SMOF News, volume 3, issue 3

Counting people, and news in brief.

How to Convention: Understanding Attendance Numbers

Sometimes, when a convention has little else to distinguish it from other conventions of its type, it will boast about the number of people it has managed to attract. Figuring out which convention is the biggest should be a simple comparison, but it sometimes isn’t, because there are two different ways to report attendance, and it’s not always clear which one an event is using.

Memberships/Badges/Unique attendees

This is the customary way most fan events report attendance, and regarded by most as the “real” number.

In this system, every individual person should count as one attendee, regardless of how long they attended. A person registered for the entire event counts the same as one registered for just one day.

In practice, this can produce small overcounts. People occasionally register multiple times by mistake. A person with a one-day admission for Saturday might enjoy themself so much they come back and buy a one-day admission for Sunday and get counted twice.

The number may also include people who pre-registered but never arrived. Some conventions go the extra mile and provide a “warm body count” of people who actually picked up their badges. This does not work for events which mail badges to people beforehand, though.

Turnstile attendance

Confusingly, turnstile attendance is not measured with actual turnstiles. (Events which issue no badges at all, but simply sell tickets good until the person leaves the site, may use actual turnstiles, but those events are typically collector shows or similar rather than fan conventions.)

Turnstil attendance is taken by counting the number of people who are onsite each day of the event anding add those totals together. In this case, a person attending every day of a three-day events counts as three people.

For events where most people attend for multiple days, this can inflate the number dramatically. But if the event is designed for people to drop by on just one day, such as some media and comic events, then it may not be too far off the number of unique attendees.

Some conventions will report both unique and turnstile attendance, something to keep in mind if you ever see two wildly different numbers quoted in different sources for the same convention.

In Brief

• Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (Columbus, Ohio, September 27-October 1) has added Scott Chantier, Joe Sutphin, Tauhid Bondia, and P. Craig Russell as special guests.

• Comiccon de Montréal (Montréal, October 7-8) has added Linda Ballentyne, Maggie Robertson, and John de Lancie as guests.

• Kawacon (San Antonio, Texas, March 2-3) has added Kylie McNeill as a guest.

Event Calendar

Weekend of September 22-24

• Necronomicon 42: Life, the Convention, and Everything, Tampa, Florida, USA

• 2nd Annual Sturgeon Symposium, Lawrence, Kansas, USA

• Dum-Dum 2023 (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA

• Furnavia (anthropomorphic), Kristiansand, Norway

• PhilliFur 2023: Tails and Fables (anthropomorphic), Quezon City, Philippines

• 9th Annual Steampunk Fair, Kennebunk, Maine, USA

• Anno 1900 (steampunk), Lasauvage, Luxembourg

• Council Ganing Con 42, Schenectady, New York, USA

• SIBCON XXVII (gaming), Butler, Pennsylvania, USA

• Nuke-Con (gaming), Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA

• Game On Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA

• Big Geek Con (gaming), Saginaw, Michigan, USA

• MegaMooseCon (gaming), Richburg, South Carolina, USA

• CuseCon 2023 (gaming), Syracuse, New York, USA

• Barrage 2023 (miniatures gaming), Havre de Grace, Maryland, USA

• Hurricon 2023: Lost Causes (miniatures gaming), Kissimmee, Florida, USA

• Recruits (wargaming), Lee’s Summit, Missouri, USA

• CEOtaku (anime fighting games), Orlando, Florida, USA

• Rappig Crossing (Tales video games), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

• Made in Asia (anime), Brussels, Belgium

• Anime USA, Arlington, Virginia, USA

• MidessAnime, Odessa, Texas, USA

• Anime Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

• Microcon II (comics), St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

• Thessaloniki Comic Convention vol. 8, Thessaloniki, Greece

• NORCON (media), Norfolk, UK

• Lagos Comic Convention, Lagos, Nigeria

• Spa-Con (media), Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA

• Comic Con Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

• Fountain City Fandemonium (media), Bryan, Ohio, USA

• Cincinnati Comic Expo, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

• Rose City Comic Con, Portland, Oregon, USA

• Alabama Comic Con, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

• Superstar Comic Con, Savannah, Georgia, USA

• FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

• Mobicon 2023 (media), Mobile, Alabama, USA

Weekend of September 29-October 1

• Archon 46, Collinsville, Illinois, USA

• Conflux 17: Passages and Portals, Canberra, Australia

• Capclave 2023 (books), Rockville, Maryland, USA

• Intermezzo (music), Wernigerode, Germany

• Furdance Budapest (anthropomorphic), Budapest, Hungary

• Furry Takeover: Safari Takeover (anthropomorphic), Fontana Dam, North Carolina, USA

• OctoGônes 13 (gaming), Villeurbanne, France

• Adirondacon 6 (gaming), Glens Falls, New York, USA

• GooseCon (gaming), Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

• Shake, Battle & Roll (gaming), Southampton, UK

• Spellenfestival Genk (gaming), Genk, Belgium

• QuestCon Orlando / Crucible (gaming), Orlando, Florida, USA

• Big Bad Con 2023 (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA

• Game Devs of Color Expo, online

• Pittsburgh Gaming Expo (video games), Monroeville, Pennsylvania, USA

• SkålCon 2022 (Pathfinder& Starfinder RPGs), Plymouth, Minnesota, USA

• Terra MystiCon (Terra Mystica boardgame), Montréal, Québec, Canada

• Tiger Con (anime), Valdosta, Georgia, USA

• Ramencon (anime), South Bend, Indiana, USA

• Miryokucon (anime), Baltimore, Maryland, USA

• Anime St. Pete, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA

• Shocker Con (anime), Wichita, Kansas, USA

• Tiger Con 2023 (anime), Valdosta, Georgia, USA

• Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (comics and animation), Columbus, Ohio, USA

