Forum - View topicNEWS: Anime Expo Runs July 5-8 in 2018 After Record Attendance This Year
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1753 |
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I should really try and go there next year.
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Kouta6769
Posts: 63 |
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I know it would be impossible because of how big AX is but I still wish they come back to Anaheim once in a while.
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2490 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Glad I did AX this one time, but I think I'll stick with my regional 30,000-person cons from now on.
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NeoStrayCat
 Posts: 635 |
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@Marc: Well, plan early and buy early, badges will increase in price thoughout certain times, they'll now include shipping the badges for everyone next year. (Delivery to US/Canada only, overseas persons will still have to pick up badges inside the LACC.)
@Kouta: At the moment, AX's contract for the LACC will run until 2019, so only 2 more years if they decide to move to another location. @Invalidname: Yeah, best to just beat the crowd and go into smaller cons and have fun. But AX was fun for me too, more or less. |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2490 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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@Marc @NeoStrayCat: A good time to buy AX tickets is Black Friday weekend, when they're half off.
@NeoStrayCat: It seems funny to think of 30,000-attendees as "small", but of course I get your point. AX is as big as the next three cons combined (most years that'd be Otakon, Anime Central, and Anime North, but the attendance figures move around somewhat). It does feel like there's pressure to make one Mecca-like pilgrimage to AX in your anime lifetime, particularly because there are some guests and exhibitors who seem to only go to AX and to no other cons. But maybe it's not real healthy for the community and the business to have so many eggs in one basket. And fortunately, sometimes we do see those non-AX big cons land really amazing guests. I was certainly pleased at the Anisong World Matsuri concert when their opening video showed they'd also be at Otakon, giving the US east coast a turn (now how about the Midwest and the South next year?). For me, I'm within a comfortable drive of both Chicago (Anime Central) and Detroit (Youmacon), and both of those events are great. I also went to AWA two years back and always loved that con. Is AX bigger and better? Sure. But three to four times bigger and better, and worth flying 2,000 miles for? Not on an annual basis, I think. At least not for me. Also, there's a comfort factor: ACen seems like it has way fewer hassles than AX, doesn't self-inflict wounds like AX's security-line fiasco this year, and its facility could easily accommodate another 10K attendees, maybe more. Indeed, if they keep growing, there's a whole second convention hall they could take over. I can't say the same about Youmacon, which is awkwardly split between a hotel and a convention center a half-mile apart. And AWA could be threatened by the Atlanta Braves building their new stadium nearby, with no parking. |
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pagan poor
Posts: 11 |
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I am more curious now of the attendance numbers of the Bushiroad Grand Festival 10th Anniversary down the road in Long Beach. Honestly, it looks like it was set up to take advantage of the amount of people going to Anime Expo. If it did relatively well, maybe we'll see concurrent events in close by venues to AX down the road. I know BGF did kinda screw up schedules of people I know with the guests they had compared to those at AX. I guess we'll see.
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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Ill be honest Anime Expo is not fun in the slightest. Those big numbers are good for the organizers and that is it. With the attendance this big meeting even one guest is pretty much blind luck, you have to be in the right place at the right time and snag a ticket from a booth, or worse yet line up 12 hours the night before to wait in Anime Expo's own ticket line. This was so stupid, my brother went for me a few years ago and he said they never had autograph tickets, you just showed up in the line and waited and the guests were happy to sign. Also it was endless waiting in line, stuffed in crowded places with thousands of people in confined areas, nobody knew anything, the staff was clueless, and basically everything at anime expo ends up being a pay as you go, I mean Anime Expo should be called Anime Con the DLC or anime con pay to play. Pretty much the only decent thing is some sellers in the exhibition hall had some harder to find items, and some of the big game retailers sold their stuff at a discount. But like others said give me one of the smaller cons that has maybe one or two big names, but at least ones that I can actually meet and Ill take it.
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the green death
Posts: 128 |
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This was the third year my girlfriend and I have gone and we've had a blast every year. I find everyone there is really polite, definitely never been in such a such a large group with as little tension.
We really just hit the exhibit hall and took two half days to do so. I spent about $350 and got some cool stuff. Admittedly we just drive up from irvine so it's a pretty easy drive on a holiday. Maybe one year we'll hit some of the events, but for now I'm happy to just enjoy the exhibit hall. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2706 |
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I thought there were more people than last year (was right). I don't mind a big crowd as it can be exciting, but if they keep attracting more attendance year-to-year, I fear they will live up to the nickname "LineCon" and nobody will want to attend that...
