SEMOCon 2026 Con Review
I have had my eye on SEMOCon for a while as I have been wanting to do it for a few years, ever since they spoke with me about our cosplay group potentially being guests at their convention. SEMOCon is held in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, with this year being September 18th-20th. They celebrated their 12th year, and I was honestly surprised. Before I get too into it, I want to remind folks that while I am critical of certain aspects, please know that I am hoping that my words are taken as constructive criticism and I want the convention to improve. I may not be at those particular cons in future years, but I want them to grow and learn from their mistakes. I want SEMOCon to be a large event that makes their staff money so they're able to upgrade and do more amazing things.
To start off, the email for load-in never came to me. My best friend and co-leader for Snacc Pack had to forward the information to me, and even then, they originally weren't going to sell as they weren't sure it would be worth it. (It ended up being worth it for Snacc Pack, but not me.) She had to forward me the information, because, according to the Con Head, their emails just weren't getting sent. Something was going on in their system, and 75% of the vendors never received anything past the acceptance email (which we received in May.) Understandable as things happen, but I do have issues with the fact that there was not an official map for us to promote and tell people "I'm going to be here this weekend!"
We got set up in our spot, with multiple people not arriving or setting up on time. The Con Head was kind enough to tell me to contact my bestie to get her there for a table, and then we were moved across the way to another unclaimed table. It was a bit messy, but again, they were kind and let us spread out across two spots instead of our original single spot. It definitely makes my booth look better because you can take your time to look through the kigurumi rack, or the cute hammock of amigurumi I've worked hard to pattern. I ended up only having one sale on Friday, which didn't even put me in the double digits. There were at least 7 tables that were unclaimed, with my best friend coming early on Saturday to set up and be there for the two remaining days. In the middle of the night, due to no fault of the convention, one of the AC units busted, leaving the convention hall to be 80+ degrees for the final two days.
We came a little early to find out about the AC, and then had to sit in that for 10+ hours. Personally, I think unless your attendance numbers are in the high thousands, anything more than 8 hours is cruel. Especially when on Saturday, I didn't even hit $50 in total sales. At this point, I was tired, hot, and frustrated. Everyone was courteous and told me my work was beautiful, but most people couldn't afford my plushies. They then were passing by later with bags and bags of mass-produced work. I would much rather people not lie and tell me they'd prefer to finish out their pop collection or get yet another 3D printed item.
Speaking of; There were easily too many 3D Print booths. I will not call them artists, because they all mostly had the same items. There were also too many crochet people (I know, I am also lumped in there, but my booth is only 40% crochet, and I offer plenty of other items). To be honest, I probably could have just set up a Tarot reading booth all weekend and would have made more money that way (lol). Most of the other artists my partner and I talked to also didn't do well sales-wise and that could have been due to the crowd or the heat. I really tried to keep my costs down on the chance that something like this would happen. I only needed $400 to break even, and at the end of the weekend, I only made just over $100. Sales-wise, this is the worst I've ever done. It may not be the largest loss, but it definitely wasn't fun to deal with.
I also took some time out to check out the cosplay contest as my bestie entered with her Mollymauk Tealeaf cosplay. I only got to see the deliberation and the awards, but the vibes were very off. SEMOCon contracted a dancer from California, who was part of a dance troupe, but when we looked up their socials to follow them, there was nothing. The dancer had a couple of songs to help ease everyone's tension while they awaited the results, but we thought it odd that she was either not told how long she had, or that had she not been cut off, would she have just kept going? I could understand three songs to dance to while the results were tallied, but she was about to start song five before they cut it short. My friend stated that no one cheered for the people walking on stage, so she had taken up the mantle of hype man. I also noticed this during the dancing and the awards. The vibes were very off here. I do appreciate that they had separate categories for kids and teens, as I feel most cons should have those separated. It's not fair to pit a 17-year-old who made their whole costume from scraps against a 5-year-old whose mom put them in the costume. The kid's winner made a whole fursona head out of paper and tape, which I thought was very witty and a great use of what they had on hand. The teen winner went with the Alice in Wonderland theme as the Mad Hatter. Again, absolutely amazing work.
