Tom Spurgeon chats with David Glanzer of Comic-Con International about the Alternative Press Expo’s move to November next year (which now makes it more than a year away, dammit):
TOM SPURGEON: Why?
DAVID GLANZER: The quick answer was we couldn’t get dates for that location in April. As you know we rely upon the convention facility (whether it be in San Francisco or San Diego) to give us dates that work within our timeframe. We have a long history in San Diego, with a huge amount of hotel rooms and a general impact on the city that is well known.
The Alternative Press Expo, while big for its type, is a smaller event and securing dates, even one year out, has been difficult to say the least. I should point out that we actually have a similar problem with WonderCon. Typically we try to have contracts set up for at least a couple of years. This makes sense when you try to encourage exhibitors, attendees and the like to attend any event.
Unfortunately in San Francisco we can’t book out as far out as we would like. We have been working diligently on trying to secure dates in April for this show, but it just wasn’t possible. The thought of even moving the show to another city to try and keep those dates was floated around, but ultimately it was something that wasn’t possible for a variety of reasons.
The next APE is scheduled for Nov. 1-2, 2008. WonderCon is being held a week or so earlier than last year, on Feb. 22-24. More details on both shows can be found at comic-con.org.
