Genrecon, was it worth it??

OK, so now that I have a day down from being done with Genrecon, I would like to examine if it was worth it or not.  Overall for me, I sit somewhat over the fence on yes it was.  For me, the vendors that were around us were very awesome to talk to and learn from each other.  One told me about getting Canadian Council of Art Grants that hell I can try for, and the friends you make are more than worth it.  My sales were quite good in that I had the highest profit I have had at the three conventions I've been to (at ConBravo in Hamilton and FanExpo in Toronto, I just broke even).  The fact that I was on panels was a great joy, to be able to discuss H.P. Lovecraft with fans of him was awesome, the dialogue just kicked ass.  I will also extend my gratitude out to the staff of Genrecon, who were always courteous and willing to help, hell they even had undercover security going around the Marketplace.  It was very nice to attend a convention in the same city where I live.
But a few issues did bother me.  The first one is that quite often there were less than 10 people going through the room, the rest of it vendors in there quite alone.  I know that there were vendors that didn't make their tables in good part because of the low traffic we suffered throughout the convention.  At one point I suggested to the guys I shared the table with that we get up and to the YMCA or the Timewarp (We should've guys, I bet we would've attracted a lot of attention).  The reason for the low traffic might simply have been the lack of advertizing.  Guelph has two papers you can advertize in, the first one being the Tribune that most people receive for free, while there is also the Guelph Mercury.  I saw no advertizing whatsoever of Genrecon in any of these papers, so I can only assume that people showed up via word of mouth.   Also, being next to the university, there are two papers there that it could be advertized in on campus, the Ontarion and the Peak. Hell, some of the panels I sat on had the panelists outnumber the attendees.  I would've thought that the topic of the Star Wars I-III would've filled the room, but it didn't.
Timing of the event too is not the best if Genrecon is to take advantage of the university crowed, for they are in the midst of midterms.  This is something that is likely not to be solved, but one has to wonder about moving towards the weekend before Thanksgiving or one week later just might make a difference, although then we are closer to Halloween, but Genrecon could take full advantage of that.
Another thing lacking was the absence of celebrities.  Unlike ConBravo and FanExpo, there were really no big names.  I don't know how hard it is to attract big names to Guelph, for I've never tried.
Now to the planners of Genrecon.  I don't want to make it sound like I am just complaining, because I am not.  One of the things as an author is being able to look at criticism and deem if it is constructive or not.  As being an author is my night job, I have no doubt that all of you did this outside of your regular life, and no doubt bit into your regular life, and I know it is damned tough to plan an event and often tough decisions are made.  I appreciate all the effort that went into getting this thing off the ground.  Overall, I feel you did a good job, but if Genrecon is going to survive and go to the next level, the items above need to be addressed.  I know I will certainly come back next year to sell stuff, but for the vendors, it would be good to try and expand the number and get more traffic through the market place, which could be done via advertizing.  I am not going to sit here and point out all this stuff without offering help in this.  For the advertizing, we have a group of local authors, why not take advantage of this?  Get us to write some nifty ads.  That would be a start I think.  As for getting celebrities, not sure how that would work, but we can probably figure that out too.  I would be happy to give what time I can to help all of you in getting ready for next year's Genrecon and I can probably scare a few others to help as well.  I would very much like Genrecon to grow and be viable and for this it has to evolve.  You can contact me at dundass@alexanderdundass.ca if you wish.  

My booth at Genrecon!!