Forum - View topicInterview: Thomas Sirdey, Co-Founder, Japan Expo
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Wish them well, and hope they have a successful convention. Pity I live on the East Coast.
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Asrialys
 Posts: 1160 |
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lol Still works out in a way... Anyway, I hope the festival turns out much better. I hope more is revealed while the full weekend tickets are still discounted. |
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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Unless they have more stuff to see and do and more importantly have more guests real important ones and big events to lure people in I don't think their trade show theme is going to win anyone over.
I may go again this year even though I was in the percentage that wasn't really happy with last years con, and I feel this year probably will make or break them. Still don't get that the limited badges are still not for sale and the fact their is only 25 and they still haven't laid out all the events and guests to help people decide if it's worth the extra money that are charging for one even more than last year. I'm not as excited as I was last year and if I go again this year they better step up their game or I don't see them lasting that much longer. Now that Fanime finally has gotten the long line mess taken care of as long as they keep hiring professionals to run that part of it instead of idiot volunteers with no skills or experience. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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From what he was saying, it sounds more like a Japanese cultural theme, rather than an anime trade show. |
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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I was their last year and it was a trade show of all things Japanese. Yes they had 3 actual professional booths from Funitmation, Viz, and Yen Press not really that impressive, dealers hall, artist alley etc, the empty space was filled with some exhibits related to Anime like Wolf Children or Bandai's display that had clips of Space Dandy running before it the internet news.
All the other space they tried to fill it with Japanese art, knick nacks, and martial arts demos, traditional music, and other crap. It wasn't a Anime Convention like all the others but a trade show about Japan that shoe horned Anime and Manga content in and not a good job at it either. You could see everything in 20-30 minutes and be done unless you were their for a autograph or one of the limited panels that no one showed up to. The attendance was so poor that dealers nearly walked the first day. I've seen smaller cons get more people in the doors. Only reason I went more than one day was for one special autograph which I still didn't get and wasted much time and money to do so. If the greedy bastards wanted more money for one they should have named their price and I would have paid it. Japan Expo may be a big hit in France but if they think they are going to replicate it over here in the states for what they have to offer they are delusional and should pack up and go home. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1746 |
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No, no. Let's be honest here. The majority of your 57K friends were from Europe (particularly France) and joined as a special promotion for Japan Expo Paris last year. All of whom joined prior to the event. I believe you had well over 50K Facebook friends prior to the first event as you made a big deal about it and even waited to name a guest once you hit that point. So, no...the majority of your Facebook friends did not join after the show. Please, let's be honest and not try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. ...Kinda like that garbage that was spewed at the live Sadamoto drawing panel where we were informed that all the artwork the guests drew at the show would be sold in France. I have friends who attend the French show. There are no charity auctions there as they would have raved about all the nice artwork they won. No, that artwork went to your backers and were not sold for any registered charity. I'm happy to see that JX is parting ways with the French. I found that the French staff was very rude, especially their horrible translator who couldn't speak English to save his life but yet insulted everyone else when they asked for a clarification. French staff was rude to US staff. It made me really sad when I observed a French staffer get in a US staffer's face, and sarcastically told the US staffer if "he even knew who Sadamoto was". However, I don't like that you're basically giving us the same song and dance you did last year. It's great that you admitted that attendance was an issue, but then again, you expected to get 15K the first year of your event even though it fell after most of your audience returned to school. Honestly, you're not off to a good start. Your premium registration process this year was a disaster. You stated that it would be ready at 8pm Wednesday after a 24 hour "heads up" on Facebook, and the system crashed. No one could get in. Then you told us it was ready to go at 10:30p, only to have it crash. Now, it appears that JX, after informing us that there would only be 25 premium platinum/gold badges, has issued more than the advertised amount. It's fine if you want to sell more premium badges, but I would expect you to be upfront with it. If you're going to sell more than 20 gold badges, please say so prior to the purchase. |
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Asrialys
Posts: 1160 |
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Didn't Hen Da Ne or whatever that dealer was by the entrance leave after the second day? |
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Cutiebunny
Posts: 1746 |
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^ Yes, that was them. They only left the second day after JX staff pleaded with them not to leave after the first.
