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The Strange Atmosphere of FWA
9 years ago
Weird title right? I'll get right into it, don't worry.
So I was at FWA, Dealer's Room as usual, and things seemed very normal; as normal as a convention full of people engaged in a massive game of make believe can be. During a lull in the crowd I made my way quickly around the room to see the rest of the Dealer's room and say hi to people and publishers I know. I like to say hi and shake hands, lets people know that I'm not dead yet. I saw plenty of artists I knew, chatted with every one that I could but, oddly, none of the usual publishers were there, no SofaWolf, no Furplanet (though
donryu was there and he was nice enough to look through my portfolios), no Rabbit Valley, no Bad Dragon, no Furoticon, no Club Stripes or Hard Blush; really none of the big collectives or names. I'd never seen anything like it in my eight years of cons. What more: there were an inordinate number of new artists; I can spot a newby a mile away and a lot more were present than normal. That's not a bad thing, I'm just used to seeing a mix of new and old faces and there were definitely not a lot of the more "popufur" people I'm accustomed to seeing.
The feeling of "offness" only increased as Saturday wore on and friends that I had there started to get antsy as sales slowed to a crawl (meanwhile I was nonstop slammed, I have no idea what the hell I was doing differently but this was very nearly a sales record breaking con for me). Saturday is usually a busy day as people who couldn't get Friday off make their way to the con and generally make up for the slowdown that accompanies the fact that many people burn through their money on Friday. Sunday was even worse for people, many people complaining of slow-to-no sales the whole day.
So why this journal about the micro-economy tendencies of a furry con? Well commerce drives a large part of what makes furry cons happen and, between this and reports of an inordinate amount of people "ghosting" the con I worry about a slow burnout for FWA. The con only grew by about 200 odd people from what I heard at the close of Dealer's Room as well. I asked around and found out that a lot of the big furry publishers and companies don't show up to FWA because they can't turn a profit, which surprises the hell out of me. Clearly something's going on here and I'm genuinely curious as to what.
Any ideas, theories, or personal insights anyone might have as to why FWA isn't a good con for artists?
PS: I did have a great con. I know this journal sounds like a bummer but I met up with a huge amount of friends, made new ones, and did great business-wise. It was a real slam dunk all around and I'm bummed that it wasn't quite that for a lot of other people. I'm also highly inquisitive by nature and love talking to you guys about this community so sound off!
-Bone
So I was at FWA, Dealer's Room as usual, and things seemed very normal; as normal as a convention full of people engaged in a massive game of make believe can be. During a lull in the crowd I made my way quickly around the room to see the rest of the Dealer's room and say hi to people and publishers I know. I like to say hi and shake hands, lets people know that I'm not dead yet. I saw plenty of artists I knew, chatted with every one that I could but, oddly, none of the usual publishers were there, no SofaWolf, no Furplanet (though
donryu was there and he was nice enough to look through my portfolios), no Rabbit Valley, no Bad Dragon, no Furoticon, no Club Stripes or Hard Blush; really none of the big collectives or names. I'd never seen anything like it in my eight years of cons. What more: there were an inordinate number of new artists; I can spot a newby a mile away and a lot more were present than normal. That's not a bad thing, I'm just used to seeing a mix of new and old faces and there were definitely not a lot of the more "popufur" people I'm accustomed to seeing.The feeling of "offness" only increased as Saturday wore on and friends that I had there started to get antsy as sales slowed to a crawl (meanwhile I was nonstop slammed, I have no idea what the hell I was doing differently but this was very nearly a sales record breaking con for me). Saturday is usually a busy day as people who couldn't get Friday off make their way to the con and generally make up for the slowdown that accompanies the fact that many people burn through their money on Friday. Sunday was even worse for people, many people complaining of slow-to-no sales the whole day.
So why this journal about the micro-economy tendencies of a furry con? Well commerce drives a large part of what makes furry cons happen and, between this and reports of an inordinate amount of people "ghosting" the con I worry about a slow burnout for FWA. The con only grew by about 200 odd people from what I heard at the close of Dealer's Room as well. I asked around and found out that a lot of the big furry publishers and companies don't show up to FWA because they can't turn a profit, which surprises the hell out of me. Clearly something's going on here and I'm genuinely curious as to what.
Any ideas, theories, or personal insights anyone might have as to why FWA isn't a good con for artists?
PS: I did have a great con. I know this journal sounds like a bummer but I met up with a huge amount of friends, made new ones, and did great business-wise. It was a real slam dunk all around and I'm bummed that it wasn't quite that for a lot of other people. I'm also highly inquisitive by nature and love talking to you guys about this community so sound off!
