Forum - View topicJapan Expo USA 2013
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Brohimesama
 Posts: 10 |
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Cutiebunny:
For what it's worth, the staff weren't supposed to get photos of him either; I don't think he does facial photos. Period. Our event coverage was only allowed to take photos of him from the back, and was not allowed to take photos of Sadamoto while he was drawing. In regards to your comments about the twitter feed, I don't think it would be the best of ideas to retweet negative comments. As far as negativity on Facebook goes, I've seen a few negative comments but the overwhelming amount of positive comments is legit as far as I can tell. I don't think the negative comments on our wall have been deleted either, so you can check that out if you'd like. We're always open for feedback to make our show better. I would really like to put emphasis on we are not an anime convention, we are a Japan convention. I definitely think JX is intended to be a Japan Culture trade show, in which anime and the like definitely play a big part. Tuxedocat, since your posts are relatively similar, I think this has everything I can answer in your posts: I can't say much in regards to location, since I don't know the details around that, but the no re-entry was part of the France transplant. The Paris con is basically in a massive warehouse where you literally never need to leave until you need to sleep. Think of it as a microcity or something. I'm a foodie myself, so trust me I know the pain of con food. This is something we were not in charge of. Something something Aramark something something no you can't sell your own food because this is our shit or something. TL;DR: Aramark fucked us on anything food related. I'm not sure how sake tasting would work for us, since this is supposed to be a PG-13 convention and constantly family friendly. Note the lack of hot hentai nights or anything similar. Definitely something I would love, because I'd love to get wasted at con and have an excuse. Dfens: Oh my god yes, you have no idea how much I'd like a change in venue. I despise SCCC for the most part, the only real appeal being free parking. The location sucked, the internal layout of the exhibit hall was horrible, and there was zero food within walking distance (Iguanas, World Wrapps, In n Out, Taco Bell et al basically required a car). Most (if not all) of the US team agrees on giving out lanyards and a "badge" holder. As far as the ticket scanning goes, that was purely to prevent people from sneaking in, which it did for the most part. There are definitely ways of improving upon that system, and we'll definitely try to have stuff better for next year. Some time this week or next week, we'll probably make a post on our Facebook regarding attendee feedback, just as a heads up. Please try to make it concise so I don't have to re-read everything you posted here, and then make official versions of what I wrote in these few posts.  <3
As a note I would like to point out that what I say here does not represent the opinions or visions of Japan Expo USA or Japan Expo, and that what I say is not an official statement from SEFA Entertainment, or any of its affiliates. I am not here on behalf of the company, but I am responding as someone who has been on staff and as a fellow convention-goer. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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So I'm still not entirely jiving with this whole France thing as far as re-entry. Let's say they could hold it in a venue where it was similar to the one in Paris, where everything you need is right there, even a park and a pool for chilling out. But you still need to leave to sleep, and who likes to carry their stuff with them all over the place? I wouldn't buy anything if I didn't have a hotel room to drop it off at afterwards. And that would make vendors angry. Bad news.
If they want to eliminate re-entry it would make sense if the con used reasonably priced day passes only. You just pay for the days you want to attend. And a *FREE* bag check (I find bag check that you have to pay for to be nothing short of corrupt corporate fascism), to encourage me to buy more stuff. So it doesn't matter if you leave the convention at the end of the day or whenever, everyone has to pay to get in the next day anyway. |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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I've never been to the one in Paris, so I'm not going to claim to be an expert on it, I'm going by what I hear. I'll do my best to answer any issues you have though.
I don't think fascism means what you think it means... I think the paid bag check is there to make you want to buy a premium so that your bag check is free. There are lots of issues with having a free bag check at a convention, but let me try to give you an example of the issues we could run into: -If we say "you may only bring X amount of items" People might do something ridiculous like bring suitcases and fill those with crap, then check them. -If we just have an open free bag check, I suspect that people might end up bringing a stupidly high number of bags with them "just in case something happens" -If we have an open and free bag check but people bring loads of bags, and we turn them away, they get pissed because they have to leave and there's a no re-entry (I would assume this is to prevent people from sneaking in if they haven't paid). I'm sure there are other things that the EU team has thought up that I have not, but this is just to give you an idea of the issues that could arise. Not to mention, it's two goddamn dollars. You probably blew a few hundred on buying merch. You can afford to spend two dollars to make sure your hundreds of dollars don't go anywhere.
