What's up, my watchers? This is your resident EnigmaticThief, coming to you after a long weekend of much fun and, thankfully, much profit for myself and my partner in crime,
. We got back from BronyCon earlier this evening, and while we are both tired we feel the experience this year was definitely worth it.
Heading out with prints, plushies, as well as Ori's mother in tow to offer her assistance like last year, we drove up to Baltimore, thankfully evading the heavy traffic that seemed to take place just after we arrived. Checking in to the hotel we had stayed at the year prior, we gathered up our products and displays and headed for the convention center. Thankfully, the registration and badge pick-up process seemed to have been overhauled and streamlined to a great extent, as it was only a short wait for us to get our packet of badges and general con info, and the general admittance line moved at a similarly speedy clip. This was a far cry from the roundabout method used last year, and I must give thanks to the staff for that. The rest of the day way full of set-up and welcoming our room-mates, Chris and Andrew, who arrived much later thanks to said traffic. We were also pleasantly surprised to see many familiar faces on staff and in the halls, like
and
, a theme that would run throughout all three con days. We even had
directly behind us, which made for some very good company.
Opening day of BronyCon was by far our busiest day in terms of moving merchandise, and I like to think a number of factors contributed. Our prior advertising certainly helped, but our table was at a convenient location, as well, right nearby the tables set up by the vendor hall's concessions stand. Because of this we could be seen by and engage more con-goers at a time compared to being in the middle of a narrow hall. Even so, with the new arrangement of the convention center's spaces this time around we wound up much farther away from the main entrance of the hall, meaning many other vendors had a chance to catch people's eye with their merch before they ever got to us. As part of something we had planned in advance, I stepped away to bring one of mine and one of Ori's originals for one of the convention's guests, Tabitha St. Germain, to autograph. I'm glad I left when I did, though, as I wound up being part of the last group of people to get her signature that day. Unfortunately, it seems all the effort and organization that went into the registration system was pulled from the autograph voucher and signing system of last year. Partly due to a set-up that allowed little room for people to be organized into groups leading up to signings after purchasing their vouchers, and partly due to an understandably high demand for Tabitha in particular, I waited for three hours before finally being able to stand before the voice of Rarity, Luna, Granny Smith, and a number of other colorful characters in MLP:FiM. I was dressed as Photo Finish as part of a collaborative cross-play with Ori, who was Hoity Toity that day, and I was glad to see that she seemed to like both my costume and our artwork. In order to keep things short and sweet I declined to take her picture, but now both Ori and I have originals signed by her, and for me now both "Sun Attack!" and "Moon Attack!" are a truly complete set. While the wait was unreasonable, meeting her and the others who stuck it out that evening in line was certainly interesting. I told her we would love it if she found the time to visit the vendors' hall, but it seems like that wasn't in the cards. After that most of our room and another close friend went out to dinner at the out-of-the-way bar and restaurant we had eaten at on the final evening of last year's convention. To top off the evening, Ori, Chris, Andrew, John, and myself conducted our panel, an informative session on just what it takes to vend at a convention such as BronyCon. There were some technical difficulties, but besides that I'm glad that what we had to say seemed to reach those who attended, as many were eager to question us further about subjects we had covered.
Our second day of vending saw us doing a wider variety of business than the first, but at a slower pace. We started to get in sketch commissions and more transactions through credit cards, but we could tell that people's purse strings were pulled much tighter after the splurging on Day One. This time around Ori and I were Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, respectively, and although we had planned on it we never did find the right moment to perform the Goof Off at a Rainbow Dash cosplayer. During the day we thankfully had the support of our close friend Sapphire in obtaining foodstuffs in the afternoon that helped to keep us going despite not having much time away from the table. Speaking of friends, there was quite the convergence of them that evening for another panel, organized by
and modeled off of Iron Will's assertiveness seminar. While she used it as a guide, I'm glad she built a practical and genuinely helpful seminar off of it, complete with rhyming catchphrases and "goat" assistants. The massive group picture of DC Bronies we took immediately following the panel was a great way to end the evening, and it was great to get in touch with a lot of the people I hadn't seen in the time leading up to the convention due to work and con prep. The final day was relatively mellow, with occasional sketch requests and some sales due to last day price-slashing, and Ori used some time in the morning to get Peter New's autograph on a recent piece featuring Big Macintosh. In the final half hour of the con I picked up a few prints and buttons for myself, including pieces from
,
,
, and
.
In terms of money earned, Ori and I did very well, beating out our profit from last year by a good margin. Once again I'm glad that people were eager enough to commission pieces from me, including a few that I'll be working on in the coming weeks to complete in full color, but sadly I did not move many prints except for intermittent purchases of "Moon Attack!" and "All-Terrain Applejack." I'm still struggling to find a balance between artistic merit and marketability, but hopefully that will have improved by next year's con. I was certainly glad to have seen new and old friends, and hopefully you all made it to and from the con safely. Now is the time to thoroughly rest and reflect on...
Oh wait, I have work tomorrow.