Titletown Comic & Entertainment Expo Officially Dead
We’ve been following the saga of Titletown Comic & Entertainment Expo (TCE2) for a while. The convention was plagued with troubles from the very get go, and after last fall’s event was cancelled many were still waiting for refunds well into the new year. Things did not look well for the convention, and they had yet to hold a single convention.
Well, it’s officially all over now. Even though the official website is still selling tickets for the June convention, Nerd & Tie has confirmed that TCE2 is dead.
After the official Facebook page was deleted, we reached out to TCE2 organizer Denni Towle to find out what was up. Towle confirmed that the June show was cancelled, and that TCE2 was done as an event. Towle also told us he was trying to learn from this failure, and was considering trying to run a much smaller event in either late 2016 or early to mid 2017 under a different name (and with a slightly different focus), just not using the TCE2 name.
In the last few years we’ve seen the cancellation of Awesome Con Milwaukee, the failure of Fantasticon Milwaukee, YourminiCon pull out, and now the slow collapse of TCE2. All but one of those pulled out before running a single con in America’s Dairyland as well.
Madison’s Wizard World Wisconsin seems to be the only autograph con that’s been able to hold its own in Wisconsin, and it has a massive corporation behind it. One has to ask, what makes Wisconsin so special that so many independent, community focused cons are able to succeed, but almost no one can crack the more mainstream market that is sustainable almost anywhere else?
I guess we’ll find out the next time someone tries to step up to the plate.
Full disclosure: Nerd & Tie is currently planning a convention scheduled for September 2016 in Eau Claire, WI
Wow, this is pretty sad from a regional perspective. I’m guessing that many organizers are overestimating the crowds/profits they’ll derive from the area so they’re booking venues that are too big/expensive. I’ve listened to a bunch of your con reports regarding the model for your area that doesn’t sound too different from the models for other areas but your local geography seems a bit vast & sparse for a con to dream ‘big’ for their first year.