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[El_Duque]

Originally Posted by Thymidine

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...026173_n .jpg

Is that Chaz in the middle? XD

[animejunkie]

I agree with El Duque in that perhaps AM2 tried to do too much in its first year; no matter what anyone says otherwise, putting it up against AX was a mistake and I hope that next year they are able to have this on different dates.

[Access]

Okay but animejunkie did either of you two actually experience any part of the convention itself? If not, that's analysis, not commentary... you're drawing conclusions based on what you've heard not actual personal experience.

[Ali]

Some other dates would be great. It was so nice to return to the ACC, I like to hope I'll be able to do it again.

I was a little frustrated by how unknowledgeable some of the staff seemed to be. I cannot recall who we talked to, but we got what turned out to be a wrong answer for getting the Disneyland discount offered, and were unable to take advantage of that. Some clearer instructions offered to the attendees in the passports or online about redeeming some of those would have been really great.

I ended up missing a lot more of the con than I'd intended, but I did like the relaxed small-con atmosphere.

[El_Duque]

Originally Posted by Access

Okay but animejunkie did either of you two actually experience any part of the convention itself? If not, that's analysis, not commentary... you're drawing conclusions based on what you've heard not actual personal experience.

We would have went if it was on a separate weekend, hence the suggestion to put in on a separate weekend.

I'm also interested to know what was the con's unique attendance because 8,000 sounds more like a turnstyle for a first year small con.

[thetrueking]

According to this: http://forums.am2con.org/index.php?/...dpost__p__3458

The 8,000 is their unique number while they have not released turnstyle.

[thetrueking]

Sorry for the double post..They just posted their own photo album

http://www.flickr.com/photos/am2convention/

From what I experienced at their convention I think these photos do them a lot more justice than the emptiness that ANN seemed to want to portray. I must also add that attendee experience is much more important than attendance count in how to judge how well a convention did. As shown by their convention feedback thread on their forums AM2 did have quite a bit of issues, but their past experiences in running conventions definitely showed in how they put on a great show

[Access]

Originally Posted by El_Duque

I'm also interested to know what was the con's unique attendance because 8,000 sounds more like a turnstyle for a first year small con.

They used a turnstyle to measure it, placed at the entry to the main hall. But it would not be a classical turnstyle count because they were telling anyone who had already gone through the turnstyle once to go around. So ultimately it would have led to a unique count.

They also have a passport metric, I'm not sure about the exact math here but a certain percentage of the passport proceeds went to charity and I don't remember what that percentage was or how much actually went. But probably if you knew the number and the percentage and the price range that passports were sold for, you could calculate the approximate number of passports sold.

[Hakaider]

In terms of feedback...

I must say that it was a quite enjoyable experience. It was a more relaxed con, and the staff was quite friendly. The lines moved quickly for the events, and they had some really good J-Pop & J-Rock concerts. (The "Scandal" concert was awesome!) While this convention is not as big as AX or Comic Con by any means, it is a fair sized con, and it could potentially grow really fast if it is done right within the next few years.

The Masquerade itself was very well run & friendly. The Masquerade Coordinator was also very easy to approach to & talk to as well.

The only negative thing about this event was the people from the "Moose" Convention. They were sharing the AM2 event at the Anaheim Convention Center, and some of them were rude, obnoxious and pointed & snickered at all the cosplayers. (After awhile, it started to get really annoying.)

There was also a couple of bearded men with baseball hats from the "Moose" convention who were wearing Confederate flag T-shirts, and hurled 4 letter words at some of the the cosplayers. One of them used a derogatory word that questioned the sexuality of the cosplayers.

I really hope AM2 doesn't share with the "Moose" con the next time. I also do hope that AM2 doesn't share the same July 4th weekend date as AX the next time as well.


*On a sidenote...A funny thing also happened when our cosplay friends were dining at the Anaheim Cheese Cake factory restaurant during the con. The all girl band members of the J-Pop group "Scandal", and their entourage ended up sitting right behind us.*

[dcpoor]

drat, should've eaten at cheese cake factory.
lol

[KUJO3423]

They are too big for just a hotel. Location is fine just move the date a few weeks so people have time to save up some more money to spend.

[thetrueking]

I have heard from a pretty credible source that AM2 is over 125,000 dollars in debt right now or overspent and did not make back. How are they going to recover from that is my fear...

[Hazel Chaz]

Originally Posted by KUJO3423

They are too big for just a hotel. Location is fine just move the date a few weeks so people have time to save up some more money to spend.

They could easily fit into the Anaheim Marriott or the Anaheim Hilton.

Originally Posted by El_Duque

Is that Chaz in the middle? XD

Yes, that's me in the brown clothes, with Melody on one side and Christian B. McGuire on the other.

[ElCapitan]

Originally Posted by thetrueking

I have heard from a pretty credible source that AM2 is over 125,000 dollars in debt right now or overspent and did not make back. How are they going to recover from that is my fear...

We are not $125k in debt.

I'd love to hear who this "pretty reliable source" is, but of course I don't expect you to actually provide us with any backup for why this source (or you) should be considered trustworthy.

There's little reason to believe that you are anything more than a troll trying to tear down what many people have worked very hard to put together.

[Hakaider]

They could easily fit into the Anaheim Marriott or the Anaheim Hilton.

Unfortunately, that's probably not likely. It would be too small to fit everyone.