As many of you already know the last St Louis convention was the last one to be held at the Sheraton Westport Plaza. Although I liked the facility, they have decided to raise the room rental rates by 67%, claiming expenses from the recent remodeling justify the increase (I for one had no problme with the hotel like it was. This prompted me to seek out a new more affordable venue, since most of the dealers do not want to pay more for their tables and I do not like the idea of having to charge people just to come in and spend money.
The new venue is the Comfort Inn Airport located at 9600 Natural Bridge Rd. Near the junction of I-170 and I-70. This is much easier to get to than the old location at least once you get off the freeway. If you are on I-70 take exit 237 (Natural Bride Rd) and go east the hotel will be on your right. If you are coming on OR I-170 take exit 6 (Natural Bride Rd) go west, the hotel will be on your left. As always the convention is open to the public from 10 AM to 4 PM and it is free to get in. The convention will always be on Saturdays at this venue since the hotel has the room booked to one group every Sunday.
This does not affect the Metro East convention held in Collinsville, IL. There is one there on Jan 15. There will be another one sometime in the summer. These will always be on Sunday since the room costs twice as much to rent on Saturday. I am also looking into a possible 3rd venue in the St Louis metro area somewhere in South County. Would then alternate between the three venues. I am sure some fans will come to all of them but oher may opt to only atend the one closest to them.
As many of you already know the last Milwaukee convention was the last one to be held at the Best Western. Although I liked the facility, they have decided to raise the room rental rates by over 220%. I suspect they believe that the economy in Milwaukee is really booming. This prompted me to seek out a new more affordable venue, since most of the dealers would not want to pay more for their tables and I do not like the idea of having to charge people just to come in and spend money.
The new venue is Classic Lanes loacted at 7501 S Howell in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. This is a bowling alley and the show will be held in their activity room. The first comic event I set up as a dealer in Milwaukee way back in the 20th centruy was in a bowling alley on the far northside of town. I have also been to three other comic events at bowling alleys in Milwaukee area over the years as well as having run the Kansas City convenition in two different bowling alleys over the year so the idea is not as weird as some may think.
Classic Lanes is failry easy to get to if youhave been to the old venue it is on the same side of the same street three miles further south of the old location. If you are coming in on I-94 take exit 320 (Rawson Ave). Go east (towards tLake Michigan) to Howell, at Howell turn right (go south) Classic Lanes will be on your right.
With the cold weather fonally here, dates for the rest of winter and early spring can't get here soon enough for me are up and posted. There may be a couple more in April and early May but I am waiting on event over which I have no control to get them scheduled.
The Gurnee con that had been briefly on the schedule for January 8, 2012 has been postponed. The Holiday Inn that closed for renovations set to last several months at the end of 2010 was set to open late this year. A fire however struck the hotel ballroom (where we hold the con) in late August. This will thus require more work to fix the damage and delay the re-opening of the facility until the 2nd quarter of 2012 (at the earliest). There may be a con there in May 2012.
There are two events on the schedule less than a 90 minute drive from the Gurnee hotel. This of course could be less depending on where you are coming from. The convention in Milwaukee will be on Saturday October 23 and the one in Rockford will be on November 13. Details on both is on the schedule page and both are free to get in.
Green Bay dealers are happy they are not outside in the cold of March!
Occasionally one of the conventions will be featured in the local newspapers. When I find out about them, I'll post links to the online versions here. Let me know if a link goes dead since some papers only keep free versions of their articles online for a limited period of time
Artist Sean Forney does a sketch at the very first Toledo convention!