Sakura Con 2004

Fallen Kijo · Post by **Fallen Kijo** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 1:33 am

I was wondering if anyone was planning to go to/or has been to Sakura Con. I'm going next year and have never been to a con before, just wondering if this one was worth the money, what it has, all that good stuff. (And how expensive it can get)

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 5:18 am

HEY! ANOTHER ALASKAN! woot! myself, and possibly my brother and his friends are going, since I'm getting transferred back home to AK in november (military). If you might wanna room with us, we can see what could be set up. BTW, where are you from? I'm from Peters creek/Eagle River, I might know ya.

Fallen Kijo · Post by **Fallen Kijo** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 8:17 pm

Eagle Creek, I've vaguely heard of that. I'm from Ketchikan. The "first city." >P We're awash with stoopid tourists right now. Have you been to Sakura Con before? What sorta stuff does it have?? (iz very curious) Are you gonna cosplay? I'm going as Lain....sad, its still next year and I'm already planning my costume. ^^'

Dannywilson · Post by **Dannywilson** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 8:43 pm

Only been to Ketchikan twice here, spent most of my life in Peter's Creek, a little outside of Anchorage. I'm a semi-avid congoer, and most of them are similar, they have a dealers room, a cosplay and AMV contest, and assorted viewing rooms, playing anything and everything. Most also have a game room and some sort of concessions. Mostly cons are just a social experience though, meeting and talking to new people.

CArnesen · Post by **CArnesen** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 10:36 am

Fallen Kijo wrote:I'm going as Lain....sad, its still next year and I'm already planning my costume. ^^'

I've got you beat, my event was Friday night, and Saturday while I was having dinner with friends, we came up with our costumes for the following year. But, along with my significant other, my Dejiko costume may make another appearance.

NME · Post by **NME** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 4:38 pm

Yeah, don't forget to RESERVE LIKE 80 SEATS FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T COMING.

CArnesen · Post by **CArnesen** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 4:48 pm

NME wrote:Yeah, don't forget to RESERVE LIKE 80 SEATS FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T COMING.

Last year we set aside about 30 seats for creators/guests... So, I'm not really sure what you are referring to? But, this year we will be requiring creators to disclose if they will be attending the contest and how many tickets they will need so that we can get the "reserved" seating as small as possible.

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 8:21 pm

Chris:

The mix-up, as I remember it, went something like this:

Either through looking in the schedule, and discovering it for myself, or being informed of it when receiving my tickets to the AMV contest, I learned of a room being set aside for an hour for an "AMV creators gathering" set for the hour immediately prior to the start of the contest. No problem, we reasoned. We have preferred seating, and they wouldn't have scheduled this meet if we couldn't waltz right in there to our seats right before the contest starts. (IIRC, even you hadn't been informed of this, and only found out "on the fly" because you were walking past the room where we were, and someone happened to recognize you.)
We find ourselves in posession of an an empty conference room, nobody in charge of anything, so zerophite and I toss a couple laptops up on the tables, and play some videos, and everybody BS's and greets each other. Twas cool enough.

Then it gets a little more interesting.

The gathering was set for the hour right before the contest, so we all pack up and leave 5-10 minutes before the start of the contest, relying on our "OMG, we're special" tickets to get us into the contest at the last minute.

The staffer at the only remaining open door informs us that the contest seating is full, and and is promptly forced to recoil from the virtual bouqet of preferred seating tickets thrust in his face by our little mob, and the cries of protest that we have reserved seating. A moment of ticket scrutinizing later, he lets us in. Some split off from the group to join their friends, and the rest of us make straight for the front two rows of seats on the side closest to the entry/exit doors, which we can clearly see are empty.

The moment we plant ourselves in the front row, we are accosted by Dr. Stephen Hawking Jr., elite special security forces, seating division. He informs us through a series of coded grunts that the two front rows of seats (half the front rows on the side away from the doors are also empty) are reserved for "Special Guests of Honor" and we are not allowed to sit there, and must move immediately, because the contest is starting. No amount of special ticket waving or protesting that we are the amv creators has any effect on his decision, and as the lights start dimming, we quickly scramble for a few vacant seats scattered near the edges of rows around 5-8, splitting up our group in the process. Jammed uncomfortably amongst random strangers and unable to easily communicate with each other, the lights go down, and the contest begins, with more than two full rows of seating at the very front of the room completely empty.

Those seats remained empty for the entire duration of the contest.

I have to say, it was pretty irritating to sit there jammed between two sweaty strangers for the entire contest with two full rows of empty seats in plain view a few rows in front of me. Maybe Dr. Hawking was misinformed, or maybe those seats really were for GoHs that chose not to attend. Nevertheless, being denied those seats literally 30 seconds before the lights went down really sucked, and it would have been nice to see a little common sense and personal initiative on the part of Dr. Hawking. I'm just glad that the guy at the door let us in, because being locked out of the contest entirely would have been completely unforgivable, given the circumstances.

