Gallery of Stuff I've Done Cartoon Network Studios -
San Diego Comic Con BOOTh - Start to finish
Photos copyright Lori Lane, unless otherwise noted. Appearance in photos does not constitute an endorsement.Â
A comic con booth start to finish - The whole process starts 9 to 11 months before. The more times your company does SDCC, the more points you have, the sooner you can pick your space. We were able to get a space right before Hall H became THE place to be, or we probably wouldn't have gotten a booth for years. Pro tip: the first day you can block rooms via your booth reservation, do it!
I worked with Freeman down in San Diego. For a booth this size, you have to go through the union. You have to order padding, carpet and electrical well in advance. You also have to grid out your electrical to show them where it goes. They also use the map when laying everything down. The third photo shows the shipping containers for the booth pieces. They're created off site and assembled upon arrival. The fourth photo is oneÂ
day's worth of the the different giveaways I made.Â
All of a sudden, everyone shows up, and you're ready to go. Unpacking and assembly. They have to do the sign first, because they lift it with a crane. Once that's done, the walls go up.Â
After the walls are assembled, the tvs are installed, and everything else is unpacked. The volunteers showed up first thing the next morning.Â
The first two minutes of the con to the next 5 minutes. It's a wave of people. My days were managing the booth, running signing, running panels, make sure everyone ate, had time to sit down, that the lines aren't breaking fire code or blocking other booth access, then off to another panel.Â
Running back to the booth, (not pictured) conducting portfolio reviews, hit the green room and checking on guests, provide backup for the media that worked just fine the day before. manage the the Q&A, the countdown to get it wrapped up on time, do hand signals with PR, slow the stampede with free swag, then back down to the booth. It's crazy in the best way.
I include the last photo because every year, we did temporary backdrops we'd change out for each show appearance or giveaway. This is a good size perspective. After the year was over, the shows each got their backdrop to hang, if they wanted to.Â