Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on May 5, 2014 9:31:35 GMT -6
comicsbeat.com/c2e2-is-bigger-than-new-york-comic-con-and-can-grow-even-bigger-than-san-diego/
C2E2 Is Bigger Than New York Comic Con! (And Can Grow Even Bigger than San Diego!)
by Torsten Adair
“What? Is he nuts? NYCC is bursting at the seams! 130,000 attendees. Massive crowds! Sold out weeks in advance! Crazy media coverage!”
Yes, but there’s one metric which is very important. It’s a concern at New York, it’s a political football in San Diego, and it will soon be a concern for other large shows:
square footage of exhibition space
That’s what drives Preview Nights, ticket sales, social media; and which funds the show. (The exhibitors rent space from the show.) A publisher doesn’t have a booth? Creator with 300,000 followers says she’ll be in Artist Alley? Exclusive swag?
That is how C2E2 is bigger than NYCC: the square footage of the show floor.
NYCC uses the entire exhibition space on the third floor of the Javits center. Let’s add halls 1B (used last year for fan groups and autographing), 1C (used for the stockyards in the morning, as fans line up to get in, and panel overflow) and the North Hall (Artists Alley).
The scorecard, from the Javits website:
Hall Gross.sq.ft. Floor dim. Ceiling hght. Occupancy
3A 116,000 sq.ft 456′x274′ 33′ * 3,852 for tradeshows
3B 158,000 sq.ft 456′x371′ 33′ * 5,240 for tradeshows
3D 17,000 sq.ft 240′x69′ 14′ 1,680 for tradeshows
3E 119,000 sq.ft 456′x286′ 33′ * 3,930 for tradeshows
Hall
Gross.sq.ft.
Floor dim.
Ceiling hght.
Occupancy
1B
80,000 sq.ft
456′x180′
19′-7″ *
2,670
1C
80,000 sq.ft
456′x178′
19′-7″ *
2,670
Specifications
Gross Sq. Ft. 80,000
Floor Dimensions 159′ x 461′
Ceiling Height Varies from 25′ to 49′
Occupancy 5,596 tradeshows
3,300 banquet
5,500 theater
4,200 classroom
Column Spacing
Column Fre
116+158+17+119+80+80++80 = 650,000 square feet.
This past week, C2E2 used three-quarters of Hall A at McCormick Place.
That area: 670,000 square feet. One third of which was for a food court and general banquet seating. (That’s 26% of McCormick Place’s 2.6 Million square feet of exhibition space.)
This doesn’t include the North Hall (B), which ReedPOP used for registration.
Yes, C2E2 is half the size of NYCC. It hasn’t sold out yet, and is still three days long. It’s growing at half the rate of the New York show, although once past a certain number, the size and scope of a show encourages word-of-mouth and interest, mostly by media outlets.
Here’s the C2E2 scorecard:
year attendance exhibition space
2010 27,500 300K sq.ft.
2011 34,000 470K
2012 41,000 369K
2013 53,000 470K
2014 63,000 670K
This year, C2E2 had wide aisles, and it was easy to move around. How do you calculate the best density or capacity for a show? Looking at the chart above, one could average square feet per attendee.
So let’s calculate 10 sq.ft. per attendee (a little more than a square yard, or almost a square meter). That’s a fairly normal definition of “personal space”.
McCormick has 2.6 million square feet of exhibition space.
Do the math, and approximate total attendance would be 260,000, or double what Comic-Con International currently hosts. 300K at the extreme. (Some crowding could be mitigated by a diaspora of attendees to panels and ballrooms.)
This is for a three day show. Four days? 345K – 400K in attendance.
Crazy? Not really. The Chicago Auto Show uses one million square feet of space, runs nine days, and attracts more than one million attendees. They don’t report attendance figures anymore but in 1999, the auto show hosted 1.2 Million attendees over nine days, with 199,000 on the last Saturday! This year, they used the North and South halls (A + B).
Wait… let me get those numbers for you, so you can see what C2E2 might become:
The following is the day-by-day attendance of the 1999
Chicago Auto Show:
Feb. 11 First Look for Charity: 10,064
Feb. 12 Friday 69,588
Feb. 13 Saturday 126,494
Feb. 14 Sunday 166,556
Feb. 15 Monday 119,131
Feb. 16 Tuesday 70,818
Feb. 17 Wednesday 81,493
Feb. 18 Thursday 81,721
Feb. 19 Friday 103,077
Feb. 20 Saturday 199,374 *
Feb. 21 Sunday 187,418
Show total 1,215,734 **
* All time single-day show record
** All time show attendance record
SOURCE Chicago Automobile Trade Association
So, those last four days total: 571,590.
