Comic Con Talk (Renamed since LA Comic Con can't get it together)
Never understood why Louisiana is one of the best festival cities in the country by far and we can't lure a comic con that rivals San Diego or New York. It is something that always bothered me. We can have huge events like Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, etc.
I know people aren't in love with Wizard World, but their New Orleans cons in 2014-2016 were fantastic events. 2016 was especially flush with most of the cast of
Captain America: Civil War, the Russo Brothers, most of
The Walking Dead, a contingent from
Doctor Who (though two backed out days before the event), etc.
WW 2017 in N.O. (January 2017) had booked Carrie Fisher -- everyone in here knows what happened. The con went forward centered around a large Arrowverse crew and the two Chewbaccas (Mayhew and Suotomo) and was still fun.
In 2018, Wizard World brought Stan Lee to New Orleans in one of his last con appearances. That event was also well worth attending, but the guest list was noticeably thinner after Lee.
The
originally scheduled Big Easy Con (June 2019) had Zach Levi fresh off of
Shazam, Robert Englund, and many other nice guests. That con was the new kid on the block as far as cons go locally, and (apparently) had trouble selling advance tickets. That led them to reschedule a trimmed-down con in November 2019 with most of the June guests bailing. Big Easy Con went forward with the November date, but the disappointing aftermath is detailed earlier in this thread.
ISTM the potential to attract guests and events should still be here in New Orleans ... but one problem might simply be disposable cash among the locals that like to attend cons. New Orleans is also kind of a "walkup" city for events -- culturally, people around here kind of like to lay back and see if they want to do a given event at the last minute. That's probably pretty stressful for a con organizer.
I wonder if there is a way for a con to offer a cheaper "in the door" price on tickets, but find a way to make it up somewhere else? Maybe make entry dirt cheap (especially to the merch floor), but sell tickets (wristbands, something) that allow entry to panels, side events, etc.