I'm not sure how it comes across, but this video took forever to edit, it was even more time consuming than my last video haha. Please support Kall for drawing the art, and ofc support me If you want to see more and more ambitious projects. Thanks and enjoy yourselves!
please please don't do anything bad. it's getting harder for me to connect with youtubers because so many of them turn out to be assholes but i can't but feel like i might actually get upset if you turn out to be that way so please don't.
I'm curious to hear your take on anime conventions being run in an area devoid of large anime conventions in their local area that don't have access to shows like ColossalCon, AX or Otakon. Having been a con attendee and at one time a con runner in the last 26 years, I've seen a push for the larger shows, but very little in the area of creating the community in an area closer to home and have since seen a "standard" that attendees hold all conventions to as if to say those shows trying to run them don't matter in comparison to the likes of a larger show in a major metro area. I do think that some of your points are valid on how to improve them, but also think that there are some things that you mention that should be a part of the event are a matter of if the show is able to afford it as part of their initial offerings, if the location/community is ready for said event (so's not to generate bad press in the mainstream), and if the venue would allow it, as some places have limitations due to catering and banquet departments (which affect things like maid cafes or 21+ lounge events). Otherwise, very well put together and I enjoyed watching this.
There was a convention near my city that was held in a convention center that usually just accepted an annual farm convention, where they sold animals, farm machinery, etc. It was a big con, it was awesome. So, they removed the animals, but kept some of the farm equipment, including tractors... Imagine hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures of cosplayers inside tractors and bobcats 😂
We attended 7 cons this year and potentially 3 more before the end of it. The one thing I have noticed: a LOT of the exhibit floors feel the same. Sure, some are more flashy than others, but they feel the same. Artist alley is always a good time. I think cons should strive to be unique in one way or another. AX is just a beast and it is there as an industry event more than anything and us a great way to meet people.
As some one who now does go to the Ohio Colossal con a lot, one of the reason's I've heard for why the Texas con is a lot smaller in regards to attendance is distance from the other Colossal cons. The other Colossal cons are in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It's a very midwest con and people will travel to all 3 of them in a year. The Texas con is much newer and very out of the way compared to the others. So it's hard for the normal attendance base to justify traveling all the way to Texas.
Honestly, even though I am really uncomfortable in crowds, hearing you describe anime expo makes me wanna go to cons again. First time I heard of cons they didn't exist in my state, but now one has opened up a few hour drive from me.
As someone who’s been attending Colossal con Prime (Ohio) for years and recently started going to Colossal con East (Pennsylvania), I would like to add my 2¢ to this as well, really just based on my own observations ^^ In the past I’ve noticed a lot of people coming to Prime. Usually this is one of the biggest cons, I’ve ever been to (before coming to like Ota and Katsu). On the East Coast, I would put colossal con relatively high on the more popular cons (maybe like top 15 cons over here?). One issue I think that Colossal has, is that it’s more just like a cash cow for the convention center. So instead of investing in like press badges, guests or interesting panelists; most of the money that they receive is from the discounted waterpark tickets. So in this way, I really don’t think it’s fair to compare it to other cons. That’s just my opinion though. Other factors that I think could’ve affected the low attendance at colossal con Texas is how new it is and the fact that a lot of Instagramers were boycotting the waterpark because the owner of the Kalahari‘s across the country use a lot of funding to support the Trump campaign in the past. So I think that was a bit of a turn off for a lot of con goers because they don’t want to support that type of message basically. At least that’s what I noticed on my own Instagram and I noticed a few of bigger accounts had shared a lot of info about it so I think those two factors really don’t help colossal cons like growth at all, specifically on the west coast.
If you're looking for fun and cool TX cons I highly recommend San Japan in San antonio! It's jam packed with panels and meet&greets and it's mostly all ages but there's lots of 18+ events including their annual rave, super fun
It's like politics, you know the big ones, but forget about all the other parties. Also, I would consider your thing a you problem that you care about. The market for toys, games and movies are over saturated at this point. The only thing different to big cons is the mainstream. Why would you go to a local event if you can't connect with new clients/producers? If you want to meet (hot singles in your area) with your interest group, just search for one. This would close the loop of localized interest (new as unknown), low visibility but high interactivity and the niche. TL;DR: Every group can be broken down to the individual and the factors of interaction are as diverse
Sounds like more of a Europe thing. In America everybody knows the 2 parties (technically people run as 3rd party but no one has ever one major office)
I'd love to see more 21+ areas at cons. As I'm getting older I'm noticing an influx of teens (naturally) but that's making it harder to find others within my age range to talk to and make con friends like I once did
it's almost like only kids want to go to anime conventions. You're getting old, part of that means no more friends, no more joy, people accusing you of being an extremist for not hopping on the latest trend of cutting off your left leg to donate to Rhodesians in need of arm transplants because a Tic Toc rapper said a no no word while alone in the shower. There isn't a solution to your problem, all you can do is make a feeble and fruitless effort to accept the entropy that is swallowing us all into the gaping maw of oblivion.
I think as time goes on, we’ll start to see more of this. The good thing is that all the fans who got into anime during the waves of the 90s & 00s are getting older too, so I no doubt expect this crowd to continue to mature and thus have more programming specifically for them. I don’t think we’ll ever see the age ranges that comic con has, but at least it won’t be just a “teen/young adult” thing anymore. 🤗
That feeling of "being too old" for a con has definitely hit really hard with the most recent cons. Everything seems designed for teenagers, and the attendees mostly seem to be high schoolers, or parents of high schoolers (because they're the ones with cars.) It seems like there's nobody to talk to except the friends I showed up with, because my immediate surroundings are always 15 year old genshin cosplayers. There never feels like anything to do except the artist alley, as I'm old enough to afford and enjoy art now, and the artists themselves tend to be actual adults who are receptive to a conversation.
I'm 21 going to my first cons this year, my first one was colossalcon in Ohio which offered a lot of panels, meetups and events that were all 18+ However I would like to see some that are specifically 21+
I felt the same but in reverse at a brony con. Most of the people were in their late 20s to 40s. I was an 18 year old with a friend, there were a handful of teens and plenty of parents with kids.
