Silicon Valley Comic Con/My Yays and Nays

Here is my final post about Silicon Valley Comic Con 2016. Like with any convention, there were things I liked about it and things I didn't. Let's break it down, shall we?

Yays:

Emphasis on Cosplay. Not only were there multiple panels regarding cosplay (nine, that had cosplay related themes), they had a dedicated area just for cosplayers on the convention floor (it was even marked on the map). Cosplay is not consent signs were very present all around the convention, as well as the program and on their website. I don't cosplay, but I find it fascinating and have a deep respect for people that do, so I thought it was great that a convention was so supportive of it. 

Location. Downtown San Jose is beautiful. It looks like its going through some kind of revamp, like most downtowns do (I know my city's downtown has been going through one for years lol), so there was a lot of vacant buildings. But they had the most beautiful murals on their walls, and there were some good restaurants over there.

Its Different....ish. I liked that they tried so hard to incorporate the technological surroundings of Silicon Valley into this convention to make it more than just another comic/pop culture con. There were more technology exhibits there than I've ever seen at another convention, so that was neat. And the panels were very good for this being a first year con.

Nays (and Mehs):

You have to pay for seating and line access.  This is a money grab to me, and I've only been to one other convention like it (Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim). Its not enough that you're paying to get into the convention, but you have to pay for good seating in panels and spots in line for photo ops, not to mention how expensive all the autograph and photo ops were.VIP access was horribly annoying to those that couldn't afford it. What that was, is people could get an upgraded pass for a more expensive price that came with perks like being able to get into panels or photo ops first. The rooms were cleared after every panel so VIP people could have a crack at the best seats for the next panel, so you can't camp out like at WonderCon or SDCC. I was in some lines that held us up almost minutes before the panel started in order to accommodate any last minute VIPers that might want to get into the panel. I also learned from one couple in a panel that they had pooled their money together with their friends so that they could get the VIP passes, then save seats for the friends that had helped them obtain them. They take turn doing this at this type of convention. Seems like cheating to me, but what can you do when people pay for premium access? As press, I could have bypassed some of that, but my husband had a general admission pass, so I chose to stay in line with him. I also found that my press pass was more easily honored at the smaller panels than the larger ones. I'm not sure if this had to do with the equipment I had (or didn't, as the case was) or what, but it was a little weird.

The RFID bracelets. In an effort to set themselves apart from other conventions by being more tech savvy, SVCC had no badges (unless you had a press pass or a VIP badge). Everyone in attendance had an RFID bracelet. They were color coded depending on what you were to the convention or how long your pass was good for. The idea was neat, you were just supposed to tap in and tap out of the main hall. It was frustrating though because the bracelets were small and the area that you were supposed to tap on the pole was also small, so people kept missing it and had to keep hitting their wrists up against the poles and it could really hold things up at heavily trafficked times of day. Plus, the novelty of a badge is fun, and the bracelet took it away. That's just my personal opinion though, maybe if the bracelets were a little bigger, they might have been better. 

The lack of line control. Oh my. The lines for panels were a mess. They just went all over the hallways, and the front of the line would suddenly become the end of it and vice versa. There was a lack of communication between the volunteers and it showed. And they kind of just herded us all together like cattle, there weren't any discernible lines at certain points, which again was frustrating because you could be standing somewhere for 20 minutes, then have someone stroll up 5 minutes till, and get a better spot than you, because the volunteers were concerned about filling the gaps in their lines. More signs and better lines foe next year please. 

Schedule. The online schedule, the app schedule and the program schedule didn't match. At all. And that makes it difficult to plan your day when nothing is giving you the correct information. I hope next year everything can become more streamlined.

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Overall:
I think the convention was pretty good for a first time convention. I hated having to clear the room after each panel, because if you wanted a chance at a good seat at the next panel, you had to leave early. So you either missed out on the ending of a panel you wanted to see, or you sacrificed seats to another panel you really wanted to see. (Plus it just looks rude to me to get up and leave in the middle of someone's panel.) The convention was small enough though that I got the opportunity to see some big names that I probably wouldn't get to see at a place like SDCC though, so that was a huge bonus for me. Plus, I really enjoyed being able to attend as press, and I hope that SVCC will have me back next year :)

Would you be interested in attending Silicon Valley Comic Con next year? Let me know below! And you can check out my daily breakdown of SVCC here, here and here.

