Conventions After COVID: What Could Happen?

 2020 is not the best year for comic conventions. 

 

Various events have been cancelled and postponed, preventing many guests, attendees, artists, and vendors from conducting business, participating in fun activities, watching panels and walking around in cosplay. As a frequent convention attendee, I find myself in a dull position for months with no way to show off my cosplay, walk around the massive dealers hall, and (most importantly) reuniting with friends. Sure, there are alternatives in the form of virtual conventions, but they don't provide the same feelings of being there in person. While I am saddened by the lack of physical entertainment expos this year, there are some positive points to take away:  

 

1) I save money for merchandise, art, and hotel lodging

2) I have more than enough time to plan, produce and improve cosplay projects

3) I'm not going to places where contagious diseases besides con plague and BO are on the rise

 

While amusement parks and schools are trying to restructure their locations to better fit in with the safety guidelines, what does that mean for conventions moving forward? That's what I'm going to discuss with you today.

 

To reiterate, amusement parks have been slowly opening up to the public with reduced hours, signs and rules to reinforce social distancing, wearing face masks/coverings, and finding the nearest hand sanitizer stations. As far as I know, Universal Studios and Disney parks have been doing well maintaining their new guidelines. Let's say that year from now, we have a vaccine and more public places and events are slowly reopening. Would that mean that people can now travel and enjoy conventions like they used to? The answer depends on how people will react the changes. There's no update or announcements on how conventions will operate in a post-COVID United States, but I have some ideas that help visualize what they might look like. 

 

Longer Lines and Wait-Times

Line-Con, am I right? People love 'em, people hate 'em. It's very possible that many conventions will have a limit to the amount of people who can enter panels, video game rooms, dealers hall, and cosplay group meet ups. This means staff members have to not only maintain lines, but also check for temperatures, enforce face masks and hand sanitizers, and authorize guests to enter. Similar to convention raves and a previous Godzilla Fest, people can't simply just waltz inside. 

Another issue that comes to mind is if the organizers enforce a person limit and a time limit. This might irritate a lot of con-goers as they have to play the long waiting game by waiting outside until guests inside are done and have to plan accordingly if they want to make the most of their time at the convention. I'm certain a lot of people would be frustrated having to wait in separate lines if they have to travel frequently from hotel to dealers hall to panels and back. Lines are a bit of a trial if not a nightmare for con-goers, especially for elevators at hotels. 

Unless there is a vaccine that miraculously rids COVID altogether and allows conventions and gathering to return to normal, I'd expect to be see longer wait times and lines at every convention. 

 

People Limit

I experienced this at Godzilla Fest. It was a small convention that had narrow hallways and a small dealer's hall. In order to prevent overcrowding, the staff tried out a couple of experiments. The two hours of the day were dedicated to providing guests with tickets and they call out the numbers to allow people entrance to the dealers hall. When this proved ineffective due to people losing their tickets or not being in the area when the staff announced their numbers, they end up letting 20-30 people in after 5-10 minutes of waiting time or when they saw a sufficient amount of people exit the dealers hall. I'm not sure if they kept up with that new rule as I didn't see any lines form at the end of the day. 

Thinking back, there were issues with enforcing a person limit due to the small hallways and how long the line snaked around the hotel and outside. But how does it translate to bigger conventions like C2E2, Wizard World, and Anime Central? Chances are that they will have better line management and more room to allow more people to enter, but the long line issue lingers behind. There's also the issue of people in large groups being unable to be together inside the game room or the panels only allow half of the room to be filled. 

I can see a person limit at conventions as a vital way to enforce social distancing.

Hotel Lodging

It goes without saying that conventions and hotel go hand in hand. Many attendees, local and out of state, eat and stay at these hotels. If one is not careful, they can accidentally spread COVID throughout the entire area. Every hotel on the convention block holds their own events and activities that may or may not be related to cons, but the issue still remains. 

Since hotel blocks are opening up for 2021 conventions, are hotels proposing a limit to the amount of guests who can reserve a room? A part of me thinks that hotels wouldn't do that because they need the business from prospective guests. At the same time, however, it would be better to be safe and reduce number of potential COVID cases down the line at the cost of foot traffic. 

 

Guest Interactions

Some conventions give attendees the ability to interact with special guests. Mostly they take pictures with each other at their photo-ops or the shake hands at their meet and greet. I'm not interested in meeting guests at conventions but they do motivate other attendees to go to conventions. Both guests and attendees have to travel to other states through various forms of transportation. The worst case scenario is that both guests and attendees contract COVID and ends up spreading it inside and outside the convention center.

This goes for a majority of attendees, but I'm pretty sure guest handlers and staff will enforce social distancing, hand sanitizers, and temperature guns for future interactions. 

Vendors and Artists

I'm trying to imagine how many times vendors and artists have to clean their merchandise after people have visited their booths. All I can see is a lot of wipes, bottles, and paper towels in the garbage cans. When it comes to props, posters, comics, and toys, a lot of people are going to play around with them before purchasing. Vendors have to keep track on what was touched and where people place their merchandise. As long as they both attendees and vendors have bags to hold their items, they it shouldn't pose any issues in the future. 

 

 

On a lighter note, I'm excited to return to conventions next year. I saved enough money for lodging, food, and merchandise. Also, I have plenty of cosplay plans to work on and present to my friends. If anything, COVID allowed me to take a break from conventions since I was starting to get a little burned out from the conventions I traveled to last year (i.e. Uchi-Con, C2E2, Anime Milwaukee, Star Wars Celebration, Anime Central, Godzilla Fest, and Wizard World Chicago). 

I'm uncertain with how conventions will operate after 2020, but as long as I can reunite with my friends, cosplay, and enjoy walking around the dealers hall, panels, and video game rooms, then it's worth waiting a few months to be safe before I set foot on the next adventure.