I remember back in the day, (2008-2014) cons had a very different vibe and I made friends easy, granted I was younger and surrounded by others the same age. But now it's kinda like... I'm surrounded by youngsters. And if I see any adults there, they seem uninterested in engaging in conversation. I also feel out of the loop bc of how much anime there is and some popular stuff just doesn't interest me. I'd love to make friends with more adults that love older anime and cosplay, but that seems very difficult nowadays for someone over 30
In my experience, different genres of cons tend to have different age ranges. Sci-fi or fantasy cons tend to trend oldest and anime cons tend to trend youngest.
As someone who's been and still is a staff member at a few conventions a year and someone slowly going back to having a con schedule, all this is pretty legit and I've seen more than a few cons take similar steps.
That's nice to hear! Conventions are certainly a lot of work to get off the ground at all. All respect goes to anyone who has volunteered or worked on making/keeping a con together. These were just 3 simple things I thought could go a long way- glad to know people are already doing it (I imagine this stuff will be normal someday it's just an eventuality)
I think cons are an underestimated part of what keeps the social scene alive for people that enjoy anime or things related to anime, not many people discuss standards, and I think this was a valuable talk because you're willing to actually discuss a baseline of what could help make a place constructive and inviting.
I agree, however, we are in the middle of a global pandemic that is killing millions of people. It is far to early to open back up and super spreader events like cons are one of the biggest hurdles in the way of us being able to move past the virus. This is the time for masking, vaccinations, social distancing and lockdowns. Every time I see someone in these con videos not wearing a mask it makes me physically sick to see people putting thousands of lives at risk like that.
I'm not from America so I don't know what cons are like there, but the con I recently went to in the Netherlands had a whopping two 18+ events which were both stuffed beyond capacity because the adults just wanted to not feel weird having to engage with teens all the time. The cocktailbar was so popular that on the second day it was completely out of alcohol. I think there is very much a market for 18+ spaces at cons, it would just be nice if they weren't all about sex and alcohol.
As someone who lived the conrunner life, I do want to note that Anime Expo is a beast unto itself. It is the de facto anime industry conference for North America, with an actual conference run by the non-profit that runs the con a few days before the show. Additionally, everyone at the department head level and up at that show is a full-time employee with a salary, unlike most shows that are completely volunteer run. You almost need to think of AX more in line with an every run by a for-profit company like ReedPOP or Informa in how they are able to operate. Not that you can't learn from them, but there is a large gap to traverse to operate at their level.
Oh for sure. Much smaller c9ns have the important aspects of just staying alive to attend to, I just thought these 3 things are fairly minor additions to any B or C tier con that could go a long way proportionally for the effort they need to set up
I loved this video, If there was a promise of a 21+ bar at a con I feel like I’d be much more willing to go so it’s not just standing and lines and buying merch
I haven't heard anyone articulate so well the need for different age appropriate zones. Most people focus on just 18+ or After Dark panels for the raunchy stuff. But it's really just a different type of safe space. Thank you for such a delightful thought piece!
Agreed. I was shocked at Anime Midwest about who was below 18. In 21 and I’m not too far removed from these guys but I couldn’t believe how many there were. I really needed an 18+ area where I didn’t need to swap how I talked from NSFW to SFW.
I'm a cosplayer and I gotta say... Yeah all of this. A lot of conventions in my area are taking positive strives forward, but I have gotten to the point where I need to ask age before getting too deep in conversation. Nothing is worse than having a really nice conversation with someone and then realizing they're 16
This is so facts. At anime Midwest I was shocked with how many people were like, 18 and below. Like at least when I was talking it was 18+ which I didn’t even think about but there was this one time I talked to a 15 year old and immediately switched what I was saying because it wasn’t appropriate and had to speak Safe For Work. Really wish there was a badge so I can identify who was under 18. I’m 21
I wonder what smaller cons can do to attract people like me who don't really go for the merch or fan panels. I used to go to Otakon every year because I loved attending industry panels (Directors, Writers, Animators, Producers). Unfortunately ever since the pandemic there have been a big lack of Japanese guests so I stopped going. Hopefully things get better because going to Otakon use to be one of the big highlights of the year for me.
I ain't gonna lie on number 1 you just sound bitter that Colossal Texas didn't give you a free badge, and number 2 feels like a wierd nitpick. Gotta heavily agree on 3 though, as a con adult it would be nice to have more 21+ events that aren't just porn dubbing or badfanfics.
@@HidinginPublic I went there this year and it seemed fairly chill. After getting an actual job after college I can actually go to cons now. Yea there needs to be more casual meetups for adults. That was the biggest thing I thought was missing. They should take some notes from how Defcon does things. They had casual meetups and parties for all sorts of intrests.
No offense but that part of you being glad you never been to a con, kinda sucks. Have you tried listening to positive stories about cons? Im not saying to ignore the bad ones, but there are a lot of things to do at a con.
Never been at any con, but the idea of 18-21+ areas at these places seems like a nice touch to the overall fun atmosphere of the con itself Thx for the great quality video, paying to these artists was worth it :)
The emotive avatar, casual conversation, and interspersed drawn depictions is a proven formula for RU-vid success. Even though I personally would say I'm here for the analysis and contemplation of media, the reality is that I'm more likely to commit to watching less dense, more casual content at any given time. It's hamburgers versus steak, you know? Yeah, steak is great, but even if you can afford it, it's not something you'd want to eat all the time. But a hamburger? Every, other, meal, bay bee! You've proven you've got the critical ability and earned an audience, it's okay to do something that "everybody else is doing", that's maybe "easier" or "less high concept"; and really it always was okay. The real problem is that you haven't committed to watching LotGH, I don't know your stan(d)ce on Jojo, and can you explain Persona Trinity Soul like I was five years old cause I just didn't get it.
It feels like a weird transition from the "anime video essay that eventually becomes a personal life tangent" formula from most of his videos, but it just needs getting used to
I love these kind of videos! I personally got into your channel with your video essay-type videos but this is a change in a good direction. You can do something like 1 animated storytime video for every 4 or 5 video essay videos or whatever is best for you. Tl;dr, your videos are great!
Tectone did some unsponsored Anime convention streams in Texas recently, but they just seemed unappealing to me. Industry really does make a convention worth going to by making it more interactive and professional.
