Tue, 01 Nov 2022 23:36:00 -0700WeeblyMon, 30 Sep 2019 04:45:15 GMThttp://raviswritings.org/nostalgia-con-2019/nostalgia-con-not-the-con-i-was-looking-forNostalgia Con 2019: The Ultimate 80’s Reunion at Anaheim, September 28-29, 2019
Website: http://nostalgiacon80s.com/

Short and sweet: I was a little disappointed.

Let me preface the rest of this review by stating that most fan conventions I have attended over the past fifteen years were heavily advertised, well-attended, and had a clear theme throughout. I would be negligent if I didn’t recognize this basis of comparison.

However, this is also the inaugural event for decade-themed conventions. 

They have some learning to do and should take a look at my suggestions at the end of this review. 

Now, to the convention:

The Pluses
Theme

• 80’s Theme convention sounded like a lot of fun. A great idea as I was sure that there would be man of my generation that would be interested.

Location

• The Anaheim Convention Center is probably the largest convention center in Orange County and has been a home to D23 and WonderCon for the past few years. They were no strangers to fandom and the location near Disneyland was also promising.

Celebrity List

• The biggest draw was the celebrity list which included Corey Feldman and Sean Astin from The Goonies; Loni Andersen and Howard Hessman from WKRP In Cincinnati, and Christopher Lloyd from the Back to the Future films and the classic TV show, Taxi.

Concerts

• Each evening there were several cover bands that would be performing. I was under the impression that this was going to be another major draw, but I knew that we would not be able to stay the whole night with the kids. No matter what critics say about 80’s music, it is almost always a lot of fun.

The Warning Signs:
Advertising:

• I only found out about this convention by accident: my wife was attending a work function in the Disneyland area that weekend and I wanted to double check to see if there would be any additional traffic concerns due to major events. This convention came up in my Google search of the area. Mind you, I did this search the Wednesday prior to the weekend. My wife was game to try this out, as were the kids, for the most part.

Tickets

• I was able to purchase three adult passes on the Thursday before the convention.Usually, tickets for popular conventions would be difficult to get so close to the first day, but there was no problem for me.

Schedule

• Website did not have a clear schedule. Conventions like to advertise not only talent and events that would be happening on any given day, but also the timeline for people to plan for. This site had no such schedule until the day of the convention.

Attending the Convention on Saturday
Saturday, Sept 28th was the first day of the convention, with a publicized open time of 10:00 am. We arrived closer to 11:30 am. There was another event at the adjoining complex which looked like a fighting league event. Definitely a different crowd than we were expecting.
Parking was not a problem. ‘Nuff said about that.
I joked that we would be 4 of the 7 total people there. It wasn't like that, for the most part.
No problem parking, but there were no signs where this particular event was happening. There was only a generic sign stating all events go to the left. I knew where to go because I had attended D23 and WonderCon before.
There was no line outside, and no waiting to get into the convention hall itself.
Basically, I didn’t need to by the passes ahead of time.
What was promising was that we heard 80’s music blaring from the convention hall and the first thing we saw when we entered was a stack of boomboxes and a large TDK logo. This was most impressive. Later, I realized this was the much vaulted “Boombox Museum” that was advertised on the website. I was slightly disappointed that this was what they considered a museum, but I have to admit
The house band appeared to be the popular 80’s cover band called The Flux Capacitors. This band was actually featured in the recent documentary about Back to the Future movies, so I was very pleased to see them there and they sounded very good. Please check out their website here.

Exhibitors
By my count, there were about twenty vendors, usually selling general collectibles with few aligned to the overall theme. There were also a couple of cosplay exhibitors and a few local fan groups.

The Cars
Most impressive was the collection of cars featuring about 5 DeLoreans, two set up as time machines. There were also a few tricked out pickups but I wasn’t sure what they were themed to.

Panels
Back of the exhibit hall was the stage for the scheduled panels.
One of the good things about these smaller conventions is that the panels are usually very informal and can often be responsive to the audience directly.
The panels I witnessed were not very interesting for me, though they did feature MTV announcers. The next panel was supposed to feature three members of 80’s British Bands as they discussed what was called the 2nd British Invasion. 2 of the 3 were present and the MC wasn’t aware of it. I wasn’t famliliari with either band or band members so I didn’t stay.
There were also special presentations scheduled at a couple of convention rooms, but at least one of them was cancelled. My wife found out that the B Boys panel was cancelled due to the low turnout.
That was very telling.

The Talent
Other than the music, it seemed that most of the fans there were interested in photo ops and/or autographs with the large list of planned talent. We were interested, but the cost for photo ops or autographs was right up there with San Diego Comic Con prices. Actually, they felt a little higher, so that was also the final disappointment.
So, we opted for a quick meal, then went to the local mall to watch movies instead. (My wife and daughter saw “Hustlers”, my son and I really enjoyed “Abominable”).

Overall
A great theme which attracted good talent and some interesting panels, if only they could get more people to show.

What I would Fix:
Advertising

• Prove to talent, exhibitors, and the fans that this is a serious event that warrants not just two full days, but also people’s hard earned money.
  

Planning

• Publish the Schedule online
• People like to have a schedule to plan their day.
  

Program

• Give after paid entry.
• Include a program guide, map, bios of the talent
• Include adverts of exhibitors and backgrounds of the bands

Merchandise

• Sell wristbands, bandannas, buttons, sweatbands, fanny packs, t shirts, etc.
• Logo items that are symbolic of the era = Brand It and Own It

]]>