RI Comic Con 2015 Recap: “Bigger and Better Than Ever”
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
RI Comic Con 2015 drew record crowds to the Rhode Island Convention and Dunkin’ Donuts Centers this weekend, and the Convention Center Executive Director said next year could be “even bigger and better.”
“We really adjusted to mistakes made last year, we knew we had to do a better job,” said Larry Lepore, on reacting to the 2014 Con which saw hundreds of ticket holders turned away for overcrowding. “And we did a great job this year.”
SLIDES: See Pics BELOW
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Right now, on our Ticketmaster we’re seeing 54,000 [tickests] for this weekend -- that's not the vendors and artists. There were probably 1500-2000 vendors, so that number could be closer to 60,000 as to who was there in total," said Lepore, noting that the weekend was a record for the facilities.
Lepore noted the event didn’t max out, even still.
“We did not max out on Friday night, because people were still working — we did on Saturday though,” said Lepore. “Nothing come close to these numbers for [Con] number four. To think it started with 8,000 the first year.”
Big Wins?
Lepore said one of the keys the success of the 2015 Con was scanning passes this year.
“They had realtime numbers to know who was going in and out,” said Lepore of public safety monitoring. “But [Comic Cons] are not like boat shows, people want to stick around for the whole day.’
Lepore said that they also lucked out with the outdoor lines this year, for people waiting to get it in.
“Luckily the weather was warm. If were cold, people might not have been so happy to be waiting outside,” said Lepore. “I saw some rumblings early on over social media about the line size, and then saw people post things like,’Have you been to a Con before? It’s like this everywhere.’ And it is, but we can always do better. And we did throughout the day."
Lepore said they might try to wind the lines next year, like a bank.
“Next year, we might think of doing a tent out back, that would give us an additional 30,000 square feet,” said Lepore. “And we might see about starting on Thursday night. So we’ll see!”
Related Slideshow: Comic Con 2015
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