I am back from my San Diego vacation! Prior to that, I attended the third c2e2 at Chicago's McCormick Place. It was a blast! I definitely had a little pep in my step because I was well into my Kickstarter campaign for Heart. It was also the debut of Playing with the Alphabet, my flashcards about games and activities to do when you are little.
We started out the day pretty earlier and it gave us time to walk around and scope out the lay out of the show. As the show opened, Joe Foo and Mike Roll were all set up and the self proclaimed Almost Asian Tour was ready to roll!
Friday was slower than previous years but the traffic came mid afternoon. I was doing my best to promote Heart and luckily Nicole was there to pick up my slack. She was such a huge trooper and I really couldn't have done it without her.
Saturday was the heavy traffic day. I saw a lot of regulars and met a lot of new people also. Every book, sketch, or card set sold, I made sure to include the Heart promo card. Also a lot of family and friends came out on Saturday to support me and that is always such a warm welcome. A big shout out to Rene and Dave of Instant Press Comics and Victor from Vantage In:House who were kind enough to have some of those promo cards at their tables. When I had caught up with my sketch work Nic and I would frequent Artist Alley and scope out some of the more interesting tables. I also made a point to visit some creative colleagues that I am continuing to grow friendships with.
Afterwards Nic and I treated my table mates to a really late dinner at Jerry's. We waited a LONG time for our food but it made for good conversation and some hilarious stories by the great Joe Foo. Afterwards we hit up some even later karaoke at this speakeasy club called Brando's. Joe got me to sing Tenacious D's Wonderboy and we went boy band and belted 98 Degrees' Tell Me Why to a bachelorette party. It was insanely fun and one of the best nights I've had in a long while.
Sunday was kid's day. Not much of a big crowd than the last two days. It made sense, but there were definitely a lot more families in attendance. It was also a big day as the Heart cards and word of mouth kicked the campaign into over drive. We made a big jump in those two days and we broke 2.5k! I also did an interview with the amazing Lora Innes for her Paper Wings Podcast show which she co-hosts with the also amazing Chris Oatley. It was definitely one of the highlights of the show for me and really pumped me up to finish Sunday strong.
And I felt like I did. By the end of the week I had mad a 50% jump in my goal and by Tuesday night I had achieved it!
This year's c2e2 was definitely an education in networking. Not only did I become more comfortable speaking to strangers and pitching my story, I grew confident and positive in my way of thinking. After Saturday it wasn't I MIGHT make my goal it was more like I WILL make my goal. When that was instilled, that passion for the project started to come out more when I was speaking. It definitely shows in the art but it started to show in my speech. I was more expressive and I engaged in conversation more, not only with people stopping at the table but with my convention friends as well. The experience is something I will carry with me forever. Not because I got people to donate to my book but because the passion for wanting to be in this industry burned brighter than ever. There's no reason it should go out.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment