And if the added costs from changing everything have to get passed along for the business to endure and means fewer guests, higher costs for creators and exhibitors to get a table and higher ticket prices, or a change to a less expensive venue that is smaller and can't accomodate as many tables or patrons, it won't have any effect on the business and will be no bug deal right?

-M

So let's take a small show like Gem City Comic Con. First a new logo has to be paid to be designed. Graphic design is about balance of images etc. so whatever name is chosen can't just be patched into the old one. Graphic designers charge money to make logos and take time to do so. Promotional material for the 2018 show in Marchhave already been made, artists paid, printers paid, material distributed, etc. It's all technically unusable now and new material has to be ordered, but now the show is three-four months away, not 6-7 months away when the original material was designed, so to get it done and out there in time to actually promote the show, you need to do rush orders on all of it...posters, books marks, print ads (i.e. you have to now change the material sent into places running the ad, they have to either redo the material it was printed in or reset their production stats, etc. all of which means they are going to charge the con folks more than the original agreement because it is a change in the deal. Then there is signage at the con, signs for the entire convention center, the streets nearby, etc. all of which has to be redone which costs money to reproduce the signage since the old one cannot be used any longer. Vinyl banners, etc. cost a to because they are durable and can be reused, not if you have to make new one because you cannot use you previous name any longer. If you have a website that uses your con name as a domain name, you know have to buy a new domain name and probably are under contract for a while for the old one. Plus a web designer will charge you to recode the page to feature the new logo and name, change all the references throughout the page, etc. etc.

Each year the con sells merchandise at the shows to help put money in its coffers to pay for next year's guests, venue etc, that have to be paid on the front end even though money form the con comes in at the back end. All the old inventory now has to be destroyed at a loss because it can't be sold with the name comic con on it. New merchandise for this year that you designed and have put into production has to be halted or destroyed without ever selling any of it. All are losses. If you want to have that kind of merch for sale this year, you have to rush again to pay someone to design and produce it. All the tickets you put up for advance sale on your website have to be recalled and destroyed and remailed to those who chose to get them by mail after of course you pay to have new tickets designed and printed. Even if one were mailed out, the tickets you already printed have to be destroyed and reprinted. All that comes out of the con organizers pockets and it ain't cheap.

Now for a small con that only produces a few paper fliers and rents a VFW hall for a few hours and only has local artists might not feel it, but the larger small cons and medium size cons that actually take place in venues geared towards conventions, shows that have paid guests flown in and accommodated, that have deals with local hotels for guests who might be travelling to the show for its 2 or 3 day run, basically have to come up with the money to redo everything their start up costs covered, and all the existing material they have paid for has to be replaced and destroyed, and that's not going to be cheap. And it all has to come out of someone's pocket with the hope that the changes don't mean that the show gets missed by potential attendees because they don't know what it is or are looking for stuff under the old name because they don't know about the changes.

It's not automatically catastrophic sure, but added expenses combined with a poorly attended show because the changes cut into potential attendees could leave some serious cash flow shortages for shows, and a bad show leads to fewer future vendors and attendees that can start a vicious downward cycle moving forward. Some shows operate on razor thing margins and live show to show in terms of revenue generation. Added expenses or underperforming shows because the marketing message misses intended customers because of the changes can be a devastating blow to some of these operations. An upcoming show that has to recall promo materials already made for it and replace all of them is looking at maybe a 50% increase in costs and has to hop it doesn't have a reduction of revenue because of the changes.

-M

It's been Phoenix Comicon here for years. That works just fine   

Officially Phoenix Comicfest now. But all the Phoenix Comicon links via internet still function this year. Not that the title really matters all that much as it seems that comic books are not the main draw anymore? It is all about the celebrity star anymore. Under Guests it goes: movies and television, authors, comics and artists, voice actors and then cosplay. On the home page comic book creators only rate under the recently announced header or as part of a screen slide if you are a big name like this year it is Greg Cappullo/Scott Snyder attending. 

My point exactly. Why call yourself Comicon if you aren't giving enough coverage to what you are named after? I enjoy the star panels and movie panels but you can hardly get an artist or writer to do a panel anymore because during that time they aren't making any money or sales. Call your convention anything else but COMICON if you aren't going to give room and time to the comic book professionals. At least now some of the stars are actually in comic related movies and television shows.