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Convention Spotlight: Anime Saint George

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Anime Saint George is unusual – a large scale anime con in southern
Utah.  However, fandom is everywhere and Anime Saint George, aka Anime
SG, has big plans and interesting ideas.  I sat down to discuss their
ideas with the PR head and asked about her profan and progeek events.

First, the convention works to give good deals to get professional
guests and local businesses to get support, trade ad space, provide
dealer's tables etc.  Many people are glad to try interesting trades,
exchanges and opportunities to support a convention.

Secondly, the convention looks to find a balance of local
fan-to-pro guests – local guests may not be down the street, they may
be a few hours a way.  It's a good example that you need to keep a good
focus of who is available – you can range too wide or too far in
getting guests.

Finally, the convention has events specifically focused on starting
out and breaking-into careers – covering things that may get glossed
over too easily for people eager to start out their new jobs or
businesses.

The PR head in fact told me that she's gotten new career ideas just
doing the convention – specifically, event planning as a career.  who
knows what she'll be speaking on in the next few years.

Southern
Utah doesn't have a lot of conventions.  So give this one a look – and
see if there might be a panel and some networking that helps your
career.

You can find our entire convention advice and summary posts here.

– Steven Savage

Convention focus: Erie-Anime-Experience

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See the rest of our convention ideas!

Erie Anime Experience is a small convention in Pennsylvania, and I had a chance to talk to the convention president, who gave me some interesting insights on the convention, and a few ideas for folks working on a fan-to-pro route.

One event at the convention is discussing the historical background of anime – in this case, the Kenshin series.  This has proven to be a twofold advantage – it not only takes the fans interest deeper, it's also proven an interesting way to get the professionals who've worked on the series involved when they visit.  It's a different take on the usual talk-to-a-pro panel that intrigued me – involving the professionals in discussing the larger context of their work.

In fact, we discussed another element for future cons that I think is needed more in any professional track – the history of an industry and deeper understanding of it.  Many career-oriented people can benefit from knowing the history of what they do – and passionate fans/geeks often get into the history of their interests, from anime to computer games.  A good history of any property or media can be useful.

Some interesting insights from the convention. If you're in the area, give it a try!

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea – Involve your attendees

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The continuing series on ways to add career elements to convention is here.

Putting career oriented elements in a convention is challenging.  There's time, equipment, and of course – guests.  Finding someone to speak on voice acting, graphic arts, publishing, and more means taking time away from other activities guests can do – and possibly sinking your plans for career panels.  You can't get everyone you want to do all the career events you want.

Turn to your attendees.  I've seen this done with great success.

Of your attendees, no small amount of them are probably involved in professions and careers that the rest of the attendees would be interested in.  You've probably got a huge amount of potential "guests" right there, or at least panelists who can get a discount on their membership.

Many conventions do this, but I'd advise going one step further and actively engaging people.  Find out who's attending with particular skills and backgrounds.  Ask them at the dead dog party.  Put posts in your forums.  See what you've got.

I've found attendee-run panels like this can be great successes because the pool of potential people can be huge – you can find all sorts of interesting experiences, specialized skills, and more.  Most people will jump at the chance to help out at a convention anyway.

Over time, I'd recommend building a list of potential "attendee contributors."  Court them, keep up with them, engage them.  They can provide you great panels and events, and help out in other ways.

– Steven Savage