• Wauke-Con (comics), Waukegan, Illinois, USA

• La Mole (media), Mexico City, Mexico

• Zurich Pop Con, Zurich, Switzerland

• Kadabra Con (media), Portland, Texas, USA

• Beer City Comic Con, Asheville, North Carolina, USA

• Creation Washington D.C. (media), Arlington, Virginia, USA

• Z-Con (media), Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA

• SiouxperCon 2023: To Sioux Falls and Beyond! (media), Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA

• King-Con 2023 (media), Kingman, Arizona, USA

• Giganticon 2023 (media), Killeen, Texas, USA

• MagicCon 6 (fantasy media), Bonn, Germany

• Giganticon (superhero media), Killeen, Texas, USA

• UK PonyCon 2023 (My Little Pony), Nottingham, UK

Midweek convention: Icon Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel

Weekend of October 6-8

• CONFelicity (relaxacon), Bloomington, Minnesota, USA

• GeekGirlCon (female geekdom), Seattle, Washington, USA

• H-Con the Nineteenth (anthropomorphic), Erbach, Germany

• WPAFW 2023 (anthropomorphic), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

• TringCon (gaming), Marsworth, UK

• Dragon Fall (gaming), Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA

• PAX Australia (gaming), Melbourne, Australia

• Con on the Cob 2023: Showdown at the Neon Barnyard (gaming), Richfield, Ohio, USA

• Southwest Con (miniatures gaming), Tolleson, Arizona, USA

• Michigan GT (wargaming), Lansing, Michigan, USA

• Spieltage Essen (boardgames), Essen, Germany

• Furnace Games Convention XVIII (RPGs), Sheffield, UK

• Tsubasacon (anime), Charleston, West Virginia, USA

• Animasia (anime), Bordeaux, France

• MoTownCon (anime), Mooresville, South Carolina, USA

• Anime Senpai: Class of '23!, Collinsville, Illinois, USA

• 56th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Sitges, Spain

• 28th Annual H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Portland, Oregon, USA

• Comiccon de Québec, Ville de Québec, Québec, Canada

• Comic Con Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

• Boone Comic-Con, Boone, North Carolina, USA

Weekend of October 13-15

• Stranimondi 9 (Italian national sf convention), Milan, Italy

• Octocon 2023 (Irish national sf convention), Dublin, Ireland

• ICON 48: We Only Work in Outer Space, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

• Can*Con 2023 (Canadian sf), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

• Alamo City Furry Invasion: Dr. Virginia's Island Paradise, San Antonio, Texas, USA

• Viking-Con 42 (gaming), Copenhagen, Denmark

• Atlanta Game Fest 41, Peachtree Corners, Georgia, USA

• Congress of Gamers Fall Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA

• Icon Gaming, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA

• Southern Board Game Festival, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA

• Erie Days of Games, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA

• NEWGameapalooza, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

• Portland Retro Gaming Expo (retro video games), Portland, Oregon, USA

• Banzaicon 10 (anime), Larvik, Norway

• Iberanime, Matosinhos, Portugal

• Charleston Anime-Fest, North Charleston, South Carolina, USA

• Polaris (anime), Hamburg, Germany

• WasabiCon (anime), Jacksonville, Florida, USA

• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Bowness-on-Windermere, UK

• Geek Days Caen (media), Caen, France

• Visioncon (media), Springfield, Missouri, USA

• ValleyCon 48 (media), Fargo, North Dakota, USA

• New York Comic Con, New York City, New York, USA

• MondoCon 2023 (media), Budapest, Hungary

• 56th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival, Sitges, Spain

• Brooklyn SciFi Film Festival, New York City, New York, USA

• VoltCon 2023 (Voltron), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Weekend of October 20-22

• Chengdu Worldcon (81st World Science Fiction Convention), Chengdu, China and online

• BuchmesseCon, Dreieich, Germany

• Multiverse, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• BristolCon 2023, Bristol, UK

• Irish Discworld Convention 2023, Cork, Ireland

• The Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK

• Furror (anthropomorphic), Łódź, Poland

• Confuror 2023: Locos por la Ciencia (anthropomorphic), Guadalajara, Mexico

• TsunamiCon (gaming), Wichita, Kansas, USA

• MEPACon: Video Game Heroes and Villains (gaming), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

• Austi-Con 2023 (gaming), Austin, Minnesota, USA

• Gamehole Con X (RPGs), Madison, Wisconsin, USA

• AVL Scarefest (RPGs), Montreat, North Carolina, USA

• Travellercon/USA 2023 (Traveller RPG), Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

• Anime Fusion: This Con Goes to 11!, Plymouth, Minnesota, USA

• Anime Mundo, El Paso, Texas, USA

• Puchicon Poconos (anime), Tannersville, Pennsylvania, USA

• Another Anime Convention, Westford, Massachusetts, USA

• Anime Banzai, Layton, Utah, USA

• Anime Nebraskon 2023, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA

• YuniCon 2023 (anime), Schwechat, Austria

• NW Idolfest (anime idols), Seattle, Washington, USA

• Anime Ink (anime & tattoos), Richmond, Virginia, USA

• FACTS (media), Ghent, Belgium

• Comic Con Baltics, Vilnius, Lithuania

• Comic Con Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

• Dallas Fan Festival (media), Irving, Texas, USA

• Shoufu-Con (media), Lansing, Michigan, USA

• The Penti-Con 2023 (media), Penticton, British Columbia, Canada

• Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, UK

• PonyCon Holland 2023: A Series of Mysterious Events (My Little Pony), Zeist, Netherlands

• TFcon Orlando (Transformers), Orlando, Florida, USA

Coda

• Police stop Nebraska man for bucking the law with a bull riding shotgun in his car (Associated Press)

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