London MCM Expo spring show conflict.

[lamar]

Over on the UKFur forums people have started to notice the conflict with ConFuzzled and the London MCM Expo spring show. MCM Expo has been gaining a lot of popularity with the costumer and fursuiting side of the UK Fandom because of the links with Cosplay. And while I had been promoting CFZ to people in Artists alley and a few exhibitors, I'm not sure how many will chose it over MCM.

Obviously it's too late to change things now, but this probably needs to be considered for 2013 and onwards. MCM's show schedule now appears to be pretty fixed, on the full last weekend of May and October each year. (http://www.londonexpo.com/faq/frequentlyaskedquestions/) And these weekends should probably be blacked out of scheduling for any future CFZs. I'd also suggest that it's might be better to clash with a US Con than the London MCM Expo.

[Matt the Lion]

Hi Lamar,

We are already well aware of the clash with MCM Expo, however with this being the first year at our new venue we didn't have much flexibility with the dates.

Consideration of other UK events is made whenever the dates for the next CF are considered, and we are already well aware of when MCM Expo will be held in future and have plans in place.

[SFW]

You can't avoid clashing with everyone, especially as more and more events start up there will be conflict between the dates and people wanting to attend more then one thing. It will come down to how much people want to go to thins and where most of their friends are likely to be going to.

[RizzoRattie]

Just to sign off on this thread, to second what Matt has already said, this year we had much less flexibility regarding dates.  Also, in order to get full exclusivty on the hotel, we have had to jump through several hoops, which meant that we had to take the dates the hotel was willing to offer us, and not the other way around.   We naturally of course always take on board other key events running in the UK, and abroad.  It is common sense not to clash with events that we would be in direct competition with.  That said, I do not really see the London expo as being direct competition but certainly will attract a handful of people that would otherwise attend CF.

We will of course take it onboard next year and very much like this year, take it into our equation when negotiating a new contract.  The hope is of course that we will impress them so much this year, that it will then come down to the hotel being flexible around us, given that we will have established ourselves with them and given them the confidence they need in ordr to take calculated risks - they are indeed doing that this year with us giving us the exclusiviity.  However, the one thing to remember regarding the Barcelo is that compared to the Britannia, they are a much busier, corporate hotel.  They are already have bookings for corporate events up until 2013 so this, unfortunately, will always be a playing factor when trying to fit ConFuzzled in.

Lets hope we rock the place this year and really wow them!

Regards,

Rizzorat
------------
Venue Liaison

[lamar]

Fair enough, and I can't complain on the move to the hotel I suggested can I.

But I do think there is significant competition between MCM and CFZ. Dealers perhaps more than general attendees, but the Fursuiter/Furry Costumer's are being drawn to MCM too. I did get some interest from a few dealers I told about the con, but suspect they will likely stick with MCM.

On the other hand, there has been a rumour that table prices in "Comics Village" will go up substantially / space reduced to exclude smaller creators in favour of more corporate booths. But I have no idea if that has any reality, and can't find any official notices about it.

We'll see what happens.

[SFW]

MCM is a commercial exercise after all and is bound to target the more profitable areas and dealers to get them in the space they have.

A lot of the dealers I saw at MCM were either science fiction ones with merchandise, costume related play items and accessories and the fandom places with the garrison and the like there. The furry hats and things seemed mostly to relate to anime.

[Grallith]

Mcm is more syfy and anime than furry...... theres one stall with furry tails, ears, ect and a handfull of furrys that go to the event and TBH i dont think alot of these people even know that confuzzled is even running at all....
i must admit i didnt know about confuzzled till i was told at oct's mcm expo.

[James The Dog]

Is there really any really clash here anyway? It seems like a quite different type of event to me, and I can't say that any furs I know have any interest in it at all. There's a small amount of crossover, but it's like having a football and rugby match on at the same time.

[lamar]

MCM is a commercial exercise after all and is bound to target the more profitable areas and dealers to get them in the space they have.

A lot of the dealers I saw at MCM were either science fiction ones with merchandise, costume related play items and accessories and the fandom places with the garrison and the like there. The furry hats and things seemed mostly to relate to anime.

The 'Comics Village' dealers tables had more than a few people who would consider going to CFZ, either because they have specific 'furry' content, or because they have something that crosses over enough. And I certainly think the likes of United Publications should be prime targets to get to CFZ as dealers.

Mcm is more syfy and anime than furry...... theres one stall with furry tails, ears, ect and a handfull of furrys that go to the event and TBH i dont think alot of these people even know that confuzzled is even running at all....
i must admit i didnt know about confuzzled till i was told at oct's mcm expo.

Is there really any really clash here anyway? It seems like a quite different type of event to me, and I can't say that any furs I know have any interest in it at all. There's a small amount of crossover, but it's like having a football and rugby match on at the same time.

As I said, there was a lot of people in the Comics Village that I'd like to see at CFZ if we can get them to come. It's important not to forget that the majority of potential CFZ attendees are not exclusively dedicated furry fans, and there is a substantial amount of cross-over, particularly to Anime.


(Also, I'm vaguely sure that the Carling Cup Final and The Heineken Cup are never held on the same weekend.)

[LevLion]

If they were that interested at this point in time they would have applied.

Passed expirences with United publications imply they would not be interested in confuzzled. They used to go EF and london meets and pulled out of furry cons and furry in general some time ago and I dont see that changing anytime soon.

At the end of the day the con date is picked from times the venue is avalible, there are no other furry cons that would be in competition and when theres suitable time for most furs to attend (i.e. not in uni times etc) after that we cant really concentrate too much on what else is going on in the world of conventions.

We will always do our best to make sure there are no conflicts of interest for guests and dealers but we cant always please everyone.

I think this subject has been discussed enough now really and from next year hopeuflly we can avoid this clash.