San Diego Comic-Con is fast approaching and once July hits, I always have this recurring nightmare that when the show begins I will feel unprepared and lost like I forgot something. This fear has always made me re-evaluate how I prepare for SDCC and how I could improve on it for the following year. With exclusives, events, panels, signings and more already announced for this year, many of you have already begun making your lists and started piecing together plan A through Z.
As more information trickles in each day, most of your agenda’s are almost complete and just waiting for that final confirmation when the panel schedules/information are released, so you can start adjusting and finalizing your plans. The finalweeks after the schedule release leading up to SDCC, which I call “the Madness”, is when the flood gates are opened and all of a sudden a gluttony of Comic-Con information starts magically appearing at a rapid pace and it always seems to affect my schedule. I have adjusted and re-adjusted my plans so many times over the years that I expect this and it is probably the main reason why I have that recurring nightmare.
Through my re-evaluation process I do every year I noticed a majority of those adjustments I make center around the exhibit hall as limited releases, signings, and swag distribution. These always seem to be added or changed at the last minute. What I found out was that I kept looking at my spreadsheet for time, information and booth number and then periodically looking at the exhibit hall map I ripped out of the event guide for booths I was unsure were (like the 5000’s). This would require me to stop and review the map for a moment each time, which took a couple of minutes before I figured out which way to head for the booth.
Those couple of minutes may seem trivial, but over the years I have missed out on quite a few opportunities by being late a few minutes. So, since I am a techie and I always like to use technology to streamline the process and there is no way I was going to memorize where each booth is I needed to find a better solution. This made me look for a portable way to have the booth information and be able to access that information on the go.
Enter Google Maps and my cellphone. Google Maps has a feature called My Maps where you can create a custom map and since booth information comes out earlier than the schedule and most companies have the same booth every year updating/creating a custom map seemed like the perfect solution. Having the exhibit map on my phone and being searchable has made navigating the exhibit hall fast and easy for me. Since I feel we have the most passionate readers who like me are always looking to improve their SDCC experience I of course want to share my tech tip with you all!
If you would like to use the exhibit hall map I created for myself this year feel free too and bookmark this page to access it – SDCC 2017 Exhibit Hall Map:
If you feel adventurous and want to create your own map than give Google Maps a try it is a blast!
If you have any questions please feel free to comment or ping me on twitter @evico