-Bone
I did better this year then I did last year....but sold very little premade stuff until sunday when I almost sold out of ispod keychains? WTF
I still think that FWA is a party con and since it's in the city it cost more for people to be there so mostly locals are the ones spend most money etc
That's not to say it's not a good con, but just the advice I was given was that it is exceptionally hard to turn a profit at FWA and there isn't enough buyers (particularly for people without he big name recognition)
I wonder how it compares with FC, a similar size con that's more a "party con" vibe.
We did not attend FWA this year because of conflicting interests, and ended up at a tiny two day anime con where Mao made so much net that it was more than a month of her day job. But that con had only about twenty vendors and artists, which obviously works in our favor. Also local cons are always more profitable, if not higher in gross sales.
tl;dr the market is small and each con is different, even year on year with the same con.
Although I know someone who nets $8k at a good anime con. We are seriously lucky to clear a quarter of that. At least our con, fursuit and etc. habits are covered by it! Also the happiness that comes from being around all those geeks.
It's still very disappointing. The Dealer's Den is actually a huge draw for me, apart from the live shows, but the place we have for it is smaller than usual, in a hotel that is twice as expensive or more than the ones in the past, in a city that is difficult to navigate and somewhat expensive to stay in because of parking, not to mention the specter of theft, which we seem to be more vulnerable to at this location. I think the ghosting issue is probably directly attributable to the change in hotels over the past two years, and that may be true to an extent for the Dealer's Den as well.
We're like, what, the third largest furry con in the world now? With numbers like that, there's really no reason why you guys should be doing poorly in the Den.
Fwa is a strange convention. Have you been to it before? This was my third one. My first one sales were okay in artist alley, not great. Last year my sales did not even break even with my convention costs and that had never happened before. I did sell, but I lost a lot of money in artist alley. I was really upset.
This year was my third year and I sold only on friday, deciding to take off the rest of the convention for fun. Last year I sold friday and little sales on Saturday and none at all on sunday. So I figured, why bother. It's obviously no good for art sales. Even friday this year I sold less than Friday last year, but I just smiled and shook my head because it was as expected.
However, as a consumer and actually going around the con and getting to chat to the artists, I learned that artist alley and dealers had some differences. The artist alley was cramped and hard to get around in. The artists all seemed to be doing poorly and some were really pushy with sales. Some seemed to give up. In the dealers den everyone seemed much happier, artists all seemed to be doing very well. Online I have seen a few posts and journals about record-breaking sales even!
As a consumer I much preferred the relaxed dealers den than the cramped artist alley, and am greatly considering trying to get a dealer table next year if possible to see if it really does make a difference.
Are you heading to MCFC by chance?
?
Last year was much better for me, though given the size of the con, I was surprised to have not done better than I had at Rainfurrest the prior year (which was smaller). Now that I'm home and can look at my spreadsheets, FWA last year was also strongest Friday and slowest Saturday. However, commissions made up 60% of my gross last year (36 total commissions), VS 18% this year (9 total commissions). Puzzling, because I actually had a bigger commission sign this year. This does mean I did more in print sales, but it wasn't enough to make up the difference lost in commissions. Overall I was down about 30% compared to last year.
Traffic felt really abysmal all weekend, but was especially bad late Saturday and all of Sunday. I had whole hours between sales -- hell, I almost went whole hours between StreetPasses, which is a sure sign that people weren't even IN the Den, much less browsing or making any purchases. Partying is a normal part of any con, but the complete lack of people in Dealer's sure did make it seem like it wasn't an important part of people's schedules at FWA. I dunno!
I'll be skipping next year and will see if 2017 is any better I suppose.
I feel guilty about all the people I talk to but never end up buying stuff from, but there's just so many and I can't afford all of it. I even set aside a pretty decent amount of cash for this weekend and had to make it stretch. I would have loved to have gotten something done by you and Shadow-of-Nights but most of my budget went to Talenshi this year (again). Maybe next year, if I'm lucky enough to make it up again, I'll have enough to commission more than one artist.
I totally understand that conventions can be a great driving force for people who do consider their art sales an important part of their budget! It's a beautiful, unique choice of trade. I really love browsing the Dealer's Den for new fun playthings~ I bought prints for one of the first times this year and was really satisfied with the purchase. If it's a slow day, it's really fun to talk to people in the Den and see how they're doing, or if they have any fun stories! But at the end of the day, they've dedicated time and energy into reserving a table and making their booth exciting with the hope of turning a good sale, so I try to not take up too much of their time, especially with customers. But...
The Artist's Alley felt weird. It's definitely cool that people can come in and turn a sale with their art without having to book a table in the Den! But that seemed like the only thing that could be seen... at all. The artists, like some others mentioned, seemed a little too eager to make a sale. As an artist, however my quality might be rated, I felt uncomfortable, like, 'these aren't my people.' It's not that I would take the opportunity of commerce away from anyone! If the Alley becomes a place to sell, sell, sell, so be it, and I wish many good profits to the artists there!
