. Their prerogative. Karma and I started discussing if we would still attend due to the expense. Then we started seeing journals from other folks who had also been turned down for table space and questioned the staff about their selection method.
We knew from the information available on the website that they are now using a selection committee process. What other folks have found out is that the FC powers that be essentially set up a virtual storefront for each applicant (using the website, photos or such that were provided by the applicant) and sent less than ten people off with X amount of virtual money to spend. The way those folks spent their money was essentially used as the diverse sampling of the way that a large portion of the FC community would also spend their money.
Really? Let’s take a look at human behavior, shall we? First: less than ten people isn’t exactly a large sample size. I don’t know the convention’s attendance numbers, but that constitutes a reasonable sample of about 200 attendees in my opinion. Granted, not everyone will purchase from or even enter the dealer’s room, so let’s bump that to 300. Second: If you let a person loose with virtual money and no consequences, wait lines or closed commissions, what will they do? Head straight for the person (or persons) that they’ve always wanted commissions from and never had the chance to get. I know that’s what I’d do. So now it becomes a matter of the more known dealers/artists getting the high numbers. Not really fair to folks like us who tend to get most of our sales through impulse purchases and people actually laying hands on our wares. We sell the most to folks who start with just a passing glance at our table and have something catch their eye. We aren’t popular, but we do have more uncommon merchandise. I guess that doesn’t count for much in the selection committee process.
After the virtual kick in the nuts of zero votes (yes, I’m a girl and I still say that), the official email then encourages us to apply for a space in the Marketplace. This would be the hallway leading to the dealer’s den. Last year just passing through the area, it was noisy, crowded and stuffy. There were all of a dozen or so tables there. Since there was so much competition for dealer’s space, there will be even less chance that we’d get selected for the marketplace. Add to that having to do setup and tear-down daily? Not feasible with our merchandise. It takes us about 2 hours to set up our goods. Only one hour is allotted for Marketplace setup and tear-down. Nope, can’t do.
I think the biggest problems for us in this whole mess were: 1) Unreasonably small sample of people used to represent a convention’s worth of shoppers. 2) We have no input as to how they represent our merchandise to the selection committee (I don’t count the website/photo information we’ve given because every convention we’ve had a dealer’s table at asks for that as well). 3) Unrealistic scenario for selection process - People will spend their own money much differently than virtual money, especially when something they always lusted after is or isn’t available. 4) The response email. Telling someone that they were worth zero votes to your selection committee is NOT a good way to encourage people to attend your event. A simple “Accepted/Declined/Waitlisted” would have done the trick.
So, as things stand, it looks like we won’t be attending FC 2016. Possibly future ones as well, at least until / if the dealer selection process is tweaked a bit. I hope that this doesn’t come off as a “Boo-hoo, I didn’t get picked,” type of journal – it isn’t meant to be. I feel that this is something that both dealers and con-goers should be aware of. Prospective dealers should know so that they can make a good presentation on their websites for next year, and con-goers can know why a particular artist or merchant that they like isn’t at FC…
We’re also looking into reselling and transferring our Supersponsor memberships, please contact karmakat if you are interested.
karmakat and I went to FC 2015 and had a lovely time. We decided that we’d like to attend the upcoming year and take a shot for a dealers table. Since we come from Europe, American conventions are quite an expense for us - so we need to make at least some return. We’d also planned to spend a few days in southern California with my family beforehand and drive up to San Jose.When dealer registration opened, I read over the dealer’s den rules and the information about their new jury selection process. Our thoughts were, “Ok, cool. That’s one way to go. Something besides first come, first serve.” I filled out the application and we waited for convention registration. Not long after we’d registered for the convention (about a week if memory serves), I got the notification for our dealer’s application…
Denied. Zero votes.
What, seriously? Did I really need to know that a panel of people who have probably never seen our merchandise, other than the few photos on our blog, didn’t find enough interest to even give us one vote? Ok, fine. Their prerogative. Karma and I started discussing if we would still attend due to the expense. Then we started seeing journals from other folks who had also been turned down for table space and questioned the staff about their selection method.
We knew from the information available on the website that they are now using a selection committee process. What other folks have found out is that the FC powers that be essentially set up a virtual storefront for each applicant (using the website, photos or such that were provided by the applicant) and sent less than ten people off with X amount of virtual money to spend. The way those folks spent their money was essentially used as the diverse sampling of the way that a large portion of the FC community would also spend their money.
Really? Let’s take a look at human behavior, shall we? First: less than ten people isn’t exactly a large sample size. I don’t know the convention’s attendance numbers, but that constitutes a reasonable sample of about 200 attendees in my opinion. Granted, not everyone will purchase from or even enter the dealer’s room, so let’s bump that to 300. Second: If you let a person loose with virtual money and no consequences, wait lines or closed commissions, what will they do? Head straight for the person (or persons) that they’ve always wanted commissions from and never had the chance to get. I know that’s what I’d do. So now it becomes a matter of the more known dealers/artists getting the high numbers. Not really fair to folks like us who tend to get most of our sales through impulse purchases and people actually laying hands on our wares. We sell the most to folks who start with just a passing glance at our table and have something catch their eye. We aren’t popular, but we do have more uncommon merchandise. I guess that doesn’t count for much in the selection committee process.
After the virtual kick in the nuts of zero votes (yes, I’m a girl and I still say that), the official email then encourages us to apply for a space in the Marketplace. This would be the hallway leading to the dealer’s den. Last year just passing through the area, it was noisy, crowded and stuffy. There were all of a dozen or so tables there. Since there was so much competition for dealer’s space, there will be even less chance that we’d get selected for the marketplace. Add to that having to do setup and tear-down daily? Not feasible with our merchandise. It takes us about 2 hours to set up our goods. Only one hour is allotted for Marketplace setup and tear-down. Nope, can’t do.
I think the biggest problems for us in this whole mess were: 1) Unreasonably small sample of people used to represent a convention’s worth of shoppers. 2) We have no input as to how they represent our merchandise to the selection committee (I don’t count the website/photo information we’ve given because every convention we’ve had a dealer’s table at asks for that as well). 3) Unrealistic scenario for selection process - People will spend their own money much differently than virtual money, especially when something they always lusted after is or isn’t available. 4) The response email. Telling someone that they were worth zero votes to your selection committee is NOT a good way to encourage people to attend your event. A simple “Accepted/Declined/Waitlisted” would have done the trick.
So, as things stand, it looks like we won’t be attending FC 2016. Possibly future ones as well, at least until / if the dealer selection process is tweaked a bit. I hope that this doesn’t come off as a “Boo-hoo, I didn’t get picked,” type of journal – it isn’t meant to be. I feel that this is something that both dealers and con-goers should be aware of. Prospective dealers should know so that they can make a good presentation on their websites for next year, and con-goers can know why a particular artist or merchant that they like isn’t at FC…
We’re also looking into reselling and transferring our Supersponsor memberships, please contact
karmakat if you are interested. 
Doesn't sound like a fair thing to me. More like the Dealers den is becoming something only for the Elite artists : /
The only west con that enjoy is BLFC is because they have perfect staffing, they follow the theme, they take concerns about fursuiters and dealers, more room for the fursuiters and dealers, and more stuff to do. They even give new dealers a try, which is a plus as well, so it's not like a popularity artist contest. I am sorry about FC has treated you and other dealers. I find that highly disrespectful. I won't be going to FC next year till they get there staff and everything organized.
So many of the conventions are too close together for us to have made a good amount of stock prepared. When I make an item (or a small batch as I tend to), it takes a minimum of a week to complete, and that's if I do simple carvings or no 'Oohh, I've got an idea to try' kind of work. We did talk briefly about BLFC, and will probably revisit the subject again later to see if it would be possible. Heard so much great stuff about that con...
The #1 and #2 you mentioned sounds a lot like Eurofurence, minus the volleyballers. It seems like certain things there get priority - dances and pawpet show - in terms of space, labor and equipment. Granted that they don't charge (yet) for dealer space and the lovely lady in charge of the dealer's den really does her best... she seems to be constantly hampered by the fact that dealers seem to be low man on the totem pole. There were a couple years that they'd actually had two dealer's dens. Space constraints didn't allow them to have one larger room. They'd organized all the well known artists in the larger main room and put everyone else in the smaller, slightly cramped secondary room. The following year was better - the dealers were more mixed - but both rooms had a problem with the air conditioner. The primary room was allowed to open the windows, while the rest of us slowly roasted...