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May 27, 2012

I'm a VIP: Get me out of here - Comic-Con Report

by John Scott Lewinski, posted Jul 23rd 2009 6:26PM

It's a fine line between a mob and a line at Comic-Con.I'm writing this from a line at Comic-Con International. In fact, for the next four days, I'll do little else except stand in line at Comic-Con.

If you're a panel organizer who wants press coverage at Comic-Con International, form a VIP or press line. I realize the odds that anyone actually organizing panels at the convention is reading this right now are low, but I'll record this for future generations -- like a sweaty time capsule.

Every year, the schedule of events for fans and press gets more and more packed. From curtain up until close, something worth covering is going on. Press scrambles from event to event to make sure readers unable to attend keep up on the news.

As it is, we barely make it from door to door in time to get the articles done. If we have to wait in line, burning an extra half-hour standing around, we invariably miss out on covering something, somewhere.

But, a simple press line allowing us working slobs to show up right on time for lift-off for each panel lets us jump from room to room -- piling up the news for a grateful international reading public.

And, let's never call it a VIP line. I'm not a snob. I'm not better than the fans waiting alongside me. I just got a job to do.

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Will Harris

I attended the NYCC as a member of the press, and I, too, was extremely disappointed by how they didn't offer up much in the way of benefits to BEING a member of the press. If that sounds like they owe me something...well, so be it. The organizers know that newsworthy material is being premiered at their event, so I feel like they should set things up so that the people who are there to cover it for the media are in a position to be able to do so. I don't think they should do this at the expense of the fans, however, so if that means they need to cut back on the number of press folks allowed in, then I'm fine with that...even if I don't end up being one of those folks. But with NYCC, I only ended up able to cover a third of what I wanted because I couldn't make it from one panel to the next in a timely fashion.

July 23 2009 at 11:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rain

I felt the same way when I covered it a few years ago and didn't manage to make it into any of the big name panels.

But the thing is, it's not that hard to get press passes to the con, so it's likely the "press line" would end up being almost as long as the line for the public for a lot of those panels. Also? It's not like events in the huge rooms AREN'T going to get covered by the masses inside. You know they've all got blogs of their own.

While annoying, I kind of appreciate the democratic approach they've taken to most of the con--and there are plenty of press-only events to keep the press passers busy.

July 23 2009 at 7:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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