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tuxedocat
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Oh. Aramark. Blech. I'm so sorry. The same company that makes prison food. Sad day for foodies. 
I do wonder about the "stay all day" situation at the Paris con. Last time I was in EU, there were still a ton of smokers.... |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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Vapors
 Posts: 139 Location: Bay Area |
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I should really get my thoughts down before I forget. I wanted to share my experience of Japan Expo since coverage seems pretty muted.
I went with the Premium Badge early and used it primarily to get to the convention early. I picked up my badge Friday. First, yea for free parking. I got to the Santa Clara Convention Center around 7:30 expecting a crowd, but only saw that most of the people there were the premium badge holders (of which they numbered way less than the max of 200). We were let in pretty quickly, picked up my free bag and walked inside. I was impressed, for a first year con, at all the big industry booths and vendors that came out to support this. Funi, Crunchyroll, Viz and Yen Press were there along with some notable vendors. Also impressive were the array of Japanese tourist bureaus, tour groups and airlines that were there to hand out information and answer questions. I have committed to go to Japan next year so the wealth of information here at my disposal was important to me. However, I quickly recognized, along with a couple of vendors who I was standing next to, that the opening hour of the con was badly under attended. One booth essentially laughed once the pre-reg people were let in (a crowd of like a couple dozen at most). That vendor mentioned he may have had to call his boss to see if they should stay. This is 30 minutes into the first day and already they were thinking of heading to the hills. Suffice to say, this booth wouldn't even bother to show up on Sunday. I had to go to work, but I came back around 4:45 to finish my walk through of the exhibit. I really liked the cultural exhibits that were on display from Wabi Sabi. Also nice were performances by cultural music groups and martial arts demonstrations. I think the big thing JX can say is that they were very serious in showcasing Japanese cultural aspects outside of manga/anime/video games you see at most conventions. I grabbed some quick sketches and autographs, because the lines were comically short from three guests, did a quick purchase and was out there within an hour's time. Saturday brought more people with the main congestion area right where the main industry booths were along with the autograph line. This was the only day where having a premium badge had any advantage. Getting there early meant being able to get a first come first serve autograph ticket for Sadamoto. I got it, along with Kozaki, Iwadare and Iwamoto. Essentially, I got all the autographs and sketches I wanted on this day. When meeting Sadamoto, I wanted to relay a message to him about how I looked forward to the final manga chapters and asked if he was sad it was over. The French translator quickly told me, "Its finished!" I don't think he quite understood what I was saying, so I slowed my speech down and worded my statement differently. He understood this time and was able to relay my message (Sadamoto is very happy to be done with the manga). I didn't get any rude vibes from the translator, just that there may be cross ups on translations, seeing as he is translating one non native language to another. I saw a great performance from Iwadare. I wasn't totally familiar with all the songs, but now I feel like playing Grandia. The performance was also highlighted with scenes from Lunar, Grandia and Phoenix Wright playing while his band played. The sound was great, not too loud and the crowd was very into his performance. Michael Sinterniklaas had a very fun panel where the whole room (about 20 people or so) helped participate in an impromptu dubbing session. The best highlight was a Kozaki vs Felipe Smith drawing session. If anyone's ever been to Comic Con's Quick Draw, its the same concept. Artists are given a subject and a short amount of time to draw said subject. 