Wonder if the booth prices for vendors went down this year? Last year it was the same price that AX usually charges. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I still say they were stupid trying to start this up as a "big" con in California. (by which I mean there are MANY other states/cities in the US that might be impressed by what JX brings to the tables, CA is at the BOTTOM of the list of places that would take notice) Nothing I read here changes my opinion.
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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I've seen the guests, numbers, and events etc at the their con in Europe it looks totally amazing and worth going to.
But here I have my doubts and not because it's in CA. If you want to be the big shot then you better deliver the goods, and don't give me the excuse it was your first year. My guess they tried to do it on the cheap and hoped to use their reputation in over in France to make up for the lack lusterless here and it failed miserably. Seems like they are doing damage control or they are over optimistic and over selling themselves which will lead to failure if you don't make changes and give the attendees what they want and what they are use to. |
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akapahua
 Posts: 16 Location: CA, USA |
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Unless there's going to be some guest that I can't live without seeing, then unfortunately I will not be going this year. Last year was a complete disaster. Everything from the vendors wanting to leave to the rude and incompetent staff, especially Sadamoto's translator. And unless you were one of the people to buy a premium pass, autographing was a complete joke to everyone else, especially for the popular guests.
I think that that's pretty understandable as it was your first con here. Yes it is Europe's biggest con, but that's not gonna make people shell out money to travel to a con that can easily turn disastrous (which is kind of did). All you can do is promote and if things go well that year, people will write all about their great experience on their blogs, which will entice others to potentially go next year. Never expect high numbers for a beginners con. Also when you first announced the no re-entry and would have to pay again, I remember all over the forums of how people told others not to go and boycotted the whole thing. So that may have dwindled the numbers too. Although I commend you guys for changing that before the con started.
THANK YOU! As I said, most of the French staff I encountered were rude and incompetent. Completely ruined my whole experience. I travel to 5-8 around the US and never in my life experienced what I did there. Not sure if that's just a cultural thing, but yeah, not acceptable.
Yes it is. And I'm guessing it's a cultural thing. What works in France may not exactly work here. One of the main things I detested was how the autographs ran. Lottery system was and is a terrible idea. imo, I definitely prefer a first come first serve. As someone who travels specifically to see a specific guest, you better believe I will be the first to be waiting for autograph sessions to open. With the lottery, I'm not guaranteed anything and my traveling there seems to be in vain since I didn't determine my position, but a system. Although first come can still go wrong and anyone who went to AX this year would know that. And once you've gotten an autograph from one of the guests, you couldn't get one from them again? Even if it was a different day? I understand not seeing the same guest the same day as to get everyone a chance, but not being able to see them a different day? Why? I don't understand and made no sense to limit an attendees guest experience like that.
This! Big US cons have charity events. It would have been nice for the attendees to get a chance to win something was drawn/autographed at the con. Not to take that stuff and give it to the people back in France. That just makes no sense and is complete bs. If you want to pocket the money yourselves, then just host an auction yourselves with no charity involved. Although that option is definitely not cool, but at least the attendees who went there got a chance to win it. I know if it was something from a guest I wanted to see, I'd be more that willing to drop thousands on it.
Yes, contents that are seen in your France con should be kept and it definitely is different from what is seen in common US cons. Some examples would be how you really try and integrate activities focusing solely on Japanese culture, tradition, and lifestyle. Unless discussed in a panel, such interactive activities are not something commonly seen in US cons as we are more focused on the anime, music, etc. than things like cooking, sports, bunraku, calligraphy, etc. And that is ok, but by you guys bringing these unique experiences, it sets your con apart and makes it stand out from the others here and that's a good thing! If things go well this year, you better believe I going next year. |
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1671 |
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I thought it was neat, but definitely needed work. I was mainly sad that I bought an art book specifically for Satamoto's autograph. As a 50-50 draw, neither my friend or I got it and I was pretty bummed out
 I really prefer first-come-first-serve. I got ComiCon tickets last year (but couldn't make it...) but this year it was random chance and I guess I didn't get lucky. Statistics are always against me!!