Now, I’ve never attended an auto show in Chicago or New York City. But looking at the 2014 floor plan for Chicago, it’s mostly big chunks of real estate carved out by manufacturers, with a small area for retail and other exhibitors. Seriously… that middle aisle at San Diego where studios and toy companies dominate? That’s almost the entire auto show!
2014-CAS-Map
Booths so big, you can place corporate logos on the map!
Remember, this is just the South Hall and the North Hall (A+B)! There are also halls C (North), D and E (Lakeside), and F (West). Another 1.4 Million square feet!
So let’s take that Auto show number from above… 570K attendees, four days.
What if we took that density and expanded it to the entirety of McCormick Place?
.57 x 2.6 / 1.2 = 1.235 MILLION
One million two hundred and thirty-five million attendees.
Sound crazy? Hey, if Comiket can pull in 500,000 attendees to what is essentially a giant MoCCA Fest, why not One Million Geeks on the shore of Lake Michigan? (No, seriously… all the exhibitors at Tokyo Big Site are amateurs, making their own comics. One big giant Artist Alley. And massive lines at each table.)
Want to get REALLY crazy? Why not do what the Auto Show does… NINE days!
1.2 x 2.6 / 1.2 = 2.6 MILLION
How do you fill the building during the week? Hold it during Holy Week? Offer workshops for area students. Encourage people to take a day off of work. (Look at the numbers above for weekdays… 80K. Somehow, someone is coming in to look at cars.) Run events at night, after work, like screenings.
Then we will surely have a Nerd Mardi Gras, as it spills up to Burnham Harbor (Field Museum! Shedd Aquarium! Adler Planetarium!). Last year’s Stanley Cup celebration downtown at Grant Park drew an estimated two million hockey fans. I know that there are an equal number of pop culture fans in Chicagoland. Heck, sports fans are just another geek tribe!
Oh, and I didn’t even think of this:
The City plans to build a 12,000-seat arena and a 1200-bed headquarter hotel north of the center, as well as turn the neighborhood into an entertainment district.
524deb49e8e44e67bf00047b_mccormick-place-event-center-pelli-clarke-pelli-architects_04_final-1000x689
Land trouble. Architect’s plans.
So Chinatown might become a destination for dining…
Exciting times!
C2E2 Is Bigger Than New York Comic Con! (And Can Grow Even Bigger than San Diego!)
by Torsten Adair
“What? Is he nuts? NYCC is bursting at the seams! 130,000 attendees. Massive crowds! Sold out weeks in advance! Crazy media coverage!”
Yes, but there’s one metric which is very important. It’s a concern at New York, it’s a political football in San Diego, and it will soon be a concern for other large shows:
square footage of exhibition space
That’s what drives Preview Nights, ticket sales, social media; and which funds the show. (The exhibitors rent space from the show.) A publisher doesn’t have a booth? Creator with 300,000 followers says she’ll be in Artist Alley? Exclusive swag?
That is how C2E2 is bigger than NYCC: the square footage of the show floor.
NYCC uses the entire exhibition space on the third floor of the Javits center. Let’s add halls 1B (used last year for fan groups and autographing), 1C (used for the stockyards in the morning, as fans line up to get in, and panel overflow) and the North Hall (Artists Alley).
The scorecard, from the Javits website:
Hall Gross.sq.ft. Floor dim. Ceiling hght. Occupancy
3A 116,000 sq.ft 456′x274′ 33′ * 3,852 for tradeshows
3B 158,000 sq.ft 456′x371′ 33′ * 5,240 for tradeshows
3D 17,000 sq.ft 240′x69′ 14′ 1,680 for tradeshows
3E 119,000 sq.ft 456′x286′ 33′ * 3,930 for tradeshows
Hall
Gross.sq.ft.
Floor dim.
Ceiling hght.
Occupancy
1B
80,000 sq.ft
456′x180′
19′-7″ *
2,670
1C
80,000 sq.ft
456′x178′
19′-7″ *
2,670
Specifications
Gross Sq. Ft. 80,000
Floor Dimensions 159′ x 461′
Ceiling Height Varies from 25′ to 49′
Occupancy 5,596 tradeshows
3,300 banquet
5,500 theater
4,200 classroom
Column Spacing
Column Fre
116+158+17+119+80+80++80 = 650,000 square feet.
This past week, C2E2 used three-quarters of Hall A at McCormick Place.