95% of the results are hilarious. The pictures were pretty stellar and the fact that the two seemed to get along and play to the crowd also made this a highlight of the weekend. In fact, the two got along so great, that on Sunday, as I was getting a last second sketch from Smith, the person in front of me turned out to be Kozaki. He wanted a sketch from Smith and in return Kozaki drew a sketch for Smith. This was one of the more genuine and spontaneous things I've seen at a con and I was glad to have been a witness to this. Sunday otherwise didn't have much for me other than the Minami panel (not much in new news other than staff listing or information about Studio Bones I didn't already know about, but hey, free shirt and poster). The Sadamoto panel was a bit hit and miss for me. They opened with audience Q & A which can be cringeworthy at times. The odd thing was that besides Sadamoto, he was joined by his French translator and Carl Horn from Dark Horse. Carl, I've been told, is a huge Eva fan. Yet, for this part, he was silent since the French translator did all the work. It was odd, since several questions seemed to tie up the translator and he needed to get repeats so as to ask Sadamoto. After that, Sadamoto did a public drawing for a custom JX piece while the translator and Carl talked about Sadamoto's career. This was pretty unique to see this discussion and public drawing, but could have been helped if they had scripted their dialogue a bit. A couple of times, they each seemed to meander to other topics (like the viability of Gainax going to Kickstarter to fund a project) rather than focus on the guest. When Sadamoto was done, he showed off his finished work along with another custom piece for JX. But the pictures were up on stage for a minute of so before they concluded the panel and walked off with the pieces. Would have been nice to get an closer look at the details. Overall, I had a great time. I got the sketches/autographs I wanted, got some free things, saw great panels and performances, liked the exhibits and saw the Eva 3.0 movie. Was the Premier badge worth it? Probably since I was gunning for autographs, I would say yes, for me. If one doesn't care about any of that, there really isn't a reason to splurge for them. The other Premier advantages never came into play. Fast passes to events? Never crowded so no need to and plenty of seats. Free bag checks? Never bought enough to drop off anything. Extra draw for autographs? Only applied to Sadamoto on Sunday (and I lost, so you know the draw is really random). Free gifts? I got a box of pocky, ramune and sketch cards (which turned out, you could get for free anyways when you went to the autograph sessions anyways). So the Premier pass didn't have much going for it really outside of getting autographs for guests. Also, Santa Clara? That place is a hole. Its in the middle of several business parks and offices. There are no eateries or bars nearby (except at the hotel). And after the convention closed, the only thing to do around there is um...look at the 49ers new stadium? There is a theme park across the street, but even locals don't like going there. In short, please reconsider going to San Jose (they finish renovations next year I think) or San Francisco. Also, thumbs up to the three people staffing the autograph area (an Asian woman and two Asian guys) who were there, as far as I know, all three days, all day. 6-8 hours of standing. Hats off for enduring that. I would like for there to be another JX. I guess if there is another one, they will have to mend bridges with the vendors and industry folks. Artist alley was in such a far corner, I have to believe the folks there would not return unless they get a free table (or heavily discounted one). By Sunday, several vendors left early (or simply didn't show up at all) and an hour before the con officially closed, all the major industry booths had broken down and were packing away. I can't imagine anyone broke even. That crowd was at best (and I'm being really liberal here) 5,000 people and probably less (like in the 3-4K range). Was it because school is in session again? Maybe a month after Comic Con and 6 weeks after Anime Expo, people are con'd out (also the next weekend is SacAnime, which I hear attracts a few thousand people). Does location really matter? It is Santa Clara. Or maybe it wasn't advertised enough? I saw flyers in and around stores and restaurants in Santa Clara county where I work and live, but outside that, couldn't tell you. Again, I had fun with what I did, but they will need to figure out a way to get more people to come if they hope to be successful as they are in Europe. Last edited by Vapors on Wed Aug 28, 2013 2:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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I'm definitely happy to have this sort of positive response from the attendees. I can tell you that we really wanted to have our own food suppliers in the building but due to something with SCCC and Aramark, only Aramark was allowed to provide food. The staff didn't even have a staff room with snacks due to this. Odds are we had to argue to even have water coolers around the building.
