Two weekends ago, I’ve attended another fine Wicked Event called Totally Normal Event (TNE for short and sweet). The event was once again operated by “the” Jeff Mach and was also a charity event for the SPARC Summer program (www.sparcsummer.org). So far this year, the Jeff Mach events were ranked highest for WRAJ and Vidgle, (Wicked Faire being first, New York Comic Con second, TNE ranking third, beating Long Island’s based I-CON in forth).
Just like the Wicked Faire back in February which we reported from, TNE was a bit better with the hotel. The faire was a bit more spacious than at the Holiday Inn for the Wicked Faire. The crew who were on assignment, Jen, Fred, James (new), Fred, Kim (new), and myself; had a great time.
“Everyone should go to a Jeff Mach event,” which alot of interviewers said to us in front of a Vidgle camera. Jen and James were reporting and got a chance to interview with Voltaire and the band Freezepop (and the con-goers as well). We hope to the interviews up by Friday (or maybe even earlier). Fred will be having his own version of the Con Goer called “The Fred Show” which will be premiering on Vidgle, and the show will actually let the viewers see behind the scenes of Vidgle’s most popular show.
Complete coverage of the Totally Normal Event can be found on the Vidgle site by clicking here, which includes pictures, videos, and blog posts.
The next convention I might be attending is MetroCon in Tampa, FL. We will not be doing a video report from there but we will be taking pictures! But the next convention with reporting and nonstop pictures will be Otakon in Baltimore, MD. Jesse (aka Optimus Prime), Jon, Jen, Louis (aka Mega-Tron), and Fred will be reporting!
Of course, if you use a video-podcast catcher software, you should have received the video report by now if you are subscribed to the Vidgle or Con-Goer Podcast Feed. Click here to learn more about the video podcast feed.
I hope you enjoy it. The next Con we are reporting will be at the Totally Normal Event this June.
I-CON is over and this year it was a little different then the years past. Some of my friends were a little disappointed about this year’s I-CON than the other years we have gone. I’ve been going to I-CON for the past seven years and I was disappointed as well. The convention wasn’t a complete disaster, but the convention just needed better planning and organization.
Next year, I-CON will be at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, and it will also be its home hotel in Ronkonkoma, Holiday Inn by MacArthur Aiport, and it will also be at the Hyatt Hotel in Ronkonkoma on Motor Parkway. We heard rumors of a fourth location but it has not yet been confirmed.
So you might of looked at this for a link to the pictures. Well you can look at the pictures by clicking here. Videos from I-CON will be coming in on Vidgle in the upcoming days, you can watch the videos by clicking here from Vidgle.
Some of the conventions, like Anime Boston, is not giving me a press pass because they believe we don’t cover that much anime. We are hoping by 2009, we will be able to get press passes from all conventions because of the reporting we are doing at all of the anime conventions we are covering with Vidgle this year beginning with Anime Boston.
I truly enjoy going to conventions, I’ve been going to different type of conventions since I was 5. I’ve been to bus shows, trade shows, sign shows, radio conferences, anime and sci-fi, and more. I’ve meet many people, especially at the Live365 conferences in 2004 and 2005 in California. By 2009 or 2010, I am planning to have a radio and internet conference covering podcast, internet radio, and other streaming technology. I’m also in full support for Jon’s idea of our own anime convention which is cheap, small and at a great location. I hope to get those two conventions alive by the beginning of the decade.
Picture above: Justin Taub, Peter Iengo, and Angelo Cannella attending the IBS National Radio Conference in New York City in March 2007. More pictures from the convention are here.
During the New York Anime Festival, it was Santa-Con that took place in Manhattan, which hundreds of Santas came together. But this gathering is a little different, instead of Santas walking around, it was “No Pants Day,” that took place on Saturday. Hundreds of people came together at a Subway station by wearing no pants. According to Improv Everywhere, the organization that held the event, said there was an estimated 900 participants in the event.
“It was basically like a sci-fi convention with people wearing costumes, but instead, it was people wearing no pants.”
The group splits into three different subway trains and took the subway from downtown Manhattan to Union Square.
You can see pictures from Steph Goralnick on Flickr by clicking here.
This is my first chart ratings of the anime cons I’ve been too this past year. So here are my ratings of the cons I went to, as 5 being the lowest to 1 being the best!
