LUG Con 2025
The deets
Where: Duluth, GA
When: October 23-26
Table Cost: $250
Attendance: estimated 1,500 (anticipated 5,000)
The space
The event was held at the Gas South Convention Center which is a great event space. Aisles between rows were massive and everyone got 10x10 booth spaces. We lucked out and ended up on a corner and were provided one 8-foot table. We were expecting a 6-foot table, so our set-up took quite a bit longer since we had to re-assess how to take advantage of the extra room. The problem is that this space actually might have been too big for the turnout of the event. They had booked both a large event hall and the ballroom, but none of these spaces were ever packed with people.
The market
There is a pseudo artist alley, in that they put everyone who was more suited for an artist alley in the same two rows while the vendors were on the other side of the dividers. There was a good mix of artist merch, but there were probably only 10 artists total. For a first time event, this number of vendors felt pretty reasonable for the anticipated number of attendees.
The audience
This was the first time the Level Up folks have run this event. We were anticipating that the crowd would mostly be TTRPG folks. While we don’t think our assessment was necessarily wrong, foot traffic was extremely light for the entire event and our TTRPG items didn’t do nearly as well as expected on the sales end. Resounding feedback we heard from attendees was that they didn’t even know the event was going on until a week or so before. It doesn’t seem like there was enough marketing done for this event beyond some social media posts and some advertisements at their stores. We heard that some of the tournaments and events going on in the ballroom and table top spaces didn’t have enough participants to even run.
The sales
We made a little over 2x table cost, which is not great considering it was a 4-day event.
For this 4-day con our time invested amounted to 26 hours of active vending and 2 hours of combined set-up and break-down time (total of 28 hours).
Items that sold the best were blankets, totes, charms, and stickers. Most people paid with card rather than cash. We did a lot of merch trades with other vendors at this event due to it being so slow.
The rest
Overall, the Level Up team made it look from our perspective and the perspective of attendees that this wasn’t their first ever convention. Staff and volunteers had branded shirts and vests, vendors were provided information packets well in advance with custom drawn maps of the venue, a PowerPoint of load-in details, security and event staff were visibly present during the whole event, everything really made it seem like this was run pretty professionally. It’s really unfortunate that they just weren’t able to pull in attendee numbers that would match the effort and money that was clearly put into running the event. From the feedback we received, it really seems like the ball was dropped on the marketing end and that the higher-ups behind the event maybe put their ambitions and vision for what they want the event to grow into after a few years above making the event successful for vendors and attendees.
We think this team did a lot right, but they overestimated how the convention would perform compared to their in-store events. We’re willing to give this event another chance next year should the timing work out, but we would like to see the following changes:
Use a smaller venue until the attendee numbers justify such a large space
Keep the number of artists and vendors the same for the next event
Either make the event only Saturday and Sunday, make the event go later into the evenings, and/or move the event to a holiday weekend
Broaden the marketing campaign to draw in new folks, not just to those who already go to the stores
Pros
Large booth spaces
Clear communication leading up to the event, easy load in and load out instructions with lots of accommodation for timing, load in and out through a cargo bay so no stairs/elevators to worry about for carts and wagons
Break room with snacks and drinks for the vendors in a separate area
Staff and volunteers were very friendly and helpful
Cons
Event space overall was too big for how many people actually showed up
Parking was $10 each day
No evening/late hours even on Thursday and Friday
Low attendance