OKiCon 2025 Convention Review

I know I do a terrible job of keeping up with the reviews for all the conventions I do, whether I'm selling at or attending. I'm hoping to be able to do better this year, so hold me accountable. This review has things not only I experienced, but also what I've asked and found out about other artists/their experiences. I'm a very emotional person, but I will do my best to remain as neutral as I can.

I applied for OKiCon Tulsa back in October, having been accepted almost immediately but completely forgot until I received the email for load-in information. With other conventions, I have gotten emails leading up to the convention to create hype. I scrambled to book a hotel room, and luckily there was room at the host hotel. I also assumed that with the table being $300, and another $60 for my assistant badge, I figured there would be a few thousand people and it would be easy to recover costs. Boy howdy, was I wrong. While I will fully admit fault for me being a silly goose and forgetting about a convention I booked, this weekend had left me feeling livid and used.

The convention was held over the course of April 4-6, 2025, in Tulsa, OK. I've never been and was looking forward to selling at my first Oklahoma convention. In the load-in email, there was no map saying where I was going to be and I thought maybe they were finishing it and we'd be able to see it when we arrived. My partner and I left early morning Thursday so we'd be able to set up and relax until Friday. When we arrived, there was no map, and just a piece of paper with my name on it. It wasn't even my business name, and upon looking at all the other tables, was met with other folks' names, not their businesses. I tried not to think about it and put my table together.

Originally, our schedule was set as: Friday 3p.m.-7p.m. (someone has a screenshot saying 8p.m. but I'm unable to find it and thus can't confirm)

Saturday 11a.m.-6p.m.

Sunday 11a.m.-5pm

After setting up, I went to go check into my hotel. Despite the convention being this weekend, there was no signage to show where anything was. There were some signs immediately outside of the panel rooms, but nothing to indicate that the vendor's hall was in the building next to the hotel. There was also no way for us to go through a hallway directly from the hotel to the convention center. You had to walk around a blind corner, where someone told me they almost got hit because some goober wasn't paying attention. I'm very thankful no one got hurt. I'm used to receiving a paper copy of a map, generally with the schedule, on the off chance there's a panel these folks want to attend. An attendee for the con approached me while I was waiting to check in to ask me where they could pick up their badge and I wasn't sure.

When we came in on Friday to sell, I didn't expect to have much traffic until after 5, since the trend seems to be that folks aren't getting Fridays off for conventions anymore, so they're just coming after work. Unfortunately, the vendor's hall was even more dead than I thought it would be. For the first 2.5 hours, it was only exhibitors walking around, and most had left their table unattended, which has never happened in my 10 years of selling at cons. Most of the artists I talked to made maybe one sale (some didn't make any), and I only made my table back because of my rad neighbor who helped me cross of Venonat and Magneton. We later told at 7pm on Friday that the vendor's hall was closed. There was no overhead announcement, just a security guard walking around and telling everyone individually.

I always do my best to talk with and make connections with the artists around me. While we are "competition," we are artists together, first and foremost. I fully believe that every artist can succeed and a good attitude can make or break a con. I overheard one of the artists two tables down from me that she had driven 18 hours from Maryland to be there. I was immediately angered because she also said she made $15 on Friday. That should never happen. I really don't like seeing the down spiral of conventions mistreating artists by overcharging and overpromising and then shrugging when we fail. Almost all of the artists I talked to hadn't even covered their table costs on Friday. It broke my heart to hear that people were all suffering.

Saturday was much the same. For the first 2.5 hours, exhibitors walked around a nearly empty hall, and we saw much of the same attendees. I felt even worse that the War Games section was in the very back of the vendor's hall and (as far as I know) had no one there to play. You only really knew about it if you went to the ladies restroom. There was also a Panel Room 3 in the vendor's hall, but as far as I saw, there wasn't anyone going in there. I'd be very disheartened if I was planning on presenting something I was passionate about and no one showed up. On Saturday, I made $40. I sold a Care Bear amigurumi, and an Octopride. I know that most of the people that were selling were roughly in the same boat. I understand that a lot of my work is higher ticket items, so it's easier for me to hit higher sales goals. A good majority of the artists were print and charm artists, so there was a lot more product needed to move in order to hit their goals.

