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Interview

Bob Corby p1

READERSVOICE.COM aims to collect a few interesting reading tips. Bob Corby is the founder of SPACE, the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo based in Columbus, Ohio. Anyone can bring their work to the marketplace at these convention-style expos. So readers can find the best work around, by the best writers, artists, and publishers.

READERSVOICE.COM: What did you have to do or redo to set up the transition to the new S.P.A.C.E. venue at the Northland Performing Arts Center, Columbus, Ohio, on July 18 and 19?

BOB CORBY: Luckily I was already talking to the Northland Performing Arts Center about using their facility in 2016 when the hotel we were going to use this year closed. I just asked NPAC when their next available weekend was. I didn’t committee to the change until I contacted all the exhibitors and made sure that most of them could make the change. I refunded the table registration money to any of the exhibitors who couldn’t make it. We also had to make a few quick changes to existing advertising deals. I’m stuck with about 10,000 flyers with the wrong date and location that arrived on my doorstep the day I found out about the hotel’s closing. I also have a stack of tickets with the wrong info on them. I need to ship off replacement tickets to all the people who bought tickets on-line. I spent a lot of time trying to change on-line event calendars. It’s amazing how far out the info travels once you set up an event on a few calendars.

RV: I read that you had 40 exhibitors at the first SPACE, then 65 in 2001. And the Ramada Hotel was getting too small. How many exhibitors are you looking at this year?

BC: The Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center was actually the 4th venue to hold SPACE. We maxed it out in 2010, the first year we were there, with 150 tables. This year with the reset we’re already at 166 tables and we have room for 190.

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– copyright Simon Sandall