Forum - View topicNEWS: Japan Expo USA Convention Goes on Hiatus
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ColonelYao47
Posts: 274 |
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I see the issues with this con were as bad as I feared. Hard to translate what made it a juggernaut in France to a con in a VERY saturated California...It's disappointing.
I STILL envy those that got to see Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Not many cons were willing to recruit the guests this one did. Hope Third Impact does happen eventually... |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1772 |
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Three years seems to be the "make it or break it" point for start up cons. Same with AM2...
That was the main problem, though. They tried to extrapolate what worked in France to California, despite the attendance size being a fraction of what Paris receives. Case in point - If you purchased their premium badges, they limited you to one autograph per guest per con despite the line for most guests being small. While I'm sure that works great when you have over 100K attendees, when you have less than 5K (I seriously doubt these numbers...1-2K sounds more than generous), it leaves the guest with usually 20+ minutes of sitting and waiting. During the first year, when they had aligned themselves with several Otakon staff, Otakon staff attempted to advise them that their methods would not work, but the French staff shut them down. Other than some volunteers, everyone was pretty much French at the second con. Needless to say, because none of the volunteers spoke French and JX didn't hire a translator because the French staff thought they were more than capable in speaking English, communication between the staff, volunteers and attendees was strained at best. The con would have fared better if they had listened to what the American staff had told them about running a con and took those lessons to heart. It's not that the environment in California is saturated; Attendees will come if you offer them a solid event at competitive pricing. The majority of those who spent the $125-$200 last year for a premium badge did so for front access to the autograph lines all con long, not for the dipsy shirt(whose size you could not trade), cookbook and useless tchotchkes provided. Several of us, fed up with the asinine autograph policy, bought a one day badge and used that on the last day. Staff could do nothing as autographs were determined by the individual QR code that each badge provided. Not that the events didn't have their good side, though. The Master Class that was introduced during the second year was enjoyable (despite the rule being you either went to that or got an autograph from the guest..). I had a good time drawing with Kanayama. I've been to a lot of other cons around the country, but only at JX could you take drawing lessons from an animator. I'm still none too pleased that everything drawn by the pros at JX went back to France to pay off their financial backers... I feel conflicted about the news. On one hand, it was a poorly run con that was, from the attendee point of view, one policy headache after another. On the other, it was nice to have another event with big name guests in NorCal. Not having to travel much and stay in a hotel overnight has its perks. I met some nice people, saw several again that I had met before and got some nice stuff from the event. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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I've never even been to the con, or any of the big nationals, but even from a distance, it sounded generic and out of the loop, like something Cool Japan would have thought up without ever having heard of SakuraCon or AnimeExpo. (Or any of the other historic established anime-centric conventions the fans had to organize themselves back in the days when nobody else would.) |
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Wojtini
Posts: 57 |
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5k visitors? ANN writes news about small local convensions nowadays?
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Dfens
Posts: 462 |
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I for one am not sad at all that Japan Expo is failing and I hope it dies and never comes back.
The first year I and many attendees were cheated when we waited outside in line for over 3 hours before the doors opened only to be told that people who bought premium badges that got in 30 minutes early took all the spots to meet and get a autograph from Sadamoto. No where did it say buy the premium badge or don't bother coming for guests. Which I could have lived with if their was something else to do at the con or see which their was not. It was so small and pathetic that I should have just left right away. Did the convention care nope, the next year they at least on paprer tried to fix the problem but by lowering the number of premium badges basically un-did their very own fix. And by the second year the guests weren't that great and the big guest had already attended another con so it wasn't like he was exclusive to Japan Expo like Sadamoto was. They went for a trade show theme and they didn't have anything really to see or do to warrant attending. It's like Daisuke streaming service they were late to the party and unless you have something exclusive that only you bring to the table, why in the hell would people choose you? This is where they failed big time. I've seen pictures and videos of their conventions in France their is not only tons of people who attend. But their list of hard to get guests alone would draw big crowds to want to make the trip to attend. On top of all the events and other things to do. Instead we got the on the cheap stripped down version, and were told it's just as good as their cons over seas when wasn't even close. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10468 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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We write news about major international convention companies that have anime events in North America, yes. If Reed launched a new event that expected only 2000 people, you bet we'd write about it. Likewise, we write about Otakon Vegas, and, to a lesser degree, Anime Conji. The fact that the conventions have the backing of a major event gives them more potential to be noteworthy, and that makes them more newsworthy. |
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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On paper, it sounded like a great idea. Bummer. I would have liked to have gone to something along those lines. I don't really have the budget to go that far out of state, but every spring we have a cultural festival in my downtown with booths, food venders, and a section with the local Japanese consulate. They wear kimonos and serve tea; it is fun, but a small affair. I would have liked to go to a big convention specializing in other aspects of culture, but it sounds like JapanExpo had a host of problems despite its intent.
