So I went to HyperCon over the weekend, a convention thrown by local artist, art educator, and entrepreneur Bordin Marsinkul. It was an interesting first con, I did some presentations, and I got to see some innovative ideas as well. Let's take a look!
THE CONVENTION:
The convention itself was a small first con, but what really stood out was:
- A good dealer's room. Lots of local talent, and a good selection of that, along with some local dealers. They also got in some unusual dealers – such as miniature and charm makers.
- Some nice food. I've noticed a trend of late in small cons working to have "appropriate" foods for otaku, and they certainly did that here. They had curry bowls – I had to resist since downing a bowl of curry before presenting anything – or when trying to decompress – isn't a good idea.
- Outside music. I've seen this done at Kin-Yoobi. It's a great way to entertain people and have a get-together outside of the convention center.
MY PANELS:
I did my "Career Brainstorming" and "Why Your Don't Have Your Dream Job" panels. I had a few attendees – of course the "Dream Job" panel, as usual, got more people. It always seems that one draws people in.
As this was a smaller con, the smaller amount of people at the panels added an interesting intimacy to the Career Brainstorming event – we sat around a table doing my brainstorming exercise. I kind of liked that and want to try and change the "geography" of the panel in the future.
Met some fun people at these panels – and some folks with real promise and ambition.
INTERESTING IDEAS:
I saw a few neat things people running (or going to) cons should consider:
Speed Drawing: Bordin himself did a speed ink painting of two samurai in battle – in about 40 minutes. Now this is something you'd see in a studio selling for a few hundred bucks if it had a frame.
I LIKE this idea for cons – we have many competitions at cons, but speed-art competitions (perhaps with interesting media) could be very interesting. Then frame up the art and sell it for charity or something.
Venue: The venue was a Boys and Girls club in Downtown San Francisco (http://www.kidsclub.org/). This was a great venue – kids know where it is, there was a decent amount of space (incredibly HARD to find in San Francisco), it was safe, and there were good facilities. If you're looking to do a con or a mini-con, consider places like this in your area.
Sketchbooks: I ran into Megan Lawton and Allison Thomas in the dealer's room. They had art, comics, and so forth for sale, but also something that stood out – cheap sketchbooks. They bundled up assorted drawings, experiments, prototypes, etc. into small and simple sketchbooks for interested parties to purchase for a few bucks. A great way to use those old works, make a few dollars, and encourage fans to support you, all done nice and simply. Artists? Keep this idea in mind.
A fun first-time con. Let's see how HyperCon 2011 is . . .