A Survey, of sorts

[sraun]

For reasons inspired (very tangentially) by my last post, I have a question about convention huckster/dealer rooms - badged or not badged?

In the last ten years, I've been to one con that consistently badges, and all the other cons I've been to do not. So, I want to accumulate some data. Please give me the following data:

Con Name
Con Type/Description - examples include (but are not limited to!) SF/F, Anime, Gaming, media, fan-run, commercial
Approximate Attendance
Badged or Not Badged

I already have:

Minicon, SF/F, fan-run, ~600, Not Badged
Marscon, SF/F, gaming, media? fan-run, ~800, Not Badged
Convergence, media, SF/F, fan-run, ~2500, Badged

Any other information I have is over three years old, and I want current information.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

wiscon, fanrun, 1000 on the nose, not badged.

i don't believe icon or demicon badge their dealers rooms (or art show), but i can't swear to it.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

All the anime cons I've been to in the last two years have required badges to get into the dealers rooms (also supposedly to limit shoplifting). I suspect it has something to do with the age range compared to sci-fi cons.
Naka-Kon - just under 3,000 (2007 and 2008)
Anime Detour - around 3,000 (2007)
Anime Centeral - 15,000 (2007)
Anime Iowa - around 3,000 (2007)
Anime St. Louis - around 1,500 (2008)

Also, DragonCon (huge) requires badges for the dealers room (and checks).

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

DucKon ~850, fan run, badged
Windycon ?, fan run, badged
Capricon, ?, fan run, badged

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Windycon, 1300
Capricon, 1000

Along with Duck, all in the Chicago area, all general cons.

[fsf-rapier.livejournal.com]

ValleyCon: Fargo, North Dakota in October. SF/F, Fan run. Badged.

ConStellation

[(Anonymous)]

ConStellation, SF/F, fan-run, ~300, Badged
Camelot, gaming, ~300, Badged

[archangelbeth]

Arisia, when it had a main dealer's room, had it badged. The Dealer's Row rooms were theoretically badged, but I doubt any of them would've kicked out anyone who was offering to pay money.

Last Arisia didn't have a Dealer's Room -- just Dealer's Row.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I've not been in a few years, but the local SF/Fantasy cons I've been to in SE Michigan (i.e. Conclave, Confusion, Contraption) have been fan run and the dealers rooms have been badged, though how closely they check depends on who's at the door, and I've occasionally gotten in without a badge while wearing a costume (having left the badge on the shirt I'd changed out of).

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

OryCon, 1200-1600, badges.

[quadong.livejournal.com]

For the record, Minicon is actually ~400, not 600, as much as I would like it to be. Perhaps after the carpet bombing we just did at CONvergence this weekend your guess will be closer, though. :-)

CONvergence, also, was probably more like 3000 this year (which is, I admit, not *that* different from 2500), although I didn't hear their actual number. I commissioned Dean to sit through the closing ceremony [sic] and write it down, though, so maybe he can comment.

[michaellee.livejournal.com]

CONvergence, also, was probably more like 3000 this year

Just over 3100 warm-bodies, about 3200 registrations.