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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
WA State Governor Inslee issues a statement limiting public gatherings<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
NAB statement announcing the cancellation of the 2020 convention.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
A statement issued on the Sakura-Con Facebook Page March 13, 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
Sakura-Con announcing their cancellation on March 16, 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
A statement from Emerald City Comic Con<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
As someone who attends a lot of conventions, I am keenly attentive to conventions cancelling. The concerns around COVID-19 are really starting to affect conventions, including three that I have been planning to attend (Emerald City Comic Con<\/a>, Sakura-Con<\/a>, and NAB<\/a>). I assume that most conventions consider attendee safety their number one concern, even though you probably won\'t see it listed in any of their documentation. It\'s assumed that safety is a number one priority, so what happens when a convention is cancelled to meet that priority?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
The most obvious effect of cancelling a convention is the financial impact. Conventions of any size have many stakeholders. Attendees have planes and hotels booked and cosplays built. Hotels look forward to rooms being filled, restaurants and cafes busy, and meeting rooms booked. Artists and vendors have been producing their wares and hope to make new sales and business connections. Businesses surrounding the convention facility rely on the patronage of attendees. The convention center itself offsets its bills with facility rental and catering fees (most have public funding through tax dollars). It\'s the convention itself, however, that stands to lose the most.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
Aside from the financial impacts on a convention, there are other negative impacts. The lack of a convention means a loss of exposure, relevance, and influence in the industry in which it operates. Companies often make important announcements and presentations at conventions and that helps generate interest in the convention. Relationships and new connections are forged at industry events. Public reputation, or rather awareness, is affected by a cancellation. No convention wants to issued the bad news of a cancellation, nor look back at its history and revisit the time that it had to cancel. People are going to be disappointed even if they applaud the decision. It\'s certainly better to be forced to cancel for something out of its control rather than some kind of scandal, but a cancellation of any sort is a hit to the reputation and future marketing of a convention.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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When Conventions Cancel<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
I don\'t have enough experience in the convention industry to know whether event insurance would cover these cancellations. I\'ve seen conventions buy insurance that provide coverage for standard liabilities such as injury and death during the convention, but not other liabilities and certainly not the cancellation of the event itself. If such insurance exists, I would venture a guess that most conventions don\'t have it, or would have trouble actually receiving payment from the insurance company.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Anime Los Angeles 2020<\/h4>\n published 4 years ago<\/span>\n
ALA history<\/a> shows that it has been held at no less than four locations in and around LA since it started in 2005. The 2020 convention was held at the Ontario Convention Center, which is quite a distance away from Los Angeles. This pattern of changing locations continues on because the 2022 convention will be held at the Long Beach Convention Center. The 2021 convention has been cancelled since it is consistently held in January. I will forgive them for their name not matching the actual location since I understand the complexities of holding events. It\'s a challenge to find a location with the right combination of size, location, cost, and function. Besides, it\'s the event that makes the name and not the other way around.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Sakura-Con 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
Sakura-Con is one of the unfortunate conventions that had to suffer a three year gap due to COVID. Since it occurs in the spring it was forced to cancel in 2020. By the first week of March 2020 pretty much every convention had rescheduled or cancelled. Rather than attempt to reschedule Sakura-Con just called it off and didn\'t make plans to start again until 2021. While it was possible to have held the event in 2021, they obviously opted to remain on their Easter date.\n\nFalling in line with other large metropolitan based anime conventions, Sakura-Con required proof of vaccination or negative COVID test and masks while indoors. Washington State actually lifted its mask mandate before the convention, but the convention stayed the course. At this point in time, I expect more conventions to forego any of these requirements and things will basically return to normal. This is what larger conventions such as ECCC have decided.\n\nThe three year gap didn\'t seem to quench the thirst of attendees. From what I could see, turnout was on track to be at or above pre-COVID attendance levels. Were it not for a hastily announced cap on registration it may have been a record year. There was actually a series of posts that went something like \"registration is closed without any advance notice\", followed by \"whoops, no it\'s actually still open\", and then \"but it might close soon\". This was quite upsetting to a lot of attendees who thought they wouldn\'t be able to attend. Ultimately registration was capped to an unknown number of attendees. Although Sakura-Con staff wouldn\'t say, it\'s likely that the convention center was behind the attendance cap.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Colossalcon 2019 - Swimsuit Anime Convention<\/h4>\n published 3 years ago<\/span>\n
