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NEWS: Anime Expo: New Record Set With 61,000 Unique Attendees




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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:02 am Reply with quote
Nice! I wish I went this year ;.;
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Nayu



Joined: 23 Dec 2010
Posts: 676
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:12 am Reply with quote
I may be alone in feeling this way, but I don't feel like more people means a better con. Actually, I get feeling real uncomfortable and uneasy when there's so many people in a smallish space. Give me a small con any day.
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Panzer Vor



Joined: 04 Dec 2012
Posts: 648
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:32 am Reply with quote
An increase of nearly 12,000 unique attendees from last year? Wow.

I'm now wondering if the Panzer III they had out in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center was a contributing factor...
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akapahua



Joined: 13 Sep 2012
Posts: 16
Location: CA, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:15 am Reply with quote
Nayu wrote:
I may be alone in feeling this way, but I don't feel like more people means a better con. Actually, I get feeling real uncomfortable and uneasy when there's so many people in a smallish space. Give me a small con any day.


I'm totally with you there. This was my 6th year at AX and truthfully, it was worst than last year imo. For many of the people, it was their first time at AX and they only found out about it through the news media.

Nothing wrong with that, but many of the people came just for the "experience" such as how Comic-con is becoming more "Hollywood-like". And because of this, I noticed tons of rude people, parents allowing their small children running around with no guidance (which a parent yelled at me when one of their kids ran into me wtf!?!), and just a lot of immature teens yelling like maniacs and just not respecting anyone (saw cuts in lines and being rude in panels).

I don't mind AX becoming bigger, but the unfortunate side effect of that is bringing in unsavory people. Too me, it was an uncomfortable and uneasy experience and would love for it to be back where it was around 40,000 unique attendees.
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Red Fox of Fire



Joined: 24 Jan 2010
Posts: 345
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:55 am Reply with quote
Biggest problem was all the panels filling up. In some cases if you didn't have a premium pass, you didn't get in. If this growth continues they either need to use the bigger rooms more wisely or get a bigger convention center. Hopefully they won't resort to the latter, though.

Quote:
I don't mind AX becoming bigger, but the unfortunate side effect of that is bringing in unsavory people.

Oh come on, like there haven't been plenty of "unsavory" people at AX in the past.
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Derringer



Joined: 14 Apr 2012
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:05 am Reply with quote
Does anyone find it odd that ANN used a Japanese source instead of an American source to report a story about an American event?
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formerroadie1



Joined: 31 Oct 2010
Posts: 126
Location: Fort Worth, TX
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:57 pm Reply with quote
I was one of the new attendees and I had a great time. It was a bit crowded, but I was prepared for that. My son and I had known about the con for ages but this was our first chance to go. I'm a huge anime fan and it was great.

I find akapahua's attitude to be, well, unfortunate. So, people just came for the "experience"? What is that supposed to mean? Is one supposed to come and not experience the con? Do you pay and then sit in a corner and ignore everything? I'm also unsure how anything related to anime is "hollywood-like". I saw no Hollywood studios doing panels or selling from booths. Lame. Parents initiating their kids into anime and the world around it is awesome. Are some people bad parents? Yup. Welcome to the world. You seem to not have been to many cons if you think this was the only one with rude people and loud, obnoxious teens. Did you ignore what was going on at the other 6 times you've been?

I think the con is getting over-run though. It's difficult to find an adequate space for that many people. I don't know the entire map of the complex, but I'm curious if they had more buildings they could have used.

All-n-all I had a fabulous time in spite of the crowding. I took it in stride and decided I was going to have a blast despite my sore feet Wink. I got to see some fabulous people, got TONS of spot passes, got autographs from the people I wanted to get them from, and so forth. Now, I will be attending another at the end of August and I'm looking forward to another summer con soon Very Happy.
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casenumber00



Joined: 05 Feb 2011
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:04 pm Reply with quote
There is this little scandal breaking out about a former manager for AX Cosplay 2013, the group responsible for the cosplay sets and Masquerade, telling "secrets" of how AX is run. He made is very large post about his experiences from Oct. 2012 to AX 2013. To my knowledge, this was first posted on Cosplay.com-twice and has been deleted twice.

Here is the post http://pastebin.com/50AfmnMs
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2248
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:15 pm Reply with quote
casenumber00 wrote:
There is this little scandal breaking out about a former manager for AX Cosplay 2013, the group responsible for the cosplay sets and Masquerade, telling "secrets" of how AX is run. He made is very large post about his experiences from Oct. 2012 to AX 2013. To my knowledge, this was first posted on Cosplay.com-twice and has been deleted twice.

Here is the post http://pastebin.com/50AfmnMs

Reading through this thing got me thinking.

Maybe the overall concept for con organization structure has been wrong all along.
Cons have usually been structured like small businesses and then as they grow, corporations. But cons are not that similar to corporations in the end. Unlike corporations where there is a unifying goal of profit, cons have large groups each acting towards their own differing goals ( usually with some over arching goal of "putting on a successful con")

This is actually more like a government than a corporation. So perhaps cons should write their own constitutions to help with the sorts of issues laid out in the above diatribe and the countless others like it from cons around the world.
With a general constitution laid out that spells out checks and balances, and can only be changed through mutual agreement by all parties, I think that would help mitigate some of the drama inherent to con management.
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FLAZE35



Joined: 24 Mar 2013
Posts: 85
PostPosted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:05 am Reply with quote
formerroadie1 wrote:
I think the con is getting over-run though. It's difficult to find an adequate space for that many people. I don't know the entire map of the complex, but I'm curious if they had more buildings they could have used.


The Anime Expo uses most, if not all, of the LA Convention Center. Seeing as too many people could become a fire hazard, a limit to the maximum number of tickets sold might be implemented soon (assuming the number of attendees continues to increase). The other option would be to move the Expo someplace else, like the Las Vegas Convention Center (one of the biggest in US), or the Aneheim Convention Center (biggest in California; about one hour southbound from Los Angeles).

On a side note, this year was my first time as well, and it was awesome imo. I couldn't believe the number of Shingeki no Kyojin cosplayers. Anime hyper
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