A Pair Of NYCC 2008 Follow-Ups



My last essay on New York Comic-Con 2008 brought a personal response from Reed Exhibitions official Lance Fensterman, who was nice enough to answer a pair of questions in follow-up that I wondered about while I was posting that original essay. I wanted to get them up as a resource for future articles.

TOM SPURGEON: First, what was the NYCC's position on the charge that people were being exploited for booth costs? Was that really happening? Was there a miscommunication between con and exhibitors on what they needed to bring or buy at the show?

LANCE FENSTERMAN: I am not aware of any specific "charges" to this end, so it's a little tricky to provide any official response. Based on your question it sounds as if you are referring to costs of doing business at the Javits Center for things like labor, electric (if needed), furnishings, etc. Every exhibitor at NYCC had personal and email contact with NYCC staffers before the event in an effort to communicate requirements, procedures, what to expect, etc. It is obviously our desire for all of our exhibitors to have a great event, we do our very best to prepare our customers for the unique experience of doing business at the Javits Center. To that end this year we paid for labor for any exhibitor wishing to carry in items for there booth which meant direct savings for them. Now, having said all of that, NYC is an expensive place to do business, we take no profit in this, it is simply a fact of NYC and it's the price you literally pay for being in NYC. If the show were done in a second or third tier market those costs would be lower, but the magnitude of the show would also be different.

SPURGEON: Second, and this may be a stupid question, but Reed's a big corporation and the NYCC is an increasingly successful trade show. Why haven't you been able to put together a consistent string of dates?

FENSTERMAN The Javits is full, plain and simple, there is more demand for the space than there is space. It's a matter of moving the Auto Show, moving the boat show, moving the Vision conference (each event attracting as many or more customers than NYCC) -- they too are paying customers with large annual events that have had the same dates for many many years and that already have the venue booked through 2020! On a regular basis I sit with Javits officials and we literally go through giant calendars, year by year, looking for more space, looking for consistent dates. Trust me, this is a point of frustration for us as well and in fact I was just at the Javits Center this week going through those calendars again. We are exuding all of the muscle we can to get dates and space, but you can't cancel someone else's show because it is more convenient for us. I'm optimistic that this will improve as the con gets more and more successful we can make a better argument for "stealing" someone else's dates, or using our corporate muscle to move someone, but it is a very tricky proposition but one that I am working on regularly as I hate shifting dates too!
 
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