Before the Event & Setup
Since my husband needed the car for the day (my niece was also having a birthday party at 1pm same day), he helped me unload the car and drop me off. My booth partner from Wolf Dynasty Studios, Brittany, was already setting her stuff up as we were splitting a table. She also supplied this picture for me (thank you!!)
This made me realize if I ever plan to have a plush empire I will need to eventually move to dealers or have more space planned out in general, but for now this is fine. Can't say I am moving tons of large product anyways.
Our booth was located right by the main entrance which was fantastic for us. I think it made it easier to load in and out, and bathrooms were literally behind us. I didn't see a water fountain and maybe I missed it somewhere, but I really loved our placement. You can see here on the map, we were #3! We were also booth neighbors to Nakama Nerd-Op so we were in very good company! I think our table was 8 feet long so despite sharing we still had a good amount of space.
The Event Itself
I feel like the event had pretty steady traffic the whole time. I did get to walk around a little earlier in the morning before it started to pick up more. The organizers of 2D con came over and we chatted which was extremely exciting to me! They gave me little cards to hand out so I will be doing that as well for future events. I didn't get a picture of all the games they brought but I did get a quick picture when the artist alley was closing of their table. It's important for cons to drum up traffic to their events.
There was one of those booths though that had stolen pin designs. I did report it since several artists I knew were on this even if you just ignore the normal stolen ones from Pusheen and TeeTurtle. Normally I report this kinda stuff as a shopper but now that I am a vendor, I guess I also need to keep an eye out for these at the events I am at.
Either way don't support bootleg pins. The artists have no control over the theft of their designs and distribution so do your part if you see these setups please! There are obviously legitimate vendors reselling pins, but the prices alone usually tell you what is or isn't a bootleg.
Staff came around to check on us randomly and someone even brought us a bottled water at one point. It was extremely thoughtful and I really appreciated it.
It was busiest right before the cosplay contest and died off pretty quickly after. I only got a few pictures of the event. Maybe I should have taken more but I wasn't thinking about it too much. Artists were helping each other pack up, everyone including attendees and staff were all helping with holding doors for us which was so nice of them!
The food trucks were very good. I really don't have a whole lot to say beyond that to be honest. I had people at my table around lunch so my food was cold by the time I did get to eat. I feel like this is literally how every event goes anymore.
Ate dinner with Brittany and Jess afterwards and it was overall one of the better events I've been to simply because of the people who were there. Sales were nothing exceptional haha. I'm not even sure more than 100 people showed up including the vendors.
Something I noticed was I had one card transaction and everyone else paid in cash. I guess I was so used to most events being mostly card I didn't expect that. People also paid in exact amounts so even if I didn't have cash on me (which I did), it was really easy with no change. I keep most of my prices in $5 increments anyways and thankfully it's been paying off nicely.
What Worked & What Did Not
We got information of where we'd be placed for the event on February 28th - so super close to the event itself. I was trying to get some projects finished before the event on Saturday, so I never did make an advertisement exclusively for this event in the end. Either way this was really bad and I expected more from this event.
If 2D con hadn't brought all the gaming things, the event wouldn't have really had much going on. Karaoke and the cosplay contest were both in the evenings so there was little going on that I saw during the day. Tabletop events were downstairs and maybe something else but I never made it downstairs before vendors packed up.
There wasn't an obvious water fountain, but the bathrooms were very easy access.
Load in and out was super easy and convenient. Parking seemed plentiful for everyone. This was great and I loved the location of the event itself. I took a picture on my walk back from the parking lot.
It was commented that it looked more like a craft fair/flea market/garage sale than a normal artist alley for a small convention.
Writing this up I realized advertising for the event was really lacking. I couldn't find much for their social media so if this is supposed to be a yearly occurrence, this is something that needs major improvement. Even the craft fairs I have attended have put in a significant amount of effort towards getting people to the event for months in advance.
I was also informed the image cropped was AI so guess we'll see. Maybe they knew, maybe they didn't.
I did like that they gave both us and attendees surveys to fill out. I appreciate when events want feedback. It allowed us to be anonymous but at the end of the day I just put my info in it. My blog is here so it's pretty obvious if I have the same feedback I have here who it is.
Conclusion
I'm super mixed on how I feel about this event overall. It felt okay as an event. I think since I am pretty new to selling in person still, I have no idea if the sales are usually this low for the start of the year.
The crowd was really fun to converse with and I didn't lose money. There is no way I would have done this without splitting the table with someone though. While I didn't make a lot, that $25 still made a difference in savings. I am undecided if I will return next year, but I knew several artists at the event so it made it much more worth than if I hadn't split a table and knew no one.
I know there were some behind the scenes issues I can't discuss so we shall see how next year looks before I make any decisions.
The Details (TLDR)
Event: CoHi Con: Gaming & Sci-Fi Comfy Convention
Date: March 2, 2024
Location: Murzyn Hall, 530 Mill St NE, Columbia Heights (CoHi), MN 55421
Hours: 10am-midnight CST
Total Vendors: ~30
Attendance: ~100
Travelworthy: Worth a 15-20 minute drive. Not good for further or out of state.
__
Booth Cost: $25 (Wolf Dynasty & I split a $50 table)
Total Sales: $90 (this is before all costs are taken out)
Transaction Fees: $0.49
Taxes: $6.77
Total Profit: $57.74