I just put tectone on there cuz he lives in Texas. It's probably appealing to some of his fans and that's what matters I think for people getting interested.
They had 21+ pool party with drinks in hot tubs till 1am, a rave and a rock concert at ColossalCon East in Pennsylvania. Come there for a better adult anime fan experience. Still, like you said, more cons need to appeal to the adults with the money and not think only of high schoolers.
yeah the press thing is a problem with every con. Anime cons and fan cons and comic cons have less worry about trolls and smears then a furry con but every con is the same with how they want to be "Viewed" if your not telling the story they want, they don't want you telling that story. It's flawed and hurts the con more then helps it. Granted, when a con is huge and successful they can write any check they want and cash it how they want cause press no press doesn't matter. Another thing I think would help cons and it goes a looooong way but I believe it can only really be done in places that have a food truck culture, but FOOD TRUCKS!!!! here in LA lotta cons have the usual, over priced food inside, or you can go to a restaurant within your budget (because of the density and variety) but if you don't got bank for food or ubers the food trucks lined up outside, are life savers. But many other states and cities, no truck in sight and your pressed to find a place and are most likely going to have leave the venue 2-3 times to get grub. But if Food trucks were willing to drive a few cities over or plan ahead of time to prepare for a con, work out a deal with the hotel/center and con I think this would go miles for the con and the food truck.
i wouldn't say anime is anywhere near as socially accepted as videogames are for example. i feel like that's mostly the case in america and japan. as a german weeb i would expect to get spit on if i'd wear anything anime related. on twitch i also feel like anime is everything but normal. most chats react with NaM weebs are pedos anytime anything anime related pops up. just because demon slayer and spy x family trended on twitter a few times does not mean anime is mainstream.
If anyone knew how depraved and degenerate anime actually is they would have to ban it. The only thing saving our hobby is how it is scorned by pretty much everyone.
Hi Hiding-Kun I really loved your video about Anime Cons and I don't want this comment to come off as me just bashing modern Anime Cons or just Con culture in general, although I do have my grips. Personally for me I wish there was more less-commercialized Anime cons out there but a more niche adult con goers. For example kinds of mini comikets around the nation where artists can kinda self publish their own doujinshi for stuff. For me personally as an adult con goer I miss the days of Cons focusing on being as commercial friendly as possible, obviously a lot do to survive to some degree, but that being EVERY con just sucks out the fun for me. I like being able to buy import doujinshi, I love 18+ figure collecting, buying hentai dvds, jrpgs/eroge also just being able to talk about more adult anime (eg Berserk, AOT etc) with other adults, and I'm not trying to make an argument that this stuff should be out in the open for kids to see, but even if artists and merchandise stands do everything to hide it from kids they are penalized. Personally I would trust any con aside from maybe anime expo that you got 'sponsored' to go to than others. Also I wish cons could implement protections against artists that are harassed by antis on twitter and tiktok, its a rising issue that not enough people are aware of imo. There's just a lot of things, sorry my thoughts are pretty incoherent here but I just wanted to add a lot of things I and many friends of mine have been thinking about and talking about in terms of Modern US-Canadian Cons. tldr; I dont want cons to be like Twitter lol Amazing videos as always, love your PNGtuber like avatar, very cute and expressive!
Medium-size cons here in the UK are actually pretty good for this sort of thing. The problem with being a medium size con is that you usually can't get much in terms of guests, and usually can't get sponsorship or support from industry, but many of them here are also 18+ only, so there's very little chance of coming across minors, and content is usually good enough that you won't get bored. Large scale cons that are exclusively for anime here in the UK... don't exist. Bigger cons are usually multi-industry (usually film/comic/etc) - and are so tightly industry controlled that they come off as boring, and very cramped.
I think another thing that sometimes gets left on the table, especially for smaller conventions, is programming content. Even some of the larger conventions I have gone to feel like the panels and events are completely lacking, and for attendees of various ages and interests, it makes that aging out problem more pronounced. I for example have almost no interest in attending an adults-only lounge, but if you had people from universities or industry putting on actually interesting panels about various topics, I would be far more inclined to attend them. Nothing hurts more than seeing an upcoming con's schedule and seeing that there is almost nothing of actual interest on the event schedule; it's basically a confirmation that I'm going to go and wander around the halls looking for something to do for 2 1/2 days.
Lol fair. Honestly tho, I haven't noticed any issues like that for a few years. Anime's normalization has made these things more mainstream and normal but there's a lot further it can go
I just came from Colossalcon East this weekend. Colossalcon Prime and East down my favorite cons, understand your sentiment the Con itself is tiny and not that great no matter which one you go to but the draw is 100 percent not the con as much as the resort and waterpark when you are going to do parties and night swims etc which is what it's truly known for. Trying to throw in corporations and trying to mimic big corporate cons like NYCC, AX etc would ruin these kind of conventions. You need conventions that are specifically party and cosplay scenes like Katuscon, Dragoncon and the Colossalcons. Colossalcons aren't meant to be come visit for the day for the con itself, it's a come hang out with your friends for the weekend at a place that happens to have anime themes etc while enjoy everything else that goes along with it. I do though to this day after doing these for 6 plus years agree that the art needs to FINALLY be updated, but at the same time the character has been a mainstay for all of the cons and cruise, and represents them pretty well. It's cute but doesn't take itself too seriously because it know what it is.
Colossalcon TX was a newer event so they had to be selective w press. A con approved wholewheatpete (that zenitsu guy thats known on YT/tiktok) and he harassed multiple attendees and damaged property. Also the easiest way to get a free badge is hosting a panel. I believe youtubers got free badges in the past by being moderators for guest panels. Cons can't hand out 50 free badges to youtubers, but they can justify it w panels.