Silicon Valley Comic Con/Sunday

Sunday was the last day of SVCC, and it was the first day that I was able to hit the floor! I always like to see what's available, but this floor fell a little flat to me. I did find a few artists and things that I loved, so there's no hate there, but something that was a glaring misstep for me was the notable absence of major comic book publishers. Like if you attend WonderCon or SDCC, you see the tables for IDW and Skybound and places like that, and there was none of that at SVCC. And my favorite clothing companies weren't there either (Her Universe and We Love Fine). To me those are all convention staples, and they were sorely missed. 

There were pluses though, like how cosplayers got a dedicated alley of their own (much like artist's alley), it was even marked on the map so you could find them easily. And they had the Stan Lee Museum and the Star Wars Rancho Obi-Wan Museum, so that was fun.

I liked the art at Tinysnails a lot. I wanted to buy everything at her booth! She had so many cute prints.

Steph Lew was another one of my favorite. Her booth was so busy, almost everything was sold old. I did manage to snag a cute Ursula postcard though. 

I also got an adorable R2D2 watercolor by Levi Craig and a super cute R2D2 Jesus candle (I don't know how else to describe it)by JesseJFR.

Oh! And we purchased an ocarina for our son from STL Ocarina. The people at the booth were the nicest! They really explained all the different types of ocarinas that they had, and you could tell that they love the products they sell. 

During our booth hopping adventures, we got our picture taken with Peter Mayhew. That was pretty cool! He has wild hair, just like Chewbacca lol. 

After hitting up the booths, we went down the cosplayer alley. I only took pictures of a few of the girls that were there, but would end up seeing all of them later at a panel. 

Miss Kit Quinn

Alexandria the Red

Jacqueline Goehner

Two out of the three girls I got to meet and take pictures of were very sweet, although I have to say that Alexandria was by far the nicest! My husband was my mouthpiece throughout the weekend, and he basically fronted me out and said that I was shy about talking to people, and she was really kind and understanding about the whole thing. And let me just say, the creep factor was high around Jacqueline. The guys were trying really hard to touch her and to get her to come out from behind the table, and it was just wrong on so many levels. 

After the floor, we went to some panels. Since it was the last day, things wrapped up early, which I appreciated since I wasn't feeling so great. The first panel we went to was with Studio C and Jon Heder. Studio C calls themselves the clean Saturday Night Live, and its something you can get behind. They're all very funny, and actually employed by BYU to create these videos. Jon Heder was great as a moderator, still very funny and a touch Napoleon Dynamite-esque. And if you're thinking you've never heard of Studio C, if you've seen the Scott Sterling soccer video on You Tube, then you've heard of Studio C! That's their video, and its the one that made them famous.

Some of the Studio C players with Jon Heder.

Being an angel.

We rushed over to the stars of cosplay- the ladies panel right after, and it was a packed house. The day before was the panel where they'd focused on the men of cosplay, and I was sorry I missed it. I would've loved to have heard how they answered some of the questions that the ladies got. But the panel was very interesting, and basically all the girls said that you should just cosplay for yourself, and not listen to the haters, Body positivity was another big theme that they all pushed, so it was really disheartening to me when they opened it up to audience questions and the first one they got was from a women who basically said that, they need to tone down the sexiness for the little girls that look up to them. I have issues with that because they questioner put a parenting spin on it, like as a parent how do you explain it to your child. And the girls were like, we cover as much as a bikini at the beach does, so whats the problem?  And the questioner got really indigent. To me, as a parent, I say this- you don't let your little girl wear what the women wear, you tailor it to your child's age. Like I take my children to conventions sometimes. My daughter is six and my son is ten. If my daughter is interested in a girl's costume, I would help her find one that's appropriate for her age, and if my son is interested in what's being displayed by that costume, well, its time to have that talk lol. But my point is, to me that questioner asked that question to start a fight, like she didn't listen to anything that had been said during the whole panel, and that sucked. 

