This past weekend, I returned to exhibit at Dragonmeet, following on from a successful experience in 2023. Dragonmeet is an annual tabletop convention held in London, typically in late November or early December. Like last year, Dragonmeet was held in the London Novotel West in Hammersmith, though next year they plan to move to ExCeL London.
Dragonmeet sees a nice mix of indie designers and established TTRPG publishers and the trading hall is open for one day only, the Saturday.
As previously, I wanted to document my experience as a TTRPG exhibitor, covering the highs and lows, expenses, revenue, and set-up/breakdown process.
Costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Table rental (corner) | £250 |
| Hotel (2 nights) | £378 |
| Parking | £60 |
| Total cost of expenses | £688 |
These are the costs solely attributed to Dragonmeet 2024 and don’t include things like meals and petrol.
We chose to stay at the venue (London Novotel West), which was more expensive but also a lot more convenient.
Sales
| Title | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Runecairn Wardensaga Remastered Standard | 16 |
| Runecairn Wardensaga Remastered Variant | 2 |
| Runecairn: Into the Nine Realms | 10 |
| We Deal in Lead | 14 |
| Runecairn Bestiary | 6 |
| The Howling Caverns | 2 |
| We Deal in Lead: Omega City (Ashcan) | 2 |
| Button | 2 |
| Patch | 4 |
| Print, A4 | 1 |
| Print, A5 | 4 |
| T-Shirt | 5 |
| Watch and Warrant (Cassette) | 2 |
Total amount of revenue: £1219
Some interesting things to note:
- Hardcovers were more popular than stapled zines or paperbacks (though some stuff is only available in hardcover).
- The Runecairn hardcover bundle continued to prove popular and I managed to upsell a few people.
- I didn't bring any dice to sell this year, since dice are everywhere at Dragonmeet and there's a lot of competition.
- T-shirts sold decently well, a combination of folks specifically looking for a By Odin's Beard RPG shirt and others liking the design. We decided to prop up a display t-shirt using some grid shelves, which worked pretty well though the black shirt blended in a bit too much into the black tablecloth.
- Button badges weren't too popular, but I have plans on how to better showcase them using a little basket to keep them separate.
Profit
| Expenses | £688 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | £1219 |
| Profit | £531 |
The cost for a table was £50 higher than last year because I upgraded to be an associate sponsor.
My wife and I worked the whole Saturday (8 hours), plus 1.5 hour setup Friday night and 0.5 hours Saturday morning, and 1 hour breakdown on Saturday night.
So, 10 hours worth of work (not including travel) per person is 20 hours.
£531 profit / 20 hours = £26.55/hour
UK minimum wage is £11.44/hour, so we made more than double.
This is a simple breakdown and doesn't take into account the cost of goods sold, etc., but I think it gives a good idea, especially if you've got multiple people helping out.
Setup/breakdown
We took the day off work and drove down from North Yorkshire Friday morning. The drive into London took about 5 hours, accounting for two breaks along the way. This drive was better than last year, as we left earlier and managed to avoid most of the Friday rush hour traffic, though it was still pretty hectic.
We got parked and checked into the hotel. Since we were in the Upper Trade Hall, we couldn't start setup until 21.00 (there was another event in that hall until 18.00). So we relaxed, grabbed something to eat, and had a drink. Thankfully I got word from the Dragonmeet Discord server that setup was open at about 20.00, so we grabbed our stuff from the car and began setup.
Setup was smoother and easier than last year (there were multiple lifts out of order last year) and since we had the portable hand truck it was quick to unload.
I made a conscious effort to take things easier this year and not stress as much, since we were coming off Thought Bubble two weeks earlier and November had been a busy month for my wife and I. So I decided to just take the stock we'd brought back from Thought Bubble, plus a few extra copies of Wardensaga. This proved to work well, as I'll get into more later.
Breakdown on Saturday was pretty painless, though we had to queue for a bit for the lifts down to the carpark.
Observations
- We had a corner booth at the far end of the Upper Trade Hall; a decent spot with good foot traffic. Sales were slow to begin, despite the traffic, but picked up around noon and dropped off after 16.00.
- We almost sold out of the standard cover of Runecairn Wardensaga, which hopefully means my stock estimations are working.
- I prefer having a table and a half (like at Dragonmeet and UKGE) rather than just one table (like Thought Bubble), since it gives us a little more room to breathe and try different stand configurations.
- I had a lot of really nice interactions with folks stopping by the table. Some stopped by to say hello and mentioned they followed me on social media, others said they enjoyed playing my games, and a handful of people said they enjoyed reading my con post-mortems (like this one!), which is great to hear!
- I also had a few people mention they loved the covers on my books, or the artwork. You've heard this before, but nothing beats a strong cover to help get eyes on your books. If you have the choice to spend money on anything, invest in cool art for the cover!
- I've usually used a WisePad POS device at previous conventions, which connects to my Shopify store. However, they've updated the app to allow me to use the phone itself (Android tap to pay) as a payment device, which makes things a lot easier. I only had to use the WisePad for a few transactions that didn't work on the phone, likely due to bank verification needing the PIN, etc.
- I was able to step away for about 20 minutes to eat my lunch in our hotel room and have a breather. This really helped as I can get overwhelmed by the large crowds.
- We drove back home on Sunday morning, which meant we missed Muppetmeet, a day of workshops and panels put on by Soul Muppet and Dragonmeet. Next year!
- Dragonmeet's really nice since everything is focused on one day, but it's also the furthest away for us (5 hour drive, each way) so we end up more exhausted than after something like Thought Bubble, which is spread out over two days but only takes us 60 minutes to drive to.
- Next year Dragonmeet will be at ExCeL London, which should be an interesting change, for both logistics and hall setup. The organiser John mentioned they might move to a two-day event as well, further down the road. Watch this space!
- It was great catching up with other exhibitors and indie creators; there are so many people out there willing to share what they've learned and help others find their way in a complicated industry.
Improvements for next time
- Buy a basket for button badges.
- Tweak the t-shirt display a bit more.
- Make more signage to promote the bundles on offer.