Now for a few suggestions that may hopefully help things run smoother in 2004:

I love the idea of a gathering of some sort for the amv'ers. The chance to meet and talk with other creators is a strong draw for me to go to cons.
I'd suggest that the best time for it to start would be about a half hour after the end of the amv contest, to give people a chance to stretch their legs, take a bathroom break, find the room, etc. Hopefully, it would give you a chance to finish up your post-screening responsibilities and join us as well, Chris.

As for seating, I fully understand the need to reserve space for guests of honor, but perhaps you could think of doing something like have a second line for preferred tickets that lets in 5 minutes earlier than the main doors, or assemble the people in one of the adjoining rooms, and open one of the partitions to let the special guests/creators in first,m before the main doors open. I think they do some sort of "in through the side door" thing like that at AX, but I'm not certain of it.

As far as number of tickets reserved, think about maybe alloting 3 tickets per submitter/finalist/whatever, with 2 being standard, and any excess being alloted among those who request extras, in a sort of round robin fashion.

I hope this clears up a little about what some of the issues were last year, and that maybe one or more of these suggestions may prove useful to you in making 2004 the best Sakura Con amv contest yet.

CArnesen · Post by **CArnesen** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 12:01 am

Yes, thanks for reminding me... Most, if not all of the issues above have been already dealt with, though this weekend is a Sakura-Con staff meeting (in Redmond) and I'll be sure to coordinate with the Special Events Manager (my boss) and the Programming Manager (my boss', boss) regarding the seating issues in particular.

I really appreciate the support I've received from all of the creators, along with the fans and I have no doubt that it will only get bigger and better! Thanks again!

--Chris ^_^

DBrentOGara · Post by **DBrentOGara** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:30 am

So far nobody has answered the question 'what do they do at Sakura Con', which seemed to be the point of the original post, So I'll do my best to answer it here. (I live in a house that consists of 4 Sakura Con staff members.)

On Thurs all us staff attack the Hilton in SeaTac WA, then on Fri about 3000 people attack us... and we attempt to distract them with the following:

4 in-every-hotel-room closed-circut tv channels showing anime 24/3,

4 projection tv's in large rooms showing anime almost 24/3,

an introductory 'welcome to the con' meeting in a huge room, featuring guests from Japan and the american anime industry

2 pretty huge rooms full of merchants selling anime related products

about 1/4 of the atendees show up in costume, so you can attack them as well

AMV, and Cosplay contests on saturday

anime/fantasy art show and auction (I'm in that, come buy my stuff!)

Costume ball on sat night

1 huge & 1 pretty big room full of console and computer games, for free-play and tournaments

panels by experts in the field of anime and even more panels by wanabees

an artist's alley of crazy people trying to create art while answering a million questions and taking more commisions than anyone can possibly fill in a single year

a big room of japanese arcade games, for free-play (the DDR lines get LONG in the afternoon)

a bunch of people at a row of tables stuck RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MAIN HALLWAY explaining japanese customs/religion/games to anyone passing by to closely

and (my favorite) all kinds of anime creators/designers/voice actors/actresses in panels, Q&A sessions, and autograph sessions

on sunday there is a 'thanks for coming to the con' meeting, with closing remarks by the guests, and usually some cool japanese music performed live

If that isn't enough, you can come by the Volunteer Office (where I hide during my shifts) and offer to help us run this madhouse, and get cool extra prizes (depending on your hours worked)

I hope this answers the question 'What do they do at Sakura Con'. For more info check out:

SakuraCon.org

for infrequently updated, sometimes outdated information on the specifics of the 'con schedule. It gets better as the 'con gets closer, but last year I was watching them update the website in the middle of the afternoon on saturday, so just show up and have a blast.

be sure to bring $$$, $50 at the door to get in, or pre-regster now for only $40. Reasonable rooms at the hilton are sold out (and have been for several months) but you may still be able to get some of the nicer rooms. There are 5 other hotels within 1 mile of the 'con, and most will have rooms for $75 to $150 a night. Try the marriot just up the hill from the hilton, it's affiliated with the con (game rooms and dealers rooms) and has pretty good prices, if there are any rooms left. I personaly expect to spend at least a grand at the con. I took $500 last year, and it was not nearly enough to get all the stuff I HAD TO HAVE. (you will find a lot of stuff in that catagory in the dealers rooms.)

oh yeah, at the end of the 'con the head staff sit at a big table in a small room and listen to all the gripes and complements and ideas of the folks who attended, and care enough to stay an extra 2 hours. I'ts a great opportunity to have your voice heard in a way that can have a real impact on how the next 'con is run.

AnimeMusicVideos.org

Sakura Con 2004

Sakura Con 2004

Alaska

Re: Alaska