![]() ![]() Gupta is especially excited about taking over the Chicago event (actually held in Rosemont), whose roots go back to the original Chicago Comic Con, one of the foundational comics events. We know fans especially will appreciate this long-awaited opportunity to come back together.” What became even more clear for us during this time is how important events like ours are for building community and a sense of belonging. Our time was spent working behind the scenes to come back not only safely, but better, stronger, and with a renewed and exciting offering. The FAN EXPO HQ team stayed together and didn’t rest during this pause. Moyes answered a few questions for The Beat, saying that these six shows “are the largest in Wizard World’s portfolio and made the most sense at this time” to acquire, due to their size, location, dates, and venues.Īs for reopening in 2022, hopefully with COVID-19 in the past, he said “We’re encouraged by the pent-up demand by fans, talent, vendors and partners. ![]() We’re looking forward to getting to know each of these individual communities, learn what they’re looking for, and raise the bar!” We’re beyond thrilled to be able to offer that to fans in six new locations, and pleased that Wizard World recognized our ability to elevate guest experience to the next level. “FAN EXPO HQ is devoted to creating unmissable, exceptional fan experiences. Cosplay at Megaconįan Expo President Aman Gupta was extremely bullish on the acquisition in a statement. But even before COVID-19, profits had been spotty for the publicly traded company, as they gradually scaled back from a high of 17 announced shows to only four, and became increasingly less focused on comics and more on nerdlebrities and photo ops. With live events sidelined by the pandemic, over the last year Wizard had turned to virtual events, and more recently, NFTS. After the Shamus brothers, Gareb and Stephen, left the company, a series of investors and shell companies operated the shows. Owned and operated by the Shamus family, the earliest events set the tone for the “exclusives/collectibles/autograph” shows that exploded in popularity over the last 15 years or so before the pandemic put a halt to them. Wizard World launched in the late ’90s as an offshoot of Wizard magazine. (For details, pore over the archives of our “Con Wars” tag here at The Beat.) ![]() It also marks the end of the sometimes controversial but sometimes much larger than life Wizard World brand of events. Fan Expo is owned by Informa, a global information services company that puts on mostly B2B events around the world. The move makes Fan Expo possibly the largest producer of fan conventions in the world, with 17 shows in North America, more than 1 million attendees and more than 10 million square feet of exhibition space. ![]()
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