The final panel of the day (and weekend) was the closing address with Steve Wozniack and Stan Lee. Stan Lee is hilarious, but he didn't stay on stage too long, so they had Jon Heder come and be his "Stan"in. They opened up to audience questions and you could tell that most people had questions for Stan Lee, but they tried to ask them anyway, and Jon answered them as best he could as Stan. 

After that, we hit up Pizza My Heart one more time, then started our four hour drive home. It was then, first in the car (and in my purse- destroyed everything), then on the side of the highway, that I truly learned my stomach flu status. So not fun. Super sorry to anyone that might have seen that Exorcist act on Sunday night. 

Make sure to read Friday and Saturday's coverage, and I'll have one more post up soon talking about a few of the things I liked and didn't overall about the convention. Thanks for reading!

Silicon Valley Comic Con/Saturday

Saturday was the first full day of the convention and I woke up feeling like death. I largely blamed it on the crappy food from the night before, but as the weekend progressed, it looked more like the stomach flu. Sorry to anyone I came in contact with, I honestly just thought it was a mild case of food poisoning!

Anyway, my husband and I started our day at Psycho Donuts, which was super close to our hotel. It was delicious! It had all the fancy donuts you only see on Instagram in there, and I was excited. I got the Cereal Killer, while my husband got the Headhunter and a Sticky Monkey (for later).

Convention-wise, we started our day with a panel by Loot Crate and QMX. They went into detail about how they make the figures that go into Loot Crates, paying special attention to that Deadpool figure that was in February's Crate because.....they gave everyone that attended the panel one! I was pretty excited, because that figure is so cute. But it was very interesting to hear the process of making the figures, and just making Loot Crates in general. It was there that they also announced Loot Crate DX, a higher priced box offering more high end or more detailed items. They refused to give a price point at the panel, but its since been revealed that they will be $50 (monthly plan), with small price breaks for those who purchase a multi-month subscription. 

The Loot Crate panelists.

After that, we went upstairs to the main hall and caught the opening speech by Steve Wozniack and his business partner Paul White. It was very good, and they announced that there will be a sister convention in Tokyo, they even brought in a Japanese senator to help make the announcement. Now I would love to attend that one! I mean, I think any comic convention in Japan would be great, but pop culture and technology there?! Japan houses some of the biggest entertainment brands in the world, plus all the anime and fashion. Madame Tussaud's also unveiled their wax figure of Steve Wozniack during this time. It looked so real!! Its going to be housed in their San Francisco museum, and they had it on the convention floor all weekend for people to take pictures with. (All my pictures from the opening address have a weird white light, so no pictures of that- bummer).

The panel with Jeremy Renner was next. It was in the same hall as Steve Wozniack, so we just moved up in seats and were going to wait for it to start (like you do at SDCC). But they cleared the room, so only VIPs could sit first and everyone else had to get in this huge line. I will talk about VIPs and the lines in general in my wrap up- but it was a pain. Back to the panel though: It was a spotlight panel, much like William Shatner's, so he was up on stage alone taking questions from the audience. He got started right away, no opening monologue or story. Some of the questions he got were just.....wow. I get that people are excited to talk to their idols, but you expect those feelings, and prepare for them. Also, and this is just good for panels in general, have a backup question prepared in case someone in front of you asks your question. That way you're not stuck asking a "what's your favorite?" or "who would you rather be?" questions that everyone groans at and the celebrity has probably heard a million times. Overall, he was very gracious and funny, but at times it did seem like he was uncomfortable answering the questions. Some people read it as arrogance, but I think it was just because people have an overly high expectation of what celebrities are supposed to provide them. The best question came from a young boy though, who asked that in the first Avengers movie, Hawkeye was in love with Black Widow, but in Age of Ultron he had a wife a kids. He said that it was confusing for young viewers and asked why they did that lol. Jeremy Renner was just like, "its confusing to me too."

