Dallas: Texas
by Vihn-Luan Luu
Project: A-Kon 17 has reached the coveted amethyst anniversary with its 17th convention this year of our Lord 2006. Once again held at the Adam's Mark, A-Kon brought to Dallas three days and two nights of anime fandom. A-Kon still ranks as one of the biggest anime conventions in the United States. They seem to have grown into the Adam's Mark well, fixing several problem areas they had last year yet they still seem to be making several mistakes that were made last year. Though reaching a status of excellence and staying there may be ideal, A-Kon needs to be able to shed some of its weaker areas and move past old habits and hang-ups.
This year's A-Kon was an interesting experience for the Space-Gun crew as we were denied press passes for some odd reason. Though rumor has it that press organizations were denied press passes due to unfavorable coverage. I wonder if that would apply to us.
Guest ListAs a mostly anime, part sci-fi convention, A-Kon did neither really well as far as the guest list went. The addition of Peter Mayhew as a guest to the convention was an interesting choice and brings the sci-fi part back to A-Kon. And the gamer side of the demographic was helped with names like Red VS Blue, Justin Achilli (writer/editor for White Wolf Games) and several guys from Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: KOTOR). However, the anime side of the spectrum felt a bit left out. There were a good number of artists and writers at the convention (Doug Smith, Xero Reynolds, Bruce Lewis), though many of the voice actors were missing this year as well as any sort of anime/manga guest from Japan. Surprising was the lack of the Funimation and ADV staples, seeing how they are local in Texas. ADV was not even in attendance this year, which was rather odd. As one of the major players in the anime industry, one would think they would have attended.
This year A-Kon brought in a gamut of musical guest: KOTOKO, Kristine Sa, Chromelodeon, and PENICILLIN nano. Great for fans of the J-Pop and J-Rock scene, though they were the only names that were brought in from Japan (and Canada for Sa). This year the Japanese guests were strictly protected and rather unfriendly from what I gathered. The general feeling was that the Japanese guest would leave the convention if they see a camera at all. Rules for dealing with them are as follows: Do not take pictures of the guests at all even during concerts or while walking around, do not engage in a handshake with the Japanese guests unless they do, do not touch the Japanese guests, do not make eye contact, do not share the same air as the Japanese guests, and do not, above all, exist within the same three dimensial space as the Japanese guests. For those who are dimensionally challenged, staying outside of their 'personal bubble' would suffice. However, Japanese personal bubble is measured at 300 yards in all directions and dimensions, including time. Granted, it is understood that the Japanese culture and their marketing strategies differ from those here in the states; it just makes for very distant interactions with the con-goers in my opinion. However, Kristina Sa was one of the sweetest and friendliest guests A-Kon has had in a while. It was told to me that she was very easy to work with and very reasonable. She really engaged with attendees and was incredibly personable. She could be seen walking around the convention and hanging out at several points.
All in all, A-Kon seems to be shifting their guest list a bit for some reason. They seem to have moved away from the anime/manga and moved more towards getting musical guests instead. Though musical guests are fantastic, getting four names to play over two days can be hectic and overbearing, especially when the concerts are scheduled at night.
SchedulingThough A-Kon does bring a wide range of panels, rooms, and programs, they can't seem to get major things started up on time. Cosplay started late and ran a bit later than scheduled; also there were a massive amount of last minute walk-ons from what I was told. This was probably not a very good idea seeing how there were also two concerts that night. The last concert of Saturday evening did not end until 3AM; thus canceling the traditional Saturday night dance. Having some timing issues with events will happen, but these major delays, especially for the main events, should not be happening at a seventeen year old convention.
The webcomic panels this year are a bit more reasonable. This year appropriate panels were held with the appropriate people on them. They were run pretty decently this time around. However, moderators for panels should really moderate the panel. Granted, a moderator shouldn't monopolize the panel and be too controlling, but having a moderator call on questions, in what order, and moving the discussion along when the panelist begin to trail off too far are some things that need to be done. A moderator should do just that: moderate the panel, make sure the discussion flows, let people get a chance to ask questions, make sure that one person does not control the floor, and move the discussion along when it needs to. And showing up on time would be helpful too. The moderators assigned to the panels are cool people, don't get me wrong there, but not all cool people make good moderators.
The programming for this year's convention worked out a bit better than last, but delays and proper moderations are still issues.