But, where are all the 'casuals?' I just want a sketchbook pow-wow or two, a place to meet others who like to talk with their styluses as well as their muzzles. I brought the idea of a Telegram group up for artists to the person overlooking the Alley at the time. He said it was a great idea, it would help artists capitalize on their sales periods... I corrected myself, stating I was looking for something social, so the artists could keep in touch outside of the busy Alley. He looked at me like I had three heads and seemed repulsed by the idea. I walked away from it all feeling judged. There was definitely an air of an unfamiliar culture there. Maybe I'm crazy, but I felt like there was a strong attitude thrown at me: "Buy, sell, or leave. Artists exist to produce goods for economic value. You're a machine: Insert cash, receive art. If you aren't turning a profit, you're missing the point of artistry."
That's from the perspective of someone who doesn't even really like handling money...! I take a few commissions, but the economic element of it always takes away the magic of it. I'm always happy someone values what I do, but I value giving them a good piece to enjoy much more than the money. It just felt like there wasn't any room for that wishy-washy attitude in the convention's culture this year, inside or outside of the Artist's Alley.
That being said I'm heavily considering going dealers den next year - I really don't mind the alley being small but I imagine dealer's gets more traffic.
(Also I'm sorry I didn't get to see more of you! By saturday my queue was Fucking Ridiculous and I spent all night double-fisting commissions and everclear)
I agree that the alley was cramped as ever. We hardly had room to move away from our table, and I had to keep bothering the poor guy next to me so I could get up and go to the bathroom or pick up a badge trade. It was a pain, and I felt like a bother. Trying to get back to my table was also a pain as the traffic wasn't well regulated.
Anyway, I feel like FWA is a hit-or-miss convention for many. Very fifty-fifty on all ends. I didn't sell my first year as it was my very first furry convention experience, second year I did pretty well, and this year I did great. I don't expect next year to be as great, but mostly because my goal for every convention is to break even; any extra cash I make is always a nice bonus.
I might consider doing dealers den next year to see what kind of experience that is. FWA is my favorite convention, more so because of the environment, and not so much because of money-making, lol.
The convention leadership has pulled several stunts illustrating their greed and corruption. The major controversy came from the announcement that no member of FWA con staff was welcome if they worked with any other convention. Continued participation in FWA required sole loyalty to just FWA, on penalty of suspension and permaban.
That was enough for me to decide to never attend again. I imagine there are plenty of people who were equally as offended as myself.
However, I'll be stopping by FurtheMore this coming weekend, be curious to keep what you say in mind when I stop by there, to compare it.
Awesome chatting with you BTW, really love my badge :D
I'd also just like to say that every time I read "dealers" I mentally inserted "drug" in front of the word, which made everything fun.
That aside, if there really is some shady stuff going on at the organizational levels of the con that would probably explain why a lot of your big names and publishers are staying away. All the new faces are there to fill the gaps, but if the con's reputation has taken a hit then it might not be enough to make up for it in terms of attendance. That's what seems most likely to me.
I have had some people describe FWA to me as a "party con." It doesn't seem to be about the planned activities of the con itself, but more about the room parties and personal interactions. The only checkpoints that require a badge at FWA are events in the Marquis Ballroom and in the Programming rooms, and SOMETIMES the dealer's den. The problem with this is that FWA does not seem to have much in the way of programming compared to cons like MFF and Megaplex. There were very few community-led panels. There were a few about fursuiting, one about how to DJ and produce music, one about personal finance, one about tasting, and that's mostly it. Beyond those you only had the big events like Floor Wars, the dance competition, Dad's Garage improv, the fursuit games. If you look at MFF 2015, however, there were something like 300 different panels throughout the weekend, and MFF started a day later in the week than FWA. There was much more there that people wanted to do that required them to have a badge. For Megaplex, you had to have a badge to even get into the convention area at all.
A friend of mine told me that despite the fact that he bought a badge for FWA, he only used it once the entire weekend. Though it was my first FWA and I let myself get caught in the atmosphere of it all, there were definitely times when I didn't have something I really wanted to do, and times when I went to a panel because I "might as well" rather than because I actually wanted to go.
In summary, I believe FWA was ghosted so hard because it's an utterly ghostable con. Compared to other cons, the programming seems weak, and it seems as though more people are interested in socializing on their own than participating in scheduled events. An FWA attendee can enjoy the con to his satisfaction without attending a single scheduled event and not feel like he's missing out. That doesn't make it right to ghost, and there's a whole ethical discussion in there, but to discourage ghosting at its core, FWA needs to give people reasons not to ghost. It really needs to create programming that is engaging and that people want to go to, and then make sure that everyone going has a badge. They need to make people without badges feel like they're missing out, and make sure the star of the con is the con itself, and not the things people do on their own.
Add to this that eventually there was a checkpoint at the dealer's den and you know why sales slowed down. xD
It's just my uneducated input, but I hope it makes sense.