Felocity

Sunday was good to me. We slept in a lot thanks to the wicked party the people at Newsvine, Blue Flavor, Bryght, and Raincity Studios threw. Unfortunately, this also meant that I missed Matt's podcasting panel. One more panel to find the notes for, since it would be great if Gaia would podcast their convention panels.…

Convergence panel: This was honestly really dry. A lot of time was spent on what convergence is, but not too much time on how people are approaching it and what convergence and divergence mean for us as programmers and designers. After that, it was off to lunch.…

h2. Friday 8:17 am

My flight left this morning at 7:45 am for Austin, TX from San Jose, CA. The fact that we are 30 minutes into the flight and I am using my laptop means one very important thing: I'm not on the previously mentioned plane. Instead, I'm sitting at A10 on standby, waiting for the 11:40 flight. Boarding is at 11:10, so now I have three hours to pass. What better way to pass it than with my laptop, though I will certainly need to find an outlet soon, this way I'm fully charged for the flight. At least I can do homework.…

Anime Expo 2004 Pictures

Conventions have a bad habit of leaving people exhausted, and dare I say Anime Expo 2004 was no exception. I have always referred to AX as the "social con" of the year, simply because over the years there has been a steady decline in the quality of the programming on all levels. The guests were good this year, but their panels were over packed, the video rooms felt very sponsored and industrial, and the dealer's room felt like a trade show. This isn't a bad thing, instead simply a statement of fact. I heard some bad things about the backend of some of the larger events, and I do dearly hope that masquerade backstage wasn't as bad as it sounded and that an AMV wasn't completely skipped due to AX messing up. Overall, the convention was about an eight out of ten.…

I've found that the more meetings for other conventions I attend, the more I learn about things I would and wouldn't want to do if I had to organize things. This last weekend was the Fanime Dead Dog, which was nothing more than a barbecue that halfway through had all the senior staff run off to conduct business. I had some very colorful words to describe what it felt like, but the next time Google comes by, I'd rather it not pick them up. The lesson to be learned is that you cannot mix food, fun, and work. For you English majors, one of the words there just doesn't belong. For you meeting planners, you probably already know that you can't add work to food and fun (but you can add food and fun to work). If that sounds a bit odd, let me explain.

Nobody likes to be talked at, let alone down to, and most certainly nobody wants to participate if they feel like their opinions aren't being heard. The same is true of office meetings. Even the most vocal of people fall silent when they discover they are being ignored. To cite the Fanime retreat as an example, the con chair held two separate gripe sessions, one with the general staff, and one with the department heads. Feedback targeted for a specific department never made it there most likely, and the chair even put themselves up on a table over everyone. It may be subtle, but it has an impact. RECCA was almost just as guilty, in the simple since we didn't get the general staff as involved as they should have been. However, by sitting around a table and talking with groups, everyone's comments were heard. In fact, everyone there was forced to have an opinion and talk a bit. There was food, though there wasn't much fun, but most everyone said they felt they accomplished a lot at the meeting. I challenge you to ask that of another staff's dead dog. Now here comes the important part: Other convention staff groups should learn-- try new ideas and hell, steal ours! Take the time to look at what works and doesn't work with your group. Take the time to work with each staffer, even if only for a few minutes so that they feel like they are helping on something big and important. Just take the time to care about every aspect of your convention; care about everything from the big name guests you are bringing all the way down to talking one on one with staff and convention attendees.…

I don't get what powers the con-in-a-box mentality nowadays. People seem to envy those of us in California because we have Anime Conventions everywhere you turn. It's a curse; if you need to call it anything else, I prefer the word plague. Before I go on, let me define "con-in-a-box". It is a convention, on a weekend, at a hotel with:

• Anime! (duh)
• Panels with guests
• A masquerade
• Hall Cosplay
• Karaoke, Concerts, "Opening Ceremonies"
• and a Music Video Contest

That's it. Fanime does this, Anime-Expo has been doing this, Ani-Magic is doing this, and these pieces have found their way into Comicon and a few others as well. "Con-in-a-box" isn't anything revolutionary, and now congratulations everyone, we have saturated the market so badly that we have exceeded the price-point of fandom. California has not 4, not 5, but no less than seven conventions this year! Anime Overdose, RECCACon, Fanime, Pacific Media Expo, Anime-Expo, San Diego Comicon, and Ani-Magic. Even if there is 15,000 fans, just how many shows do you actually think they will be attending this year? I'll even answer that one for you: they will attend about three. More than three conventions would strap anyone for cash, and convention fans are no exception. If you offer the exact same show as everyone else, people will go based on their friends and its location. Everyone and their cousin's small con has Maiyu performing, and both the California "big" conventions have Nami Tamaki performing, and everyone has the same dealer's room. The only way you could become more like each other would be to print the same badges.…

