Hauntcon Reports

[drfrightner]

Anyone have a Hauntcon report? Anyone attend the tour last night... how many went, how did it go? Whats going at the show today?

Send in your reports.

Larry

[drfrightner]

Found this article on Hauntcon...

http://www.jsonline.com/business/44103317.html

[drfrightner]

I heard about 130 people went to the Terror on the Fox tour. No word yet on any details. I'll let you know what I hear. Larry

[drfrightner]

More reports...

The Friday night tour to Morgan Manor or whatever that place is called had about 200 people attend. I think that was the big tour based on past years I don't know if 200 is good or great or what.

I also heard Hauntcon 2010 is going to Orlando...now that is a head scratcher there. IAAPA has been there for years, there are not really any haunts there... I guess you could go over to Busch Gardens or something, maybe Disney. But we call do that ourselves.

Curious what is the throught process there but we'll see. Larry

[HouseOfHorrors]

Went on the pre-show haunt tour... Terror On the Fox was great!!! Did a lights on the next morning.. very cool and definately one of the best haunts I've beem through.. totally worth the trip!!! Other haunts on the tour were nowhere on the level of terror on the fox unfortunately : (
Have had a great time at the show so far... going to try and catch a little sleep now, but will post a little more info tomorrow!!!!

-Tim

[drfrightner]

Tim,

Keep the updates coming!!!!

Larry

[HouseOfHorrors]

Went to the Wisconsin Feargrounds last night... they had 3 pretty cool haunts there..one that was like a big horse barn..pretty cool!! There was an IAHA auction... most stuff seemed to go pretty close to what it reatailed for, didnt see anything go too cheap. There was an open bar and lots of great mexican food, all in all it was a fun night and there was a really good turn out.. lots of people came out!!

-Tim

[Grimley]

Why is there always Mexican food at haunt functions. Nasty.

[Jordan24]

So, is it official that HAuNTcon is moving to Orlando next year? Doesn't really make much sense?

I mean Orlando is a cool place and there's a lot to do, but I always thought of HAuNTcon as a 'Haunt Tour' type of show. And there is no 'professional' haunt I know of within a reasonable driving distance from Orlando available to tour?

Either way it would cool to have the opportunity to make it out to more than just TransWorld next year.

[RJ Productions]

I’d have to agree Jordan, what is the thought process here????

Face it Hauntcon is NOT the industry’s trade show, period. Look at St. Louis: every major vendor, large displays, can only be attended by people in the industry. Hauntcon: only a handful of vendors, little or no displays, allows the general public attend. NO trade show allows the general public to attend, conventions do!! I wrote a whole article defining tradeshows and conventions and there is nothing wrong with being either as long as you promote being the right function.

So Hauntcon does NOT represent the industry, it still has a purpose and a function. It is a convention that focuses on Haunt Tours, seminars and fun events for Haunters and Haunt Enthusiasts. It’s a noble and needed purpose. To that end it does share its purpose with several other regional shows, MHC and NHC. These shows allow Haunters to see Haunts they would never be able to see in season…oh and party a wee bit in between!!!

All of the shows have their own set time frames so that they do not cannibalize the very limited market of Haunters. Everyone has been slowly growing an audience, trying to be a little different, but basically fulfilling the same needs.

Now all of a sudden Hauntcon makes a couple business decisions many people have questioned. First, why did Hauntcon wait until after the other shows published their dates to announce that they would now go head to head with another show??? Didn’t they learn the lesson that TW and the Dallas Costume Show just went through this year??? The costume industry is a lot bigger than the Haunter’s and they may not survive this “us or them” mentality. So why attempt it?

I thought that was a pretty dumb move, now I hear Hauntcon is going to Orlando??? Let’s see, your forte is Haunt Tours, I believe an article or posting stated that to be considered for Hauntcon you needed a pro Haunt within driving distance of the location and at least 3-4 Haunts within a several hour drive for the pre-show tour. I don’t think there are ANY Haunts with a several hour drive!! Sure you might say there’s Universal and Busch Gardens, but the show is no where near their season and most if not all of the Haunt sections go way. These are year round attractions that only re-theme for the season! Oh, but then there is Disney’s Haunted Mansion!! Sure it was fun to do the private tour at IAAPA a couple years ago, but to base an entire convention around it??? Not a smart move.

People complained that Vegas was too much of a distraction from the Haunt show. So what is Orlando? If Hauntcon thinks that people will combine their vacations and the convention, that didn’t fly in Vegas either. If I’m going to Orlando for a vacation I’m going to Disney, Universal, Busch and if I wanted to drive for a couple hours I’d go to Cape Canaveral!!

Then there is a business practice of playing to your audience. Hauntcon is basically a regional show. It travels and while a percentage of the participants go year after year, the majority arrive from the region around the show. So it only makes sense to go to your market. Texas has a high concentration of Haunts and Haunters, so does the Midwest. But Orlando??? Not so much, heck it makes Vegas look like a Haunt Meca!! So you have to wonder what’s going on??

Maybe the recent posts were right. Leonard received a “Lifetime Achievement” Award from IAHA and some people stated you usually only get these during the twilight or at the end of your career. If Hauntcon continues with these types of business decisions, it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe it’s all a plan. Sell off the magazine, DOA is pretty much DOA... At least after the show bombs in Orlando, Mr. Pickel will already be in Florida, the land of retirement!! Did Hanfadomous already predict this????

[drfrightner]

Couple of things...

