Connie…An Avenger?!?

Just having some fun with Marvel’s “I am an Avenger” campaign.

For those of you who may not have visited us at our old Comic Book Conventions.com site, Connie was our Convention Awards/sometime site mascot. I plan to revisit the Convention Awards idea again, but it’s not in the cards for this year.

Thanks to The Weekly Crisis for the template.

And thanks again to Michael Golden, who provided this awesome rendition of Connie.

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Trying a New Option with Our Main Google Calendar and Tabs

Hi, folks.

Testing something new today. If you visit the All Upcoming Events page right now, you will find Tabbed views which give you the option of seeing all the events in a list or seeing them in our Google Calendar. If everyone likes this, I was thinking of just keeping the Google Calendar there and deleting the separate “Calendar View” page we currently have up.

Please respond below with whether or not you like this option.

Also, where else on the site would you possibly like to see things put into tabs instead of separate pages? It won’t work well for our larger pages because basically everything is loading at the same time. It works best with small chunks. I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks,

Brian Pate, Owner

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Convention Scene Now Offering Google Calendars, iCal Feeds, and More

Convention Scene is happy to announce some new calendar features for the site.

First off you may have noticed some changes in our schedules pages. The “category” for each event is now in its own column, not in the line below. This will be important later. On the left of each second line, however, you will now set a “+” sign. Click on the +, and you now have the option to add that event to your Google Calendar or download the iCal information.

Also, if you look down at the bottom of each schedule page, there is now an icon for an iCal feed; you can get the master events feed or the feed for each category of event. What’s more, we now have RSS feeds for each individual category as well.

Taking all those iCal category feeds, we are now able to offer a calendar view for all the events listed on our site. You can even go back and look at past months as well.

Only interested in seeing certain categories of events? You can turn “off” whatever calendars you don’t wish to view.

We hope you enjoy these new features. You can view the master events Calendar view here.

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PROMOTERS PLEASE READ: New Submission Forms

Hi, Everyone.

Pretty much since the start, we have been plagued by memory issues on the back end of the site which made the submission process frustrating and confusing. In the few weeks, things seemed to take a turn for the worse because although submissions were making it through, promoters were seeing error messages on each attempt and were trying over and over again as a result.

To alleviate this situation, we have installed a completely new submission form system that we believe will make the process run smoother and easier for everyone. As with any process, there are changes and drawbacks, however.

• The new submission system is not tied into the membership system on the site so we will be asking for contact information with each submission, much like on the old Comic Book Conventions.com site.
• For Premium Promoters, you will no longer be able to edit your own entries at this time, but we will, of course, make any changes you need a priority. Also, the new Premium form is password protected so if you haven’t heard from me yet and need to make a submission, please contact me for your password.

We still have all the submissions made under the previous system and are working on getting those up as well.

To recap what forms are available:

• Free Convention Submission Form – Just want to have a basic listing and don’t mind until waiting a while for it appear on the site? Use this form.
• Premium Convention Form – Wnnt your convention added right away? Would you like to include information about your guests plus a description of your convention? Would you like to include your logo or flyer? Sign up for our Premium Promoter program so you can use this form.
• Convention Update Form – Did something change? Your date, location, etc.? Update us through this form.
• News Form – Have an announcement to make concerning your convention? Use this form. You can even attach graphics to go along with your story.
• Signing or Appearance Form – Is a creator appearing at your shop, school, library…? Use this form to let us know.

Thanks for your patience as we work out the kinks of the new site.

Brian Pate, Owner and Webmaster

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Madame Tussauds Hollywood Offers Convention Scene Discount

More than a wax museum, Madame Tussauds Hollywood is LA’s newest attraction opening August 1st right next to the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. Madame Tussauds Hollywood opens with a great action and superhero section where you can take pictures with your favorite characters like Wolverine!

We’d like to invite the Convention Scene members to come see the attraction with a $5 discount when you visit before the end of the year. See below for details:

MADAME TUSSAUDS HOLLYWOOD
Receive $5 off regular adult/child admission to Madame Tussauds Hollywood when you present this offer at the Box Office at time of purchase. To receive this discount, you must print this offer to be exchanged at the Box Office. Good for up to six (6) one-day admission tickets. Not valid with other discounts, online ticket sales, or offers. Valid at Box Office only. Additional restrictions may apply. Not for resale. Only a printed offer will be honored. Expires: December 31, 2009. Promo code: 9011/9012.

