A fan taking a selfie at FanExpo Denver 2022.
The pandemic will hurt many businesses, but those that profit from gathering large numbers of people in enclosed spaces for days on end have certainly felt the pain in recent years. While many of the spaces have scaled back their portfolios and staff in the COVID-era, Fan Expo HQ, a division of trade show giant Informa Connect, has all joined in. March 2021 will see Denver Pop Culture Con, one of his largest remaining independent shows in North America, followed in August by longtime fancon mainstay Wizard World. The event was selected to demonstrate the performance of
This weekend, Fan Expo HQ returns to its home market of Toronto with its flagship event, Fan Expo Canada. Over 120,000 attendees are expected for his first full show since the pandemic began. This follows his triumphant return to Orlando in the spring when the 2022 edition of his MegaCon drew a record crowd of 140,000, and successful summer events in Chicago and Boston.
All in all, Fan Expo welcomes nearly 1 million fans annually, with 8 new shows added to its line-up in 2022. Among them is his one in the San Francisco market, which is notoriously expensive and difficult to serve. According to the company, that’s enough to rank it as “the world’s biggest Comic-Con producer.”As the convention returns from his COVID-induced slumber, Fan Expo’s strategy will see others zigzag. It jiggles when it moves, so it looks pretty good.
“I wouldn’t say there was a strategy,” says Aman Gupta, the flamboyant and usually media-shy founder and president of Fan Expo. “We were looking for an opportunity to make Fan Expo even better. We signed a deal with Pop Culture Classroom to take over the Denver show. [in San Francisco] Thanks to Informa, we were able to secure a five-year contract. It generated some press and that’s when I heard from Wizard World.
FanExpo President Aman Gupta
Gupta started his business at a young age. At the age of 15, he had his first show, the Sports Cards his convention in Toronto, and invited the legendary Maple his Leafs goaltender, Johnny Bauer, as a guest. Bower introduced his Gupta to some of his NHL pals and stepped onto his show in the early 1990s when the sports card market was very hot. From there, he moved on to Comic-Con.
“Canada didn’t have a national comic convention, so we started Fan Expo as a way to represent our fans here,” says Gupta. In the late 90s, fans began branching out into comic-adjacent genres such as anime, science fiction, and horror, reflecting the breadth of his culture.
According to Gupta, Fan Expo’s goal is to provide fans of all genres with a complete experience, with guests, dealers and programming catering to their specific interests. “If you’re a comic fan, we have comic creators, signings, panels, and workshops. If you’re into anime, we have screenings and special guests. , could become its own stand-alone show.In fact, we marketed exclusively to these niches and just merged it all into one brochure in the mid-2000s.”
Fan Expo’s approach has been met with mixed reviews from purists who prefer a more focused event, but it’s certainly been popular with mainstream audiences drawn into otaku culture from an avalanche of movies and media. has been proven to
In 2013, Fan Expo was on the upswing when San Diego Comic-Con reached its peak and Reed Exhibitions won a gold medal for their ReedPOP Fan Convention brand. “We were doing crazy expansion at the time,” recalls Gupta. “We’ve scaled it up a bit, but it’s been getting harder. The Toronto show had 75-80,000 attendees and he had a lot of exposure and responsibility. He didn’t have the stomach to handle the stress.” ”
According to Gupta, discussions with ReedPOP ultimately fell through, but then Informa called. “They closed a deal and it worked really well,” he said. “I saw their vision and wanted to be a part of it.”
Due to the importance and capital of the new organization, Fan Expo has incorporated several of its shows into international destination events. “This year, his MegaCon show in Orlando blew us away with a massive attendance of over 140,000 people,” he said. Its size nearly overwhelmed the infrastructure of Florida, home of Disney World. They expect a large crowd in Toronto this weekend, but Gupta says the city and venue still have room to grow.
One of Fan Expo’s challenges as an international company is dealing with customs and border issues at the event, where many exhibitors sell expensive items and celebrities make cash-based photo and autograph sales at the show. to solve. Gupta said Fan Expo provides support for exhibitors navigating US and Canadian regulations. “We expect all of our fans, talents and others to abide by the law,” Gupta said.
As the industry recovers from the pandemic, Gupta looks at innovations that could impact the future, especially the fan experience, and help fan events evolve from the standard format they’ve used for the last 30-40 years. I’m here. “2020 and he learned a lot from the digital/virtual shows he did in 2021,” Gupta said. “We’re already looking at ways to integrate digital technology more closely into the show, and that’s been a big step forward.”
Gupta pointed to an upcoming collaboration with live sales platform Whatnot and the evolution of traditional Denver and Wizard World shows as they move to Fan Expo branding. The company is also looking internationally, with a “sister show” planned in Dubai.
But the immediate goal is to bring the entire sector back to financial health. “We are now the biggest in the world and we have to act like that,” he said. “We hope you will join us. We may be competitive, but we have common goals. We all love this space, we love our fans, and we want our event to be a success. I hope to
Captain Marvel Cosplayer at FanExpo Denver 2022
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