Here's reasons for your issues (spoiler, they basically all come down to "money"): 1. Press - Believe it or not, when cons have a press pass they get a TON of people thinking they are worth a free pass, and 99% of them are frankly "not" (ie. they're not going to pay off). I would assume that the con was vetting you in the sense that if you're either sufficiently huge or completely external (think local news) then you're "worth" it. The latter is more worth because frankly, they're not going to be there without the free badge, so you're not "losing" money. I would say one thing that streamers/influencers could do to make their case is reach out to cons and ask for a "referral" bonus. It'd take effort to setup, but if an influencer could PROVE their reach by getting 100 people to register with their referral, the con would definitely be glad to have you. 2. Art - Agree 100%, but the reality is you have 3 types of artists: those that look "unprofessional", those that look great but are not well known, and those that basically ARE professional. The first type, you apparently don't like. They're usually inexpensive to commission, but they don't look as good. The last type look great and are (as one would expect) pretty expensive to commission (assuming they're even available to do so). Which leaves many cons searching for the middle set. They're currently not that big, so they're hard to find and if you're lucky, you can catch them before they're super busy. Usually they will soon get more of a following, raise their prices and then you do it all again. Note, the typical con would have difficulty spending thousands every year on great art for the various promo materials, badges and merch that are produced. this is why con art is often produced by someone con staff knows or has a relationship with, and your opinion on the quality or style may vary. 3. Age - This one is tricky. I don't disagree, but for MOST conventions, attendance is frankly a numbers game. So cons are often trying to get the most numbers. If a con can pull in 100 teens at the expense of 10 adults, they'll take that math every day. (if it's $50/head, the teens are an extra $4500) And basically, it's harder than you might think to attract people once they get out of college and have real jobs. If you couldn't tell, this is also why the biggest cons are all in the summer (when high school and college are not in session). Adults usually have more bills and thus are more discerning with how they spend their discretionary income. Dealers love that guy that's gonna drop $2000 on figures in their booth, but to the con budget, they're "worth" the same as the kid who could only afford to pay for admission. Yeah, it's great to say "have a club atmosphere for the 21+ crowd", but you've gotta pay for all the bells and whistles for that, and if it's not Anime Expo (literally the BIGGEST ANIME CON IN THE COUNTRY) then that may not pay off. As much as you might have loved partying at some big "adult" event at AX, how would you feel shuffling around a room with flashing lights, some music and 10 other people your age? Running an anime convention is a difficult task that's already pretty thankless. If you want to improve your local con (especially as someone with an audience) then VOLUNTEER to help (not even necessarily as a person doing work at the con). Offer to run panels, or offer to help promote the con even if you DON'T get a free badge out of it. Do YOUR part to build the community, rather than expecting to benefit from doing so. That's how AnimeExpo started, and without lots of enthusiastic, well-meaning fans it'd never be what it is today.
I honestly feel like cons have gotten boring?? And ik my toxic trait is being on the internet fairly unsupervised in my mid-late teens and being flabbergasted by the newer gens' levels of censorship, which absolutely have pros and cons in a lot of ways, but it HAS become normalized- which means, people who would have likely otherwise done theater or been regular influencers have jumped into con spaces for the sole purpose of modeling and making content. And that's not the WORST thing, but it all kind of combines into really crowded halls, inaccessible communities with excessive judgement/competition, and a stark lack of the tomfoolery that made cons so enjoyable growing up. That isn't to say that out of pocket shit like yaoi paddles or glomping should ever come back, but I dearly miss the days where 99% of the panel list were essentially hour long LARPs and people were playing games or music on the con floor. I KNOW, it's an unpopular opinion and many are grateful for some peace and quiet, but still. I guess my most active con years were in the peak of Homestuck's popularity, abd I was cosplaying things like Steam Powered Giraffe on top of that, so my entire background is very engaged and interactive. But there doesn't seem to be the same space for that kind of experience anymore unless you're in something big and loud, like Hazbin Hotel, and then your joy is nothing but an out of place nuisance to those around you :/ I miss the nostalgic, cringey cons of my youth and I will never be ashamed to say it.
I Dont know if this adds to something but i have a funny story from a Con in Brasil You see there was a influencer/artist around here who has be invited into a convention to show and sell her art but this event was kinda weird and the red flags starts when the staff started complaining about the cosplay of the artist friend and also they have complained about some of the art of the artist too because aperently they disrespectful to the church...yes it was in a church and it gets worse one of the people from the church walks into the stage in there in a militar uniform and starts talking about a militar like HQ with a trailer and everything and to top it of he started making a quiz A QUIZ about the Punisher and the questions were so especific like "what country did the Punisher served as a soldier in the past" or something and No one knew how to respond to it and the guy started to get a little nervous untill someone started awsering his question (by Googling it) But it doesnt stop there tho Because a little time after that a Priest comes up in the stage and starts to do a service in the middle of the event.....A SERVICE No one knew about it it was so fricking akward
@2:50 people: "Nobody cares about your con... they care about the people they follow." A con can't afford to bank its success on that kind of attendance base. As soon as the people they follow either don't attend, or fall out of style, the attendance they brought evaporates immediately; its too unstable. Not only that, even if you specifically don't like or engage in Dragonball content, the suggestion is that there is a market of fans who follow you and simultaneously don't engage with anything DBZ. It is wiser for an event trying to gain more stable numbers to just aim for the bigger existing draws, and whatever overlap there is comes along for the ride. When the overlap is big enough, you can switch your attention to these secondary things, as the primary starts to carry itself. @ art: Artists (rightly) want paid. They are (rightly) skeptical about any purported opportunity to spread their brand awareness, notoriety, challenge, or fame. A con who suggests any of these things, even if agreeing to the price gets immediately looked at skeptically. An artist famous enough to be a guest will have no need/desire for such exposure and will instead want paid for their art. There isn't a lack of artist of sufficient quality out there for certain, and your premise about the art/graphic quality often not being where it needs is correct, tho.
This is a great video if every con under the sun wanted to be big and corporate but... the idea of every con being big and corporate sounds miserable to me, and is simply not tangible to most North American cons out there for a myriad of reasons. An anime con I've been staffing since college- and the only anime con in its region- is staffed mostly by students and is therefore always going to be a bit amateurish from all angles, but I'll take its relaxed energy over AX's corporate overcrowding any day... Also if people did a little googling you'd all be surprised how many cons are probably going on around you. Can say from experience buying ads is expensive (and social media ads are less effective than you'd think). Word of mouth is the best advertising possible. ;)
The only ever big con I've been to is San Japan and [a lot of small cons between like in malls], it does suck noticing most adult spaces at cons are mainly panels about porn or like a burlesque show :| I just want a space for adults thats porn free, drug free, and maybe alcohol free. To where I can talk to people and not fear that the person I'm having a good convo with isn't actually 15 years old.
