Since I started attending anime conventions in 2002 I have been to shows in cities all over the US and Mexico. With the creation of Cosplay Deviants I have been given the opportunity to increase my convention appearances and to get a better view of how shows and attendees vary from region to region. This past May I decided to set up as an exhibitor with Fanime in San Jose California. A con that reports an attendance of 16,000 people placing it in the top 10 largest anime convention in the united states, felt more like a show that was in its first or second year. With their slogan of “for fans by fans” being shoved down your throat the entire weekend, I was really left wondering how dedicated these fans really were to running a good show.
I will start by saying that my experiences with the heads of the dealers room were fantastic. Dave was very approachable and extremely helpful from the moment Cosplay Deviants showed interest in exhibiting all the way through our departure on Monday afternoon. I was also lucky enough to pop into the swap meet on Thursday night, which was probably one of the coolest things I have seen at a convention. While many have described it as a garage sale, I was able to find several very interesting items that were now out of print for very good prices. I was impressed with the concept of the convention’s “Stage Zero” and found myself several times stopping off to watch the events there.
However that is about where my happy experiences end. My biggest complaint for this show was their error in not having their schedules completed or printed for the entire weekend. Regardless that there was a FedEx / Kinkos two block away from the convention center. I would hope that at least one person on their staff of over 500 people would have a copy of the final schedule that could have been easily printed and copied within a few hours. On top of that My staff and I were denied a convention program after being told “We can only give them to pre-registered attendees, we did not print enough”. As an exhibitor this left me and my staff unable to converse with convention attendees about what was happening at the show, because we had no idea. These problems on top of a multitude of other issues; including an artist alley that was easily 2-3 times the size of the dealers room, lazy/rude volunteers, and what seemed like a lack of organization really put this con low on my “must return to” list.
A nice venue, selection of hotels and wide open halls makes this a great convention if you are coming simply to showcase your latest costume creation and hang out with friends, but I fear that Fanime suffers from being too big for it’s own pants and is scared of changing its ways to adapt for it’s large attendance. Our sales were decent, and I was not completely miserable I find the fondest moments of the show were sitting with friends after the doors have closed and discussing plans for two other shows GenCon and Anime Boston.
Some of the more memorable costumes / antics:
