President/CEO of Monkey Paw Entertainment, the parent company of Saboten Con, was gracious enough to answer a few questions leading up to September’s Saboten Con (as well as SaboSlam!). Get your tickets now for Saboten Con (which includes entry into SaboSlam) before the start of the event over on the official site.

Legion of Sand: This year is Saboten Con’s 15th anniversary which deserves a big congratulations. Looking back, do you recall any moments that stand out as truly special for you and your staff?

Greg: There are just too many to name. Over the past 15 years we have grown so much and with that growth has come so many fond memories. I would say the first year we had an international guest tops the list though, that was a big thing back then as really only AX was bringing out international guests at that time.

LoS: New to Saboten Con this year is SaboSlam, a gaming focused spinoff that will be held at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel. What do you hope attendees take away from attending SaboSlam?

Greg: We really want SaboSlam to expand on our already established gaming department. With this expansion we can offer more gaming, more venues to play and learn, more ways for more people to get into gaming. I hope everyone who attends our gaming over the weekend walks away with a renewed sense of love for an old game or excited for a new game they played over the weekend.

LoS: Last two years, we have seen new conventions pop up across Phoenix that offer a smaller experience for much heftier price of entry. As one of the last (maybe even last) cons in Arizona to offer a four day experience, how do you balance offering new programming/events while keeping the price very reasonable?

Greg: We’ve been very good with managing our revenue an also what we buy versus what we rent. We’ve added a new print shop to our business over the past two years to help reduce our overhead costs for printing. We own all our own pipe and drape, so we don’t have to keep paying rental costs yearly. Overall owning all our own equipment and maintaining it has helped us keep our expenses lower and thus allows us to keep our badge prices at a reasonable price. Also, we don’t raise our prices just because we can.

LoS: Every year it seems the crowds at anime focused conventions seem to get younger and younger. Do you and your staff consider panels and programming to maybe help some attendees not feel aged out of the community? Asking for a friend 😉

Greg: I think that is one of our greatest successes. Anime conventions in our industry normally have an average age of around 16-17 and then lose their older attendance. We’ve been very lucky as our attendee base doesn’t seem to age out, which is just amazing. I feel much of this is due to our programming, we have so many tracks that all ages can find their spot at the show. Our late-night programming keeps growing yearly and our raves now have over 500 in attendance on our busy nights.

LoS: I know running a convention is a ton of work and isn’t possible without a great group of staff but do you ever get the chance to pop into a panel, just for a few minutes, about a topic that you enjoy yourself?

Greg: I try to yearly take some time and hop in a panel or two, but Saboten is just so big now and takes up so much of our time. My enjoyment is seeing everyone having fun at an event that I’m helping run, it truly is my favorite part of the show.

LoS: In a perfect world, is the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown the final home to Saboten Con?

Greg: I want to say yes as I really don’t want to move to the convention center, but if we keep growing like we are at some point we are going to exhaust all the hotels. At that point, we may have to decide as a business if we want to expand into the convention center or control attendance in other way.