Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - The Con That Failed
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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My Norton went nutso in saying that site has a virus. |
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Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2346 |
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really mine didn't that's weird and it went crazy yesterday for good reason |
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Soul Tsukino
 Posts: 68 Location: Maine |
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Not huge con destroying events but I had a funny bit surrounding AniMaine last November.
First let me say this con was great! Wonderfully friendly staff and a great atmosphere at a tiny Hotel one of Maine's other conventions (Portcon) used to be held at. Going back this year. Anyway, I had applied to run a writing and fan fiction panel at this con. I'd done this panel a bunch of times before. My application was approved and lo and behold my panel was to be held in the main events room Saturday afternoon. Surprised my dinky little writing panel would be in the main events room I looked forward to it. However when we arrived the schedule had been changed so I was in a smaller panel room Saturday night. Despite joking with my friend about not being a main eventer anymore, I ran with it. Then I found out I was scheduled opposite Greg Ayers running over bootlegs in the parking lot with a steam roller. The ENTIRE con went outside for this and my panel room was dead empty. Eventually I went down myself to see the destruction, along with Scott Melzer, who was showing one of his fan parodies at the same time and didn't get people either. At the closing ceremonies the con staff admitted they never expected everyone to be outside and they would try not to schedule anything against a similar event next year, drawing a Thank You from me. And as for being originally scheduled for the main events room? I later found out that somewhere along the line they had mistaken me for an invited guest. I chuckled and felt honored. Maybe someday I'll be the real thing. It was an amazing weekend though and it was the most fun I've had at a con in a long long time. |
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Tanteikingdomkey
Posts: 2346 |
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the worst thing that has ever happened to me at the two cons I went to was (both of which I would recommend going to) that, at the second one I went to anime Milwaukee (it is an amazing middle sized con). I did not know until after my panels were schedule that little kuriboh was coming to it, I write my own abridged series so I really wanted to see him (in addition I have been a long time fan of his).
THEN I found out that he was scheduled at friday at 1:00 which I highly doubted my ride who I would be making the 4 hour trip with would be able to leave in time. or at 11:30 Saturday against my politics of Eden of the East panel (for a portion of my panel). so I asked for it to be rescheduled, which the staff understood and gave me a lot of support for, going as far as giving me the time for their intro to DnD panel they kinda didn't want to run. I got to the con and I look at my schedule and it shows my panel against little kuriboh and the DnD pannel on friday... so I know I am going to have a empty room for one of my pannels, but it's ok, and we work it out so that someone will tell people on Saturday that eden will be starting late, and the person at the door will remind people on friday that this the eden of the east panel. then we get to saturday in which the registration line ends up rivaling ACEN. needless to say the staff where almost entirely diverted to the registration table. I am at the little kuriboh at 11:15, run across to the room next door to see if anyone is at my panel. and open the door and leave my bag there. go back to little kuriboh and then come back at 11:30 and still no one which at this point I assume everyone was looking at the schedule on their phones (which supposedly was correct). and still no one is there, and reopen the doors, and then go to see the last 15 minutes of little kuriboh. he then agrees to look at my abridged script. I then go back to my room for the third time and have to reopen the doors again. and then start to set up and people start coming in from the little kuriboh pannel, and other places. meanwhile the registration line is still in front of my door. I start my panel and then realize a few minutes in that some people in the registration had stopped moving and where being passed, I then realize later on that two lines had started to form one that was moving and one in front of it that was stopped and staring at me, which is being to pass up the number of people actually in my room. this would have been just odd if that was all that had happened that day. the bad thing that happened that day was that The event that made this an actually bad con day (if there is such a thing). earlier that day I bought an EIN (from cowboy bebop) plushy, and then after a late panel, set my stuff down on the opposite walkway wall and then turn around and made three steps to the opposite wall to find my hotel directions in my messenger bag, I then asked a con staffer the best way to get there. I then looked over at my bag ein is still there, the guy gives me directions to the hotel my parents got that night. I then looked back at bag and blinked and realized someone had dog napped my EIN with a CON 30 year old con employ right there. I start yelling (I normally have a very loud voice without yelling) and he starts telling people to look for a person with an EIN. and trying to calm me down. 2 minutes latter and 6 people searching later, someone comes up to me and says they found him in a trash can. |
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Ted_the_bear2001
 Posts: 37 |
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I Tried to read the whole thing, but I ended up laughing at the end. It's been such a long time that I've ever seen such professional people trying to prove someone wrong in full detail. Anyway, there was one con based out in Chicago that I've heard of called Kazecon. Supposedly I was told was one of the worst planned conventions in the Midwest. There isn't a lot of info about it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't as bad as Kunicon, or so I think. |
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Gwydion
 Posts: 155 |
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Interesting, but sadly not surprising - I certainly remember how tiny it felt, but it was my second con (C-kon '02 being the first  ) so I had no idea if it was abnormal or not.