First keep in mind that Leonard now lives in Florida so its close to his home but... I think this was a very poor choice. There are certain states void of major haunted houses or for that matter haunts at all... FLORDIA might be on the top of the list.

Why?

Well because the amusement parks own Halloween statewide, heck they market nationwide and that makes it hard for any haunts located there to get any traction. If anyone heard about this Steve (HH.com) guy and some people from New York tried to open a haunt in Miami and I heard they flopped and lost a ton of money. I told them going in they would not do well but they didn't listen.

If you have any plans on opening a haunt in Southern Florida double check your head for brain injury. Universal will kill you no matter if your haunt is even 300 miles away, then you throw Busch into the mix, and now Disney is doing some haunted thing forget about it.

I now Tampa has some of their haunts partially set up, and by that time I'm sure Universal takes most of them down, you have Disney haunted mansion but we've all seen that.

Orlando bad idea!

Lastly, as for Orlando most haunt owners are in the midwest to the east coast so if I'm doing a haunt show I'm staying as close as I can to the center of people and well Orlando just isn't it.

Even if people do come they'll do exactly what they do at IAAPA fly through then head off to Disney or Universal...that is what I would do.
SO that makes it bad for the vendors.

Anyway I do hope it works out for Hauntcon but I would second guess that choice for sure, especially when you couple that with having the same dates as another show. Hmmm... rough!

But you know what all these shows are tough no matter where you go, its tough so you just have to do what you think is right and go for it.

Larry

[RJ Productions]

Larry, you made the comment about times being bad. Maybe that's HC's reasoning. Florida is hurting, just like everyone else. The Parks are laying people off. Either HC figures people will combine vacation and the convention or there will be deals on accomodations? Maybe they hope things will return to normal by next year?

Either way it still doesn't make sense. News from IAAPA and IALEI both state that more people are staying close to home. Attendance at local or regional attractions is up. People do not have the money for travel but still want entertainment. This could be a good thing for Haunts this season!!! But if I was planning HC for next year I would capitilize on that. I would look for the largest concentration of Haunters and bring the show to THEM so most of the audience is within driving distance. Not force EVERYONE to travel! Doesn't make sense!!

With TW in St. Louis again next year it will three years since a Haunt show was in the Chicago area. MIlwaukee wasn't a good choice from what I am told. I would have thought they would have jumped on that and moved HC to Chicago in 2010??? They wouldn't have to go to Rosemont. There are other small venues in the surounding area, or maybe even closer to Chicago!!

I know it appears that we are "bagging" on HC but this is actually constructive crititism.. IF the industry has several successful regional shows it helps create a healthy environment. If shows close it sends the wrong message. HC as well as the other shows should be doing everything to help sustain their shows and build attendance. That means NOT competing agains each other and most importantly NOT competing with their audience!!!

HC appears to doing BOTH!! It's bad for their own business future and it's bad for the industry. Leonard always feels there are people out here who have it "in" for HC and hope for its demise. I think he is right, but HC's biggest enemy is itself, not us!!!! Hopefully they rethink things.

[FrightProps]

Good for FrightProps anyway...

FrightProps just moved 1.5 hour drive from Orlando so I am stoked HauntCon will be right next door next year! If true FrightProps will for sure have a bunch of booths.

I was surprised to see a couple of new haunts popping up in Tampa this year. Maybe with the economy the way it is we will see Florida haunts spring up and do well? Maybe Universal will have a special haunt event just for HauntCon? Hmm... We will see!

[Greg Chrise]

Just to try to be open minded, every year some number of brand new people that have not been there and done that enter the idea of having a haunted attraction. I think Haunted Attraction Magazine has always used the Florida attractions as a side pull to those taget audiences.

Plus there is a developing core that will not miss a HauntCon and find nothing to by at Transworld they value or could afford so it is a waited trip. Certainly Transworld has a place with those with thousands that need to spent. It does not have the welcome to the haunting world you would expect.

It's the difference between seeing Home Depot for the first time and with out guidance wondering what all you could build with all of this compared to a tuperware party intimacy developing the mannerisms of now that you have the tools to store food what will you do?

It doesn't matter. 500 expected social attendance vs 3,000 hardcore attendance, both have their own vibe.

Just from reviewing all the pictures of who is who in attendance of these venues, there are a few major audiences wandering around. Those that went to the IAHA Disney event are not fully the same followers of HauntCon. People will venture not so much because of where it is at but, it is the only occasion surely where their many friends gather and mingle with new people every year.

Even when Haunted Attraction was heavily into Transworld it was obvious what type of people were being cultivated. The bigger picture is you are new, that's great, do you have a million dollars? Do you want to be the next Disney? Sure you do.

To new people it is quite satisfactory to tour haunts that are below the national radar. Any reference material makes ideas come about. I think his formula will survive. It might not be representative of what a veteran can even understand as having value. It's a floating welcome wagon that gets a few hundred bucks out of your pocket. It's like yellow pages dot com. For $300 we will list your business and you will automatically be someone.

For some amount of time people feel like they are somebody. No matter which tradeshow or convention they attend. What they do with it is up to them. Start out with tupperware, work up to coolers and then the double door refrigerator with an ice maker in the door. Then fail and start all over with zip lock bag with your stuff in it because you spent all you money trying to be somebody.

yet the welcome wagons continue as there are always people moving into the apartment complex for what ever reason.

[Greg Chrise]

I want a younger sexier perkier welcome wagon with more coupons and free gifts, possibly some fresh fruit in a basket. I'm not giving yellow pages dot com any money. Many will because that's just what you do.