Feb 20 2009
How Much Will the Convention Cost Me?
It is one of the most commonly asked questions about any upcoming convention: “How much is this convention going to cost me?” Unfortunately, the answer is that “it depends.” It depends on a whole list of factors that you have to take into consideration. But, you’re in luck! I’m going to take two conventions with varying prices and options, and break down the costs for each. I’ll be taking into account hotel, travel, food, spending money, autographs, etc. so that you can get a good idea of how much (or how little) a convention can cost.
Cost Estimate: Dragon*con 2009
Dragon*con is a convention I have a lot of familiarity with, as 2009 will be my fifth year attending. It is a convention that has the potential to cost a person thousands of dollars, or only a few hundred, which is why I generally consider it a “middle of the road” convention in terms of cost. It isn’t cheap, but you can do it for a decent price. For the purposes of this price breakdown, the assumption will be that you are attending the entire convention, Friday-Monday. Obviously it will be a lot cheaper if you only attend for a day, but you’ll need to do your own math on that.
Badges/Memberships: A weekend badge will cost you $70 at the cheapest (you would have had to purchase it before Feb. 13th), and as high as $100 at the door.
Hotel: Not everyone needs a hotel room. You may be within driving distance, or have friends nearby you can crash with. If you need a room, there’s a price range here. Let’s assume you’re staying at one of the four host hotels, and not the Motel 8 around the corner (obviously if you stay at the Motel 8, it will cost less, however). All of the host hotels are already sold out, but we’ll select the Sheraton for the price breakdown, since it’s the cheapest of the four. The Sheraton’s base “convention rate” room was $152 a night.
Unfortunately, you also need to account for state/local taxes ($22.80, per night), parking fees ($17 - non-valet, $22 - valet, per night, per car), and internet ($9.94, per 24 hours, if you want it). Assuming you take advantage of the internet and one car’s worth of valet parking, that’s $206.74 a night x 3 nights = $620.22 (or if you stay Thursday night too, like many do, that total becomes $826.96).
Obviously, if you split the room with other people, the price per person isn’t too unreasonable. If you share a room with three other people, with all of the above amenities, your share for the entire weekend is $206.74 (based on 4 nights) or $155.06 (based on 3 nights).
Food: This is one of those areas with a huge price range. You can bring your own snacks, and eat at the con suite for almost nothing. Dragon*con takes place near a food court, but you’ll still probably spend $5 - $10 a person, per meal. If you want something a bit nicer (where you have to tip for service), you could easily go up to $15 - $20 a meal. Let’s assume you bring your own food for breakfast, but have to eat lunch and dinner somewhere. Let’s also assume you’re eating every meal at the food court price range, with each meal averaging $7.50. That’s two meals Friday, two Saturday, two Sunday, and two Monday = approximately $60.
Travel: Again, there’s the potential for a wide range here. If you’re just a few hours away, gas is (potentially) a negligible amount. If you’re driving to Atlanta from Philadelphia like I am, it becomes an expense to be seriously considered. Or, maybe you’re too far to drive, and you have to fly. If you’re flying, you’re probably looking at $250 - $400 (per person) for a plane ticket, depending on where, when, and what time your flights are. If you’re driving as far as I am, you’ll probably want to set aside about $200 for gas (that’s total for the car, not per person). That’s assuming gas prices stay reasonable between now and then.
Merchandise/Art/Stuff: How much you spend on merch is entirely up to you. You can spend nothing, or you can spend thousands. There is no good way to estimate this, and it’s something you have to make a judgment call on for yourself. I usually plan to spend $50 - $100, NOT including autographs.
Autographs: This is something that can get really expensive. Autographs, for most guests at Dragon*con, are not included in your membership fee. They usually run from $20 - $35 each. I happen to collect autographs, so my budget for this is usually $100 - $200, depending on the guest list.
Total Cost: Okay, here we go! We’ll do this math problem based on me, as someone traveling by car from far away ($50), staying four nights at the Sheraton w/ the amenities ($206.74), and splitting it all with three other people. I’m basing my meals on bringing my own breakfast, and eating food court priced meals for two meals each on Friday - Monday ($60). I’m also adding in my usual budget for autographs ($150) and merch ($75). My total? About $541, just for me.
Cost Estimate: Animation & Gaming Ohio 2009
Just taking a quick glance at the prices for Animation & Gaming (A&G) Ohio 2009, you can probably already tell it is much cheaper than Dragon*con. This is a good example of a smaller con, and how dramatic price differences can be from convention to convention.
Badges/Memberships: A full weekend badge for this convention will cost you $25 if you pre-register, and $30 at the door.
Hotel: If you needed a hotel room for this convention, the con rate at the host hotel is $93 a night. As with most hotels, you do have to calculate tax (13%). However, at this convention, when you book a two night stay, you get one weekend badge for free. The hotel also includes a free breakfast, free internet, and free parking. So, for Friday and Saturday night it’ll be $210.18 (that’s including the tax) total. Assuming you split the room with three other people, your portion would be $52.55, and one of you would be getting a free badge.
Food: As I mentioned above, if you stay at the hotel, your breakfast is included. That’s one meal you don’t have to worry about. There are some restaurants near the hotel, including Chic-Fil-A, Starbucks, Wendy’s, East Coast Subs, White Castle, Perkins, and a Longhorn Steakhouse. This means that you can probably get a meal in that $5 - $10 range (maybe more than $15 if you hit up Longhorn/Perkins). That’s two meals a day, for two days (Sat. and Sun.), averaging about $30 for the weekend. If you’re coming in Friday, it may be closer to $40.