Ah yes, I remember that! Must have been '06 then, as I didn't attend in '05. |
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Asterisk-CGY
 Posts: 398 |
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I figure it's because between TAF, 2 Comikets, and that all three are reachable within a day easily enough from 90% of the country means they're conventioned enough. |
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rootsofjustice
Posts: 177 |
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From what I've heard through staff workers who worked AB'08, the kiosks were experiencing hiccups but still otherwise working on Thursday. It was Friday morning when the machines crapped the bed and the staff began to panic. I think by Saturday, they relegated enough Security members to fill the gaps left by the kiosks. |
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Ted_the_bear2001
Posts: 37 |
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I think that the most inexperienced con that I have ever been to will probably be the first Anime-Zap! back in 2010. It was held by the folks at QC Anime-Zing At the time it was a big deal because it was planned in only 3 days due to the cancellation of Pokettokon (which was another dinky little con run by Illinois Central College's Anime club).
The convention itself look very promising, except due to time constraints they decided to have the convention at the Hampton Inn. I'm assuming that they booked it there thinking that they would get only about 50 people there and nothing more. What it ended up being was 200 people jammed in a little roadside motel. What was worse is that there were people who decided to act like as if they were in a much larger convention, and would run around and start yelling at the little hallway that the convention was held in. Hotel staff kept throwing people out of the breakfast bar for sitting down (There wasn't really anywhere to sit in the con), and several non-convention attendees were afraid of our presence (I was once told that some even checked out of the hotel due to us, but I don't know it that was true). there were 2 little meeting rooms in the hotel, one for the dealers room (Which was only one dealer and maybe a couple of other artists) and the other being the panel room. a couple of other normal hotel rooms were used as the con-suite, which seems like an interesting idea at first, but when you have 30 people crammed into a little hotel room, it can turn you off. All in all, the convention didn't turn out great but it wasn't like it supposed to be great in the first place. QC Anime-Zing tried to make this convention successful, and it is still going on today, albeit in other locations. Last edited by Ted_the_bear2001 on Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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I think Animazement 2009 was the first year it was held in a new location, a good sized convention center, and for the first year none of the escalators were turned on so it was dubbed StairCon by quite a few of my friends (the convention center it's held in is really strangely designed as well, counting the basement where the dealer's room is it has 4.5-5.5 levels, depending on how you count, and that makes trying to describe to a newcomer where to go pretty confusing). I think I have a story from every year from that con and I'm hoping next year I'll finally have the funds to go to some other ones, this one has has just too many little problems over the years for me to enjoy it as much now.
I saw that video too, the con wasn't actually called Ghetto Con (I think they said it was a small LARPing con) but it sounded pretty awful.
Oh wow, I actually found video of this, that's hilarious ( start watching around the 9:00 mark )
Wait, do you mean that all the AMVs were stored on a DVD or such and that got stolen or that every DVD entered in the contest was stolen from another creator? |
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Emichan
 Posts: 83 Location: SF Bay Area |
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My first con was also the smallest con I've ever been to: Project Z-kon in Dallas back in January 1995. I think it was some sort of attempt to have an A-kon in winter or something, but as far as I know, it only lasted that one year. It was super tiny. The dealers room was, like... 4 dealers. But I still had a good time, and bought my first 2 anime OSTs there- Macross Plus OST1 and a Dragon Half OST
I'm generally oblivious to con drama, but a big memory for me was the power failure at A-kon 7 in 1996. Thanks to a tornado, the power at the convention hotel was knocked out for over 9 hours on Saturday. Imagine it.... tons of otaku + Dallas heat + NO AC. It got quite, uh.... aromatic. Still, in spite of the lack of power and stifling heat, I had fun. I can't imagine what would happen to A-kon if such a thing happened now. The con is so much bigger now. I also remember AX2K at Disneyland, and the insane wait for Masquerade. I think I have a bunch of photos of a chair set in the center of the stage, which was the most entertaining thing we had to look at during the long wait. There was also a lot of stuff going on that year, what with the crazy idea to have AX at Disneyland. I think there was something about a dealer selling hentai to someone under age, or something? I also remember they sent out notices to all the hotel guests explaining that all these weirdos in costumes were in no way affiliated with Disneyland parks, etc. AnimeFEST in Dallas in 2005 was also memorable. It was shortly after hurricane Katrina hit, and the hotel hosting AnimeFEST turned into a major meeting/planning point for search and rescue teams being deployed to help out in Louisiana. So, the hotel was surrounded by countless emergency vehicles, and mixed in among all the con-goers and cosplayers, were tons of uniformed medical/fire/search squads from all over the country, many with search and rescue dogs, etc. They all looked generally baffled by the presence of the anime con, but I did see some of them buying stuff in the dealers room As far as I could tell, the con and the hotel functioned well, in spite of the unexpected influx of emergency personnel.
