We recently got some feedback from Awesome Con fans about the show and they shared many of their thoughts on what they liked, what could be improved and a wishlist for the future. In our last Awesome Con feature, we will share the thoughts of some of our cosplayers and vendors as they tell what they thought made their experience what it was.

Let’s start off with the ‘winner’ of Awesome Con!!

(Editor’s note: there is no actual ‘winner’ of any con but if there was a moment that made this or any con with it, it was this one!)

Amanda Z.

Every convention has a memorable moment. A radical photo-shoot, meeting an online cosplay friend, or debuting that one dream costume. Awesome Con has always been special to me, personally. The first Awesome Con was my very first convention with a significant other. Patrick and I cosplayed Casey Jones and April O’Neil. The convention was in a tiny room and the number of guests was limited. The next year I got to do my first very large group cosplay. Every one of my friends showcased their amazing talents through their cosplays and we had a blast. And it was like watching my favorite little con go from being a baby to graduating from elementary school. It had grown so much in one short year and we couldn’t wait to see what the next Awesome Con would bring us. This year’s convention topped them all. We cosplayed He-Man’s Man-at-Arms and Sorceress, costumes that had been discussed since Pat and I had first started dating. Our favorite little convention was now so large it felt like it was now graduating high school. The atmosphere was wonderful. But one event made this the most memorable convention I have been to, or will ever attend. By far the best moment of any Awesome Con took place at the CosLove photo-shoot on Saturday May 30th. At the end of the shoot, my best friend in the entire world got down on one knee in front of a mass of cosplayers, friends and strangers, and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Through tears I managed to squeak out a yes. The outpouring of love from my friends, my family (I’m looking at you Mickie Holm), and complete strangers was overwhelming. It reminded me of the love and support the cosplay community shares. I never want to forget a great convention and now, with this event, I will never forget the best Awesome Con to date.

Britany M.

Headed on up this year to my second Awesome Con, it was a rough start, but it went extremely well as a panelist and good as an exhibitor. I ended up having a very good time once everything had been settled, but we had to get there. There were a couple of mishaps from misinformation to organization. One has to remember that this is only their third year putting on this show for us. Things like this take time and a load of patience, but I love the potential that this con will be. I eagerly await their fourth year where we will get the crowd they prepped for.

Matt O.

since this was my first awesome con I didn’t know what to expect. The area around the convention had me sketched out at first because I wasn’t to sure how the locals would feel about the cosplayers walking around. It didn’t help that I walked 5 blocks from hotel to con for 3 days but the locals were very relaxed about it. They went on with their business and didn’t bother me. I wonder how they’ll react when Otakon comes around in a few years to its new home. I enjoyed what the con offered from comics to anime and the celeb guests. I love the convention building because it’s very cozy. I had three favorite moments. One is when my friends and I came into the con with our all red Bat Family cosplay and the jaws just dropped. The second one was meeting the Power Rangers cast. I’ve only met Jason David Frank at Wizard World but meeting the others was a dream coming true. The third was doing the Batman shoot so we now have some great Batman, Nightwing and Red Hood photos. Overall awesome con was awesome and I’ll be making this a regular thing.

Electro B.

As I walked through the convention hall doors of the Walter E Washington Center, I entered the 3rd year of Awesome Con. Inside the exhibit hall, I saw great exhibitors and vendors that interested me with some nice deals and bargains. For instance, they had 1/2 off of comics, $5-$6 dollar comics among others, including my local comic shop Comics to Astonish. Aside from finding some deals, I got a chance to meet a lot of media personalities. Some of which I had gotten some pics and autographs like Franco and Allison Mack. Last but certainly not least, I saw some old faces and met some new ones. Even though my legs are kind of sore at the time of this writing, it was worth the experience I enjoyed.

Brian G.

As a Cosplayer and convention goer, I liked the overall floor plan. Yes you had to walk, but when you’re in costume you need space so you’re not tripping anyone else up. Awesome Con had exceptionally helpful staff and many different food vendors other than just the norm. I also more than anything else appreciated the email communications prior to the show about guest lineup changes, badge distribution and more. In my opinion Awesome Con paid attention to the good and bad and addresses both to be better each year.

And our Vendors chime in

Fenny L.
I had heard lots of amazing things about Awesome Con last year, after their Kickstarter. At first, I was hesitant, because usually new shows have a lot of problems with running a smooth show, however, a lot of other friends and fellow vendors couldn’t stop talking about how much fun Awesome Con was. So this year, we decided to give it a shot.

To start with, I loved how professionally the show was run. Registering for a table was smooth and effortless. Communications was clear and quick, and the table fees were on par with other shows of the size. One of the main issues with new shows is that often, the shows will underprice the cost of tables, which means on the day of the show, the tables will either be too small, or there won’t be enough chairs. Or a show will overprice a table, so that it’s not financially feasible for a vendor. But the table pricing was on par for the size of the show. A month before the show, we received an email letting us know that we will be getting bigger tables than originally proposed, which is even more fantastic.

Arriving was a bit of a bitch. As a vendor, we had 23892309829028 boxes and bags…and we had to walk all the way through the convention center to get to our table. Yes, there is a loading dock, but it was also jam packed (and we didn’t want to have to sit in line for 2 hours to get to unload). I would highly recommend that in the future, Awesome Con have an expedited pathway for vendors and artists – so that we’re also not running into people with our boxes (sorry to everyone I hit with my rolling cart!). Another thing that annoyed me was that there weren’t any hanging banners from the ceiling to let us know what aisle we were in. There was signage, but it was on easel stands that got lost in the hubbub of all the other things to see (this wasn’t just a problem for us – so so so many customers had a hard time finding our table because they couldn’t figure out which aisle they were in!). For a space as large as the convention center – having signage hanging from the ceiling showing attendees where they are, and where they need to go, would save a LOT of confusion and being lost.