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Omega13
 Posts: 78 |
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They do sell out (eventually) of 4-day passes, and they do intentionally try to limit the growth of the con year-to-year specifically to prevent a situation where attendance just explodes beyond their ability to deal with it. Saturday's fiasco was due to a number of factors beyond just attendance, and it was easy to see how much improvement they made on that from day 2 onward (which is actually saying a lot, given how slowly they have reacted to other serious issues at past AXs). Whether AX is right for you obviously depends greatly on what you're looking for, as both large and small conventions have their own unique pros and cons. This was my 18th consecutive AX (and I just now realized I've been going to AX for half my life), so I do remember the days when they were what you would now call a 'small con' (AX2000 attendance was <10k). There were definitely a lot of things from back then that would be great if they could bring back (like drawings for sketches/signed memorabilia/etc at the end of guest panels) that obviously can't happen due to the increased size, but they have made great strides, in my opinion, in professionalism and overall ability to run the con as a whole. Unfortunately, those improvements are tempered (and made necessary) by the sheer increase in size, but honestly, if they ran AX at its current size with the techniques they used from 10-15 years ago, day 0 attendees wouldn't even get their badges until the con was over, panels would end up being days late, and there frankly wouldn't be an AX at all. AX certainly isn't for everyone, but I would definitely recommend trying to go at least once. As previously stated, it is best to register as quickly as possible once you decide to go (4-day passes for 2018 are already at $71, and are only going to keep going up outside of Black Friday). Hope to see you there! |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Would I be correct in saying that AX has grown by the size of Otakon over the last three years? This being so, I would have thought that crowd management would have been scaled up proportionally. Indeed, a local convention over here with a larger attendance figure than AX had no acute issues with queues despite a smaller venue, suggesting the 'Linecon' fiasco was avoidable.
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1772 |
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The fun thing about AX is that you can consistently tell people that it's a horrible con and no one will believe you until they attend.
Don't get me wrong. If all you want to do is see the exhibit hall, AX is ok. The hall is always packed, especially on Sat/Sun, but it's ok. If you want to attend panels, you either will end up waiting 3+ hours in line to attend the larger ones or you'll need to pony up the funds to buy yourself a Premier badge. If you want autographs, prepare to get no sleep for the next few nights as you spend them waiting in the autograph lines so you can grab one ticket before heading to the back of the line to do the same thing over again. In short, everything at AX either requires you to stand in long lines, pay a premium or both. @CrownKlown - AX autograph lines have been ticketed for years. Before the current system, they had autographs in the game area (Running of the Otaku 2014 debacle) and prior to that they had autographs in the Exhibit Hall, which was also ticketed. The last time I can recall non-ticketed AX lines was...2010? I preferred the Exhibit Hall for autographs, though. You could at least sleep at AX instead of waiting in line at 2 am for an autograph ticket. I agree with the consensus that there are better (and smaller) cons to attend than AX. I don't think anyone needs to experience AX at least once in their life. Maybe when it was under 100K, but now..? No. If you want the AX experience, go to SDCC. They run things a lot better, and it's virtually the same in terms of just massive crowds, overpriced food/accommodations and lines. |
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Kouta6769
Posts: 63 |
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Oh yeah the contract they did, totally forgot about that. Well it'll be interesting to see where they go after 2019. |
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pagan poor
Posts: 11 |
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In one of the replies to a tweet question, whoever was running the AX twitter at the time mentioned "linecon" in the message. Tacit admission to a term used for AX for awhile.
Waiting in long lines seems to be part of the culture for this in Japan, so most people expect it. That and AX has no incentive to change much of what they do because they still get crowds in regardless. Until they stop getting foot traffic, bring a friend or something to do while you're waiting. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2321 Location: Online Terminal |
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A selection of attendance numbers for AX
2012: 50,000 2013: 61,000 2014: 80,000 2015: 91,000 2016: 100,000 2017: 110,000 AX is about 3.5 times the size of the next closest competitor. The annual increase of 10,000-ish is more attendees than most conventions have on a regular basis. There's a good chance that SPJA just can't handle that rate of increase. Maybe they should go for a moonshot and build their own facility. |
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