LayoutA-Kon this year learned well from their previous mistakes and laid out their convention in a much better fashion. The komik market was done very well this year, spacious and flowed well. Though again there were some dead spots in the area and it was a bit close to the video room and front area where traffic got pretty stalled and convoluted. It was easy to find our table with the section markers and the fact that the check in person stayed in one place the entire time. The dealer's room was laid out in a much better fashion, traffic moved really well and the exits were not blocked out. The dealer's room stayed opened the entire time this year around. They left a wider area in the middle, which really helped when people stopped to take cosplay pictures. I do feel though, that cosplay pictures should really be discouraged in the dealer's room as 1) cosplayers are on leisure time and 2) it would keep traffic flowing nicely.
Though there were a few things there were tucked away in odd places. The game rooms were a bit off the beaten path, not too much, but a few signs pointing in the right direction would have been nice. Not many pointer signs this year, which seemed a bit odd.
A big issue this year was the lines for various events. Though they did work out signs for the lines, they were small and rather inconspicuous. This was especially evident with the cosplay lines as it was difficult to see where the line to attend and the lines to participate started and ended. This wasn't helped with the scheduling problems either as lines got ridiculously long as start times were pushed back again and again.
StaffThe staff this year was pretty friendly and smooth on our end. With fixes and layout and scheduling this year, we at Space-Gun did not have to get too involved with the staff and were able to spend the time at our booth. However there were grumbling along the grapevine that this year the staff was rather unfriendly to several con goers. A few times I was told to move aside by A-Kon 'security' in a not crowded area. If the area was crowded and traffic was not flowing well, I can understand. But if there is a totally clear path available, take it, and don't get into some sort of power trip about a little dinky yellow badge. My major issue with the staff and security is that they are not visible at all to anyone; I believe this is a major issue with security and crowd control. For some reason, the volunteer security staffs were in plain clothes, some even in costumes, making it much more difficult to find them when they are needed. This is why security in all other places is very visible; plus having security visible deters unruly behavior before it even starts. When unruly behavior does happen, security would have an easier time stopping it if they are in a form of uniform rather than being in plain clothes or in a costume. Several people informed me that they did not have a good interaction with the staff, as it seemed that a few of them were on some sort of power trip. This is unconfirmed personally by me this year, but not a surprise if it is true, as I've experienced it several times in the past at A-Kon. Though I think that some sort of uniform, whether an armband, a really, really bright shirt that says 'security' is needed, I'm afraid of what a uniform would do to egos. Though with a con this size, having volunteers act as security may not be the best of ideas.
AtmosphereThe general atmosphere was pretty much the same as the last, almost a bit more laid back where we were. This was helped tremendously by the lack of the arcade being right next to the artist alley. With most things coming off smoothly, the con-goers stayed pretty happy with their experiences and there were issues like last year's closings of the dealers' room. Though once again there was another incident with a falling chandelier, and once again it was the exact same thing that happened last year. Honestly, shooting off T-shirt cannons in a low ceiling area with glass hanging from it is not the safest inspiration. Luckily this year it was only a scratch along the nose, but last year someone needed stitches. How much more blood needs to be spilled before they realize that shooting things off in the ballrooms is a bad idea?
Though laid back, the general atmosphere of the con was one of waiting in line. With things running late, things being disorganized, and things not being clearly marked, the weekend was a test of patience for a lot of con-goers. Though the lines for escalators are understandable due to incidents last year with the escalator breaking every five minutes, the other lines are not mechanical issues but organizational issues.
ConclusionThis year's amethyst anniversary of A-Kon went pretty well for most con-goers. A-Kon seems to have grown into the Adam's Mark very well but still have the same issues that have plagued them for years. They did a good job last year with a more diverse guest list but have fallen back into the same problem of years previous and neglecting some areas such as anime/manga guests from Japan. And still some of their publications are a bit amateurish as a press organization got a program book with his badge from A-Kon 15. It is obvious that A-Kon are starting to address problems that it has over the past few years, but it is also obvious that they don't want to hear about these problems. For an entity running for seventeen years, one would think that A-Kon would have a thicker skin for criticism. A-Kon once again wants to be praised for things it does right and does not want to hear about what it does wrong.
As a final note, there was apparently an incident at one of the parties at the convention that involved someone tampering with the beverages of a female attendee. Rumors are ranging pretty far and wide, but there is a good chance that someone sat in a cell at the Dallas PD for the weekend. These incidents are not within A-Kon's control and they are not responsible for it, but we feel that it should be known so that future attendees are informed and can take proper steps to make sure they keep themselves safe. A-Kon is getting to be known for being a party convention and things do get pretty crazy, but that doesn't mean it needs to get out of control. Party hard kids, but party safe.