However, once we were at our table, we were pleased. There was plenty of space behind us (not always the case for Artist Alley at other shows), and the tables were laid out well. We had everything we were promised at the table (no missing chairs, no weird set ups). There were also a ton of volunteers around, which made it great, because anytime someone needed help or anything, there was always someone within a shout away.

Awesome Con was competing with three other comic book conventions going on that weekend, so that could also have contributed to some of the “empty” feeling that it seemed like it had. But, regardless of that, as a vendor, I loved how professionally run the show was. I kept calling it “Baltimore Comic Con Jr” all weekend, because that’s what it felt like. I do think that Awesome Con grew a little too fast for the space (there was so much space between each row that at times it felt very empty), however, for a third year show, it was amazing!

Chris F.

I know Ben (Penrod)and his group work TREMENDOUSLY hard at Awesome Con and every year they try to make improvements. Most of my beef though are with the convention center policies themselves so I really don’t know if Ben and his group actually have any control over any of that but here are a few take-aways from this past weekend:

1) I SOOOOO wish the loading and unloading policies were different. It is a major pain in the butt to unload your stuff every year. All of my stuff fits on a small dolly but because it has four wheels, every year I am told I HAVE to use the loading docks even though no one had a problem with my not using the loading docks to leave. I rolled my dolly out of the convention center without anyone giving me any beef. Maybe I’ll do the opposite next year. Last year was sooooooo much easier to load than this year.

2) The bottom floor was TERRIBLE for any kind of internet connection. Many fans already mentioned the fact that it affected them but from a vendor and artist’s perspective, it hurt MANY of us even worse as it affected internet credit card sales. On Saturday and Sunday, I was forced to take a huge risk and take Square payments offline. For those that don’t know, you can accept Square payments offline but if anything goes wrong or the transaction is denied, YOU have to eat the cost. I had one such incident on Saturday but fortunately for me, I had the person’s number, contacted them and everything worked out for me. Only people with AT&T or Verizon seemed to get any kind of decent signal in the basement of the convention center. Last year, at the top level, there wasn’t any problem getting an internet connection at all.

3) I will also chime in about the unnecessary walking one had to do to get to the convention floor. I have no idea why on one section all the escalators HAD to be going in one direction – forcing people to walk needlessly to the other side of the convention center. This was terrible for artists too that had panels they had to get to. I was late to both of my panels due to all this crazy set-up. Hope Ben and his crew do a better job of that next year.

Those were the bad things. Here are the good things:

1) Super big tables! I had PLENTY of space to display all of my stuff. This is an absolute bargain when it comes to conventions.

2) SUPER amount of space BEHIND every artist alley table. I cannot stress this point any more. SOOOOOO many organizers try to cram so many tables in an area and give too much walking space for attendees that we artists are actually cramped behind our tables and, in some cases, have trouble getting out from behind them to go get something to eat or for bathroom breaks. Not with Awesome Con at all. SUPER double bug thumbs up for that!

3) Ben and his staff are always super and extremely helpful in terms of communications leading up to the show. If you have any questions, they get back to you right away.

4) The volunteers! Everyone I came in contact with were helpful – even when I was going through the loading dock situation. I knew it wasn’t their fault – they had to follow convention center policy after all.

Once I got through all of the headache of unloading, and getting my table set up, I had another fantastic show but if the loading situation and the internet connection situation could be improved, it would make this convention show even greater than it already is!

Aitch’s final words…

I was amazed at how much this show has grown in three short years.   I am also proud to say that in watching it grow, you can see how ben Penrod and his crew have really responded to guest requests to make it a better show.

Just a few points:

• I echo Chris’ sentiments about the escalators. I understand they wanted to funnel people in and out but it became a chore to walk through some areas of the show just to get in or out
• I also hope for better phone connection in the future and that is more of the convention center issue as I have been there for other events and had horrid phone service on that level. Otakon goers beware!
• I am still a bit disappointed that my panel application got lost but thankfully I was able to help with another one. I would like to ask if confirmation emails can be sent upon receipt of applications for the future.
• I DID love the fact that you could get badges and buy photo ops online. It would also be cool if you can do the same for signings but I understand if you can’t.
• Also the photo ops was FAST FAST FAST!!!  You took your pics and by the time you were done, it was already coming out.  Thank you for improving this!
• I also wonder if it’s possible to have more ATMs placed in the hall so people don’t have to leave to get cash.
• I loved the open space, there were very few bottle necks. The wait for most of the guests was mercifully short regardless of if it was a photo op or a signing. The longest I waited was 45 minutes and that simply was for the guest to arrive to the building.
• I was actually surprised that a lot of vendors had reasonable prices for their items and some actually had lower prices than what I would have gotten outside of the show!
• I really enjoyed that there were more food vendors with sitting areas nearby.
• BIG UPS TO THE BRUTE SQUAD!!! THEY DID AN ADMIRABLE JOB.
• My gawd, the AC!  THANK YOU!!  Some of us who walk around in armors and long sleeves had a much more comfortable show because we weren’t drowning in our own sweat from the heat.
• Most memorable moments of the show: John Rhys Davies doing Treebeard for my wife and I, John Morton and I talking about Boba Fett which turned into an interview (and I still can’t tell you who was interviewing who!) and of course Amanda and Patrick!!!
• I am hoping that next year if there can be any arrangements made with the convention center to possibly reserve an area where cosplayers can do large shoots and possibly work with any official photographers to get the best pics possible to show to everyone what kind of a great experience this is

This year was full of win and probably one of the best cons I have been to in recent memory. You guys keep up the good work and I can’t wait for next year!

We as fans can’t thank you enough the hard work you all put in to pull this off and many can stand to learn from you.