Weird, random article on the upcoming San Diego Comic Con. The two main points: 1) the con has grown to mean a lot to Hollywood in terms of grassroots marketing, and 2) the nerd/geek stigma is still in full effect — now and forever, perhaps.
The Con, as devotees like to call it, is disconcertingly large. Last year a capacity crowd of about 125,000 crammed into the San Diego Convention Center, while a ticketless 25,000 or so were left sweating in the hot sun. (The Sundance film festival, by contrast, draws 45,000, spread over 10 days.)
It is weird. The convention officially requires that model weapons remain holstered or sheathed.
And it is decidedly low-rent. No. 33 on the official tip sheet lists the grocery chain Ralph’s Market as an alternative to dining out. The Bio International Convention in San Diego, a gathering of the biotechnology industry, with one-sixth as many attendees, produces about double Comic-Con’s $41.5 million in economic impact on the city.
Interesting, if disingenuous bordering-on-dickish take on SDCC. Some of the stuff – holstering weapons, don’t smell bad – are definitely fair game to make fun of, but calling the weekend low-rent because the con literature points people to Ralph’s for food is pretty misleading. It’s pretty much a given that all the restaurants, top level to fast food, are nearly impossible to get into in the evenings, and if you’ve never been to CCI, then being told in advance about Ralph’s can be a lifesaver.
Also, the biotech con may bring more money to the city – not saying it does, but let’s assume it’s true – but individual businesses benefit more from CCI than any single show of the year. I seem to recall hearing that Comic-Con weekend is when a lot of downtown businesses go into the black for the year, but I fully admit that it’s merely anecdotal evidence at best.