Wisconsin Comic Con 2019
Wisconsin Comic Con is a brand new convention in Milwaukee, put on by the Imaginarium Agency, the same company that puts on Indiana Comic Con and Tampa Bay Comic Con. Since we had good experiences with this company's other shows, we had no hesitation about signing up for it and buying our usual 3-booth setup. This year it was held over the weekend of June 28-30, 2019 at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee, near the I-94/I-43 interchange.
Because of the distance and the issues of getting through Chicago, we headed up on Wednesday. We got up extra early and ate breakfast on the road, which turned out to be a good thing. Although we made good time all the way through Indiana and even the southern suburbs of Chicago, traffic started jamming up when we approached the Jane Byrne Interchange.
From there until the Wisconsin state line, we had to deal with a series of intermittent jam-ups. Every time traffic loosened up enough that we thought we were finally through, the brake lights would go on again and everything would slow to a crawl. After a few repeats, I learned to be very alert for the first signs of a slow-down so I wouldn't have to slam on my brakes and risk having merchandise come flying forward from the mid-hold into the cockpit. Worse, I had to keep a very close eye on the van's temperature gauge so I could shut off the air conditioning as soon as the engine started heating up. Once it was so bad that I rolled down the windows, then turned up the volume on the stereo so everyone could enjoy "D'ya Know What I Mean" by Oasis.
By the time we rolled across the Wisconsin state line and came to the rest area, we'd been driving without a break to stretch for almost three hours. Although this wasn't as bad a problem as it would've been right after my husband's knee replacement surgery, when he was still at high risk for blood clots, it wasn't really good for either of us. When we pulled in and got out, I was so stiff and sore that I could scarcely move, and had to make a conscious effort to stretch out my muscles and joints as I walked to the building so I could limber myself up.
Afterward we continued the rest of the way to our hotel, through yet another of the many construction zones we'd had to deal with on our trip. For the first time on our journey, I started having problems with weariness, although not nearly so bad as the exhaustion I'd dealt with on the way back from some earlier conventions this year. I was very glad to finally pull into the hotel parking lot and shut down the van.
When we checked in, we thought we might be having another problem like the one in Grand Rapids, where they insisted that the money had to stay on our credit card if we checked in with card. But when the desk clerk called in the manager, he clarified that he just couldn't place a hold alone, because too many of them turned out to decline when it came time to check out. Instead, they'd have to actually charge the money to the card, and then they'd refund it when we checked out and paid cash. It'll work because our next convention is a hometown convention and we won't be traveling again for another week. This will give the refund time to process, but it really made it obvious how dangerous it is to have very little available credit when we're doing multiple conventions in close succession.
This is an all-suite hotel, with kitchenette facilities more like the ones in hotels set up for long-term stays. However, they didn't require us to put down a security deposit the way the Mainstay Suites in Houston did, which did simplify some matters on check-in.
Once we got checked in, I carried in all our belongings. I was quite happy to discover that I was able to lift and carry our cooler, even with more things than usual in it. Since I knew we'd have kitchenette facilities, including real plates and metal flatware, I'd also brought several potatoes and some margarine. I wish I could've stopped at a grocery store and picked up some vegetables and other supplies, but as tired as we were, I really didn't want to try to locate somewhere to buy groceries.
Having supper on real plates was a real delight, and I made sure to get the dishes in the dishwasher so we'd have them clean for the next day's meal. Then I settled in to try to catch up on con reports and fiction writing. However, I discovered that it wasn't wise for me to remain sitting for too long, because my joints were apt to be difficult about it.
On Thursday we got up and had the hotel's complimentary breakfast. Then we had some time to kill before we could go downtown to the Wisconsin Center and load in. So we went out to the lobby to give the maids some time to clean our room, and I did some work on blog posts to go up over the weekend.
Once our suite was freshened, we went back and had lunch. We ate a rather leisurely lunch, thinking we had plenty of time. But when we headed downtown and arrived at the Wisconsin Center, we discovered we'd made a big mistake. The line was already stretching well around the building, and things were moving very slowly.
By the time we finally got into the loading dock and were able to unload, we'd lost almost half an hour of precious loading time. There was really nothing to do but get the cart unloaded and haul stuff in as rapidly as we could manage. At least the dockmaster had placed us near the entrance that was closer to our booths, so we didn't have an enormous trek back and forth. However, after a couple of loads I realized that forgetting my ankle brace was a big mistake -- but with it back at the hotel, there was nothing to do but keep slogging on as best I could without it.
I was actually making decent time, getting down to the t-shirts, when I noticed a wall of black clouds coming in from the west. I tried to move as fast as I could, but when it started raining, I had to get things closed up and try to carry stuff with tarps. However, the wind kept whipping them up and exposing the merchandise to the rain.
By that time things were quieting down, and the dockmaster took pity on me and moved me up onto the ramp, into the shelter of the overhang, so I could unload the rest of my merchandise without getting drenched. However, I'd already gotten enough water into the van that some of the boxes got wet, and I had to handle them very carefully to get them to our booths. I just hoped they would hold together for a while, long enough to get home and replace them.
By the time we had everything in, including the stuff on our little luggage cart, the rain had moved on. So I took the van out of the loading dock and found a parking lot with a reasonable price, then hiked back. My feet were sore, and it was not fun to discover that I had to go most of the way around the convention center to find a door that would open.