You mentioned things you wanted to make better, but not actually anything that was bad, was there anything that was actually a bad experience, other than the badge issue?
I feel like this is a little too much from the perspective of someone who has never run one of these. A lot of your points come off as something that would only be obvious and viable on paper. I also think you are clouded a bit by your perspective as a content creator, and your perspective as an anime/gaming fan. asking cons to get more venue space, hire more artists/guests, especially emulate AX is unrealistic not only in terms of budget but also planning and available resources at hand. convention centers rent out portions of space for certain amounts, and often times there are more than one events happening in the same venue. Colossal is still open to regular patrons, renting out more and more of the venue would cut down on their regular patron space and cost a ton. I think this is the one thing out of your list that I wish could be different the most. Especially now with the plague floating around I always wish for more space in the con. Many of my regular cons actually have been increasing their rented space. The budgeting involved in increasing space is hard though, if they can even get that space. content creator guests do not have the pull you feel like they do. Though I agree that they should open the restrictions on getting press related badges, I understand why they do not. ANYONE can become a content creator these days, its very hard to find the balance between letting no youtubers in and letting in anyone with a youtube account. They do not have time or resources to verify how popular you are and what level of pull you would have for their convention. Again, content creator/influencer pull isn't actually as strong as you think anyways. ALSO, most content creators who go to cons create free press regardless because it is their job to create that content, and also because the venues are a great environment to create interesting content. You already do this for free, what incentive is there for them to give you free access to the con? Press badges at the con I go to yearly come with rules. You have to attend a majority of the event time, go to at least 3 panels, and write or record about the convention. Making sure every free press badge is keeping up with this and actually giving them positive press is a lot of work and time. Hiring people to do the art for the badges is also an expensive and time consuming process in a place where time and money are both limited. I agree many of the badges look bad, but I look at them for like 5 seconds a day during the con and then they hang in a mass on my wall. Who cares? I don't care about a convention's personal branding or OCs really, and I don't know many who do. It just isn't worth taking from the limited budget. I would rather the badges have the most basic graphic design on it if it meant they had more money to extend their list of events. I agree without about the adult only sections/timeframes. The statistics are leaning more and more in the direction of older audiences at conventions. Many Cons already have +21 up content such as hentai and liquor. Having designated spaces for adults to be without children is a good idea. However, it has to be taken into account that many adults at cons now also have children they bring to cons. If you segregate their content too much, they might either not interact with it or not go at all. I sort of cringed at you commenting about how you are cripplingly afraid to talk to cosplayers because they might be underaged. You are allowed to talk to and compliment minors on their cosplay. This part came off to me like your compliments always have some ulterior motive or you are actively seeking dates at cons. I know it is a common thing people do, but I stand by my opinion that cons are not a great place to seek a hook up or date, even if they were guaranteed +18 up. One thing to this effect I saw a con do was give a unique badge color to people 18 and up and one for 21 and up. Some give out those "non removable" wristbands instead. Neither is a perfect solution, but nothing really is when fake IDs exist. This stuff is also all not as normal as it feels to you still. Many many people still see anime and gaming as a cringey childish thing, way more than you probably think. It definitely makes a lot of money and has a lot of fans, but its not as normalized as you think.
Part of me wonders if Hiding will ever get press for a con again after this.. People don't like being told what to do.. With that said, this was nothing but pure, unfiltered truth.
YES, THANK YOU FOR THIS. I love going to smaller conventions since cons like AX seem too big and daunting, but you're a 100% right about what smaller cons should offer in order to stand out. The pass to get in the con is a small detail but HUGE if done right. It seems so unappealing if the pass is printed out and inside a small ziplock pouch, it looses so much appeal. One thing I've noticed small cons have done was to focus on getting big S tier guests to appear at their con for panels and autograph sessions. That's great, but for a small con it pretty much cripples it because most con goers will probably go for 1 reason only. After that, why stay? I feel that small cons need to have as much variety as possible in order to have con goers come back next year, not come the year a big guest was there, because if you don't secure a big guest the following year, there's no reason for those same attendees will come. As years go on, a convention should get better, especially if the price of a weekend pass increases every year, and some cons get worse while increasing pass prices, (looking at YOU Sakura Con....)
"... and as part of the deal, make them promote it..." That isn't how press works. That makes the free-pass guests associate marketing, not press. If cons decide to create a separate free invitation category called something like "promotional partner" and offer passes for coverage, that's fine (and probably a good idea). But please don't encourage cons to ask press for pay-to-play coverage. No real press entity would accept any editorial control -- even guaranteed coverage -- in exchange for a free pass. That deal destroys any sense of credible journalistic independence.
The entire point of press is to give press coverage of an event. Asking them to let their following know they will be in attendance is barely different- "destroys any sense of credible journalism" with that level of catastrophizing I'm surprised you haven't gotten a heartattack from seeing a McDonald's billboard
@@HidinginPublic You didn't say "asking" you said "as part of the deal." A deal makes it an exchange of value, which means the member of press can't be objective.
Honestly, I loved this video. I really liked how you talked about cons adapting to the times. a con me and my friends went to made us feel like we should almost ignoring most panels without a guest appearance, and nightime was easily the better part of a con, with the middle of the day being fun, but not great(besides the card game scene thats dope)
This video has alot of valuable takes, cons like colossalcon should invest in using larger and larger parts of convention halls so that anime fans can do more than stand in line and buy merch. I am growing up as well and the ability to talk to teenagers has completely left me. I want to speak to those around my age range about gigantic anime tiddies without being labelled "sus" and "weird." I still can acquire that, but I have to work for it. I feel that adding 18+ and 21+ lounges not panels and dance rooms would massively increase retention. You can still do all three but adding the lounge makes people want to talk and dance rather than just dance for a large dance room or just look at the main event for a panel. Also if a convention had its badges designed by huke-papa or Nyantcha would be insta 10/10 for me.
Theres a new 21+ con that happened in NJ and it was so fun! It was very small con vibes but I see it having potential to grow and attract more people. The adult nerd only space was definitely needed.
Not gonna lie I really liked this videos style,felt really refreshing,I still like the long non representative figure style work,but this format had a more chilled approachable vibe.
