Indiana Comic Con 2021
Indiana Comic Con has been one of our biggest conventions ever since we first did it back in 2014. It had been scheduled to be our first convention of 2020, happening over Easter weekend, and I had been looking forward to it ever since we returned home from Grand Rapids Comic Con in November of 2019. However, the COVID-19 lockdowns put an end to those plans, and the convention was rescheduled to summer (when we still thought it was going to be "two weeks to flatten the curve," not eighteen months of ongoing restrictions that still have not completely ended), then cancelled with everybody's tickets and booths rolling over to this year -- and then the original 2021 date was not far enough into the future, requiring a second rescheduling into fall.
So what would have been a convention over Easter weekend of 2020 was finally held over the weekend of October 15-17, 2021 at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis. Now that the Imaginarium Agency had sold it and their other conventions to FanX (the people who run the comic convention in Salt Lake City), there were some definite changes in the approach to the show, including having bigger-name guests, among them William Shatner (who had just flown in space on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, becoming the oldest astronaut ever at the age of 90). In addition, this year the convention were using Halls A-F rather than the halls that GenCon usually uses for their vendor hall. At least this year, with the larger vendor hall, loading in wasn't quite the monster hassle it had been back in 2014.
On the other hand, just getting downtown was its own form of hassle. The North Split, where I-70 and I-65 join to run concurrently through downtown Indianapolis before branching again to continue west and south, is being completely reconstructed in a massive project that will continue to the end of 2022. As a result, it wasn't possible for us to just jump onto I-70 at Shadeland Avenue and run downtown to the Fletcher Street exit, then take South Street to the loading docks. Instead, we had to find a way to drive in on surface streets, so I drove downtown on Sunday before the convention in order to scout possible routes, and found other bits of construction here and there (and in the process picked up a bolt in a tire of the car, necessitating a visit to the local Goodyear store on Tuesday to repair it).
Thus forewarned and forearmed, we headed downtown immediately after lunch on Thursday. Since this was a hometown convention, we could take both vehicles, filled to capacity with merchandise and store fixtures to fill our 20'x20' island booth. We drove in convoy, since the family member who was driving the car wasn't familiar with the route, and I am the person who drives the van.
I had expected to have to put up with a certain amount of hurry-up-and-wait while getting into the loading dock, so I had brought a tablet computer for writing. Instead, we were able to get onto the loading dock without any trouble, although we were strictly prohibited from going onto the actual exhibit hall floor until 2PM. So I used the time to get our carts out and start loading merchandise onto them so they would be ready to go in immediately.
We also were able to make connections with the two friends who were helping us, and one of them even grabbed one of the big flatbed carts from the convention center, which greatly sped up the loading process. I actually ended up not using the two smaller carts of our own after that first trip, because they were more in the way than useful. Working together and having that big cart, we got everything to our booth in less than two hours, a record for any convention where we're not allowed to drive up to our booth and load straight in (as we did at Youmacon when we still did it).
Then I needed to take the van to parking, while the family member who'd driven the car went back home to check on a package of merchandise that was lagging in the shipping system, and then to go to one of the area churches to pick up meals (they're still doing their free community meal carry-out only, even after most of the other groups have gone back to dine-in, at least partly because they have a very small fellowship hall).
I hiked back to the convention center and set to work, glad to have beaten the rain that was clearly coming in. Shortly afterward our other family member arrived with the meals from the church, and we discovered that we'd forgotten to put sets of plastic flatware into the box when packing. Given that our meal was not exactly finger food, I quickly pulled out a package of corn chips and we made do eating with them.
Once we finished supper, we got back to work. We got all our structures built and I was able to get the t-shirts into place before it was announced that the exhibit hall would be closing for the night. I took my husband over to the main entrance of the convention center and found him a place to sit and wait while I retrieved the van.
I was glad I'd thought to bring the big umbrella with me, because it was still raining, although not nearly as heavily as it had the day before. The temperature had also gone down, although not so severely as to make it unpleasant to be dressed in summer clothes.
When I got to the parking lot, I was surprised to see activity at the neighboring helipad. It looked like they were getting ready for a lifeline flight, although I wasn't sure whether they were receiving a patient from an outlying hospital or if they were flying someone to another hospital with very specialized facilities for some rare treatment. Given that Indianapolis has all of the state's Level-I trauma centers, it's likely they were receiving a patient. However, there was no way of telling just by watching, and I couldn't linger to see if further clues would emerge. I edged around the waiting ambulance and headed back to the convention center to pick up my husband.
We headed back home to wind down and get ready for bed, since Friday was going to be a long day with an early start. I did manage to get a bit of work done on a writing challenge, if not as much as I might have liked to accomplish.
Friday started way too early, as we all piled into the car to head back to the convention center. We had some extra stuff, including the box that had arrived late and some things I'd forgotten. We used a different route to get to the convention center, and in the process had a very close call with a driver who was trying to bull their way through an intersection when we had the right of way. Fortunately we were able to avoid a collision and got to the convention center in good time.
Since we had merchandise to bring in, we were able to get into the loading dock and carry it in. Then I had to take the car over to the parking lot and hike back to finish setup. At least the rain had stopped, but I carried my umbrella with me just in case we had a nasty surprise in the evening.
