Anime Event Feedback Question

[Vlad G Pohnert]

Just a topic here related to anime Conventions:

Animethon, the Anime "festival" here in my City is on it's 11th year. Last Year I ran the AMV contest as with this year. This small festival has grown from all anime viewing rooms to offering pretty much everything a con does minus the guests. The big issue is that up to know the event has been free! But with last year 2500-3000 people attending, the costs are getting to high to keep it free and there is discussion of charging something like a $5.00 cover charge to the entire event, or just the main events room, and even talk about doing it for events themselves (A bad itdea in my opinion i.e. direct charging to get into the AMV contest!)... The event basically features: Drealer room, panels, AMV contest, Cosplay, video rooms, Artist Alley, Display room....

So what do people here think, I'm looking for some feedback to take to the individuals here

Vlad

[dokool]

One think you could do is a donation system: keep it free for those who don't want to pay, but those who donate get perks like preferred seating at events and perhaps a small discount/coupon/whatever for the dealers room.

-DOKool

[gundamzuki]

I think the "donations with perks Idea is best. that way, attendees can experience everything, but there are still incentives to donate. And, yeah, charging for each individual event is a really BAD idea. Big turn off for wanting to attend.

[MadNavigator]

An extra few dollars donation to get you the better seats at the AMV contest is one good way. It makes me think of Greyhound Canada's thing where you pay an extra optional charge to have a reserved seat on the bus.

The extra donation could either get you festival seating in the better section...or if you can work it out, get reserved seating down to a specific seat. But the latter will really take some work. Take it from a guy who's been in the business. ^_~