This was a very well thought out and insightful video. It would be interesting to see if any of the things you mentioned get implemented into future conventions.
ColossalCon East in Pennsylvania was packed. Seemed like thousands of cosplayers! But like you said, never heard of it until a friend invited me. They need to advertise more.
Yes! 100%!!! I have been saying this sort of thing about Colossalcon for years! I’ve been going to Colossalcon in Sandusky since the beginning, and yes they aren’t growing with their audience. Other cons do this far better.
Number 3... SO MUCH! So many cons I've been to, like their Raves and such were just ruined because of a bunch of kids running around. Late night has always been more Adult times, but so many cons have got this idea that everything should be fore everyone and it's just getting ridiculous.
Well said, Hiding! I hope expos do reach out to independent artists. This is one of the points that stood out to me. And I hope to go to anime expo in the near future, specifically to visit the Atlus/Sega booth
I've worked as a PR coordinator for a huge event (not a convention, but an annual fair that has run for more than a century and is one of the most-attended fairs in North America) and you've basically outlined how we handled influencers and media. Kinda shocked that a con wouldn't have caught up to the times by being more liberal with media accreditation, because the press really does help even if you're an established brand already. No matter what an event's history is, good partnerships with those closest to large community audiences will help your event look less dated.
Ayy just wanna say, even though this is an old video, that Colossalcon Texas last year was it's... Second year, so it didn't have the same pull as it normally had elsewhere. But also glad we both get con suggestions from the same guy in Nyarly!
why meeting someone at my age (21) is so difficult, like when i was 15 i was feeling like a little kid at conventions bc all i could see there was adults/ young adults hanging around and when I AM young adult suddenly everyone is 15?????
Its interesting but I felt like you were kinda making this video to people that actually start these cons..like it's a personal message of "all the do's and dont's if your starting your own anime convention" your regular viewer is a convention attendant. So I think it would be more interesting if you were talking about "things to do at anime conventions" or something.. idk. The look and feel of the video was great though.
Idk I feel like a video toward con creators is far more interesting than seeing what I think is fun to do at cons. I feel like the "what I like doing at anime cons" video has been done a hundred times
For me a make or break for a con is if I know who going beforehand. Like for Voice Actor, Vendors, Cosplayere, etc. If I'm not told beforehand who all going. I immediately do not want to go. Since I don't want to arrive someplace where I don't known anyone's or found someone I want to meet or say hi to. Really destroy my experience of a convention. I'm lucly where 2 conventions I'm interested in going. Tell everyone every voice actors or big cosplayer that going before the conversation itself. They tend to even have a place to tell people which artist or vendor's that are all going as well. I like that. Its the reason I don't want to go to Emerald City Comic Con. Cause they don't tell me who going or they do and it like 5% of people that are going. Cause I don't want to waste my time or money on something I don't enjoy in the end. I will also say I'm a big money's planner. I like to budge my money before going to a event like a convention. So if I can't budget before to one why should I go.
They’re trying a Midwestern Ohio convention in Texas. I gotta say as a midwestern anime con goer it’s good especially if you can’t afford to go to ax. I can’t talk anything further especially sense youmacon is my home con.
Anime cons are horrible at promotion. Even large local ones I might see an ad for it while it's into its 2nd day. Some will also wait till like the last week or two to update their guest lists. So buying early can be a bit of a scare if you see like 4 guests and wonder if it's just going to be those 4 or if they'll pull 8 more out of pocket in the final week.
I feel like before speaking about Colossalcon as a whole, you should really attend the original (known as Prime) in Sandusky Ohio. You cant blame a con for not being a smash hit year two. A lot of the things you spoke about, even if done perfectly take years to pay off. -A vendor who attends 30+ cons a year including all 4 Colossalcon events.
The main thing i enjoy at cons is seeing other cosplayers and activities like pub quizzes and tournaments A proper schedual and the venue can make or break a con. I've been to hotel cons where everyone is just sitting around a lobby and the whole area drains when something is on in the main hall. It makes it really hard to talk to or interact with people when there's nothing to do but sit around and order overpriced drinks.
All these are great points and I'd like to see more cons do them, not just anime cons. However, free passes for content creators is a real sticky situation, and I wouldn't have known about the issues with it if it wasn't a recent sore point in Magic the Gathering creator scene. Short version, I really wish it was as clear as "creators are a draw so you should give them free badges and promote that they'll be attending to increase badge sales". Maybe one day it will be. But deciding what level of compensation to provide or who to invite is a lose-lose situation for newer cons. Okay, now the long version. For some context, Magic's a very popular card game that, pre-pandemic, had multiple professional events held every weekend around the world, with hundreds to thousands of people competing or attending at each event; these were, essentially, a tournament space with artist alleys and a free play area for folks to meet up and hang out. When the pandemic hit, these conventions stopped but online multiplayer play and content creation EXPLODED with people doing at home livestreams of multiplayer games. Recently, they brought back these events but focus them on the multiplayer aspect of the game instead of a professional tournament and began inviting content creators to attend the events. Then the issues started to become apparent. If you're a big enough creator, you could get travel and even room expenses comped, and even a payout for fulfilling some obligations. This is actually what anime cons do for voice actors, and also why autographs can sometimes have surprising, because the cost of that is often split between the actor and the con to offset those expenses. However, if you're a smaller creator, you would likely only get entrance covered. Which isn't a lot, because you're basically doing free advertising for the con, right? Shouldn't you also get other stuff comped? Well, the issue is there's too many creators to compensate correctly, and there are too many unknown factors to just give out passes. Passive view numbers don't really equate to active event badge sales. Heck, passive view numbers actually don't even equate to active view numbers on the same platform; a lot of RU-vidrs are lucky if 1% of their subscribers show up for a RU-vid livestream. So the event has to balance your actual worth to them with what they give out, but it is almost impossible to do so without burning a bridge. If you bring in a lot of people and they only comped your entrance, then you were taken advantage of; if you bring in 2 people and got a free badge, next year they probably won't comp you again because they'll feel taken advantage of. There are other issues as well, like how do they actually track who signed up because of what creator? At least with voice actors, you can count the number of transactions from booth signings. But how do you tactfully have the conversation with a content creator about not giving them a badge (which has the implication of the event saying "sorry, you're not as big as you think you are") when that person puts their blood, sweat, and tears into their work? And that's IF you're a known content creator. In Magic's recent events, there were tons of issues with representation. If you weren't an artist (specifically, a Magic artist that has worked for the game) or one of the few well known white content creators, you had to hope you were somehow on the organizer's radar, or you had to actively reach out. And unfortunately, for a lot of underrepresented groups, if travel or hotel aren't covered, they wouldn't be able to attend period. So now even if you make the right call for your bottom line as a con organizer, you have bad optics of not having enough women, non-binary, or BIPOC folks on your promotional guest list. It's such a hard tightrope for con organizers to have to walk while spinning a bunch of other plates. There are things cons can do to partially address these issues, but the Magic community hasn't found a solution yet. A brand new Magic event has recently tried an affiliate program, where creators have a discount code and each purchase comps x% of the creator's fee, but they've invited so many creators that it would have to be literally the biggest event in Magic's history to comp them all. And this is all on top of the rising travel, lodging, and badge costs for attendees. I don't have the answers. I'd love to see more creators at more conventions, but one side is going to have to get comfortable losing money until an equitable solution is found.
