Over the weekend we finally heard back from Geek.Kon - no go, as suspected, since they've had at least some vendors listed for a while now (I didn't go back to look and see if there's more now). I may try again next year, if we're seen around more we may have a better chance of getting in next time around.
E-mailed Anime Midwest this morning to ask what hall at Stephens Convention Center will be the exhibit hall, and if/when a layout for the hall will be available pre-convention, so I can start guessing if we're in a decent spot or not.
Anime Midwest booths have no pipe and drape, but the costs to rent from RES (Rosemont Exhibition Services) are somewhere between expensive and stupid expensive. I can buy 60" x 60" white shower curtains for the price they're charging for one foot of 8' high drape. Similarly, if I wanted 8' tall gridwall, I'd probably save money by buying it, having it delivered to RES and stored until the show, then throwing it out after. The battery for the UPS we use at events seems to be pretty close to dead. I can buy 4 new ones or 2 whole new UPS units like the one we have for the price of power for the weekend.
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I love the way that the decorator can charge exorbitant prices for fairly mundane things like pipe and drape. Admittedly setting it all up is a fair amount of labor, I suspect the decorator is still getting a decent profit on it (and not necessarily their laborers).
ReplyDeleteThere is a bit more justification for power, since in most exhibition hall spaces, power comes from a ceiling that is quite a ways up - either requiring lifts or catwalks to access. And it may well be that a licensed electrician is required to plug in the break out boxes for power.
Fortunately, the only large shows I'm like to be exhibiting at (as a fan table) are run by Comic-Con International and they seem to know the value of having pipe and drape between booths. I'm 90% sure that they charge regular exhibitors for power (and would have charged us if we'd needed it at Wondercon, I believe). At SDCC the fan tables are very close to walls with outlets - and a large percentage of the groups sneak an extension cord under the pipe and drape and just plug in.