Overview

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Applications, Payments & Planning

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Before the Event & Setup

We left Minnesota for Milwaukee around 6/6:30pm CST, arriving a little after midnight. It was probably one of the foggiest trips I've ever taken. At least it wasn't a super long trip, but the combination of fog and it being dark out wasn't the best experience. Milwaukee also had some construction going on, so it took us through some crazy city maze of chaos before we arrived at our hotel.

I picked a closer hotel so we could walk to the convention center, but the hotel was uh.. not great. Hampton Inn Downtown really needs some work haha. It's an old hotel that feels haunted and like the elevator could break at any second. They also never gave us a do not disturb hotel door hanger. 

The weather was a bit foggy and hinting at rain when we left around 7:30 to head to the convention center. Parking for hotel for the night was $14 - maybe because we weren't there the whole time? Not sure I didn't really pay attention when we pulled in since it was midnight. What I do know is we weren't planning to figure out the loading dock this year.

Previously we could roll into the loading dock, check in and set up. Well, they changed it so you have to run in to get your passes, then you could use the loading dock and then set up. You still had to drop off your stuff then move your vehicle before you could set up. Generally speaking, I have a single wagon most of my stuff fits into so we opted to park where we did last year. Baird has a nice little parking garage in the tunnel. The price was $35 this year. We thought the garage elevator connected to the convention center but it doesn't. Maybe it does somewhere else but we couldn't remember and opted to walk around. There was a con goer that arrived at the same time and took the adventure of which door is going to be open with us. The screens indicated only two entrances were open this year and we weren't near either. We had to walk to the opposite side of the building from the garage. There we were scanned and I'm so glad I have clear totes lol. They were able to see everything we were bringing in. Since we used loading dock previously, it never crossed my mind that they'd need to check us out.

Hall E was the new location for us and it was directly above the garage we parked in. So we took the elevator to the third floor and then walked all the way down to the other building on the far opposite side. The convention center security and staff were very helpful this year with directing us everywhere.

Check-in was quick and easy. I do wish the tables came with a second badge, but they don't, so I had to pay $80 to add a badge for my husband. So my table cost was about $319. Not even setup and my costs are about $941 (table, badge, parking twice, insurance for event and hotel). Staff was super helpful and friendly as usual. I actually really adore the AMKE staff. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the new hall. It was full of natural light despite the rainy and foggy weather. It actually started to pour shortly after we got into the building so I was very glad we arrived when we did. Any later and we would have been soaked.

I didn't notice at the time, but we had sort of an enclosed island where there was only one entrance. That was not the case for other islands of booths. Most had a very wide gap between the tables so people could get in and out, but it was confusing and even I ended up cutting through them a few times without thinking about it throughout the weekend. Ours wasn't like this, either way.

During setup, I basically had to stay at the front of my table and bug my husband for help when I needed something from the other side. As much as I like getting my steps in, it was a pain to constantly take a long walk around to get to the table so I just didn't. The table felt narrow for my setup. I usually have it so my grid cubes are behind my sticker trays. My cubes ended up with an overhang because the table was like maybe an inch or so smaller than would have been ideal.

Halfway into my setup I wanted to eat. We walked through the skybridge directly next to Hall E and went to Starbucks for coffee. The Hyatt is where the Starbucks was located. That hotel was nice. I joked that if we ever came back we should stay there and my husband was like you can't afford that. Dagger to the heart haha. It's true. My business isn't doing amazingly so it's definitely something I have to work to improve.

I finished setup with about an hour to spare. Spadeset picked up her sticker dividers and showed off some super cute liquid charms in the process. I had no idea they could freeze and have issues. I mean it does make sense because liquid but I don't sell that kind of product so it never crossed my mind I guess.

We went to lunch at Docs Smokehouse. Once again every way to enter and exit was still closed off so we had to go back out the way we came inside to go back once again to get to Docs. It was tasty. It was finally time for the event.

The Event Itself

I was pretty impressed by how many people were lined up as we walked back from lunch with about 5 minutes to get to our booth.

