What would you like to have at a con?

Dookstar · Post by **Dookstar** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:14 pm

When you go to a convention, whats the one thing you look forward to? the one event(s) that you spend all ur money just to see?

*amv contest
*anime show rooms
*etc...?

What turns ur crank at a convention?

****************OR*************

What would you like to see at a con, that in ur opinion should be there? What would you like to see at con that normally isnt done? something new something different?

*Lolita tea party (Ai-kon, it was .. different 0_o)
*Anime jeoperdy (assuming its done alot everywhere else, but its an idea)

SQ · Post by SQ » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:17 pm

Everyone says the MetroCon chess match is awesome, but I've never seen it.

I go to cons for the people, really. I used to go for the AMV contest, and the panels (instructional things, like "How to publish a book" or "How to make an AMV").

Instructional panels/workshops = good(I think), but it needs to be toward a rather large focus group/fans or else you're going to get people who are going to say "Man, that was boring" or it made no sense.

I was never into serious cosplay, but that's a huge fandom you probably shouldn't ignore.

But, for a con just starting out, try to partner up with a distributor. Like for TechWoodCon, we got Gamesare Studios to give out prizes and do game demos(TWC is a game/RPG convention I help run).

It's the people that make the con work when you're first coming out. So if you have a very visable, friendly staff and a lot of good conversations, people will want to return. When the con gets bigger the staff get less visable, but you still have good people(other con-goers), and it's those expierences that keeps people returning, even if the con itself sucks.

For example, I know that most of the guys that go to AWA don't really go for anything that happens specifically at AWA. It's just a place where we can all meet and hang out and, well, stroke our egos if we win something. XD

If you really want tournaments and think you can handle running ads and other publicity for it, then go. But most of our tourneys have been cancelled due to lack of interest.

So I think workshops may be your best bet. With the interest of YouTube rising, see if you can get someone "Well known"(AMVer, on YouTube, or otherwise) to "teach" people how to make their own home videos, video blogs, funny shit, or AMVs.

There also aren't a lot of fanfic-oriented things. I don't know what the turnout was at AWA's fanfic panel, but I'm sure that's a fanfare you could probably grab a lot of people from, simply because it doesn't get a lot of exposure.

ngsilver · Post by **ngsilver** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:27 pm

I goto a con to be with the people mostly. I like the dealers room and usually spend money there. Very few panels interest me, but having a variaty of these is always good. I don't care about the anime rooms, I can watch all of that stuff at home, on my couch, in my own theater setup.

I spend much of my time at AMV type events. I like the contests, partly because I submit and want to see what the audience thinks about my video(s) and see and feel their reactions. I run a few events that travel to different cons so I do that. I also write con reports so I try to hit everything I can.

But mostly I goto cons to hang out with people. I have a group I go to cons to see mostly. As far as AWA is concerned, I went to smooze with the other creators and well... see first hand how my video(s) faired. I always say it's the people that make the con and how good the night life at a con is. But having things for people to do is always a plus ^^

garhunt05 · Post by **garhunt05** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:06 pm

I speant a lot of time looking at cosplayers and in the videogame room. The panels are nothing special but it is nice to see what is up and coming with your fave anime/manga