All I have to say is “wow” about our Otakon coverage two weeks ago. As the leader with four reporters, four photographers, producers, cameramen, and a few contributors; we had a total of over 3,000 photos and eight hours of video coverage! Otakon marks as the largest coverage that we’ve done with our “Con Goer” series; Con Goer is the most viewed series on Vidgle. The photos has been posted, and the video podcast episodes are coming in weekly since Otakon.
I would like to thank Jen, Sarah, I-hsiu, Kim, and especially Jon Ko who have taken pictures of Otakon like mad! Most of the pictures are up, but the ones missing are most of the masquerade photos. Those will be up very soon. You can take a look at our pictures here.
With the video podcast coverage, we are getting many hits with our current two episodes. We are planning to launch the Friday episode in a few days! There will also be a Saturday and Sunday Out and About coverage, and a wrap up report in the upcoming weeks. We will have videos of the Phoenix Wright Trail panel and JamProject’s press conference as well. Again, you can watch the videos here.
We did run into a mic issue when we were interviewing with a Mr. Game and Watch cosplayer (which will be on the next episode). It turns out that one of our reporter microphones died so we got stuck with one and prayed that the second one won’t die for the entire weekend. We normally bring extra microphones but the connector part from the microphone to the camera broke, so a microphone replacement won’t do and a trip to the Best Buy down the street won’t do either since the part is not found in stores.
We will be publishing a review of my Otakon experience in the upcoming week on the Vidgle blog and everyone else will be a writing a response as well.
Our next con coverage for the Con Goer is New York Anime Festival in September. The final con coverage for this year will be MangaNEXT, which will take place on Halloween weekend. We will then have the “Best of 2008″ in December as the reporters and crew sit down at our studios and discuss their favorite cons of this past year.
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.
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.
The next convention for me is Manga Next! I will be going with the typical folks, Jen, Sarah, Fred, Jon, Louis, Chris, Meredith, Jessee, and the rest of the group. I will be staying in Louis’s room with 9 other people. If I can’t survive that room, I won’t do it again; I rather stay in my own room.
I am not sure if I will be cosplaying as Mario for the con. I will be bringing the stuff, but might not wear. I am trying to organize my next costume, hoping to be a Pokemon Diamond or Pearl character.
The last convention was Otakon, which was a great weekend, with some minor setbacks. I hope that the weekend will be good. More details to come!