I love facing the window. I have plenty of natural light and since we're an end aisle, people are walking around and hanging out.

Talk about return customers here. We froze the whole time.

My aisle by the window stayed pretty busy at all times. My sales for Friday were down about $200 from the previous year. I did okay, but I was really hoping to make back my table costs at least. 

The previous year, I had a little more of a buffer for cons, but everything is 100% on my business this year for events. I'm a lot more price sensitive this year because of it. For example, I spent a portion of my morning comparing what I made last year on Friday to this Friday, which is why I knew I was down $208 exactly. I had made back my table on Friday previously at least, so not making it back wasn't great but also it wasn't the end of the world either. Most people said they were down 20-30% from last year.

I kept going to the bathroom at the front of the hall, which was nice, but it was a pain to walk so slow to get there. My husband said the bathroom at the back of the hall was just as nice but less crowded and he was correct. Around 5pm, they turned the lights on in the hall since it was starting to get dark outside.

Once we closed up, we went to Milwaukee Brat House for dinner. I accidentally walked into some German bar at first and was so confused. They were next to each other and I just didn't pay attention I guess. The burgers were okay. Fish fry was sold out and I was so sad. The fries caught me off guard though. They were Parmesan but they had a bite. I felt so crazy at first as it was getting harder to eat them because of the spice. They were very good though, I just couldn't finish them. Funny enough Scout and Owloo (my table neighbor) were both there.

For Saturday, the plan was to walk to the event and hope it didn't rain. As far as I know, there isn't a skyway from our hotel to the convention center.

We used the ramp from our parking garage to walk over to the Hyatt for Starbucks, then took the skyway from that hotel to the convention center. It worked out quite nicely. It takes you two the second floor and the exhibit hall is on floor three. Definitely made getting coffee super easy.

Since we didn't need to do much restocking, we set everything up and did our rounds of walking the artist alley. There were so many YouTubers I watch for artist alley vlogs at this event. Marceluna, DrawnByIvy, Mythne, Inkwell and Sam. Like the actual Inkwell! I only met his proxy at Metrocon. 

I got to chat with Mynthe and she gave me a free sticker so that was super sweet. The hall opened at 10am so after having my social hour, I finally went back to my booth and started the day.

I got to meet Noodle and Bean in person, not just chat with her on threads. Her and her wife are delightful! We actually left our spouses and walked around the hall. She actually knows many of my local art friends already lol. When we got to Spadeset's booth, she (Spade) needed a bandage so I ran back to my booth to snag one. I did have to return and rescue my husband from having to watch my table forever.

Sales were much better than Friday. I finally broke even on all my costs around 3ish. Time flew by since it was a steady flow. Not always a flow of sales but people enjoyed chatting with us and sometimes they came back to buy stuff later. I am so bad at having ribbons and wish I did lol but pet tax ribbons would have been nice to hand out to everyone showing me their fur babies. Oh well maybe one day I'll actually remember to have ribbons. Maybe for Tekko haha.

I saw Jordydraws needed someone to watch her booth around 3:20 and checked to see if anyone had stopped to help her. No one had so I said I'd send my husband over. Well he said he'd watch my booth and so I went there instead. Jordy was right next to Wayward Designs who I had gotten to meet earlier and Tomo was in the same artist cluster so while I told people they had to wait to make purchases as Jordy had to walk off for a moment, we all had a nice chat.

One of the staff stopped by my booth and we chatted about the event for a bit. She said they were changing how artist alley would be set up next year. I guess they were thinking about having two separate applications where if you sell fanart you're in one category and if you don't, you're in another. Also the non-fanart booths would be larger and we could apply to both categories. Either way, sounded very interesting to me. I literally added some fanart for this event so it was a little amusing. I should have asked if it would be cheaper than normal tables.

Noodle and Bean invited us to go eat dinner together after the event so we went to 3rd Street Market. We did manage to get tables this year unlike last year. It was busy still, so I think we just got lucky.

Sunday morning I forgot it was daylight savings time, but my alarm clock sure didn't! We checked out and headed to get coffee before our final day. The security had been much more efficient on the previous days. No one even prevented us from walking into the vendor hall or checked our badge like they did Friday and Saturday.

