Name: The Making of New York Comic Con
Uploaded: 2019-12-13
Duration: 6 min 31 s
Description: ReepPop organizes the biggest comic cons in the world. This is how the pop culture giant organizes NYCC.

 In the world of pop culture, ReedPOP is the largest producer of pop culture events anywhere in the world. [MUSIC PLAYING] Almost two million fans will come to a ReedPOP show somewhere on this planet in 2019. We essentially built an industry, right? There wasn't a big professional company running pop culture shows. We're really about creating the bridge or the connection between the people that create all the cool pop culture goodness and the fans that love it and crave it. We create the ultimate weekend getaway, no matter what you're into. If you're a fan of comics, if you're a fan of celebrities, if you're a fan of authors and literary genres, we are your weekend getaway, and that's the space we focus on. We're about 200, 225 people, 45 events, 10 or 11 different countries that we're operating in. So it's a pretty big group of people that are dedicated to building fun for geeks all over the planet. We're a really young company. We're 11, 12 years old. So this is all to say we've made everything up as we've gone along, and we've learned some lessons the hard way. When you're essentially building a city for four or five days, it can be really challenging. You're doing business in New York City and dealing with a lot of really skilled laborers, so probably north of $10 million in terms of cost, to do it. What's so neat about New York Comic Con is it's not your typical trade show. It's very much a collaboration when working with ReedPOP for the show. We build the booths, build out and decorate the lobby, the inner roadway. We have over 600 exhibitors that are outside with their activations, and working on their timing, scheduling their trucks, making sure that they're coming in earlier, they're scheduling their build with us. Like how do we get this six-story robot into the building, but they can't come till an hour before the show opens because they're going to be on Good Morning America. There's a lot of logistics like that that go into it, but it's not your typical trade show. [MUSIC PLAYING] We bring over 220,000 people through the door. We spend hours and hours on show entry, and just the cues alone to bring fans into the building and the security procedures. But I think one of our biggest challenges is ensuring that fans find everything they can find, and, despite the crowds, that they're able to access what they can access. On our show floor we have about 500 exhibitors. We have an additional 500 to 600 creators down in Artist Alley. This is where we get to connect with fans, letting people come to our booth, feel like they're a part of it, whether it's through cosplay or getting to see something new. I think that's what makes for a great experience, is when you can see yourself in some of these characters. It's always really gratifying to be with fans, to show them directly what we're doing, whether we're doing panels or our booth display or showing off new partnerships. And so it helps you gauge what's working and what isn't. [MUSIC PLAYING] The expansion outside of the Javits was driven by us filling the Javits. When we started to maximize every corner of the Javits Center, we said, gosh let's get out into the city, instead of it just happening. Because we knew brands would start to want to activate alongside us. Like let's control it. So what we started doing is we would take out multiple venues around the Javits Center that we thought we could program cool content. And it started off with the Hammerstein, and saying we have so much content and so many partners that are coming in, wanting to bring studio content to us. We can't house it in the Javits anymore. So we added the Hammerstein Theater, and the fans loved it. And so at that, we decided to add on the theater at Madison Square Garden, which is right next to it, and creates a nice block of programming for fans that are super passionate about TV programming. The bones of the show stay the same, but where the team really drives home to keep New York fresh and different and interesting each year is working closely with our partners and then also paying attention to what the fans want. And that's key, and that's number one. What we walk out of the show and wait for is this post-show survey. And fans will tell us exactly what they want to see at the show. And by digging into that data, by working really closely with our partners at Marvel and IBW and our studio partners, we can say this is what worked, this is what they're excited about, and this is the stuff that they're not super thrilled with and we shouldn't really focus on. And then when we get to the marketing phase of the show, it goes back to that communication. It's an amazing community of passionate, plugged-in people. So if you just ask, what do you want, what are you interested in, what are you excited about, and then do it, it's not a terribly complicated model. [MUSIC PLAYING] How have we grown the way we've grown? It's been three primary ways. We've launched new things, new shows, new online platforms. We've grown our existing business, so shows that we already had, we've successfully grown by creating cool new stuff that fans will love, and then we've acquired some businesses as well. We would never consider buying something just for, quote, unquote, "market share". We're much more interested in acquiring a company that has talented, passionate people that are ultimately going to make ReedPOP better. And honestly, that is what ReedPOP was built on, the idea of saying, let's try something bold. Let's try something innovative. Let's try something that maybe hasn't been done before. And when we fail, fine. It's going to happen. What are we going to learn from it? What are we going to fix? How do we make it better? Pivot quickly, adjust quickly, make it right, and then don't make the same mistake again. So every year our goal is make new mistakes. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

