×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: New Florida Convention




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article
Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 10:12 am Reply with quote
Ok, so is the state of Florida now the #2 state to have the most conventions in the US? Because we now have a LOT of conventions.

Hopefully this will actually lead to getting some Japanese guest instead of just the usual American industry guest.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail My Anime My Manga
Sword of Whedon



Joined: 17 Sep 2003
Posts: 683
PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:48 pm Reply with quote
I doubt it. Less and less cons get real guests these days because the Toonami-heads don't care about the actual creative people, only the people willing to work at dimestore wages.

I don't know how much experience these people have with the actual convention scene, but, here's the things that stuck in my craw:

"Anime South is honored to announce the first and only anime convention in northwest Florida " what, is it next year that we'll be seeing "only the third convention to happen this quarter in Texas"?

Quote:
The Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa is the largest luxury hotel on the most beautiful beach in the United States (as ranked by The USA Today for the past 5 years). This 2,400 acre resort boasts 73 holes of championship golf, 13 tennis courts, the country's largest charter fishing boat fleet, 3 indoor and outdoor pools, a private beach, a full service spa, 2 whirlpools, scuba diving, and unparalleled shopping centers.


And of these amenities, exactly none will get used, except maybe the pool and hot tub. These are not benefits that virtually any of the attendees care about.

And bragging about 32,000 square feet? There are cons with dealer's rooms 3 times as large as their entire event. Accentuate your positives, and camoflague the negatives. 32,000 feet was impressive in say, 1997. Not any more.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jmays
ANN Associate Editor


Joined: 29 Jul 2002
Posts: 1390
Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:59 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, terrible press release. So far they've given absolutely no reason to come, unless you just like hanging out with anime fans...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail AIM Address
marcyu



Joined: 01 Jan 2004
Posts: 28
Location: Destin, Florida
PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:45 pm Reply with quote
Northwest Florida, also known as the panhandle, is part of a rather large region. That region includes southern Alabama, southern Mississippi, southern Georgia, and almost all of north Florida. This convention is about 6 hours away from any other anime convention, which, ironically, comes out to about the size of Texas (250,000 square miles). Anime fans from as far east as Jacksonville and as far west as Biloxi, MS volunteered to assist us the same day the press release came out. It really is pretty dead out here in terms of anime conventions, although there is a strong and growing anime presence.

We'd love to get some Japanese guests, and we do have a very experienced guest liasion who has procured them before for other anime conventions.

The amenities we are offering are part of the package we received from the resort. Since these are perks they usually do not give for free, we're hoping this being a family-friendly convention will entice other members of the family (i.e. parents) to join the younger members. We are certain that 2,300 acres of non-anime onsite activites is larger than any other anime convention.

We gave our press release almost as soon as we received our dates. As noted, we probably should have added more about cosplay, karaoke, panels, video gaming, and the like. I am the former chairman of Anime USA, which had about 2,500 people this past year, so I probably should have known better. Learn by hindsight, I guess.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group