I'm not sure what caused us to end up at SCCC, but this is definitely one of the most vocalized concerns and I agree wholeheartedly. SCCC is a horrible location for a multi-day convention. It's designed for business meetings or something, not something like Japan Expo. We were severely understaffed this year, and we would really like to have more people the next time around. If you attended all of the days, you might have noticed that it was the same people in the same places every day, all day. It was definitely one of the hardest conventions I've staffed, simply because some of us were doing 12/13 (myself included) hour shifts. 12-13 hours of standing, walking, and running on and off can be quite exhausting. There's a lot of input that everyone can provide, so please keep shooting stuff our way so we can make it better. |
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dracilcegon
Posts: 6 |
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Alright, for reference I'm someone who basically goes to anime conventions almost solely for the musical guests and to hang out with friends. Being in the very front of the pit area for the Porno Graffitti concert at AX this year was the highlight of that con for me.
For JX, I had a premium badge, along with most of my friends, and our primary purpose for JX was to basically get front row seats to basically get to experience the closest thing to an idol concert while not being in Japan, it went rather well. Friday we rushed straight for the Dempagumi.inc autograph line. I took one look at the Sadamoto line and decided LOL NO, even with a premium badge, and none of us had any interest in the American guests. The only other autograph I really wanted was for Gamushara because they were just such awesome people going around cheering anyone and everyone. And since we came to JX to basically cheer others, we had a lot of fun interactions with them, including preemptively cheering them back during an autograph. So concert-wise, the idol group fans were great and all exhibited their dedication. This includes the Japanese fan who not only attended JX France for the same group, but also brought 15 or so CDs to pass out to the people waiting in line, plus the $100 or so of chemsticks they passed out on the second day. There was also the 150 call books made and printed by some Northern fans. And I saw that Kikka's fans also prepared LED glowsticks to give out prior to JX. I've never seen or heard of such dedication or generosity for concerts by local artists by local fans. Definitely a different culture, and one I find admirable. In return, I tried to make sure they got the best and closest spots to the stage. French concert staff guy was super alarmed at all the lifting done at the concert on Friday (common at the venues the artists perform at in Japan), but was overall quite reasonable about the concert policies, including letting people get closer (but not too close) to the stage and letting us take press seats that were not filled. I wanted to apologize to him for all the trouble we caused but he was too busy trying to usher everyone out. Closing the entrance between the hotel and convention center after Friday was pretty stupid IMO. Venue did suck and if it wasn't for friends with cars we'd have been pretty bored and hungry or poor (from expensive closer food) or eating junk food from the (surprisingly good) gas station store. I felt pretty bad for the vendors and I spent exactly $0 on them while spending probably $200 on guest merchandise. As for all the cultural stuff, it just felt like a rehash of the Cherry Blossom Festival and J-Pop Summit Festival so I didn't even bother to check it out. The paper badge system was okay though I'd still like a lanyard and badge holder to keep it in, with barcodes there for easy scanning like they do at E3. Tl;dr I went to JX with a premium badge for a pseudo-in-Japan-experience with the musical guests and got exactly what I wanted. But I don't think the people there for the other stuff were as happy and should be improved if JX wants to survive. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Almost as a rhetorical (since I don't really expect brohime to have an answer), I'll ask the same question I asked when this event was announced.
Why the hell was the event created/planned to CALIFORNIA in the SUMMER? I STILL do not understand that. I've always been impressed with what Japan Expo has had at the Paris event, but with Anime Expo in July (not to mention SDCC) it seemed like a fool's errand to have "Japan Expo USA" in California in the summer when there is THE ENTIRE REST OF THE US that would be interested in having an event with that level of resources. Without giving any thought to infrastructure (just because I don't want to research that right now), why wasn't this planned for: Texas, Chicago, Florida or even New York, ANY of which would've been more impressed with what Japan Expo had compared to what is currently available. I think Japan Expo did alright putting programming, vendors & guests together, but just speaking as an anime fan, WHY would I choose to spend my money on JX over AX? (it's simply unrealistic to think you'd get 15k+ to hit both, especially with Fanime having been only a few months earlier, heck, how many people did you realistically expect to hit both JX and Fanime?) I can understand why another con might sprout up in Cali, heck I can even understand why such a con might get significant resources while starting out. What I DON'T get is why a con that is so BLATANTLY imported from another country (apparently the French contingent was significant) would choose to pick the ONE, SINGLE market in the ENTIRE US that can already do everything they brought. |
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Nayu
Posts: 676 |
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Heck, if you want to transplant a con, get creative about it. Put it somewhere that doesn't have a local big con. Like Albuquerque or Minneapolis.