Yep, a convention during a pandemic. Like everything else, conventions were really messed up by 2020. Colossalcon pushed their event to later in September, but it was ultimately cancelled. Room reservations and badges were allowed to rollover to 2021 and here we are. Just like with the ongoing legacy room booking debacle, you can thank (or blame) the Kalahari for this event happening in June of 2021. I doubt it would be if it was solely up to Colossalcon. You can tell from reading the Facebook posts that the Kalahari management are basically forcing the convention to take place. As far as I\'m aware, this is the first convention of its size and notoriety to be happening in the midst on an ongoing pandemic. Granted vaccines will be widespread at the time of the convention, but people are understandably concerned.\n\nThere are a number of precautions and changes<\/a> in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. How they will affect the convention experience and whether they will be effective against spread is anyone\'s guess. I personally am not worried about catching covid. I\'ll be fully vaccinated and will still wear a mask and follow the rules. The tone on the Colossalcon Facebook posts regarding conventions held during a pandemic has shifted compared to last year. In 2020 people were adamant that conventions shouldn\'t happen and were almost cancelling anyone who held or attended one. Now, there are a lot of people excited to be going and telling others to stay at home if they are concerned about covid. I don\'t think this is because people want to be reckless, but rather they want to do something fun and normal. A year of shutdowns and restrictions have taken a heavy toll on the psyche and something like an anime convention seems like a light at the end of the tunnel.\n\nWith many states like Florida and Texas having lifted mask mandates, I expect to see other conventions happen this year. Certainly Colossalcon East<\/a> and Colossalcon Texas<\/a>, since they are both at Kalahari resorts and Texas has no mask mandate. I wouldn\'t be surprised if Dragon Con<\/a> happens in some fashion, but I\'m not putting any money on it. Holiday Matsuri<\/a> is also practically guaranteed to happen since it\'s in Florida in December and staff have been posting photos and talking about room reservations.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Katsucon 2020<\/h4>\n published 3 years ago<\/span>\n
Katsucon 2021 cancellation post<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Anime Expo 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
Anime Expo is the Big Kahuna of anime conventions. Based on Los Angeles, the event drew 115,000 attendees in 2019 and likely would have had even more for 2020 had it not been cancelled due to the pandemic. While the attendance numbers for 2022 were noticeably lower, it was still a very well attended convention. AX is the event that everyone<\/span> wants to attend because everyone<\/span> else is attending. \n\nTickets for this year\'s event were capped and sold out a week before the convention. This left some procrastinating fans without a ticket and no way inside, but it was nice to not be sandwiched in like sardines. The decision to limit attendance was likely driven by covid concerns. Although it was still busy and crowded in places, there was definitely room for more people. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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FanimeCon 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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FanimeCon 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
Those were the early days of COVID when no one really knew what to expect. By March of 2020 most conventions were cancelling and looking at rescheduling. \"The divisions heads and some of the executive staff reached out to the county health department and worked closely with them to figure out \'What does this mean for our show?\' We can\'t tell 30,000 people they can\'t show up the day before.<\/span>\"\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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FanimeCon 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
Ultimately the decision was made to cancel FanimeCon 2020. \"We didn\'t know when the show would happen again.<\/span>\" says Le. \"It went from a one week delay, to three months, to a year. There were even talks about doing a summer show.<\/span>\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Katsucon 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
The food choices at the resort aren\'t great, and they were worse for 2022. There is, or was, a buffet on the atrium floor and a sports bar as well. Both were closed for renovation during Katsucon 2022. This left the grab-and-go Marketplace and the expensive steak house. Neither are great choices IMO. The resort will certainly have all of its dining options open in time for the 2023 event. Guest rooms have a small refrigerator and there\'s a CVS within walking distance if that\'s your thing. Microwaves are available in the Marketplace.\n\nStaying at the Gaylord National is a challenge. With this convention being in such high demand, the rooms book up fast. Inside of 10 minutes everything is gone. If you want an atrium view room you had better be fast. I have two tips:
  1. Use a desktop computer and have your information saved in the browser. This way you can autofill the form fields and save a bunch of time. This can be the difference between getting a room and not. The same goes for credit card information.<\/li>
  2. If you weren\'t able to book a room during the initial round, keep trying. While it\'s unlikely that anything will open up that day or even in the following months, rooms do open up in January just before the convention. As you get closer to the cancellation date people start cancelling their rooms and they become available again. Be sure to save the booking link somewhere.<\/li><\/ol><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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    Holiday Matsuri 2021 Florida Anime Convention<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
    Enough about the pandemic, though. A convention like this is all about fun and it seemed like everyone came out to Holiday Matsuri like it was a family reunion. I recognized so many people and met even more for the first time. The weather was great and everyone was in good spirits. The bitter delays and cancellations made the coming together again all that much sweeter.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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    Dragon Con 2021 - Celebrating 35 Years<\/h4>\n published 3 years ago<\/span>\n