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2442 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Would have been nice for an introductory or closing paragraph to indicate the dates and location of the event. Yes, it's in the graphic, but it's small (and invisible to screen readers and search engines).
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Asrialys
Posts: 1160 |
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Yeah, the policy was a bit confusing. But I was able to get Yusuke Kozaki's autograph twice between the first two days. |
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ittoujuu
Posts: 164 Location: SoCal |
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I was at Japan Expo last year, and seemed to be one of the minority of people who actually had a fun time at the con. After experiencing really busy, bustling cons like Fanime and AX, I was glad to attend a con that was a bit more low-key, where I could walk through the dealer's room without being jostled this way and that by throngs of people. I was shocked to be able to get into almost all the panels and concerts without having to wait in a line (we'll chalk that up to lower attendance, but hey, it was what it was) and also enjoyed the art exhibits they had for Wolf Children and Shotaro Ishinomori, but those are things you have to kind of "slow down" to take in, and I can understand how that might butt up against the "gotta go faster!" congoer mindset.
Of particular note is that I appreciated Japan Expo's focus on "Japan." I still want it to be an anime/manga show first and foremost, but I like that there are cultural programming options there too. I'd much, MUCH rather see that than have Japan Expo become "yet another hodgepodge internet geekery con," as many anime cons seem to have become. That's why I'm kind of conflicted about the "due to fan input, we're bringing U.S. guests now!" part, but I'll wait and see who those guests are. Yeah, there were a number of issues Japan Expo had. Perhaps foremost among them is the fact that they didn't offer any night and evening programming. Everything shut down at 6 p.m. sharp and people had to mosey off and do whatever. It was a nice setup for day-trippers (which I was), but if you want people to come from further out than maybe an hour away, there HAS to be more programming to keep them busy and make it worth the time for their pilgrimage. No one wants to spend a bunch of time sitting in a hotel room. Things like the game room or video rooms need to keep running into late-night. Japan Expo needs to greatly step up its game in this respect to make it a con worthy of traveling to for people outside the immediate geographical area. Another odd thing was how their second-largest guest stage was just smack in the middle of the dealer's room instead of a dedicated space just for panels. On one hand, it was kind of distracting to have all the noise of people milling around, outside conversation, people running past, and events happening in that room (including an actual matsuri parade, complete with drums and other festive noisemaking)...but on the other hand, being in the dealer's room made that stage and its guests much more visible. I ended up attending quite a few panels at that stage, some of which I overheard, drew closer to because it sounded interesting, and finally sat down to fully take in. And to wit, every panel I attended at the dealer's room stage finished with more people in attendance than it started with. It was just kind of an odd setup, and I'm not sure whether it was done that way intentionally, or just to avoid renting another conference room at the facility. I don't know that I'll be able to go this year, though I'd like to. Now that it's in its second year, Japan Expo has a lot of broad, sweeping things it can do to make year two a vast improvement over year one, and I'm curious how many of those things they'll do. The change of venue and cutting loose the uncooperative segment of staff may be a big help, but we'll only know once it happens whether the showrunners recognized not only what needed improvement (and took steps to fix it), but what did work - and made sure those things are preserved. I'm optimistic. Yeah, Japan Expo doesn't offer quite the standard con experience, but that's actually something I appreciate about it. If I want a huge anime con with top headliner guests and a crushing amount of humans packed into a building, I've got AX. If I want an anime con that feels more like a general internet nerd con, I've got Fanime. Now, if I want a con more laser-focused on stuff from Japan, I've got the option of Japan Expo, and I hope they take that and grow it, because I like having more con options. |
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