Jeremy Renner

After Jeremy Renner was done, we stood in line to get right back into the very room we'd just exited to see Nathan Fillion. Nathan Fillion never disappoints- hes so funny and he to get everyone going he opened with a little story. He got just as equally bizarre questions as Jeremy Renner did (he even got a marriage propsal!), which is funny because when you look at them celebrity wise, people might classify Renner as the bigger star, even though Nathan has been doing it much longer. 

Nathan Fillion

After Nathan Fillion, we took a short lunch break and ate some over priced convention food, then came back in to check out the Founder Fireside with Steve Wozniack and Palmer Luckey (the found of Oculus). It was interesting, but a little over my head, so I was very ready to skip out early on that and head downstairs to Tim and Blur's Tips on Winning the Deadpool panel instead. This was the first panel that my press pass was acknowledged at and actively used in, and I am grateful because I probably wouldn't have gotten a seat in it otherwise. They talked about what it was like making the movie, and pretty much how they got to do everything they wanted with it. They wouldn't say who is playing Cable (my husband asked lol), but Tim Miller said that everyone he wants casted gets cast, so hopefully he has someone really awesome chosen for Cable (oh yeah, that's a spoiler for anyone that hasn't seen Deadpool yet, sorry!!). 

Tim Miller and Friends.

Our last panel of Saturday was a little disappointing. We went to the I am Not a Serial Killer panel and screening. When I think of a screening, I think of seeing the whole movie or a whole teevee show episode. But in this panel, they only showed a few clips from the movie, so to me it wasn't much of screening. Also, Christopher Lloyd was supposed to be one of the panelists, since hes in the movie, but he showed up during the last ten minutes, spoke for about five, then just took off. Now, there were a lot of Back to the Future things going on that weekend, so maybe he was just too booked up, but to me, it looked rude to just step in and out like that. The author of the book on which the movie is based and the director of the movie were the other two panelists, and they were nice guys.

Our night ended with pizza at Pizza My Heart, which was delicious. I wish we would have eaten there the first night we got into town. Or at least somewhere in that area, there were so many food choices! 

Stay tuned for Sunday, and don't forget to check out Friday's coverage if you haven't already!

Silicon Valley Comic Con/Friday

This past weekend (March 18-20, 2016) was the first ever Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose, California, put together by Steve Wozniack (The Woz) and friends.

The idea was an intriguing one: its a comic con, but infused with today's top technological and scientific minds. It sounded amazing, and I was so excited to attend this convention as press (my first one!!). I'll be writing about the convention in three parts, since there was a lot to digest. This is part one, Friday, the first day of the event.

Due to traffic and some other things (San Jose is about four hours from my hometown), my husband and I missed the ribbon cutting ceremony and the opening address. The con was only open for a few hours that day as it was supposed to be a preview night of sorts. We made it just in time to catch An Evening with William Shatner, the big billed panel for the day. It was interesting, and William Shatner likes to ramble on about whatever, and not really answer fan questions when asked. 

After leaving the main hall, we went downstairs to the little panel rooms and caught Trailer Park 2.0 with Harkonnen Knife Fight where they basically played trailers of movies coming out and then talked about them. I wanted to like the panel, but just couldn't, because the presenters (for the most part), were so dry. Supposedly they were a last minute fill in for whoever was slated to do it, so they were unprepared, but you don't really have to prepare to talk about your feelings towards movie trailers. And this is going to sound sexist (I apologize), but the males on the panel were much more entertaining than the females. The girls didn't seem to have opinions about anything except they "can't even" or its "not their" fill-in-character-name-here. The panel really left me wondering if all the other panels were going to  be like that, it didn't set a good tone for me. 

That was the last thing we did at the convention for Friday, after that we ate at this place called M Asian Fusion Restaurant because we hadn't acquainted ourselves with downtown San Jose and couldn't find anything else that was open (we totally should have gone a few blocks in the other direction, there was tons of stuff on the other side). I wouldn't recommend this place at all. The service was super slow (it wasn't that busy) and the food wasn't very good. In fact, I felt very sick after eating there and it kinda ruined my weekend.

Inside the restaurant:

I thought this statue looked spermy. 

So that's Friday in a nutshell. Stay tuned for Saturday! And did any of you attend SVCC? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.