Even though I moved to Philadelphia from Orlando just over two years ago, I had never gotten around to attending the Philadelphia Comic Con (typically referred to as "Wizard World Philly"). I had heard from those who had attended the convention for many years that it was on a bit of a downward spiral, and that attendance was dwindling. Perhaps in an effort to jumpstart the convention, some really big name celebs were brought in for Wizard World Philly 2010 (namely Patrick Stewart, Bruce Campbell, and James Marsters, along with a slew of others).
The Pennsylvania Convention Center, which hosted Wizard World Philly, seemed like a smart choice for the location. For one, it's completely accessible by public transit and car. But more importantly, the expo hall was the perfect size. It allowed for spacious vendor set ups, fairly wide aisles, and there was even enough room to bring in a Batmobile and a DeLorean (always a plus). There were several large rooms down a main hallway for panels, gaming, etc. There was assistance from convention center security. Various food stalls and tables/chairs were available. And because the convention hall is located in center city, there was ample access to outside food and shops (for necessities like batteries, etc.). All in all, I have no complaints about the location.
That being said, the convention organizers could have utilized the space better. The scene on Saturday morning was unreal. It was almost like being back at Dragon*con. There were so many lines going this way and that, and many people seemed confused. First, there was a line just to get into the building. Then there was a line for people who already had wristbands waiting to be let in. Then there was a line for people who pre-registered, but hadn't gotten a wristband yet. Then another line for people who were purchasing tickets. Part of the problem was that there were only a small handful of booths for pre-registration pick up and day-of purchases set up, despite having room for much more had they just been located in the atrium and not the hallway leading in. They really needed double the number of booths and volunteers for Saturday morning. They didn't need so many for Friday and Sunday, but the organizers could have exercised some flexibility and better prepared for the onslaught of people on Saturday. Given that so many had actually pre-registered, the con had some advance warning of what to expect.
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The Zenescope party was a disaster. No one knew where the Wizard staff with the attendance tickets and goodie bags were. They finally showed up a bit before 9:30 p.m., only 1.5 hours later than advertised. In terms of organizational skills and attendance herding, both the Convention Center and Wizard staff failed. Which is just sad.
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The shallowness of panel programming was in and of itself appalling, as in years past (and at any competently-run convention) there would be three or four panel options at any given time. Most of the time this year there was really only one panel happening at a time, and as so many of them were for celebrities they were, well, I believed you covered much of how that went. I'm not sure how much of the approach was Wizard taking the cheaper path, a lack of people/companies offering to handle panel presentations (perhaps Wizard is asking too much for those venues?), or an attempt (along with the longer hours) to appease the vendors by not providing as many distractions that might keep potential customers from circling the floor more times. Whatever the reason or combination of the same it's been noticed and didn't enhance the experience for me.
The special, separately paid audiences and seating elements for select guests was another trend I'm not caring for. This year is was made worse by two things: They'd ramped up the instances of it and (as the piece here more or less mentioned) they placed it awkwardly on the floor. As this has apparently become so much of the event I suppose they thought it was a matter of leading with their strength.
While there were plenty of vendors selling comics and related merchandise, all in all Wizard has continued its trend of being less and less of a comics convention. Living in the Philadephia suburbs the convention's been extremely convenient to me, but before this year's show was over I was already wondering if I will bother with it in 2011.