Still, there was work to be done, so I dug in on building display structures as quickly as I could. However, we didn't get nearly as far as we needed to before we were shooed out for the night. We got out the main entrance and discovered I had a good little walk to retrieve the van. Since my husband wasn't up to the hike, I left him in a bus shelter and came back to pick him up.
We made decent time back to the hotel and were able to wind down before getting in bed. I even squeezed in a little writing time.
On Friday we ate the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then hurried back downtown to finish setting up. With the heavy rain, I missed a key lane change on the Interstate and got shot off in the wrong direction, so we lost time getting turned back around. This time we parked in the lot right across from the main entrance, although it meant having to pay event rates. At least we were able to get into the vendor hall that much more quickly and get to work, which was a very good thing in the pouring rain.
However, we still had a bunch of stuff in the aisles when they opened the doors. So we had to stop setup long enough to grab everything and get it inside our space before someone complained about us. We even had a couple people look at our Star Trek books while they were still stacked outside in the aisle, but they promised to come back as soon as we were finished setting up.
We also got an unpleasant surprise when we needed to use the restroom and discovered the ones nearest us were blocked off as staff only. For me it was a hassle, but for my husband it was going to be anguish to trudge that far every time. He raised the issue with the staff, and they made arrangements for him to access that bathroom. The owner of the Imaginarium Agency even dropped by our booths to make sure that the disability accommodation was working, which to mind is going way above and beyond the call of duty.
When we finally got everything into a reasonable semblance of order, the sales began dribbling in. However, it was clear that attendance was way lower than it should've been for the amount we'd paid for our space, or the size of the exhibit hall. At least the two women came back and bought two bags full of Star Trek books, but one huge sale can't carry you for a con of this size. I began to hear some comments from other vendors about the promoter having completely overlooked Summerfest, a giant outdoor music festival that was going on the same weekend. Apparently it was so big that even churches shut down their bingo games and other activities during the time it's going on. But I could hardly blame them, because I'd never heard of Summerfest, and I'd lived for several years in the Chicago area, which would be part of its market. I could completely understand how someone who was more in tune with the con circuit and not someone who did outdoor music events could fail to even think to ask the relevant questions (showing yet again that it's those unknown unknown that will blindside you every time).
By the time the vendor hall closed for the evening, I was feeling pretty miserable about our sales. Sure, we were ahead of where we'd been on Friday night at Branson Con, but that was a very low bar and we'd paid a lot less for our space at that convention.
We headed back out to the hotel and had supper. We had a scary moment when the iPad Pro wouldn't wake back up, but I was able to do a force restart on it and get it going again. It just seemed to fit with what was starting to shape up as a really rotten weekend.On Saturday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back downtown to try to salvage our situation as best we could. We made sure all the signs were out so people wouldn't hesitate to bother us with questions about prices or payment options.
However, traffic and sales remained obstinately slow, with altogether too much time for me to sit around surfing the Web on my phone. By the time the vendor hall closed for the night, it was clear this convention would be a bust. For all the Imaginarium Agency's experience in running top-notch conventions, they'd laid an egg and it had wound up all over the vendors' faces. I recalled the Japanese saying "even a kappa can drown," which means even an expert can make mistakes, a warning against becoming overconfident in one's own abilities.
We headed back to the hotel to have supper and try to raise our spirits as best we could. I got the basin out and soaked my feet, trying to get them to feel less sore, before turning in for the night.
On Sunday we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, then headed back downtown for the final day of this train wreck of a convention. As we arrived at the Wisconsin Center, we were met by several dealers hauling cartloads of merchandise out. Apparently they had decided sales were so bad there was no use staying any longer and spending another hotel night.
However, that wasn't really practical for us, so we had to try to make what money we could in the remaining hours. The aisles remained stubbornly empty far too much of the time, and sales few and far between. We went ahead and started packing right after lunch, since it didn't look like we were going to be losing that much in the way of sales by doing so. I usually try to keep the porcelains and the t-shirts out until the doors close, since they pack quickly and easily, but I had most of them packed before the doors even closed. We'd picked up a couple of helpers, which definitely speeded up the process.
Then I went over to the parking lot and retrieved the van. I heard that the people in the loading dock had gone ahead and let vendors in early to load out, which made it clear just what a disaster this convention had been. However, because the celebrities were still in the building, we weren't able to use the entrance that was closer to our setup, and I had to drag everything clear across the vendor hall, slowing things a lot.
As it got later and more vendors and dock crew left, I took it on my own initiative to get the van up the ramp to the location where I'd finished unloading on Thursday. I shortened my trip considerably and was able to get the last few loads out that much more quickly. It also helped that another vendor took pity on us and helped me load in the stuff in the middle so that I could get going.
Even so, it was late by the time we got back to the hotel and got supper. I would've liked to have gotten to bed earlier, but there just wasn't enough time left.
On Monday we got up and ate breakfast before packing our stuff and loading out. We asked for a late checkout just in case, but we ended up getting out in time. Unfortunately, because of the miserable performance of the con, we were going to need every penny we could scrape up and then some, which meant that our hotel expenses would just have to stay on the credit card. This was going to make things decidedly difficult for AnimeIowa in two weeks.
Then we had the misery of getting through the traffic in the Chicago area. By the time we finally got through to Merrillville and made our pitiful little deposit, I was feeling exhausted and miserable. I just wanted to get back home. At least the drive down I-65 went smoothly enough, but when I pulled in and shut down, I was so tired I could only manage to bring in the absolute essentials. Then I took a nap in order to have enough energy to haul in the rest of our personal belongings.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated July 21, 2019.