    In fact, an attendance cap is exactly what they did for the 2021 event. With the Delta Variant running rampant over Georgia, Dragon Con was limited in attendance to roughly 50%, or 42,000 people. In addition, no day passes were sold for Saturday, which is usually the busiest day. These limitations were noticeable as Saturday night seemed to be less crowded than Friday and Sunday. The hotels and habitrails were much easier to navigate and weren\'t nearly as crowded as they usually are. Panels were still well attended and even at capacity. Chairs were spaced out more which did reduce overall capacity. I overheard more than one person saying they wished it was like this every year, but I personally enjoy the craziness of so many people in one place.\n\nAs with almost every other convention, the pandemic forced the 2020 event to be cancelled. I’ve written about this a number of times in other articles. I think they managed to put together a great 2021 event given the situation. Masks were required as well as proof of vaccination, or a negative covid test within 72 hours. There was even an on-site vaccination clinic. I observed that most people obeyed the mask requirement. Every now and then I would see someone without one, but it seemed that they also didn’t have a badge and likely snuck in. Security at the front doors was lax and sometimes you could just walk into the hotels. While the Delta variant was a concern, the assumed high vaccination rate was really the saving grace.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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    Otakon 2021 - The Anime Convention That Nearly Died<\/h4>\n published 3 years ago<\/span>\n
    Queues for panel rooms are well-organized<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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    WonderCon 2022<\/h4>\n published 2 years ago<\/span>\n
    It\'s not hard to get to Anaheim... usually. It\'s where Disneyland is after all! If you\'re local you can just drive. If you are from farther away, the Los Angeles area has five airports including one of the busiest in America - LAX. The closest is the Santa Ana/John Wayne Airport (SNA), which is only 20 minutes away by car. I say \"usually\" because on the average year you can find a lot of flights at affordable prices. 2022 wasn\'t an average year. Coming out of COVID everyone started traveling again and airlines were overwhelmed. After reducing their staff during the pandemic for various reasons they just couldn\'t rebuild fast enough to accommodate the demand. Prices were double or triple the norm, if you could even find one.\n\nI purchased mine later than I should have and ended up paying a lot more than I wanted to. Thankfully I was able to use airline miles for a return ticket that would have been over \$400 one way! Southwest airlines had a decently priced arrival ticket for \$348, which is still a little ouch for a one way ticket. However, the night before the flight they canceled one leg of my flight! I tried calling, but three hours in I knew that there was no way I would get through. I didn\'t know if I would be able to make it to the convention until I arrived at the airport at 4:30 AM (I had a 5:30 AM flight on Saturday morning). Thankfully they were able to book me on a different connecting flight to LAX and arriving around the same time. Phew!\n\nAs far as hotels, you\'re in luck. There are plenty of hotels in the area since it\'s a vacation destination. The only downside is it\'s early April, which means spring break. That makes it a little busier than say, March. Still, there are plenty of rooms available. The convention has room blocks at many nearby hotels, so be sure to check that out if you\'re planning on staying overnight.\n\nI once again stayed with some friends and split the cost. In addition, I only stayed one night, so that reduced it down to \$82. Score! A friend picked me up at the airport which was really great, and I took an Uber down to SNA for my return flight. All in all, it was a relatively affordable convention.\n\nI tend to eat like a mouse at conventions just because I\'m out all day filming. I did go out with some friends on Saturday evening, but otherwise it was just a few grab-and-go type meals.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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    Otakon 2021 - The Anime Convention That Nearly Died<\/h4>\n published 3 years ago<\/span>\n
    Like most conventions, the pandemic forced them to cancel their 2020 event. This apparently put them in a financially tenuous situation and they put out a cry for help. As someone with convention staff experience, I was immediately very suspicious about this situation. Why were they suddenly in financial danger in January and not the summer of 2020 when they would usually hold their event? I can guess that there were some financial expenditures required to establish their 2021 event. Reserving a massive convention center like the Walter E. Washington comes with a massive price tag. Perhaps a down payment was required? But why was it difficult to do this when these kinds of expenses are known?\n\nOverhead expenses for a non-profit convention like Otakon should be relatively low. They don’t have paid staff, so their payroll is \$0. Month to month costs might include web hosting, equipment storage and a few other low cost items. Quick math shows that an average registration cost of \$90 x 26,000 attendees yields \$2,340,000! Where is this money being spent?!\n\nYou can plan and budget the expenses for running a convention like this to avoid surprises. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any risks. You have to secure guests and their plane flights in advance. Both can come with cancellation fees if something changes. Hotel blocks come with their own set of risks. I would hope that force majeure<\/a> would save them, but who knows. Still, I have to question the leadership when something like this occurs. Financial mismanagement, or dare I suggest embezzlement, happens more often than most people know. This is especially true with non-profits since no one has a personal financial interest like they might in a for-profit company. It’s easy to dip your hand into the honey pot when no one\'s livelihood depends on it.