That area: 670,000 square feet. One third of which was for a food court and general banquet seating. (That’s 26% of McCormick Place’s 2.6 Million square feet of exhibition space.)
This doesn’t include the North Hall (B), which ReedPOP used for registration.
Yes, C2E2 is half the size of NYCC. It hasn’t sold out yet, and is still three days long. It’s growing at half the rate of the New York show, although once past a certain number, the size and scope of a show encourages word-of-mouth and interest, mostly by media outlets.
Here’s the C2E2 scorecard:
year attendance exhibition space
2010 27,500 300K sq.ft.
2011 34,000 470K
2012 41,000 369K
2013 53,000 470K
2014 63,000 670K
This year, C2E2 had wide aisles, and it was easy to move around. How do you calculate the best density or capacity for a show? Looking at the chart above, one could average square feet per attendee.
So let’s calculate 10 sq.ft. per attendee (a little more than a square yard, or almost a square meter). That’s a fairly normal definition of “personal space”.
McCormick has 2.6 million square feet of exhibition space.
Do the math, and approximate total attendance would be 260,000, or double what Comic-Con International currently hosts. 300K at the extreme. (Some crowding could be mitigated by a diaspora of attendees to panels and ballrooms.)
This is for a three day show. Four days? 345K – 400K in attendance.
Crazy? Not really. The Chicago Auto Show uses one million square feet of space, runs nine days, and attracts more than one million attendees. They don’t report attendance figures anymore but in 1999, the auto show hosted 1.2 Million attendees over nine days, with 199,000 on the last Saturday! This year, they used the North and South halls (A + B).
Wait… let me get those numbers for you, so you can see what C2E2 might become:
The following is the day-by-day attendance of the 1999
Chicago Auto Show:
Feb. 11 First Look for Charity: 10,064
Feb. 12 Friday 69,588
Feb. 13 Saturday 126,494
Feb. 14 Sunday 166,556
Feb. 15 Monday 119,131
Feb. 16 Tuesday 70,818
Feb. 17 Wednesday 81,493
Feb. 18 Thursday 81,721
Feb. 19 Friday 103,077
Feb. 20 Saturday 199,374 *
Feb. 21 Sunday 187,418
Show total 1,215,734 **
* All time single-day show record
** All time show attendance record
SOURCE Chicago Automobile Trade Association
So, those last four days total: 571,590.
Now, I’ve never attended an auto show in Chicago or New York City. But looking at the 2014 floor plan for Chicago, it’s mostly big chunks of real estate carved out by manufacturers, with a small area for retail and other exhibitors. Seriously… that middle aisle at San Diego where studios and toy companies dominate? That’s almost the entire auto show!
2014-CAS-Map
Booths so big, you can place corporate logos on the map!
Remember, this is just the South Hall and the North Hall (A+B)! There are also halls C (North), D and E (Lakeside), and F (West). Another 1.4 Million square feet!
So let’s take that Auto show number from above… 570K attendees, four days.
What if we took that density and expanded it to the entirety of McCormick Place?
.57 x 2.6 / 1.2 = 1.235 MILLION
One million two hundred and thirty-five million attendees.
Sound crazy? Hey, if Comiket can pull in 500,000 attendees to what is essentially a giant MoCCA Fest, why not One Million Geeks on the shore of Lake Michigan? (No, seriously… all the exhibitors at Tokyo Big Site are amateurs, making their own comics. One big giant Artist Alley. And massive lines at each table.)
Want to get REALLY crazy? Why not do what the Auto Show does… NINE days!
1.2 x 2.6 / 1.2 = 2.6 MILLION
How do you fill the building during the week? Hold it during Holy Week? Offer workshops for area students. Encourage people to take a day off of work. (Look at the numbers above for weekdays… 80K. Somehow, someone is coming in to look at cars.) Run events at night, after work, like screenings.
Then we will surely have a Nerd Mardi Gras, as it spills up to Burnham Harbor (Field Museum! Shedd Aquarium! Adler Planetarium!). Last year’s Stanley Cup celebration downtown at Grant Park drew an estimated two million hockey fans. I know that there are an equal number of pop culture fans in Chicagoland. Heck, sports fans are just another geek tribe!
Oh, and I didn’t even think of this:
The City plans to build a 12,000-seat arena and a 1200-bed headquarter hotel north of the center, as well as turn the neighborhood into an entertainment district.
524deb49e8e44e67bf00047b_mccormick-place-event-center-pelli-clarke-pelli-architects_04_final-1000x689
Land trouble. Architect’s plans.
So Chinatown might become a destination for dining…
Exciting times!