Katsucon in DC this weekend

[ClosetOtaku]

Katsucon 12 will take place this Friday through Sunday at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC.

I will be there for all of Friday, and some of Saturday and Sunday as well. Unfortunately, my darling daughter will be absconding with my camera, so I won't have pictures this time.

Look for the bemused middle-aged guy with a Haibane Renmei shirt, probably prowling Artist's Alley or watching the Anime Music Video contest.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Well some of my schoolfriends are going. I however will not be going.

[Kisa]

ru serious?! so wanted to go... -_-

[ashfire]

I won't beable to attend this one so if you see Kevin Lillard at the show give him a blessing. He says according to his website he is going to be there after everything that has happen to him.

[ClosetOtaku]

Well, a quick recap of this weekend's Katsucon...

First, if it isn't disorganized, it's not Katsucon. To their credit, Katsu 12 (this year) was much better done than last year's con. That said, the AMVs were still messed up, events were cancelled or rescheduled without any word to convention goers, and communication between any two members of the staff was bound to be mishandled (and, as a result, my daughter's luggage was either misplaced or stolen because she was directed by a staff member to put it in the wrong holding room).

Good points were the venue (the Omni Sheraton is a great location, and will continue to host Katsus 13 and 14), the merchants' room (if you can believe it, almost as good as Otakon's this year), and Artist Alley.

I won two items: pocky (yum!) via trivia question (Q: This notorious anime personality directed only part of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou before quitting... A: Hideaki Anno), one via Funimation Drawing (a copy of the first DVD of Samurai Seven). Best con yet for free stuff.

Overall, much better than last year, though still suffering in quality at times. And, given the excellent coverage in the Washington Post, I think it was a good effort that will have a positive influence on those people who were first-time convention goers.

[ashfire]

After reading Kevin Lillard's notes on fansview.com about Katsucon he made it sound like it was total confussion with people in costumes, taking pictures of costumers and security people being too strict about it.
Kevin thinks that the people who operate Katsucon may start restricting the number of attendees which will put the con in a situation of losing attendees and then dealers if they can't sell what they brought to sell.
I understand the people that started Katsucon became part of other cons and they run like clock work.
I wish I could have gone to the show to see Kevin and wish him better health in the days to come but alot of attendees did that as said in Kevin's notes.

[ClosetOtaku]

One of the problems was a lack of "open" areas for con-goers to gather in. If you think of the Baltimore Convention Center, or even the Crystal City hotels Katsu used last year, there are a number of open areas for people to mill around. Not so at the Omni: you have everyone passing through narrow hallways to get to the main events on either extreme end -- and of course, when you catch a glimpse of that to-die-for Vash or Edward Elric costume, you have to stop right there for the pic. Security was just trying to keep things moving and safe.

So, something to consider when you go out and contract with a hotel: it is not the same thing as a convention center. Even if Katsu puts a attendance cap on, I don't think it will help much (plus, how do you keep legitimate, non-convention traffic out of the hotel?). Lesson: Katsu has outgrown the hotel scene (it isn't Nekocon or Animazement), and in the future will need to move on to a larger venue.

[ashfire]

ClosetOtaku like you said it may be time for Katsucon to move on to a convention center setup like Wash. D.C. Convention Center or even take it to Baltimore for Katsucon or wait to 2008 when Gaylord National On The Potomac resort and convention center at National Harbor opens. It will be the largest hotel convention center on the East Coast when it is completed.
From what is shown on Gaylord's website it will a good size place along with other hotels to be built around or near it.
National Harbor will match or better Baltimore Inner Harbor when everything is finnished and will be right off the Capital Beltway.

[ducheval]

I've attended katsucon since 2003, and I think this year was a definite improvement over 2005, but not over 2003 and 2004. While the Omni was an... um. let's go with 'interesting' location, I'd really prefer that it wasn't there again. The room count was way down I believe from previous years. Lack of central open areas for people to gather, and a dealer's room that more or less wasn't on the map due to the somewhat bizarre hotel layout added up to the location not really cutting it for me.

But anything is better than last year's venue.

Location gripes aside, it was a good time