Niagara Falls Comic Con: All Dressed Up and Nothing to Do

When I went to the Niagara Falls Comic Con for their first year at the new Scotiabank Convention Centre, it was a fairly nice experience. While it was not very big, I liked the casual, mini-con kind of atmosphere.

The lack of lineups and relatively low admission price meant that you didn't have to do much planning. After a year of conventions like Anime North - where you have to book a hotel room about 12 months in advance in order to get a good hotel, and there is so much going on that you have to do a lot of planning beforehand - it was kind of cool to see a convention where you could drop in without even pre-registering, and just have a nice day. You didn't really have to save up for it because it was relatively cheap, and the minimal programming and events meant that you didn't have to worry too much about scheduling. In a way, it was a break for a lot of regular conventioneers who put a lot more work into bigger conventions throughout the year. There wasn't too much to do, but that was ok because that was kind of the point.

Fast forward to 2014 and all of a sudden this mini-con is starting to evolve into a full-fledged, 3-day con. Attendance is up, it has expanded to 3 days, and - correspondingly - the admission price has skyrocketed and lineups have gotten ridiculous. No longer a mini-con, NFCC has now become the kind of convention that requires the kind of planning, saving and commitment that other bigger cons like Anime North and Fan Expo do.





Now, at first this seems like a good thing: while we no longer have the cute mini-con, we now have another big convention available. However, the only problem is that one thing hasn't really changed: there is still pretty much nothing to do. While the prices, lineups, attendance and length have all expanded immensely, the programming is still in pretty much the same position it was 2 years ago.

Now, I was ok with this lack of programming before, because it was appropriate for the small scale of the convention. There wasn't really a need for much to do, because the relaxing atmosphere was part of the charm of the convention. But now that they seem to want to be a big con (as reflected by the inflated prices), they can't keep programming like a small con, because they end up kind of getting the worst of both worlds. If you want to go, you end up doing the planning and saving of something like Anime North, only to get there and realize that you're all dressed up with nothing to do.

Just some basic comparison to show what I mean: Niagara Falls Comic Con this year had no more than 3 events per hour, and often less. Out of these events, the majority of them are Q&A sessions with guests (many of whom aren't really that appealing, and a few of whom are wrestlers or actors from shows like Degrassi and 90210 who seem really out of place at a con like this) or photo ops. Events run no later than 7:15PM, and they only run that late on Friday. There are also no dances, no skit contest (although they do have a costume contest), none of the "game show" type events you typically find at conventions (such as name that tune, which tends to be a con staple and favourite), no screening rooms, and very little in terms of panels.

Compare this to Anime North this year: during peak times, they had as many as 30 events scheduled an hour. Even during less busy times, they typically had at least 15. So every hour had 15-30 events, as opposed to the 1-3 events of NFCC. They also had all of the things I listed above that were missing from Niagara Falls Comic Con. This also doesn't count any of the informal photoshoots, meetups and other events that are organized by fans on the con's official forum, since they aren't included in the official schedule. The events also run until 2:00 in the morning on Friday and Saturday, which is much later than the 7:15pm of NFCC.

Now, you may say "hey, this comparison is unfair! Anime North has been around for 17 years, is a lot bigger, and is located in Toronto!" Normally, I would be sympathetic to this argument, since it would make sense that the newer/smaller convention would have less to do, even as it starts expanding. However, the problem I have is this: since Anime North is so much bigger, why the hell is admission cheaper? A weekend pass for AN this year was 50 bucks. A weekend pass for NFCC this year was 70. It is actually 20 dollars more to go to a convention with substantially less programming. Not to mention that the celebrity guests at AN give free autographs, while NFCC charges extra for things like autographs and photo-ops with guests, meaning that it comes to even more money if you are interested in guests.

And I think that admission price is where my comparison is justified. If NFCC cost less, then I would be willing to excuse its lack of programming, because it's a smaller convention. However, if they want to charge more money than other conventions, then they need to provide an experience that is at least on par with those conventions, rather than offering less than these other conventions. While they are newer, they need to be able to provide the same kind of experience as AN (or arguably better) if they want to charge more money than AN. Therefore, I think that I am fully justified in comparing the 2 cons despite their difference in size and age because of the situation with admission. Arguably, NFCC should be doing more, since they are charging more.

Overall, I'm just very disappointed that NFCC seems to be trying really hard to be a big convention, but they're missing the essential core that a big convention requires: things to do. If they want to grow this quickly, then they can't keep programming like they did 2 years ago, because it won't work anymore. They either have to scale back their size and price, or provide the kind of programming that a con this size and price requires.

I have a few suggestions that the team behind NFCC might want to consider if they come across this post that may help improve the convention. The first one is to create an official convention forum and try to develop a community behind the con. One of the essential things that a large convention needs is a large community behind it, and things like forums can go a long way in helping develop that. This will also provide a place for people to discuss and plan events, games and panels (as some the best events typically tend to be the ones run by the attendees themselves) that can be added to the schedule.

The second is to look to other conventions for inspiration. Look at the old schedules, websites and forum posts from other conventions. Con-G and Genre Con are both fantastic examples for cons that are less huge than AN but still really successful, and even AN itself could be a good source of inspiration. Genre Con even has a "suggest a panel/become a panelist" link right at the top of the programming section of their website, so they reach out for fan involvement and feedback as a first priority. This kind of links into my third suggestion, which is to seek out feedback so you know what peoples' experiences were like.

Also, I'd suggest doing some market research for prices, because NFCC is substantially more expensive than most other 3-day cons. Anime North was 50 for the weekend, Con-G was 35 and Genre Con was 25. With NFCC charging 70 dollars, it just seems ridiculous in comparison to other conventions of a comparable size and length.

Anyway, I really hope that the NFCC team is able to improve their event, because it would be really cool to see a good con come to the Falls. I grew up in the Falls, and I would love to see a convention flourish in my hometown. But for now, it has a long way to go.

Resources (all accessed June 7, 2014, and have the potential to change as many are year-specific. In this post, I am addressing the events as they took place in 2014 and citing the websites for the 2014 events):

NFCC Schedule: http://niagarafallscomiccon.com/event-schedule.php.
NFCC Prices: http://niagarafallscomiccon.com/tickets.php
Anime North Schedule: http://www.animenorth.com/an14/an2014_schedule.pdf
Anime North Prices: http://www.animenorth.com/live/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=43&Itemid=67
Con-G Prices: http://con-g.com/information/registration/
Genre Con Prices: https://genrecon.com/register/