i appreciate your perspective as a fellow con goer! i recently went to colossalcon east in the poconos, and though there's a lot of common ground with the other colossalcons, i found that the con was almost exclusively catered to the 21+ demographic (not that i'm complaining about that.) it was almost to a fault, though, because if you didn't come to the con with the intent to drink and smoke all weekend & hang out at the water park, you'd probably be sorely disappointed. the offerings of the actual con itself were incredibly mid, small & boring dealers hall and few panels with barely any publicity. there was also the covid issue. almost everyone in my friend group other than me got covid post-con, and i think that's largely due to the lack of any safety precautions whatsoever set by the staff. i had fun, but it was definitely not a con for people who actually want to go out and do con stuff. pretty much just a super expensive weekend-long party.
I've lived just north of Round Rock for my whole life and have NEVER heard of Colossal Con. I don't hear about any cons aside from a few like Comic Con Texas or Ikki Con (which tbh I don't know If they're still running). If they really implement even basic marketing, let alone even a few of these suggestions, I think Con life would flourish. Texas is huge, especially the Austin area, cons should be way busier than they tend to be.
Unfortunately, while this video is lovely, it fundamentally doesn't really understand how cons work right now. But goodness, do I wish that this could be true for the future... :( I used to run them, trust me... Back in the day, conventions were passion projects of a bunch of nerds that wanted to organize an event to find, essentially, fellow friends in anime. They were held in one or two ballrooms of a mid hotel like marriot and were just pure passion projects, even if they weren't pretty. Then, those nerds grew up, and realized there was money to be made in cons....but there aren't people that are both passionate and qualified running them. Big cons are the only exception to this because they got so big they actually start hiring people before they fizzled out. Let me explain. I have worked for 3-5 cons ranging from 3,000 attendees to 30,000. ALL of those cons are rotten to the core at this point. (if not closed down...) When you put a bunch of socially awkward nerds that don't even plan professionally together to make a con, the loudest and most confident becomes the leader, not the person actually best for the job. And they are followed by a bunch of, essentially, little ducklings that also don't know anything, but see conventions as their time to powertrip and feel important. No one knows how to actually event plan-they follow some basic guide passed around by the same few bunch of people from 10+ years ago and its not even a good plan. Conventions chairs are usually people that have NO BUSINESS running a convention, but thrive on the power that they get from being, more or less, king of the nerds. Every con I have worked for (and known) has had corrupt shitty conchairs that fall into 3 categories. 1) The Dummy: A figurehead. They are a good face and they love feeling important, but its their co-chairs and department heads that do all the work, they just sign off on everything. They are oblivious and useless. 2) The Used Car Salesman: They function like the Dad from Matilda. They are sleezy con-artists with charisma. 9/10 these guys get exposed for embezzlement, sexual misconduct, or some combo of the two. 3) The "I'm sorry, but..": These are the people that run cons that are late on everything. Why isn't the room block open? Registration? We were told artist alley apps were supposed to open 5 months ago, where are they? They spend more time making excuses then planning an event. All 3 have the same thing in common: bad with money and no actual tangible skill in event running. Embezzlement is HUGE in the convention scene. I'm talking THOUSANDS. Potentially hundreds of thousands. There are court cases and irs investigations *actively*. Con chairs discreetly take funds, and pay off those who know, or, they know nothing and don't embezzle, but they are surrounded by staff that DO. So what happens? Conventions are constantly behind schedule, constantly fighting their venues for more time to get funds (MULTIPLE CONS don't even have money to pair their venue until the end of the convention itself) For example, i have seen a dept head over spend 10k on a stage just because their were friends with the chair and had access to the funds. other departments had no budget for that year. Departments are run by power hungry idiots that just want to tell people what they can and can't do, and have no actual mind for business, event planning, marketing, etc. A huge 20k attendee con is being held together *right now* by the skin of their teeth because they have no money, have been illegally taking donations without actually being registered appropriately with the government to do so, have had their entire database of staffers, vendors, artists, and panelists PERSONAL INFO leaked (and deleted comments/covered it up), and DO NOT CARE about their vendors, artists, or attendee experience, they are 100% just trying to squeeze the most money out of everyone. And it works. Because no one ever actually changes their plans or changes things until the con literally rots from the inside and closes "out of nowhere" when they've had issues for years. Attendees don't care about how terrible the people running the con are, rhey just want to buy overpriced anime merch from resellers and get drunk for a weekend with fellow nerds! The good people leave or get removed from staff because they call out the bullshit and try to change things, and that threatens their nerd king statuses. I have seen multiple passionate individuals with *actual backgrounds* in marketing, guest relations/talent, and event planning, be removed from staff, because the con chair has a friend that they want in that role or they are asking questions and they don't like that. (like asking questions about purposefully incorrectly filed taxes, missing legal documents, ect....) When these people design these cons they do not care about your experience beyond what they *have* to to get you in the door and paying that ticket fee.
