New York Comic Con Exhibitor Event Management Part One

There is no better case study than to embark on an adventure head on.  For more than 5 years I have worked as a contract event manager and event producer.  Every event has it’s own obstacles and challenges and this weekends event was no different.  This week I event managed the Artwork Now booth at “New York Comic Con.”  This event was massive and a huge project.  I worked on the logistics for this event since January of this year.  Everything from the travel, lodging, food, materials, equipment, contractors, vendors and even shipping fall on the event manager’s shoulders.  As crazy as this sounds it can’t be truly understood until experienced.  

New York Comic Con was sold out to the point that exhibitors, which included the Artwork now team had to show up 30 minutes prior to the scheduled time.  Imagine this opening day more thousands of 4-day passes holders flooding the exhibition floor eager to get the exclusive Comic Con deals waiting in line for hours to buy a single limited edition collectable or print.  Lines stretched as far as the eye could see with families, friends and die hard fans.  Do you think you get the picture?  Not even close.  Now imagine isles packed with thousands of polite event attendees moving at a half a step per minute.  It was insane.  This event was a massive undertaking to say the least.

My role as the event producer and event manager meant I made everything happen, extinguished all fires and of course secured sales with a smile.  Sound like an easy task?  Well let me be the first to say I am beat.  As I write this post I am sitting in LaGuardia airport recapping one of the most exhausting careers of my life.   First lets examine the challenges.  On day one I needed to locate and purchase two tools, two sandbags, a New York printer, two box cutters and a custom framing company to get our artwork framed the same day.  This would be easy in Fort Lauderdale with a car, but catching cab in New York carrying these items was no easy task.  On day three our 8.5 x 11 and 13 x 19 printer decided to take a dive.  This was our most important printer because customers found these sizes appealing.  

Where could I find a 8.5 x 11 printer at 6:30 pm on a Saturday night?  Well after calling numerous stores that had closed at 6:00pm including Staples and Office Depot I finally found a decent printer at Best Buy, but it only printed 8.5 x 11.   This was just enough to get buy until midway through day four.  We thought about sending help to get ink, but it was already 1:00pm and if we sent someone to run around New York chasing ink and paper it really wouldn’t have made a difference because the event ended at 5:00pm, so what to do?  Well mail them out on Monday was the solution I came up with in order to keep costs low and reduce unnecessary confusion.  The customers were fine with it and we didn’t need to recreate the wheel.

As I sit here and think of all the things that could have been done better or more efficiently I realize things were done to the best of the situation.  All challenges were given solutions and all barriers were broken the opened up doors that allowed new and potential customers to get a product that both made them smile and gave them something to gush about with friends and family.  Please let me know what you think of the event report thus far.  Also ensure you check out New York Comic Con exhibitor event management part two.