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dracilcegon
Posts: 6 |
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Well, the reason those places may not have a big local con may be because there's simply no market for it there. Americans are already dismissive enough about Japanese culture already, even in California apparently. If anything, Canada would probably make sense since at least there's less of a language barrier given how much they tried to keep the Fench system.
Also, if JX comes back and has the same type of guests, I would pick it over AX next year. AX was frankly rather disappointing this year aside from the one guest and they are quickly overpricing themselves out of relevance. |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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This is mostly speculation but...
Are you sure? I get the feeling that if this actually was the case, there would be more conventions going on throughout the states. Texas, maybe. With A-kon and San Japan and the like, it feels like Texas is the only viable hub between the Cali cons and the East coast cons.
Well programming was sort of a mess this year, but in my opinion we had better guests than AX did this year. I was actually really disappointed at the AX guest list this year, and the only reason going to AX didn't feel like a waste to me was because I got to meet loads of people. It's not too hard to believe that people would go to Fanime then come to JX, there's a pretty big window between the two for NorCal conventions.
I would assume it's for that reason. There is already an obvious market in California for people that like Japan. Not to mention that a lot of the cultural side was local. Wafu Ikebana, the Consulate General, koto, karuta, etc. were all groups from the bay area. Not to sound like I'm hating on other places in the US, but I highly doubt that anywhere else in the US could have provided the same kind of diverse cultural content.
Uhhh... so what's the potential for profit there? If there was serious profit potential in either of those locations (or most places that don't have local cons already) I think that the market would have been capitalized on already. Referencing the block of text above this one, what other locations in the US have significant amounts of local Japanese culture? As far as I can tell, it's few and far between. I'm guessing that the bay area was picked because of the amount of Japanese culture groups. |
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dracilcegon
Posts: 6 |
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Oh actually I want to point out one *REALLY* major non-local reason why the timeslot for JX this year was incredibly bad. It's held the same weekend as Animelo Summer Live in Japan. Just that fact itself killed off about 60 potential anime-related musical guests that JX could've had if it was held on any other weekend.
When people were speculating on all the possible musical guests that JX could bring, my friends and I just looked at the Animelo list, saw the guest on that list, and shook our heads in sadness. |
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tuxedocat
Posts: 2183 |
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The summer weather on the peninsula is really nice that time of year. People want to be outdoors. Upper 70's/low 80's away from the fog. People go down the peninsula to enjoy the sunshine. The SCCC is so dreary in comparison to the beautiful peninsula summer weather.
I'm wondering if the San Mateo Fairground buildings would be a better site? The events could happen in the buildings, and people could still go outside and wander around while still being inside the ticketed area! You could have booths and vendors inside and plenty of food vendors outside. No Aramark prison food!! They even have dedicated stages for performers. The larger is outdoors and tree lined. A really nice place for a concert. The site would really augment the whole concept of "Expo" Plus. Lots of Japanese businesses in San Mateo, great restaurants (my favorite Izakaya is there). More Japanese Americans seem to live in San Mateo than any of the other peninsula cities. That city has at least three japanese grocery stores (that I can think of), and some of them even sell "convenience store" lunch boxes. Though I don't think you would have much trouble attracting interesting food vendors if the con was located at the fairgrounds. |
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Brohimesama
Posts: 10 |
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That's definitely a good idea. I'm relaying all feedback from here to my boss, so I'll make sure the heads hear about this. |
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