To directly address your video points: -Advertisement: They don't do it because they A) don't have the funds available (because it was misused) and B) no one likes to do any work. Making a billboard or an online presence for your con requires some level of basic graphic design and marketing. All the cons I worked for? Marketing was just handled by some random Instagram loving girl with no background. Yes, at all of the cons. And the graphic design? Absolutely not. Why do you think cons recycle the same tired old stuff every year to do their VA and guest announcements? Some artist made them that shit for free YEARS ago. The only time anything gets updates is either when they do an art contest to con some poor artist into essentially doing free art for them (or extremely undervalued) or, if they magically get a staffer that has the skill, they milk them dry. -Press: They don't actually want you there really unless you're HUGE or they personally know you. They don't actually really do research on people to reach out to. Press is handed out to friends of staffers or people staffers personally suggest. If you get in another way, its rare comparatively. Literally your best way to get a press badge is to shmooze with a staffer that's at least an assistant dept head and get them to tell the conchair your interested. Then they might remember you for next year when you apply. -Artists/Vendors: You touched on this a bit in "cost"- about spreading the work and incentivizing artists/vendors etc. THEY DON'T CARE. They actually don't. In the nicest way possible, Artist Alley & vendors halls are HUGELY saturated right now. You have small 2-3k people cons with over 500 applicants and 50 tables. They don't need to care, because artists and vendors will fight each other for a spot. (I have literally been offered bribes for AA spots and vendor tables) Artists have realized they can make a big chunk of change at cons, and it is now a business more than passionate local anime fans wanting to share art. I have seen print wall artists (you know the ones-dozens of prints up to the height limit) fly from California to middle of nowhere michigan, only to take fans away from smaller artists, and then literally rip up their extra stock & throw it away before boarding the plane back, because its *more cost effective* for them to literally dump HUNDREDS of prints in the trash then take them home. (prints you paid $30+ for on the cheapest poster paper, mind you) I have seen artist "studios" which are really just fronts for a big company to print a bunch of art from different artists and sell the prints "on their behalf". Half of the tables in artist alley don't even have the artist at that convention anymore. And THEY ACTIVELY REFUSE TO HAVE EXPERIANCED ARTISTS/VENDORS AS STAFF. What does this mean? People who know nothing about art, layout, grading, ect are choosing the artists they let in and deciding where people go. That's why you get clearly traced or Ai art or "splatter art" (tracing with a filter) and a bunch of other "not art" artists in AA or bootleg anime merch vendors in vendors hall. NO ONE QUALIFIED IS DOING THE WORK. They prefer their bestie that works at amazon that will just choose what they like (lottery and judged is partially a lie btw) and will shove as many tables as they can into a hall. Why? Because they don't care about YOUR experience. They just care about THEIR money, and THEIR money is the $$ artists pay for tables and vendors pay for booths. They don't care how much you actually spend, because they have a waiting list of other vendors and artists to fill that spot if they complain about sales. -Art in general: They don't have the money to pay anyone, and even if they did, they are incompetent about contracts. (I know multiple artists that have had to send legal notices for cons to remove their work after their time working with them has ended) They only get art made by *personal art friends* and that artist better do the art for free, or nearly free. Artists should be charging THOUSANDS or at least HUNDREDS for their work to be used commercially, but cons will often just offer a table and *maybe* $200 at best. That is not going to attract many artists that have more "modern" or "better" art, its going to attract the ones that are doing mediocre work for nearly nothing. -Adults: So this is actually an internal issue and I wish I could share some screenshots of a huge convention runner facebook group. There is a huge amount of in-fighting over whether cons should have adult content or not (not necessarily lewd content, just adult). Combine that with with unmotivated staff, and you have no one willing to change anything. Most work for cons is done the last 4 months before it happens. Yes, really. Finding people that will do competent work *before* that is difficult. ESPECIALLY for free. (most, if not ALL staff, is unpaid) To have adult friendly spaces you would, in the current world of small to mid sized cons, have to have a passionate staffer that is willing to put in a lot of work and likely *their own personal money* to make that event happen. You get a handful of people with the first qualification, but not many that are willing/able to do the second. This issue stems from, again, the chronic mismanagement of funds that is rampant in conventions. On top of that, the convention halls and hotels themselves often have rules and restrictions that make planning these events a bit more difficult than regular events, which means people are *even less likely* to put in the needed work. Huge conventions like Anime Expo work because they have hired, qualified staff. The key staff are often paid for the services they provide, and have to have experience in the thing they are doing for the con. Its an actual job. Small to mid sized cons just...don't have that. They don't have the funds to hire people. They put people in positions they have *no* business being in. For example, I have seen a boyfriend of a co-conchair be placed as marketing/merchandising head. They had zero experience or background. I had to hold their hand through finding suppliers, making designs, editing proofs, making marketing materials, ect. At another I know that the head of registration, the person in charge of all the money going through registration and the process at con and pre con, had to learn how to use an ipad for transactions, had no idea how to organize pre-reg badges OR mail them, and their only experience with money was handling it at a shop they worked at previously. this person was IN CHARGE of dozens of other staffers and they handles thousand of dollars in cash with almost no experience. I could go on and on. I know this post is...huge. And cynical as fuck. But I literally worked my ass off at cons for years (as a staffer, upper management, and a vendor) and eventually decided that it just wasn't worth it anymore. No one cares anymore. Cons 10 years ago may not have been as polished, but they had soul and life. Fun events that promoted meeting new people and establishing friendships. A friendly atmosphere that told you you were "safe" and let you feel at home. Unfortunately, the reality of cons right now is that they are being mismanaged by greedy nerdy adults (and sometimes just greedy...) that don't have any skills or life experience required to make things happen. Its genuinely disheartening as someone who has been attending them since 2008/9. This past year SO MANY conventions have closed down, and so many others are teetering on the brink of destruction. At this point, I think it may honestly be better to let a lot of these cons die so that hopefully in a few years people can start fresh and hopefully with new, passionate individuals that will make the change necessary to see the community flourish like it did previously.
YOUR ANIMATED PERSONA LOOKS SO FUCKIN CUTE! If ya actually ever do decide to become a vtuber somethin along the lines of this character would be amazin!
Thank you! This style isn't gonna be the new norm, but I am planning to continue incorporating my avatar more like I did in the romance anime video and Lain video. And YES I recently found someone that could do a vtuber avatar for fairly cheap that still looks good and am in talks with them
