Monthly Archive: July 2009

We’ve now had a day or three to recover from the convention, and there are a few things we’ve learned– some particular just to this convention, some that will hold for the year to come, and some that are permanent changes to the way we’re doing business.

• We’ve almost hit the point where we can have a virtual shadow convention alongside the real one. I would argue that this may be the major lesson of the convention, particularly now a few days after the con when everybody is uploading their videos to YouTube and pictures to Flickr. Keith R.A. DeCandido illustrates the phenomenon for his Farscape panel: “There’s a whole mess of YouTube video from the tenth anniversary panel I moderated: One recorded on some guy’s iPhone. One recorded with a video camera. And another. And yet another. And yet still another. Look, another one! These frelling things don’t end. They just keep going. And going.” Nine separate video feeds for a panel on a show that’s been off the air for a while.
• Even more, you could follow the convention in pretty close to real time between twittering and liveblogging. It was possible to have a news site write articles straight from Twitter feeds, with photos to match as well. And now after the fact, you can get full collections of panels on YouTube for much of the show. Not enough, alas– I haven’t found a feed for everything yet, but give it time. In fact, this may be the cast for lots of people as the streams are reaching far more people than could fit in the rooms.
• The show has gone seriously mainstream– so much so that late night TV made note of the convention. A lot. From Jimmy Fallon to Craig Ferguson, many shows made reference to the convention. G4 was able to do live remotes from the show, the same way MTV might for Spring Break or ESPN might from the tailgating at the Super Bowl. And the promotions out on the streets were on the level of what’s outside the Super Bowl stadium.
• And yet with all that, the show is comparatively easy to hob-nob around, setting aside the issue of sheer volume. A lot of the actors were out in the wild, as it were, and there were no ill-effects reported– stars could walk around in the main dealers room without being seriously molested, and yet still approachable. And of course, if any celebrity felt like he was going to be  mobbed, he or she could just put on a mask and walk around without being noticed, just another mask in the crowd.
• Best of all, the show is still untamed. Marketing people were complaining that they weren’t getting exactly the kind of traction they hoped for? Not enough Twitter love from the nerds? Screw you and your marketing plan. Try talking to your audience for a change. Or even better, listening to them. You think it’s just dumb luck that everybody loved Flynn’s Arcade?

All in all, San Diego is still a good show. It’s exhausting, it’s insane, but it’s still the standard to beat.