Youmacon

I can't believe the amount of last minute information that was given to not only vendors, but attendees as well. NOTHING was ready in time for this con, not even the hotels. Attendees needed refunds for the last minute cancelled maid cafe/lost mail-in badges. I think the only reason Youmacon has such a large attendance is that it's the only large Detroit convention. The only other large con being Grand Rapids Comic-con and it's 3 hours away.

As for the vendor side of things: I ended up claiming a forfeited table after waiting for 5 hours outside the hall lmaaaooo. So I can't even tell you what most people went thru. I ended selling at around 4pm on Friday after setting up.

I don't know what it is about this con, but attendees go all out on buying ANYTHING they like. It was so busy all 3 days, with only a few moments of down-time. I ended up having to bring more stuff from my house after selling out of so many things on Saturday. I ended up making around 4k for the whole weekend.

Also all of the attendees were so kind even though they went through the most frustrating experience possible for a convention. So hat's off to them <3

Will Youmacon happen next year? Who knows. I can only hope as a local that it does and comes back with better organization skills.

I've done this con in both 2022 and 2023, and I did a lot better in 2023 than 2022 and noticed the attendees were a lot nicer than they used to be. I think some of it may have been attendees spending a lot because they see the 2023 con as their "last hoorah", so to speak, but also a lot of the con's problems spilled out of private channels and into the open making the attendees more concerned about how the artists were doing. There was also the fact that everything was in a single event center this year rather than split between Huntington Place and the RenCen and some events were cancelled at the last minute, which means that attendees were spending more time in exhibitors rather than commuting between buildings or going to other events. Either way, 2023's sales were actually the best I've ever made at any con and I'm very happy with how the weekend turned out for my bank account. Saturday was the best day for sales by far, but sales were strong on Friday and Sunday too with several people making huge purchases and also just a near-constant stream of purchases for both prints and for small items like buttons and pins. This was a huge difference from 2022 where I performed okay but not great with mostly print sales and a small amount of smaller item sales.

However, the con staff are extremely disorganized and it does hurt the vending experience. For one thing, applications didn't open until two months before the con when in the past they happened in March, which left a lot of artists scrambling to procure merchandise for the show upon receiving their acceptances a month or less before the first day of the con. For another thing, they didn't actually tell the venue that vendor/AA setup was happening on Thursday, and so exhibitors were sleeping in their cars and waiting for up to 7 hours in the line for the load-in docks. Also, as usual, there were no numbers attached to any of the tables, which meant that people set up in the wrong spots and it was also very hard to make sure that people could find your booth since there was no publicly shared artist alley floormap and there was literally zero indication of what number each row was. Staff were nice when I did see them around, but their presence was basically nonexistent past setup and they didn't actually enforce the 50/50 policy (as usual). The quality and diversity of the artist alley was great, but a lot of the artist booths there were proxies, which I guess makes sense for how little time the con gave smaller artists to actually get anything prepared for the con. There's also other issues with how the con is run overall, but this is just the stuff that was immediately noticeable to me.

Overall, I would do this con again as long as it continues to be a great moneymaker, but I'm not sure how much longer that trend will last. I at least hope that it'll either improve organizationally in the future or that a better-run anime con will overtake it as Michigan's biggest anime con in the future.

As you know for Youmacon, the organization isn't good but for my experience, everything went smoothly. The set up starts at 12pm but it got delayed 6 hours, so ppl can only set up at 6pm but for me, I have just arrived at 6pm so everything already finished setting up with tables.

The sales is amazing !!! Like I have been busy none stop and attandees are really kind to me.

Youmacon will be better if they organized abit better but it is a great profit con even you fly in.

Cons: I just have to warn others- NOTHING is on the official site, it is all on Facebook. It is the only way to communicate with the AA staff that I found effective, and the only way to know when apps and other deadlines are. This would be frustrating on its own, but while I didn't get the sense the staff didn't care like others did, it is definitely unorganized. Straight answers and directions are hard to come by, hours and info were wrong on the site, and emails are just not returned. I would have been completely lost (this was my first year) if not for some friends who were Youmacon veterans.

Pros: All that said- it was still one of my best cons of the year. Great variety of artists with lots of interest in prints and small merch alike. Traffic wasn't exactly constant, but when it was busy it was BUSY. Also- grocery shops within walking distance of nearby hotels are super handy to save on food. I'd also like to add that after their sister con MMX was canceled, I and a lot of other artists were given tables at this con (or offered a refund- whichever we preferred) which I thought was very generous of them. Application, set-up, and staff are an issue, but if you can weather all that, it is worth it!

Youmacon is the biggest and busiest anime convention in Michigan, so it is always easy to gain a nice profit. In the past, severe problems with the staff and organization have made me consider cutting it off my list despite consistently being my best con profit-wise each year, but this year saw a lot of improvements.

The good:

The staff was much more friendly this year than in the past (when, as other reviewers have noted, they would literally yell at people). It's a huge AA so they don't really stop by and give you any personal attention, but I am completely fine with that.

The venue is very clean and spacious, but be sure to bring your own snacks and water because the prices of food there are among the most ridiculous I have seen.

Compared to other cons, it seems like many attendees treat this as THE convention of the year and are very willing to spend money on things they like. Make sure your display has good visibility from afar too, because the AA area is huge and there is a ton of visual competition.

The bad:

-Communication is always just about non-existent between you and the staff before the event. They still didn't reply to any emails I sent asking for the hours, loading and setup information etc,, but at least it was posted on their AA Facebook group this time. They also sent out a scary email before the convention saying that if you didn't reply within 24 hours you would lose your spot, which was terrifying and seemingly came out of nowhere. Later they said this was a mistake, but it was very jarring nonetheless.

-The hours listed in the program and on their Facebook were wrong and said it was opening a full hour earlier than it actually did. This is pretty annoying as an extra hour in the morning before such a huge day makes a difference.

-Although it seems steep at $125, the size of the convention justifies the price for your table. HOWEVER, this does NOT include a helper badge, and you also can not purchase a helper badge at the same time you buy your table. They also do not offer a special rate for a helper badge- it is still the full price for the convention, $75. They tell you to purchase it onsite when you get there, but they ONLY accept cash and do not offer a receipt. This is a big deal for people who pay taxes since no proof= can't claim it. Parking is also $10 per day at the venue. When you add all of these up the overall cost is getting pretty steep.

Although there is still room for improvement, the experience was much smoother this year than in the past. Even with all of the hiccups and annoyances, it's still Youmacon, and no other conventions in Michigan rival can rival it.

This is the biggest con in Michigan, so I was surprised how disorganized and unprofessional the AA experience was.

If you ever have a question or need clarification on anything, don't expect to get it from any staff members. The website is never updated with useful things like a map showing where the artist/dealer room is or where to load and unload. I had to repeatedly sift through Facebook comments to piece together what was supposed to happen (yes, comments by attendees, not even official posts).

When you arrive, expect to be scowled at and looked down upon, the staff didn't even feign friendliness and made it clear that you are nothing but an annoyance. The reviewer who mentioned a staff member screaming at attendees to "go back to Kindergarten" if they couldn't form a clean line was not exaggerating at all. I couldn't believe she thought it was okay to speak (or rather shout) at people like that.

The application process can also be stressful- I was on the wait list one year, and they notified the day before the convention that I was accepted. Needless to say, that year I did not attend, because one day is not enough notice. Last year there were empty tables peppered throughout the AA, while several artists I know were turned down without explanation and told it was full.

The only reason I will do Youmacon again is because the large attendance is enough to overcome the horrific organization and rude staff members.

I love the location, crowds, and setup for the vendor portion of the hall. The artist alley is ALWAYS a mess. Just always. Its impossible to get a hold of the staff before the con if you have questions and at the con they're rude and unhelpful. The vendor hall staff are pretty great so if you want to go to the vendor side, its pricey but its WAY nicer overall.

Been several times, always awful. Bad alley placement. The staff is awful, and clear they don't care about the alley. The attendees are younger and more obnoxious and rude. Decent profit but not worth this hot mess. Trying an alternative con around the same time for 2016.

This was my second year attending Youma as an AA seller. The first year was really rough set-up wise due to a lot of miscommunication, luckily they took the feedback to heart and fixed a lot of issues for 2015. The traffic is always really odd, it felt really slow but we always end up selling enough for it to make it to second place in my highest selling cons both times.

The staff for my second year were amazing! I feel like they really tried to help everyone to the best of their ability. The layout was LIGHTYEARS better this year as well. Attendance is always very high as well - again an odd crowd though since there are some younger kids with no budget.

Had a great time at Youmacon, came away with a good profit, though not through the roof. Staff, though, was rude. Especially the lady at the door to the Dealer's Hall screaming things like, "If you don't know how to make a single file line go back to Kindergarten." I'd go again because, in spite of the staff, it was a good con.