Attention Premium Promoters – Important Change to Forms
October 5, 2010 by Brian Pate
Filed under Site News
Hi, everyone,
We’re in the midst of some changes around here, and one important one I need to share with you is our new Premium Convention Submission Form. Our new form requires you to be logged into the site in order to view and submit the form. For those of you who have been with us since we our transformation from Comic Book Conventions.com to Convention Scene last year may remember that is the way the site worked initially.
You will need your permission level raised by our staff so please fill out our Premium Promoter Activation Form.
If you have any questions feel free to post them here or use our Contact Form.
Feature Focus: SDCC Community Hub and Community Links
August 11, 2010 by Brian Pate
Filed under Site News
SDCC Community Hub
We’re always trying new things to make Convention Scene the best it can be. Some recent examples of that is the SDCC Community Hub that appeared at the top of our site as well as the Community Links section that can be found toward the bottom. Both of these allow us to get content onto the site easily and quickly plus all of the convention news, con reports, and YouTube videos we post appear in our Twitter stream and on our Facebook Fan Page. Plus, there’s a submission page where you can easily submit links to us.
So what do you think? Do you find them useful? Would you like to see a Community Hub setup for other conventions? Please comment below.
SDCC 2010 Con Report
July 28, 2010 by Richard Oh
Filed under Blogs, California, Comic-Con International, Con Reports and Photos, L.A. Sequential, Top Stories
This Comic Con was my 6th year at Comic Con, and I was used to the hustle and bustle of the show, perhaps even feeling jaded and definitely taking it for granted. But going to the press panels and roundtables, meeting some of the stars of big movies and TV shows, I had to admit I felt a little star struck and felt the buzz that I used to have going to the show for the first time in a very long time.
Here are some pictures I took there, so for those that couldn’t come, it’s like you came along with me on the journey!
Line for tickets. Holy moley.
Line for Hall H for Tron. Insane. Longer than Twilight last year.
Tron press panel!
Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren for Red! Amazing.
Bruce Willis and Karl Urban strike a pose before leaving Red press panel.
Helen Mirren showing off her Harvey Pekar shirt.
Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock signing at the Dark Horse booth!
Laurie Holden and Emma Bell for Walking Dead!
Frank Darabont and Greg Nicotero talk about the Walking Dead.
Jon Bernthal, Andrew Lincoln, and Sarah Wayne Callies answer questions about the Walking Dead.
Adam Hughes did head sketches for donations. Awesome hat.
Phil Noto working on a beautiful Supergirl painting.
Me meeting Joss Whedon, director of the Avengers!
The throne of Odin sent straight from the set of Thor. Amazing.
Double Eisner winner, Skottie Young! Very double rainbow.
While walking to the Resident Evil press roundtable, I stumbled across this room. What's with this crowd?
Oh. It's Ryan Reynolds for Green Lantern! Wow!
Blake Lively for GL. Very beautiful.
Mark Strong, GL's very own Sinestro.
Blake Lively strikes a pose.
After that, onto interviewing Paul Anderson, director of Resident Evil.
Ali Larter for Resident Evil. Had a beautiful pregnancy glow. Radiant.
Showing off the baby bump.
Wentworth Miller for Resident Evil. Extremely intelligent and well spoken.
Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston sign for lucky fans at the Marvel booth!
Thor helmets.
GL team of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis!
Marvel signing for Captain America with Hugo Weaving and Chris Evans!
Captain America's shield!
Frank Miller at the Dark Horse booth!
And what’s a con without a little cosplay? Here are some of the costumes that I saw walking around.
Deadpool and Black Cat.
Oompa Loompa!
Huntress!
Star Wars chicks.
Voltron!
Batman and Robin.
Batman sans cape.
His cape folded out! Pretty cool costume.
Only in Comic Con...
No words...
Zatanna! Looc!
I don't know what that is.
DC's most dysfunctional couple.
A hot reporter gets in on the act...
A white hot Phoenix. Pun intended.
Now onto some cool booths that I saw…
Tron!
GI Joe!
Spongebob!
Hawaii 5-0 girls outside. In the freezing cold. Felt bad for them.
I have the power!!!!
Optimus outside.
Iron Man set up.
Bumblebee!
My Little Pony.
Avatar!
Harry Potter built in Legos.
Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!
R2-D2 and C-3PO in Legos.
Bartman!
Kermit the Frog here!
Walking Dead booth. Awesome!
Aliens hatching!
Dora the Explorer.
Lifesize Fathom statue. Beautiful.
Prettiest booth babe: Female Green Lantern.
From Comic Con, LA Sequential signing off!