I like how, no matter what con it is, what size it is, and in what state, there is always some sort of religious convention going on in the same hotel at the same time. that always causes drama. Fun times.. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Petrea Mitchell
Posts: 438 Location: Near Portland, OR |
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Here's one that I wasn't personally present at, but mixes two themes from the column in such spectacular fashion that I've got to mention it.
FedCon is a huge media convention held in Düsseldorf, Germany every year. A few years ago, it looked at expanding its franchise and licensed the name for use in the US. The first FedCon USA was scheduled for June 13th-15th, 2008 in Dallas, Texas. It was cancelled mid-convention owing to poor attendance and logistical screwups that had kept some guests from even making it to the site. (FedCon claims, according to some sources, that it had already dissociated itself from the people running FedCon USA before the convention.) This resulted in huge headaches for FenCon, the already-established multi-fandom convention right there in Dallas, Texas, which suddenly had to scramble to explain to the world that it was still on and had nothing to do with this enormous high-profile failure. (BTW, if no one else is going to mention it, I caught the Kipling reference in the column title...) |
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_V_
 Posts: 619 |
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I haven't been to many cons; the worst I went to was probably Anime Boston 2008 -- actually the first con I ever went to. Let me stress that the people actually had fun, and by Anime Boston 2009, any and all problems had been cleared up.
Well, There were two problems. The first of which is that due to a problem with the on-site electronic registration machines, the registration lines for this major convention were incredibly long – and I foolishly tried to register at-the-door. I got on line at 2 pm…and got off at 11 pm. Nine long hours, sweltering in my Guy Fawkes costume. I nearly got dehydrated. On top of that, this is when the wave of internet memes hit REALLY hard, and seemingly every third person on line had a driving need to shout “you lost the game” in your face. Nine damned hours on line in my V for Vendetta costume. There are those who say it drove me mad. Really it was a problem with the computers and the staff did what they could, plus there was actually a drastic increase in the number of attendees that year. All events came together to make a “perfect storm” – but hey, a long line, that’s no huge crisis – Friday is usually shot registering and it was my own fault for registering at the last minute (friends who had pre-registered got in after a 2 hour wait). By Anime Boston 2009, when I pre-registered, it took literally five minutes of waiting on line on Friday to get in. That, and I was also smart enough *not* to wear my costume to the convention on the first day, but to leave it in my room and just wear it Saturday (to my surprise, I got in so early that I was able to attend Mr. Toole’s delightful “dubs that time forgot” panel, but as I said I wasn’t in my costume). But what really made it one of the worst con experiences isn’t really something within the con’s control: it was the first major convention after the big anime crash began. Geneon abruptly shut down in September 2007, so this is March 2008, ADV just abruptly lost the rights to most of their stuff two months before in January 2008, every day you were hearing about another major shutdown. So it was this weird contrast, that on the one hand, I had a wonderful time with all of the “fan-made” stuff and content – the staff was well-organized, the fan-panels were fun/educational/entertaining, the Hynes convention center is a wonderful setting, and everyone was well behaved. But on the other hand, more so than most other cons….I think that if you had to pick one convention weekend that was “the height of the anime crash”, this was it. Otakon and NYAF happened so much later in the year that things had already cooled off a bit. AB 2008 was a scant *seven months* after Geneon shut down, literally a matter of weeks-not-months since ADV was announcing one crisis after another. It was absolute bedlam, exactly what you thought the end of the world would look like….I’m referring specifically to the industry panels and the booths on the dealer’s room floor. So I’d list that as a bad con….even though as far as conventions go, it was a great time and well-ordered and had no major crises…..just because that was “the height of the anime crash, from which the industry has yet to recover”…like a snapshot in time. Well, there were two other really big top-tier cons before AB in March 2008, which were Ohayocon 2008 (January) and Katsucon (February)…..but each of those had about 6-7,000 attendees. Anime Boston 2008 had something like 14,000 people, plus we’d had a few more weeks of bad news to get us really good and worried. Still, anyone else have a specific bad con experience from “the crash year” (September 2007 through the end of 2008), when all of the industry panels were in full-on panic mode and you realized just how bad things were? (i.e. from Ohayocon 2008 and Katsucon 2008 )? |
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jcaliff
 Posts: 156 Location: Houston |
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I was actually thinking of A-kon 7 myself just now. Despite the lack of electricity, I remember at least one person had a tv running out of the back of a van in the parking lot with an impromptu anime showing. And tons of people sitting around playing MTG in the hallway. At least one of the local artists (Jason I think) was later selling laminated A-kon 7 badges with a black background and two white eyes. I still have that somewhere.  It was certainly something to remember.
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