\n\nI did reach out to Otakon and requested an interview with senior staff to get answers to these questions, but I never received a reply. Perhaps they don\'t think I deserve their time. Ultimately, we may never know the full story behind their cry for help. I have no insider knowledge and I have no proof or evidence of wrongdoing. I would appreciate it if they were more transparent about their financial situation. It\'s difficult for me to blindly trust someone with my money. Was there a reason why they didn\'t share more? They never specified how much money they needed to stay afloat. For all we know they may have been looking for \$100,000, which is a small fraction of their estimated operating budget. Whatever they received from supporters, it must have been enough. The 2021 event was held with apparent success and no further mention of financial trouble has been made since.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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    Book That Room!<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
    The most popular hotel rooms at Katsucon have an atrium view and they book up first. If you aren’t successful at booking a room, you have a some options.\n\n
    1. Keep trying the room block. Rooms can become available throughout the year as people cancel their reservations.<\/li>
    2. Book outside the room block.<\/li>
    3. Book at a nearby hotel.<\/li>
    4. Book a short-term rental property through services like Airbnb.<\/li>
    5. Stay with friends.<\/li>
    6. Move closer to the convention (become a local) 😁.<\/li><\/ol><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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      Book That Room!<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
      1. Keep trying the room block\nKatsucon’s room block remains open until a few weeks before the con. Your reservation doesn’t even make its way into the hotel’s reservation system until the block closes. People will often drop their room a month or two before the con as their plans change. Their canceled room is then returned to the room block so it can be booked by someone else. Keep a copy of the booking link url handy and book your room at the room block price. That link might be hard to find later on.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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      Book That Room!<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
      4. Book a short-term rental property\nBooking a short-term rental property through websites such as Airbnb can seem like a good idea initially. They usually aren’t too far away, have all the comforts of home, and can be had at a good price. They come with one big warning though: the property manager can cancel your reservation at any time, and I do mean at any time. Imagine thinking you had this great place lined up only to suddenly find out you have nowhere to stay. Now imagine you have five other people staying with you. Would this stress you out? Would it stress out your friends?\n\nI experienced such a cancellation on the morning of my arrival. In fact, out of the three short-term rental bookings I’ve made, only one actually came through. The other two canceled my reservation, probably when they realized it was during a busy weekend when they could charge someone else 3-4 times more than what I booked it at. In my experience, the booking platforms which offer these types of lodging - Airbnb, Expedia, or whoever - have very little concern about your reservation being canceled beyond giving you a refund. They might try to offer alternative lodging, but that’s like offering you a different pair of shoes to wear. Whatever they offer you is unlikely to be a good fit. To make things even worse, these platforms will prevent you from leaving negative comments or reviews for the property. I don’t recommend these types of bookings during conventions.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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      Book That Room!<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
      If you completely missed the chance to book a room, it’s not the end of the world. As I mentioned earlier, some conventions keep the room block open until closer to the convention. Keep trying back. As people cancel their reservations the rooms become available again. Katsucon in particular will have openings in the months before the convention.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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      So you wanna go to Colossalcon...<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
      Let\'s say you were successful in booking a room. Great! Now you have to think about how to get there. As I mentioned earlier, the resort is kinda out of the way and Sandusky is a small city. You pretty much have to drive there. The nearest commercial airport is in Cleveland, approximately one hour away. There\'s also Columbus and Detroit, both about two hours away. If you don\'t live within 10 hours driving distance you\'ll probably have to fly in and rent a car, or get a ride from a friend. I recommend Costco Travel<\/a> for car rentals. Costco has great rates, a free cancellation policy, and other perks. A Costco Membership is required, however.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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      So you wanna go to Colossalcon...<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
      Plans change. Maybe you got a room but can no longer go. Or maybe you couldn\'t get a room but found one on the Rooms and Rideshares group on Facebook (link). Rather than just canceling, it\'s a good idea to transfer your room.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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      So you wanna go to Colossalcon...<\/h4>\n published 1 year ago<\/span>\n
      Canceling your reservation at the Kalahari comes with a \$30 cancellation fee. This is clearly mentioned in the booking policies, so don\'t be surprised by it. If you transfer your room, you avoid this fee. If you\'re on the other side of the equation – you want to get a room – be prepared to pay \$85. That\'s what the Kalahari charges to transfer a room.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n