I rated the New York Anime Festival fifth, because there weren’t to many things for such a “big” convention in a “big” city. With its attendence expected to reach 10,000, I see the convention smaller than I-CON, which only expects no more than 7,500 a year.
I’ve been going to I-CON for around 6-8 years now, and its still my favorite con in the New York area. Remember that I-CON is not an all-anime convention, its suppose to be a sci-fi convention reaching an attendance around 7,000 for 2007, which a quarter-half of the attendance is sci-fans.
MangaNEXT was hard to decide with either the second or third place slot. With its attendance reaching to not even 3,000 people, there is not that many panels or things to do, making it more of a relaxing con than any other. If the fire alarm doesn’t go off again at 4 in the morning, I won’t mind going again.
What a great convention. With its great location at the Haynes Convention Center in Boston, it made it easily accessible to the attached mall of the convention center and other nearby attractions. It is definitely a convention I would like to go again next year.
Otakon, once again, is my favorite con of the year two years straight. The convention has a great location at the Baltimore Convention Center, which has a variety of hotels, restaurants, and a mall right across the street. I can’t wait till Otakon in August for next year’s visit.
Day one (for me, day 2 of the con) is over and here is the report. Since I am commuting back from the city and my office each day, I was able to write in my blog.
First off, what a major disappointment, from my perspective. I first heard about New York Anime Festival (shorten as NYAF) back in late 2006, and from what I read of the plans of the convention to take place in late 2007 sounded excited. But then going there, I felt like there was nothing to do. I did say the same thing for MangaNext, “Not many things were going, which made me feel more relaxed.” But that was because it was a smaller con, this one had to have an attendance total 3 times the size of MangaNext. MangaNEXT had a total at around less than 2,500 people. This is a “first” for this con to go on, maybe next year will be better.
And what bothered me, and I think everyone else knows, was how early the convention ended. I understand everyone had to get out by 9PM because of the convention center hours. But stopping everything at 6:30pm is crazy. The entire convention expected everyone to see a concert, that will be taking place for two hours. At other conventions, there were other things besides going to the concert or masquerade.
I think that Reed Exhibitions, the organization that operates the con, should think more of “fun” than “business” for this con.
Got back from MangaNEXT a few hours ago and what a great time I had.
Okay, here are the stuff. Pictures are here (click me)! And a video of the elevator shortcut to skip into front of the long line is here. If you went to the con or not, you will find this video hilarious.
As I mentioned a few days ago about a false alarm at Five Towns, there was a another fire alarm at MangaNEXT! Shortly after I posted in my blog on the first floor, the alarms started to go off on the floors above us. So floors 2-9 were evacuated to the first floor at around 4 in the morning and were sent back to their rooms a half hour later. It turned out that someone was smoking in the staircase, I guess he couldn’t wait any longer for the elevator line. In the upcoming days, I will be uploading the “MangaFIRE,” which I was able to catch during the false fire alarm.
I had a great time at this con and I found the ‘alot of people’ in the room thing more fun and I would do that again. Not many things were going, which made me feel more relaxed.
Well I’m off! Enjoy
I’m still at ManagaNext, the first trip for in a while. I’m on my sister’s MacBook right now, so I don’t have that much time to write! So far, its been great. I’ll talk about the trip later when I arrive back home on Sunday. Photos should be up as well tomorrow night on my site’s photo gallery.
Its about time, I’m going away this weekend. However, I’m not calling it a ‘vacation,’ just a weekend to hangout with several friends. If you can understand, I feel like getting out of my house for a weekend. I’m willing to go own a private vacation, but its not going to happen until May when my spring semester is over.
This will be my fourth con for this year, the following con will be in December. I will try to relax a little bit at the con, i am not sure if I will be dressing up again.
Second, Jen and I are giving this a try, staying with Louis and friends in an hotel room. And that’s not all, 10 people will be staying in the room. And I agreed to myself, “If I don’t like the experience, I will never do it again.” Which again refers to other conventions, including AnimeBoston, and Otakon. But I am sure that it would be a lot of fun!
I can’t wait for the big blast at the con and I’ll see everyone there.
During the New York Anime Festival, it was Santa-Con that took place in Manhattan, which hundreds of Santas came together. But this gathering is a little different, instead of Santas walking around, it was “No Pants Day,” that took place on Saturday. Hundreds of people came together at a Subway station by wearing no pants. According to Improv Everywhere, the organization that held the event, said there was an estimated 900 participants in the event.