Bummer. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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It was a nice change from "normal" cons for me, because it was a decent-sized one with some rather high-profile guests, yet you could actually walk around without having to squeeze your way through ten trillion attendees. But I'm not surprised it's "on hiatus" (probably cancelled indefinitely), because the low visitor density had to mean they were losing money on it.
I think they just pushed it too hard, not really realizing that people mainly choose cons based on which ones their friends are going to and which ones they've gone to in the past. No amount of "look at these amazing guests and our needlessly-huge convention area!!!" is going to get past that. For an event to become big, it has to start small, do things right, and work its way up to however big the masses decide it should be. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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Too bad, but I'm not surprised. I also heard a lot of bad experiences from last year and the year before. The badge system sounds prettty ridiculous, tbh. It's a shame, though, since this was the only con in NorCal that got high profile Japanese guests like Sadamoto and Urobuchi. I'm a Fanime regular, but they haven't had many high profile guests for awhile. Hopefully, Japan Expo USA figures something out by next year.
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reanimator
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I hope so too. I went to both Japan Expo in Santa Clara and San Mateo and the experience was okay for me. Usually, I go to conventions for high profile Japanese guests and meeting old friends. For Fanimecon, I didn't go there for several years because venues offered at that time were boring. Recently Fanimecon got better with Japanese guests and panels when I visited last year. I'm looking forward to see this year's Japanese guests at Fanimecon. They may not be super high profile Japanese guests, but still good with me. I missed the old anime conventions. Even though they were small, but at least they brought some great Japanese guests whom fans can mingle. Fans being older, at least they had better appreciation for Japanese guests. |
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CoreSignal
Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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I agree. The last time I really had a blast at Fanimecon was 2010-2011. I feel like the past 3 or 4 years have been okay, but not great. I think it's a combination of the lower-profile Japanese guests and the same panels being recycled over and over. I do hope Japan Expo USA comes back next year as that con has a lot of potential. Anyway, I also look forward to Fanime this year. |
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Wandering Samurai
 Posts: 875 Location: USA |
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I attended AM2 both years. The major problem they had was they did not get anybody really noteworthy from the industry to attend. The second problem they had was they held the first year the same weekend as AX, which I'm sure killed them attendance wise. Third problem was lack of attractions that was making the other conventions draw people. The last problem I think that people had with this convention was that the first year was free, and then they started charging people the second year. It was a nice little convention but then the upper admin had problems. |
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Cutiebunny
Posts: 1772 |
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^ I disagree, and I also went to both AM2. They did get several notable guests their first year, with Scandal, Kanon Wakashima and one of the Sailor Moon character designers, Miho Shimogasa. What drew me to AM2 in 2011 was simply because it was happening at the same time as AX. And since I was already going to be down there for AX, why not see if AM2 has anything good? The second year, I had to make a separate trip to SoCal for the con, but with Toshihiro Kawamoto and Hiroshi Nagahama there, it was worth it. Still one of the best cons I've ever attended in terms of the caliber of artwork that I received from each guest.
The downfall, I agree, was that they didn't charge enough to cover their costs. And then Chase Wang vanished and got involved with SacAnime. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1856 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I'm still waiting on the review of the Lantis Live concerts in Las Vegas that ANN promised to do. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Hey, in some hobbies, a 5,000-attendee convention is jaw-droppingly massive, even with industry guests. I went to one such convention in January this year. It had about 12 industry guests and about 1,400 attendees. It was considered a success, and they'll be back in October this year as a twice-a-year event. |
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