convention

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

Con Report: Kin-Yoobi Con

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I just did my fan-to-pro panel at Kin-Yoobi con, in Hayward, CA.  My second year there – and the last presentation of my current panel structure (a new one is in development for the fall).

THE PANEL:
The panel area was noisy this year due to the architecture of the place.  I had about the same attendance as last year (about ten people), and this time I was armed with increased handouts as well – all put in nice plastic folders (these will be up on the soon-to-be-added site library).  The panel went pretty good – most interesting was the reaction to the advantage of having fans help you move – I guess a lot of people there had thought about or had had to relocate.

Met a lot of good folks there, chatted with one after the panel who displayed his self-created flash games (including a dynamite enhanced Tetris).  He actually had them with him on his laptop – an interest idea that I think could also pay off in an interview.

THE CON:
The con was a bit disorganized to start, but then everything fell in line.  Kin-Yoobi has a good energy to it and it was VERY friendly.  People chatted, hung out with friends, or made new ones.  It skewed to the college age crowd, with some older and younger fans.

A few things stood out:

  • The gaming area was in a hall – this made watching games easier
  • Since the campus had limited lunch facilities, the membership fees paid for a free pizza lunch that got brought in and everyone just went at it.  THAT was neat and friendly – everyone just hung out eating pizza.  It felt like a big PARTY.
  • The dealers had a lot of fan-artists and fandom-merchandise, kind of doubling as an artists alley.  Very nice

So I had fun, met some great folks, enjoyed doing my panel, and plan to go back next year time permitting!  More and more I like how the con's developed an intimate hang-out-with friends atmosphere.

– Steven Savage