Around 2 p.m. on Saturday, we (the vendors) received emails stating that "Due to lower-than-expected turnout and ongoing inclement weather, we will be closing the Vendor Hall at 3:00 PM tomorrow (Sunday). We understand this may be an inconvenience, and we sincerely appreciate your understanding and flexibility." As far as the "inclement" weather, it was cold and rainy, but I really believe it was due to lack of marketing, as well as poor signage. At this point, there were a good number of artists wanting to just call it a wash and go home Saturday evening. We were told if we left early, we would be blacklisted for life from all Fandom Events run conventions. For a company that runs 10 conventions across the country, having an event this poorly run doesn't look good. Being threatened doesn't feel good, nor does it sit right when you've essentially burned that bridge. No one is feeling good or having a good time, so why choose to relive it?

As an aside, after I went back to my hotel room, I found out that my tiktok account was hacked. This very much added to the terrible feeling about this convention. It absolutely felt cursed. To this day, I haven't gotten it back, but will update when I do.

I only decided to come back Sunday until 3 because I had several people telling me they were thinking about coming back and purchasing. I would hate to find out an artist I was going to purchase from just up and disappeared. I had several people I wanted to purchase from, but couldn't justify going further in the red to have the cool things. One of the artists next to me was up and running around the artist alley, grabbing business cards to hear their grievances as well. Quite a few artists were having their first ever convention as a vendor and I had to tell them that this was not a normal thing and to not be discouraged. As the hall closed, there were still attendees trying to come into the Vendor's Hall, but had to be turned away.

When I walked into the hall, there were a few artists I talked to about their grievances and experiences with this and other conventions. I was speaking to two folks who had breakfast sandwiches, and noticed the Vendors Services head was walking around the vendor's hall with a laptop and security guard. I assume this was to make note of who had left for future blacklisting. This woman had the audacity to make a joke towards the sandwiches friends, saying, "Aww, you didn't get one for me??" Don't make jokes like that with people you don't know and already have a poor opinion of you. I rolled my eyes and moved on to my table.

We received another email on Sunday at 12:30 stating that they were actually keeping the 5p.m. close time, but that we were "allowed" to leave at 3p.m. if we wanted to. They never changed it on their facebook page. I believe that they changed it to make sure they couldn't be sued. On Sunday, I sold one pad and the Krabby kigu. I was not expecting that much, but it was very much appreciated. I was talking with the table behind me about their work (they also made crochet pieces) when the Marketing Head came to my table and the table next to me. I only overheard bits and pieces, but my partner let me know that she had talked about how hard their experience was and how expensive conventions are. I understand, but by doing the math, they made at least $15k just from the artists and vendors. This convention made money off of us. Off the artists and vendors. If a convention fails, it doesn't come out of the staff member's pockets. When an artist fails at a convention, it means that artist doesn't have the ability to pay bills or feed themselves. I have no sympathy for a corporation. I feel, in order for OKiCon Tulsa to save face, they should refund part of everyone's tables. I also feel that they should reverse the blacklisting (not that I feel people would apply for future conventions, but maybe they will.)

Around 3, almost everyone started tearing down. It didn't really matter as there weren't really attendees walking around. It broke my heart to see so many disheartened people at their first convention. I had to tell them this isn't normal and on top of seeing how the state of this world is, I hope no one I spoke with gives up. All of the artists I saw and interacted with are amazing and if I had a comprehensive list of who was there, I would put them below. With that, I will not be selling at future Fandom Events conventions until they work out their terrible management, and stop mistreating artists. We're not items. We're living, breathing people who create amazing things, and are the draw to your conventions. We talk. We work together. I write these reviews to make sure that these conventions are held accountable and do better. I know they can, and I really hope they do.