Travel: Same info for Dragon*con applies here. If you’re flying, you’re probably looking at $250 - $400 (per person), depending on where, when, and what time. If you’re driving about a thousand miles or more, you’ll probably want to set aside about $200 for gas (that’s total for the car, not per person). That’s assuming gas prices stay reasonable.
Merchandise/Art/Stuff: Same as above really - how much you spend on merch is entirely up to you. You can spend nothing, or you can spend thousands. But, a smaller convention usually means a smaller vendor room, which potentially means there’s less to spend money on.
Autographs: Smaller cons sometimes include autographs in their entry fees, like A&G Ohio does. No need for an autograph budget here!
Total Cost: Time for some more math! Let’s assume you do get a hotel room for two nights with three friends (but you do not get the free badge), you eat at cheap places, and you’re splitting a long car ride with friends. That’s $52.55 (hotel), $30 (highest badge price), $40 (food), $50 (travel), and $75 (merchandise). That’s a total of $247.55.
Some Final Thoughts…
You can attend almost any convention for very little cash. You can hop a free ride with friends, sleep on someone’s floor, eat Power Bars and Pocky all weekend, and not buy a single thing in the dealer’s room. You can also end up spending $260 just on a badge at a Creation Entertainment convention. There are so many ways to increase or decrease costs for a con (like volunteering in return for a badge, for example). The point is that you just need to do a little math as you plan, and figure out just how much it will cost. New con goers tend to forget about the extras, like room taxes, or internet, and it can end up costing everyone far more than originally thought. Don’t get into that mess. Do your homework!
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$70 for a D*C membership? Granted, we get it AT Con for the next year, but our’s is only $45. You should look into that if you go every year.
@ Jenn
This was more a guide for people who had never gone and were trying to estimate costs, so they wouldn’t really have an opportunity to buy it at that really discounted price. But yeah, those who buy them for 2010 at the 2009 will get them cheaper.
Couple of suggestions from someone who’s attended D*Con since 1989.
Screw valet parking. You can park at a MARTA stop (I suggest Dunwoody; it’s a nice area) and pay only $2.00 per day, get on the train, and ride straight to Peachtree Station to get to the Con.
If you want to skip paying for your badge, volunteer to help out one of the programming tracks. They’re always looking for people, and about 30 hrs of volunteer work will exempt you from the membership fee. I’ve done this for two years now, and I wish I’d done it sooner.
Otherwise, good article, and sensible suggestions for the newbies out there.
Great article. I will have an autograph from Jonathan Frakes by the end of 2009. It’s kind of my mission since I can’t make D*C as originally planned. Eek on the cost of autographs, though!
Nice article with a fairly accurate breakdown for the first time convention goer.
I am more concerned about an earlier comment. Now I estimate my time to be worth $15.00 per hour. The respondent is satisfied of working 30 hours and losing $450.00 for a $70.00 weekend pass! And what of the convention do you get to enjoy working 7-8 hours per day? There must be perks added like free autographed pictures and lunch isn’t there?
I for one would go for the hotel thrown in also cause those conventions make a lot of money, my friend. I don’t like losing $380.00 for someone else’s prestige - having a GREAT convention cause there were plenty of free laborers to make the guests time enjoyable. I for one am for the greater cause, but, reality strikes and that math doesn’t make sense.
Great guide for convention costs for the first timer. Also suggest before the con sit down and do the math for total expenses. Since cars break down and flights get delayed I also keep emergency cash and credit card. As con suite staff I need to say that the con suite is snack food only, and everyone needs at least two healthy mom approved meals every day. A good way to save money is to drink lots of water, you paid for it when you bought your membership. There are several water stations in the con area and some panel rooms, in my experience.
Most conventions operate on a year-to-year shoestring budget. They live and die by their volunteers. And, really, the only thing you can give tthose volunteers is a discount on membership. Anything more than that requires knowing the person after years of work so you build up trust, and having an established convention that can afford other perks, whatever those may be.
I’ve volunteered for conventions before, and while it *CAN* give you unprecedented access to the guests, my purpose was to make the con a better place all around. Now that I can pay my way, I do. That said, if everyone paid $70, there would be no convention. The cost of hiring staff to do all the work would kill it for everyone.
Not everyone can pay their way, though. If you just don’t have a spare $70 to pay for attendance, you can work for your badge, and that helps both you and the convention. Many con attendees live on the same kinds of budgets the conventions themselves do, and just may need that $70 for gas to get home. If all you have is time, time is what you spend.
Remember, your time is worth NOTHING, until someone pays you. When you get someone to hand over $15 an hour for you to stand guard over an escalator while trying to steer 60,000 people between panels, you’ll have reached your peak.
Regarding working at cons, I think we need to keep it in perspective. One of my LARP buddies makes about $10,000 per year working part time. For him, this would probably be a great opportunity. He needs to find shortcuts like this to be able to have entertainment, period.
I used to make that much, also. Sometimes a $70 weekend pass can be a deal breaker in this economy, on that budget. If I had been in that situation and local to the con, that would have been my only means of attending. That’s kind of a big deal when you can’t afford cable, internet, or going to the movies, ever. It’s a reprieve for everyone, especially those that would not otherwise have the opportunity to go.