Sci Fi Expo 2014

The morning of Sci Fi Expo was the morning SDCC tickets went on sale for pre-registration.   Instead of waiting in line for 3 hours at the Irving Convention Center, I spent 3 hours on line trying to get tickets…successfully, I might add.

The good part about coming fashionably late, I avoided the snaking lines to get in.  I also avoided standing in line in a cold parking garage.   The not so good part, I got a late start on the autograph collecting.

 The late start was even later as my bar code was wrong.  When they scanned the slip of paper with my admission ticket it flashed as already used.  I was redirected to anther line and after 20 minutes got everything straighten out.  An aside, the person dealing with my bar code was really good and knew what to do. She figured out the issue and got me in.  

The Sci Fi Expo is a victim of its own success. The crowds are quite large and this does cause very long lines, congestion in the hallways, and escalator stoppages. The success also brings in hard to get ‘big name’ guests which in turn bring in larger crowds.

I think I spent more time in lines at this show than any of the others.  One reason was several popular celebs were very slow in working through the lines. This is a tremendous gift to the fans from the celeb.  This is a burden to some as you can’t get everything done you might want.  In fact, I needed to come back for a second day and spent about 5 hours getting 3 autographs.

The largest issue, which won’t be fixed until they can change venues, is the Convention Center itself.  While the Irving Convention Center has a lots of floor space; it’s divided among 4 floors.  This creates lots of vertical traffic and pressure and lots of condemnation from the fans. With the limits of the venue, the show has adapted and corrected many issues. 

The lineup of guests was great, including 2 people from Dr Who, an Academy Award winner, and several leads from current popular networks shows.  Many of the celebs allowed ‘table photos’ which is a more economical way for many fans to get a snap shot with the guests.  The prices for autograph were reasonable and affordable.

I had great time even though I needed to travel back for a second day.  I saw many of my fellow collectors which always I nice break in the monotony of standing in line. And the promoters of the show created a huge buzz for their May show when they announced Shatner, Lee and Fillion.  These things make it hard to think of missing their next event.

AH