Enjoy! http://www.madametussauds.com/hollywood

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4th of July Targeted Ad Sale: 4 Days at 1/4th the Cost!

UPDATED: Now extended through July 14. What’s 4 days when you can have 14? If you missed your opportunity before, you still have a chance at these 75% off savings.

If you have been interested in trying out our new Targeted Sponsor Ads, you’re not going to get a better opportunity than now! For the next 4 days, all Targeted Ads will be available at over 75% off!

That means the large 300×250, regularly $50, is just $12; the 125×125 ad spots, regularly $25 are just $6.

This offer is only available through the 4th of July. If you place a subscription, be aware that the ad will renew at the regular price.

Currently, ad zones are only available for the following 5 states:

• California
• Florida
• Illinois
• New Jersey
• New York

But if you would like us to add add spots for any other states or countries, just request them in the comments below.

There is only one 300×250 ad spot available for each zone, but we will add additional 125×125 ad spots as needed.

For more information, see the Targeted Ads page. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

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The 10 Hottest Posts on Convention Scene So Far

Interested in what’s hot on Convention Scene? Here are our 10 Most Popular Stories so far:

• Super-Con 2009 (409)
• JumpCon Owner Files for Bankruptcy (106)
• Creature Con 1st Annual Show drops in Orlando (100)
• So why Convention Scene? (90)
• NYC – ‘Hellboy’ Director Signing (78)
• Mini MegaCon debuts in August (78)
• DC Nation Tour Making a Stop at Heroes Con (76)
• Icons of Fright: Chiller Theatre Convention Report (74)
• Long Beach Comic Con Planned for October (71)
• Exclusive Dollhouse DVD Set at SDCC (71)

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Convention Scene One Week In

It’s now been one week since the official launch of Convention Scene, and so far I’ve heard from one upset fan and received a handful of compliments about the new site. So what do you think? Something you love? Something you hate? Add a comment here and let us know.

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Convention Scene on Twitter

As part of our launch, we have created a Twitter account so you can keep up with our progress (and maybe even get a scoop or two).

You can check it out here: https://twitter.com/conventionscene

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So why Convention Scene?

Welcome to Convention Scene, formerly, more or less, Comic Book Conventions.com. Years in the planning and months in the making, launch day is finally here.

So I’m sure one big question is why? Why the change? Well, there are several reasons for that.

1. Branding - Comic Book Conventions.com has always been difficult to brand. While it’s a fantastic url, it’s too generic to make memorable, and the “.com” has been a problem, too. Back when I launched this site back in 2000, companies regularly used “.com” in their names. People didn’t say “Yahoo,” they said “Yahoo.com.” But that has changed. Anyway, I like “Convention Scene,” and I hope you will, too.
2. Technology – Comic Book Conventions.com was built off a regular html template. Over the years it has been filled with bad and bloated code. This is a chance to start fresh. In addition, we were using an out-of-date and abandoned news program to post our stories. We needed to catch up with the latest technologies. With our new WordPress-based design, we have lots of new options to organize our information with categories, tags, and rss feeds. And we’re finally searchable, too!
3. Convention Categories – While comic book conventions are my first love, they are not the only type of convention I attend. I also go to sci-fi and sometimes even horror conventions. Some friends have always asked, “Hey, why isn’t the Star Trek convention listed on your site?” “Because it’s not a comic convention” would be my reply. And yet…lines between conventions get more and more blurred. Much to the chagrin of some comic show purists, I have quietly added more and more listings for other types of conventions over the years. Convention Scene finally openly and publicly extends the invitation for every type of fan-oriented convention to be listed here. At the same time, however, while there is a master list of every upcoming event (including signings for the first time), there are also separate pages for comic conventions, anime conventions, gaming conventions, etc. At least for now, promoters can only choose one category in which to put their convention so they must choose carefully.

So there you have the reasons for the change. I’ll be back with more about the exciting new features Convention Scene offers.

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