Gareb Shamus’ Anaheim Convention To Go Head To Head With Reed’s Chicago

In a curious move, Wizard founder and CEO Gareb Shamus announced the creation of Anaheim Comic-Con to debut in mid-April next year. Among the many things that are sort of strange about this are: 1) the article's suggestion this is a Wizard show rather than one of Shamus' new shows that aren't exactly Wizard shows, 2) that this has any chance to succeed given the fact that Wizard proper slowly moved away from a Los Angeles show despite being a much stronger company in a much stronger economy at that time, 3) they're going to launch in absolutely hostile waters by going up directly against Reed's Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, a show with which the exhibitions company is determined to succeed and a has a recent history of destroying Wizard when it comes to competition over comics names, and 4) they're going to launch despite a Long Beach event that seems to be organized by ex-Wizard convention people and would seem to serve the same audience. The only thing I can figure out is that Shamus sees some sort of long-term value in running a series of conventions that are smaller than the ones his company used to run, and that the way to get these events established is by acting as a wedge against its significant competitors.
 
posted 8:20 am PST | Permalink
 

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