They sent out an email detailing how to load out. Seemed the same as previous years except I guess if you don't have your stuff packed by 7pm, there is a $1,000 fee. It also detailed changes to how artist alley are coming (related to what I was told) and when applications for both exhibitors and artist alley would open.

We set things up and did a walk around. The YouTubers were doing their videos and I did finally run up to Inkwell and say hey I watch your videos before running away lol. I don't think there are usually so many YouTubers at the same con as me. I didn't even realize Zeenigami was there until Lizbie Cafe brought it up later.

Apparently the convention also had some sort of swap meet happening until 4pm somewhere. I don't know anything about it, just saw it mentioned on discord. Reminds me a lot of what they had at Tekko for the flea market.

I learned a lot of people from West coast apply to the Midwest events because competition is far less. Probably explains the huge number of California artists at our local events.

We didn't do load out when the event ended at 4pm. We packed up and walked back to the parking garage at our hotel. Everyone had been complaining it was so windy, but it didn't feel that way. There was a breeze, but overall it was not too bad. I think despite the initial forecast of rain and potential tornadoes, the weekend ended up mostly nice. We sold enough to reduce one box so we only had to wagon back 4 boxes (one is grid cubes but they are so heavy).

I had a wonderful time hanging out with friends, artists, youtubers and chatting with everyone who stopped by my booth. I wish I had gotten to explore the con more this year, but I was exhausted. Saturday I was convinced I was going to shower then go back to the con center and just passed out instead. Maybe when I go back in the future. The game room is always such a fun place. On our drive home, I read that a bunch of people got food poisoning from one of the food vendors that was in the food hall. I don't usually eat at the con anymore because I'm very price sensitive lately, but it was sad to hear. I did notice someone in the AMKE discord mentioned they were sick but weren't sure what they ate that caused it. Either way, hope everyone is feeling better by now. Not a great way for people to end a con.

What Worked & What Did Not

I was skeptical about having a new exhibit hall at first but I absolutely adored it. So much nice natural light. It really improved the setting and probably my mood since natural light is great.

The walkways were not evenly spaced. Near our area at the front, it was much larger. Towards the back of the hall by the bathrooms, it got much more narrow and created a bottleneck of traffic.

I do wish tables came with two badges instead of one. I'm sure there is a reason for it, but $80 is just a lot of extra cost for an already expensive to attend convention when we're rarely able to participate. Even having it for half the price would be better than a full price badge. 

Our particular artist rectangle only had one entrance/exit while others had two. However, those were so large everyone, including myself, kept mistaking them for throughways. The crowds were pretty thick in most of the aisles which helped influence what areas people would block/walk through. Several times our entry area was blocked by people stuck in people traffic. I definitely have a preference for space between tables instead of one large entrance exit either way.

The space behind our tables was impressive. 11/10.

Staff stopped by to check and see if anyone soloing needed a small break. They wouldn't sell just stand at the booth for people. 

I found someone's credit card and turned it in on the way to the bathroom. They made an announcement over the loudspeaker letting the person know that they had something of theirs almost immediately after which was nice. That's honestly a great use of the speaker.

Conclusion

I love AMKE and would always be thrilled to return. I am unsure if I'll apply again since I lost money this year, but I do have a plan going forward. It'll depend on how things pan out product and sale wise before applications open for 2027.

If you're local, I definitely recommend you should attend or vend.

The Details (TLDR)

Event	Anime Milwaukee 2026
Date	March 6-8, 2026
Location	Baird Center, 400 W Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee,
Hours	Friday 1pm-8pm, Saturday 10am-7pm & Sunday 10am-4pm CST
Total Vendors	316
Attendance	16,832
Travelworthy	People consider it pretty good, but depends on what you sell and if you can keep your costs low.
Booth Cost	$319.47 ($239.44+$80.03 badge)
Total Sales	$1,527.25 (this is before all costs are taken out)
Transaction Fees	$42.99
Taxes	$108.67
Total Profit	$1,056.12