Then we got a little mixed up, which was silly because the judges had almost 20 minutes to get their sheets organized to hand to the emcee. So they got the Best in Show mixed up with the best Adult. So I was thinking that my friend was going to be Best in Show, when she actually won Best Adult. I think it was silly and kind of made the Best in Show's announcement fall a little flat. It definitely didn't help that the room was hot and no one had con competition etiquette training. (If you're reading this, SEMOCon, please let me emcee next year, I would love to organize the cosplay contest) It hurts seeing people not be hyped up when they've chosen to do something that's scary to a lot of people. Apparently, as well, the contestants had to get on stage and talk about their cosplay, which is very scary to a lot of folks. I know I yap a lot, so while it isn't difficult for me, I can see how it is to others.
I do really appreciate that their awards are not just a piece of paper, and shows that they have growth mindsets with their convention. I did end up going back to my table after that, and spent the rest of the time just working on crochet. I did end up finishing two of the amigurumi I brought to work on for stock: Felicity and Harry, both from Animal Crossing, so while I definitely could have benefitted more from staying home and working on existing orders and getting ready for Ancient City Con next week, I did make some amazing plushies. Everyone was really impressed with my work and interested in my patterns, so I hope they do come back and purchase those, as every pattern sale helps me purchase more materials and be able to make more patterns. I even got so far as to get started on my next amigurumi pattern before we broke down for the weekend.
Sunday was much the same, with one small caveat; we were told that vendors would be able to break down at 3p.m., but that the vendors hall was able to stay open until 4. I was exhausted, hot, and just ready to be home. I would like clearer communication from the convention staff that I'm working with about the exact hours, rather than telling attendees that they can keep hanging around and that the vendors "won't be punished" for leaving early. I don't believe that SEMOCon meant it maliciously, but I still don't appreciate it. If people aren't making money and are threatened to be blacklisted from future events, is that really a punishment? All-in-all, I didn't have a fantastic weekend. I also had a child walk up to us several times over the weekend, asking for me to buy a $1 bracelet from them when their parents had their own booth, another offering me a "Plastic Jesus" and when I told her politely that I appreciated it, but no thank you, she gave me a dirty look. I will be polite until there is unkindness given.
SEMOCon definitely has a lot to work on. I feel that their vendor's hall comes across more as a flea market rather than an actual convention layout. I did end up getting a beautiful EVA-01 statue from a seller, but most of the other booths were much of the same. There was also a Mystery Box seller that told a customer that they could not guarantee that the items in the box matched the theme they had on said box. I would be livid if I purchased a box saying it had Warrior Cats merchandise and I got Harry Potter garbage. Most conventions have rules about mystery boxes like this for a reason.
Ways I feel SEMOCon can improve in the future:
Have an actual map layout for vendors AND attendees
Have a second panel room. I don't think there should be the same 10 panels each day.
Have people who have actually run a contest at other conventions (or make your current staff watch other cons)
Limit the amount of each vendor/artist you have. We don't need 5+ 3D print trash vendors. Variety is the spice of life.
Send out multiple emails requesting response. Multiple people reached out stating they had issues with the emails, so it's obvious that it could be an issue across the board.
Shorten the hours for Vendors hall. 7 hours Friday, and 10 on Saturday should mean more sales, not less.
Turn down the announcer microphone. It was so loud and jarring that we couldn't talk to customers while we were trying to make sales/have conversations.
Advertise your event more. Give people fun graphics to promote the event. "I'll be at SEMOCon! Here's my lineup!" It's free advertisement without having to do a ton of legwork.
Reiterating: I want to see SEMOCon grow and improve because I believe that conventions that care about their attendees and staff deserve to get big. I'm tired of bad cons continuing year after year because people think there isn't anything better. Will I be there next year? Probably not. I would either need to be a guest or staff member to be able to justify working for free. I hope that if you do decide to sell or attend SEMOCon that you have a wonderful, lucrative, and positive experience. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I would like to make up for the sales I lost out over the weekend, so as thanks, I made the coupon code "SEMOhot" for 10% off ready to ship items until October 3rd, 2026. You'll plug that into the coupon section at check out and all items that qualify will be discounted. Thank you again and I hope to have a more exciting review of Ancient City Con after next week!
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