How do you measure a successful event?

I'm reading these reports, and noticing that a difference of opinion seems to be developing that has me wondering --- what do you consider to be a successful comic book convention event?

I mean, I've held or worked on a lot of these things now over the years and each one has had it's pros and it's cons (no pun intended) as to whether or not I personally consider them to be successful. Of course, when planning these things these reasons are not necessarily in the same order... I tend to look at building  a show in the following order --- guests, exhibitors, promotion, programming. Attendance is your "x" factor.

When I go to them outside of Toronto to work I generally think a con is successful if I'm constantly busy and not idle for hours on end (say Chicago is a successful con as I'm busy from start to finish, while Pittsburgh was not because I was bored 95% of the time). As a collector/fan my needs are a little more basic - did I get some things I wanted at a reasonable price and was I able to get everything I wanted signed? If yes, it was a success.

But here are the ways that I think events can be/are successful at --- or not - from a promoter/coordinator's perspective:

Attendance

Of course, as a person promoting and/or coordinating these types of events the first and most measurable sign of whether or not it has been successful is attendance. I mean, you could have the greatest product ever, but if very few people buy it then it is not a successful product, right? Plus, attendance is pretty much where you earn your profits that enables you to continue doing these types of events. 

Attendance at a one day comic show is expected to be considerably less than a two-day show. Attendance at a 2-day show will be less than what you expect at a 3-day show. Attendance relies on all sorts of things to grow or shrink --- but I think that two things are essential to the mix:

(1) effort - you really do need to actually try and promote your show by constantly reminding people when and where it is and who will be there - you are out there selling the show all of the time (to exhibitors, to potential guests, to potential attendees) 

(2) advertising, which is really an extension of 1. Sure you need great guests and you need exhibitors with interesting and diverse products but if you don't advertise at all to anyone but your die-hards, then no one outside of your die-hards knows about what you are doing and where/when you are doing it. Advertising catches the fence-sitters, the casual fans, the uninformed collectors and the marginally interested fans.

If you can't be bothered to do either (1) or (2) then people who might have supported your event will hammer it home to you when they ask you when your event is happening - after it happened. In fact, you are always doing (1) and you cannot slack when it comes to (2).

Exhibitor satisfaction / exhibitor rebookings

A second measurable sign is exhibitor satisfaction which can be measured by the number of exhibitors who rebook for the next event. If your exhibitors are not happy with your attendance or the clientele you are attracting to your event then it's very simple - they won't rebook and you are scrambling to resell the space to new exhibitors at the next event --- or worse, they sit on the fence until the final weeks before the show and waffle over your event - they need to know you have made changes/improvements to get more people in and a clientele that is interested in their products. But if an exhibitor is happy, they can't wait to rebook for next year and support your event. Exhibitors PAY FOR THE EVENT in the traditional convention formula. The revenues that table sales generate enable you to rebook the hall, pay your suppliers and fund your advertising/promotional efforts. 

Exhibitors do want to make money first and foremost (even though many are fans and are excited over guests, especially if they can sell items to get signed by the guests), and they are relying on YOU as promoter, to get people into your show who are interested in the products they are selling. Certainly volume can be a factor (creating various pockets of supply/demand on popular products and books), but volume can be bypassed by bringing in quality buyers. If you end up attracting few attendees that don't want to spend their money with the exhibitors then you are not doing your job.  

Since Artist Alley costs are significantly lower than Dealer tables, their expectations are a little lower. They are there to promote their products, so they do need people to promote to --- but they also have the option of social networking and meeting others in a similar position that may lead to future collaborations and/or sage advice from veteran pros. If their experience is beneficial in those ways they are more likely to return even if table money wasn't earned back. Plus, I recall from my Artist Alley days in the late 1980's that any money I earned went right back into another part of the con. I suspect I was not alone in that.

(In many ways, this is why I respect the TCAF model in that all of the attention goes to the creators, and they don't rely on exhibitors to fund the show. This was also one of our benefits with the Sequential Art Symposium last month in that fund-raising covered the costs and the CCBCAA didn't rely on exhibitors to fund the event. While I did stress about attendance, since it was free admission the only priority was that people learned something about Canadian comics and enjoyed the experience. Exhibitors, as I implied before, are stressful for a promoter/coordinator in that if they don't do well, for whatever reason, you know they will blame you - the promoters and coordinators - for not doing your job (which is getting people into the event). However, the costs of renting convention spaces are not cheap in the city and if you are doing a proper traditional con then you need to sell exhibor space and make your exhibitors happy along the way. Nevertheless, just about any type of event relies on the existing community/network of sites and stores to spread the word about your event.)

Guest Cancellations/no shows

The third measurable sign is the number of guest no-shows and cancellations. Each year you can expect to see some changes in your lists after you announce them (guests, exhibitors, artist alley) due to circumstances beyond anyone's control --- illnesses, family emergencies, weddings, funerals, holidays, etc. And sometimes these things happen at the last minute and you are wondering where people are when you see an empty table. Sometimes work takes precedence. But if you are doing something that people want to be a part of, they will do whatever they can to be there to be a part of your event.

Attendee satisfaction/reviews - did people have a good time?

Finally, attendee satisfaction. Are the people that are attending your event happy with the product? I know from experience that you can fail in all of the other measurable methods of having a successful show and still have happy and satisfied attendees and guests. 

Lack of big crowds enables the attendees you do have to have more interaction time with the guests and exhibitors and since there are fewer people, the exhibitors are vying for their dollars by offering up bigger deals and better discounts. The exhibitor may walk out without recouping their expenses, but the people they sold to are excited because they got a great deal, along with sketches, original art, all their books signed and so on. 

Conversely, if your attendance is massive, the same people will be upset with you because they don't have that same level of "face time", and if the exhibitors are doing well they won't be so quick to discount as they won't need to. 

A full show has attendees vying for books at dealer tables (creating supply/demand issues) while a slow show can make an attendee uneasy when they are the only bin diver and the retailer is completely focused on them to make the sale. On the other hand, no competition when it comes to guests is great if they are there for sketches and getting things signed. Only problem with that is that once they are done they won't stick around.

For attendees and even for Artist Alley and creators/guests a priority is having a good time. Of course, every promoter / coordinator is happy to hear good reviews because people had a great time. Their positive words will hopefully carry over to their friends and associates that didn't attend, and they will remember that when they learn about your next event. 

For years I worked on events simply because I was happy to hear that the people who were at the show were really happy with the end product. But that has to be balanced by sustained growth and stability.