The Making of New York Comic Con

Entertainment

ReepPop organizes the biggest comic cons in the world. This is how the pop culture giant organizes NYCC.

in the world of pop culture, Read Pop is the largest producer of pop culture events anywhere in the world. Almost two million fans will come to a re pop show somewhere on this planet in 2019. We essentially built an industry right. There wasn't a big professional company Running pop culture shows were really about creating the bridge of the connection between the people that create all the cool pop culture goodness and the fans that love it. We create the ultimate weekend. Get away, no matter what, you're into your comics. Celebrities. If you're a fan of authors and literary genres, were your weekend getaway that space we focus on? We're about 202 125 people, 45 events, 10 or 11 different countries that were operating in. So it's a pretty big group of people that are dedicated to building fund for deployment. Really young company where 11 12 years old. So this is all to say we've made everything up, we've got along and we've learned some lessons the hard way. When you're essentially building city for four or five days can be really challenged. You're doing this. New York City and dealing with a lot of really field laborers, so probably north of 10 million in terms of costs to do it. What's so neat about New York comic con is it's not your typical trade show. It's very much a collaboration. When working with top for the show, we build food, build out and decorate the lobby, the inner roadway. We have over 600 exhibitors that are outside with their activations and working on their timing, scheduling their truck, making sure that they're coming in earlier. They're scheduling their build with us like, how do we get this story robot into the building? But they can't come till an hour before the show opens because they're gonna be on Good Morning America. There's a lot of just like that. Go into it. But it's not your typical trade show way. Bring over 220,000 people through the door way, spend hours on hours on show entry and just accuse alone to bring fans into the building and security procedures. But I think one of our biggest challenges is ensuring that fans find everything they can find, and despite the crowds that they're able to access what they can access On our show floor, we have about 500 exhibitors. We have an additional 5 to 600 creators down an artist alley. This is where we get to connect with fans, letting people come to our booth, feel like they're a part of it. Whether it's through cosplay, we're going to see something new. I think that's what makes for a great experiences when you can see yourself in some of these characters. It's always really gratifying to be with vans to show him directly what we're doing, whether we're doing panels are both display were showing off new partnerships, and so it helps you gauge you know what's working and what isn't the extension of part of the jab. It was driven by a feeling the jab. When we started to maximize every corner of the Javits Center, we get out City instead of it just happening. We knew like brands would start to want to activate. Let's control it. So what we started doing, we would take out multiple venues around the Javits Center that we thought we could program cool. It started off with a hammer signs, and I'm saying we have so much content and so many partners that are coming in wanting to blame studio constant to us. We can't help it in the Japanese anymore. So we added the Hammerstein Theatre and the fans loved it. And so, at that, we decided to add on the theater at Madison Square Garden, which is right next to it, and creates a nice block of programming for Fan. You're super passionate about TV programming. The bones of the show stay the claim. But where the team really drive home to keep New York fresh and different and interesting. Each year is working closely with our partner and then also paying attention with fans. And that's key. That's number one What we walk out of the show wait for this post show survey, and fans will tell us exactly what they want to see a show. And by digging into that data by working really closely with our partners at Marble and I. D W. Studio partners, we can say this is what worked. This is what they're excited about, and this is stuff that they're not super thrilled with, and we should really focus on, and then when we get to the marketing phase of the show goes back to that communication. It's an amazing community of passionate, plugged in people. So if you just asked, what do you want to be interested in? What I'm excited about and then do it terribly complicated, you know, model. So how have we grown the way we've grown? It's been free primary ways. We've launched new things, new shows, new online platforms. We've grown our existing shows that we already had. We've successfully grown by creating cool new stuff that fans will love. And then we've acquired you never consider buying something just for you. Market shares were much more interested in acquiring a company that has talented, passionate people that are ultimately gonna make read pop spatter. And honestly, that is what re pop was built on. The idea of saying, Let's try something bold Let's try something innovative. Christ implement, maybe hasn't been done before. And when we fail, fine, it's gonna happen. What? I'm gonna learn from it. What? I'm gonna stay. How do we make it better? Pivot quickly, adjust quickly, make it right, and then don't make the same mistake again. So every year our goal is make no mistake