Head of Convention Operations: wow. I wasn't really expecting things at the convention to be as crazy as they were, but by goodness was I busy. Unlike other cons, ConOps had 4 goals: - Risk Management (keep from getting sued) - Keep Everyone Informed about Everything - Manage Personnel and the Master Convention Schedule - Make sure the Con Experience is Enjoyable

I feel very confident in saying that we succeeded and that thanks to the other staff, RECCACon 2004 was the coolest convention ever. Now for the part that nobody outside really knew about. We turned this around from the November show, which means the actual dedicated time-working-on-con was only 3 months. If we threw a show like this for 600 people in three months, imagine what will happen when we have an entire year to get ready. Oh yes, RECCACon 2005 is going to rock you up, rock you down, and rock you side to side. Our hope is another March show, which seems to work with a lot of Spring breaks, which is an added plus. But now, shoutouts:…

I'd say I'm running at about 80% or so, which means technically I am just well enough to think I am okay when really I need to plant my ass firmly in bed a bit longer. In a gesture symbolic of giving the middle finger to the past few days of sickness, however, I need to go to my senior capstone class. I also want to go to TAPS tonight, but we shall see how medication (and my body) are holding out. I've still got a god-awful crick in my neck from a few nights ago, and I am pretty certain it is directly tied to my headache. Armed with little gelcaps and Ricola (thanks Rachel!) I will triumph though.

I started trying to figure out my convention schedule for the year, and realized there wasn't any one or two cons I could go to where I could see all my friends. It used to be as simple as Fanime and Anime Expo were all you ever had to go to, and (especially) at AX you could meet up with everyone, even if only in passing. This year though, Fanime, BayCon, and Pacific Media Expo are all on the same weekend. While I have no doubts that every show will be successful in its own right, I know it would be just as hard to get me down to PME as it would be to talk someone from SoCal to come up to Fanime. I've heard there is even potentially a con in Sacramento that might be starting up in 2006 or so. Is there no end to the conventions? It was easier when not every city had a con; sure we had to drive somewhere, but at least we could take comfort in knowing everyone would be there. The conventions don't really seem to be working with each other anymore, which was how it seemed they used to be. It feels much more now like a business, like a competition for a fandom with a finite budget. And in the end, the people that are going to lose the most are the fans.…

My body feels wrecked, tired, and worn out from a good 5+ hours of driving. It was worth it though. This last weekend was Ani-Magic 2003, or as I like to call it: my Birthday during the convention and trying to have as few people know as possible. So, let's do that day by day we do so well! Thursday: Long car, wrong hotel, early late night Because of some stuff going on with my new house, I had to skip my 2-4 capstone class. I needed to sign some papers, buy a black paint pen for touchup on my claws (I think Mel and Heather used the last of my other one doing their Escaflowne cats from last year), and make sure I packed everything I would need. I was at Chris' by about 4:30 or so, which gave him time to pack up and then we waited. And then we waited some more. By the time about 5:00 rolled around, I was starting to wonder where C and H were, who were joining us from the northern lands of Santa Cruz. They ended up past the school and down in Monterey, but with a new set of directions, they made it okay, and we were ready to pick up Sheyne and hit the road. We kept pace with H's car through the messy interchanges that take someone from highway 1 to highway 5 (the omgomgIamgoingtoSoCal freeway), and then we went at our own pace, stopping at Kettleman City for gas.

We got to Lancaster about 1:30 in the morning or so, and tried to check in to the wrong hotel. I swore I made the reservations for Inn of Lancaster, but apparently, I didn't. So we were back at the Desert Inn. On the plus side, we will never have to be there again. We settled in, unpacked, and called it a night. Sheyne and everyone belted out Happy Birthday in the car at midnight, while driving through the first part of the Grapevine to hwy 138.…

I think the campic sums it all up for now. ^_^ Full report and stuff once I wake up a bit more, but here's a short short SHORT version.

Yay: - seeing most everyone - finally meeting Annie (only took how long?) - holding up Game and Watch and having it projected on those huge 12 foot screens - dinner with Brian and everyone at IHoP - running a really good Club Panel (I was so nervous - not being a Vol this year and just having fun all con - GakuFest and BLOOD - getting to see Kristine SA perform live and getting a signed CD…