Introducing Convention Scene Widgets
June 29, 2010 by Brian Pate
Filed under California, Comic-Con International, Site News
Whether you want to put the latest headlines from Convention Scene on your site or just what’s happening with Comic-Con International: San Diego, you can now do that with our official Convention Scene widgets. Just click on “Get Widget” below the widget that you want to get the appropriate code for your site.
These widgets and any other ones we add will also be avaiable under Resources – Widgets. Like to see a widget for something else? Let us know in the comments below.
Convention Scene at Free Orlando Area Toy Show Sunday
June 25, 2010 by Brian Pate
Filed under Collectibles, Convention News, Florida
This weekend there are two shows going on in Lake Buena Vista, close to Disney World, in the same hotel: BotCon, the Transfomer Collectors Convention, and DiecastSpace.com’s 2010 Magical Weekend of Cars. Both events are going on right now at the Dolphin Hotel and Convention Center.
On Sunday, the Magical Weekend of Cars will turn over space to a free admission toy show from 10 AM to 3 PM in Atlantic Hall B. Convention Scene will be there with some action figures and artwork for sale so come by and say hi. You can also pick up a free Convention Scene lanyard so join us at the show.
The Secret History of Convention Scene (and Our Almost Anniversary)
March 30, 2010 by Brian Pate
Filed under Comic Books, Florida, Site News
I did not want to let the month of March go by without acknowledging that this is actually the 10 year anniversary of the launch of Comic Book Conventions.com, the predecessor of Convention Scene. In the next couple of months, I hope to start a dialogue with everyone about what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong, but for now, let’s celebrate with a look back at how it all began,and if you have time to post a response, let us know how long you have been following my sites or share a memory of your own.
The Original FASN Poster
It all started with a poster. Seriously. My foray into the World Wide Web began with an assignment to create a poster for a class in Photoshop I was taking, back around 1998. Having had the idea for a while to start a website listing all the events going on in Florida, I used the assignment as an opportunity to create a nice collage of images of celebrities taken at conventions (mostly by resident Convention Scene photographer Dwayne Gill) and launch my first website…FASN, The Florida Autograph Seekers’ Network. Located at GeoCities, the site is long gone, and I don’t even have a screenshot of it, but it paved the way for everything to follow.
CBC in September 2000
My next launch came in March 0f 2000: Comic Book Conventions.com. This was my first attempt at using actual web design software – Adobe GoLive. Made from scratch myself,
Autograph Alliance in November 2002
the site was primitive, largely ignored at first, and often went months without an update.
I considered Comic Book Conventions.com just a warmup, though. My real target was my next website – Autograph Alliance, launched in August of 2000. Replacing FASN, Autograph Alliance was supposed to do for the whole country what FASN did for Florida. And it worked. For awhile.
Thinking to create a network of sites under one central domain, I moved Autograph Alliance under the domain of Massive Universe and made plans to do the same thing for Comic Book Conventions.com.
CBC in November 2002
But a funny thing happened along the way. In 2002, I decided to buy a template and do a redesign of Comic Book Conventions.com. And lo and behold, I got an advertiser…Capital Associates. Still with us today in the form of Capicons.com. And I got more advertisers.
Comic Book Conventions.com was making money. Autograph Alliance was taking a tremendous amount of time and wasn’t making money. The writing was on the wall. It only made sense to concentrate my efforts on what was working, and that meant Comic Book Conventions.com. And so I did.
And Comic Book Conventions.com had a great run. The site grew in popularity and word of it spread throughout the industry. Slowly but surely it became the place to check when you were planning your convention schedule for the year. But as the years went on, I felt like the site was stuck. While I watched other sites grow and evolve, I felt trapped by Comic Book Conventions.com stagnant HTML, riddled with bad code that I could never hope to clean up. Sure, I rolled out a few changes and
CBC in January 2005
improvements as time went on, but I knew the site could be more. I wanted it to be more. I knew it would be more.
For years, I began making plans, always telling my friends, “Next year. You’ll see. A whole new relaunch.” But funds set aside for programmers always ended up going for something else. So I waited. I waited until I found the right pieces of technology that I could knit together myself to create a superior site, one with a database of events, and a true archive, and RSS feeds for whatever you could possibly want.
Convention Scene in March 2010
So in late 2008 I began putting it together. While things did not come together in time to launch it for MegaCon 2009, I finally pulled the trigger in May of 2009 and Convention Scene was born, the latest in a long line of my internet endeavors. And I know Convention Scene has its detractors, those who long for the simplicity of Comic Book Conventions.com. But while I’m taking a look down memory lane today, I’m also looking ahead to the future. I still believe Convention Scene is only reaching the tip of the iceberg of its potential. But that’s a conversation for another day. For now, I hope you enjoyed this look back and will stay with us for the ride to come.