Only one of our helpers was able to come on Friday, but with her help we were able to finish setting up in good time. We even had signs up before the doors opened, which simplified things. Then I headed through the hamster tube system to the Subway by the downtown branch of our bank and acquired some sandwiches for us. I had thought we had more Subway gift cards, but could only find one and spent cash to cover the rest. Fortunately we did still have a little cash left after Archon.
By the time I got back, the doors were already open and the VIP's were filtering through. We'd actually made a few sales, which was a pleasant discovery.
Sales were fairly steady most of the afternoon. Only the last hour or so did things slow down enough that I had time to get on my phone and do any reading. We almost reached the end of the second page on our ledger, and might've gotten there if the pace of sales had stayed steady all he way to the end.
After the vendor hall closed, I hiked back to the parking lot to retrieve the car, then came back and picked up the rest of the family. When we got home, I reheated some chicken for supper. Then I ran up tot he storage unit and retrieved merchandise, including some items I'd forgotten to put in. I did a little more writing and turned in for the night.
On Saturday we headed back down to the convention center. With more merchandise in the trunk of the car, we were able to go into the loading dock to carry it in. Then I took the car to parking and had to hike back. When I got there, I needed to put out more merchandise to fill in the gaps from what had sold. By the time I got that done, there was no time left to look around, because the doors were already opening.
Sales were pretty steady, although I did get some time to walk over to Potbellys' Sandwiches on the Circle to pick up lunch for our crew. That was fun because I could only go part of the way via the hamster tube system. In the old days, I could've walked indoors all the way to the entrance of the north anchor store of the mall and come out just south of the Circle. However, now I had to walk further, but at least the weather had improved. Although it was chilly, it wasn't raining, so I didn't have too much trouble carrying the food.
About the time I got back, we got absolutely slammed with customers. There were times when I couldn't even keep up with the flow of transactions, and I know that we left money on the table as a result. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure we had some sales go unrecorded because we were trying to hold them in memory while dealing with subsequent customers, and ended up forgetting some of them by the time we could actually get to the ledger and write things down. There would be times when I'd be helping one customer and another team member would try to yank me off to another customer, and I'd have to kick up a stink on behalf of the customer I was actually helping.
By the time the vendor hall closed for the evening, we were tired but happily richer. After I retrieved the car and picked up the rest of the family, we decided to just go to our favorite Chinese buffet up on Pendleton Pike for supper. We were running so late that they were getting close to ready to close, but they were patient with us as we ate and didn't try to hustle us out the door.
Once we got home, I figured out what items I needed to retrieve from the storage unit and went up to collect them. After that I caught up with correspondence before turning in for the night.
On Sunday my husband and I headed downtown in the van for the final day of the convention, since we would need to load out our unsold merchandise. We thought it would be a relatively easy trip in, but as we approached Lucas Oil Stadium, we discovered the street had been blocked off for some kind of tailgating event. We had to quick find a way around the block so we could get to the convention center and get my husband dropped off, since he can't walk all the way from the parking lot.
By the time I got the van parked and walked back to the convention center, there was no time to do anything except get ready for sales. I still hadn't gotten a single chance to look around
On Sunday we had a different helper working with us, but she quickly picked up how things worked, and even was comfortable with doing credit card sales. As a result, I was able to take the hamster tube system to Subway and grab some food for us, just in time for the real rush to start.
We weren't quite as slammed as we had been on Saturday, but there were a lot of places where I cut corners on getting things written down. Although I'd planned to start packing the fragile stuff in the middle of the afternoon, I was still busy dealing with customers almost half an hour after I was supposed to start packing. Finally I just had to start putting away figurines, even if it cost us sales, because it would be even worse if I didn't have them packed when we closed.
When the doors did close, I had been planning to head over to the parking lot and retrieve the van, right until we got an announcement on the PA that the Colts game had just let out and traffic was absolutely crazy all around the convention center. So I just stayed and continued packing merchandise until there was literally not much of anything to put away.
Finally I headed over to the parking lot. On the way I called the other member of the family and let him know that we were ready for him to come by and help get merchandise out of the vendor hall. At least by waiting I was able to get the van back to the loading dock with a minimum of muss and fuss. We didn't get the greatest location, and I had to haul things further than I would've liked, but at least we were able to get a flatbed cart before too long, which allowed me to put away our own cart and load the stuff that went around it. Since our next event was going to be in a hotel, on carpeted floors, I sent the puzzle mats home in the trunk of the car, along with all our emptied boxes, so I wouldn't have to deal with them when changing over the merchandise. Then our other family member could go home instead of just sitting around with nothing further to do.
Even with excellent help, it was still later than I would've liked by the time we got everything out and hit the road home. I was very glad to find clear streets and smooth driving back to our side of town, and quite happy to pull the van into the driveway and power down. On the other hand, I still had to get some equipment out of the back seat of the car and back into the garage before we could head out to Steak 'n Shake for a very late supper.
As it turned out, thanks to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dining room had closed at 11PM, and we were stuck going through the drive-thru. Although their shakes were as delicious as always, the burgers didn't really seem that great. We decided that, if they still had that policy next year, we were going to find a truck stop with an all-night restaurant where we could dine in and eat there.
However, that was the only real disappointment with what was otherwise a very successful convention.
Copyright 2021 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated November 6, 2021.