Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Is Sunday So Dead At Anime Conventions?
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Sevokevo Royuki
 Posts: 284 Location: Texas |
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Build Up, Tear Down, And then for this year I assisted on the 5th floor in the Panels at the Ren Center... on Sunday I helped more in the Mini Ball Room setting up for a Band that was performing just before the Closing Ceremony. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1746 |
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I love the relaxed feeling at a convention on Sunday. Most of the larger conventions aren't dead on the last day, unless that day happens to coincide with day that most people work. It's usually a day where I pat myself and my friends on the back for surviving another convention, especially if it were fraught with badge heavy and/or clueless staff. We usually schedule a nice, good-bye dinner and a movie.
It's also the day that most charity auctions occur, and thus, the day when I become poor. 
It might just be the conventions that I attend, but I find that first day of the con, if it is a work day, is the slowest day at the convention. There usually aren't too many autograph sessions scheduled for that day, and those that are scheduled are usually for people that most people have little interest in meeting. Even Anime Expo; If it's a Thursday-Sunday event, Thursday will be a very slow day at the convention. The last day of the convention is usually a good excuse to get a lot of freebies. I remember that one year, when Pacific Media Expo was being sponsored by Pocky, they had so much strawberry Pocky left over that I saw attendees leaving with crates of the stuff. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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As the person who does the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for Sakura, I can vouch for this. Sure, the Closing Ceremonies aren't as well attended as Opening Ceremonies, but the room is far from empty. |
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amagee
 Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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As someone who gives panels, I hate getting Sunday time slots. There are always fewer people. A guy who does RWBY and Naruto "answer questions as the character" panels tells me he just says he can only come one day and forces them to schedule him Saturday. Maybe I would try it were I a jerk.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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This is the other MAJOR reason Sunday is dead (probably the genesis of all the other reasons honestly). Basically, people need to be out of rooms by noon (at the latest) and therefore often don't have anywhere to put their stuff. Commuters usually don't want to pay for parking for the "short" day, so generally, 11am onward is "the great exodus". As a result of that, no one wants to give a panel (as a side note, no one really WANTS to give panels before 4-5pm on Friday either, basically everyone WANTS Saturday and then its just a question of how many people will "deal" with other days based on the size of the con) so the schedule gets thin. The schedule is thin, so people figure "why bother", so Sunday is dead. When anime cons were less plentiful, I think people considered going to one to be more of a "event" that they take vacation for. But now that you have a con somewhere in the US every weekend, it's less of a major "happening" that you blow your vacation on and more of "something to do for a weekend". |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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I'm sure your *Nathan Seymour is out there somewhere. When you find him you can both facepalm together at some of the questions sent in to the column heh. As for the topic at hand....I can understand the weariness. I've gophered/staffed cons before and been an attendee for over a decade. This past year was only the second time I've missed Otakon since 2004. I've also been to other cons on the East Coast. So I get the travel, breaking down booths and rooms, cleaning, boxing up supplies, no sleep, etc. I get it. The thing is the customers are buying a 3 DAY pass, not a 2 day pass. There should be something more on Sundays than there usually is. I'm not saying go all out with some big fancy announcements and dub/sub premiere's. But just having it be the "left over" panels and random videos playing is to me a bit of an insult to the people who paid a LOT of money to go. Especially the ones who fly or drive in to go to cons. I have always felt it's not fair to basically give them the shaft on day 3. Give them a few early hours (like say 9-12 or 1) with some decent material. I know it's a bitch to do an industry panel on a Sunday but I have felt for many years something more could be done on Sundays. Do some meet and greets, autograph panels, or more popular fan panels. It seems each year those pickings get slimmer and slimmer and all you can find are the pan panels for the more obscure topics con organizers feel few people want to go to. Maybe save one big announcement or something for Sunday. Or at an industry panel have some gifts to give away to those who did stick it out on day 3. These are just some top of my mind ideas. Point being a bit omre could probably be done on Sundays so it doesn't feel like you're getting ripped off that 3rd day. *I don't say that as some sort of stereotypical eccentric gay character. Nathan is freaking awesome and everyone should have someone as awesome as him. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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There are three cons I go to every year in Sydney. Supanova, SMASH (Sydney Manga & Anime show) and Oz Comic Con.
The latter two run for the weekend. Saturday is definitely the most popular day, but Sunday is still quite packed. However, Supanova also runs on Friday from 1-8pm. THAT is when it's dead. Not really difficult to understand why that is. Families with school age kids can't go thanks to 9 to 5 jobs and school hours making it difficult to find the time to go in (Especially if you don't live in the area). And even if they don't have family a lot of people do work on weekdays. So the only people that come are unemployed students, people who have part time jobs with convenient hours or total NEETs. I decided to free up some time to go on the Friday earlier this year. Was actually quite pleasant. I could move around as I pleased without bumping into people and I didn't have to worry about cosplayers posing for photos blocking my path. And while their panels over the weekend were really packed, I think there was about 5 other people in the room when I went to the Cherami Leigh/Cassandra Lee Morris Q&A session. If I can find the time to do it next year, I would definitely go on the Friday again. |
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Wandering Samurai
 Posts: 875 Location: USA |
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Having done all four days at Anime Expo three times, it is understandable why it slows down on Sunday. And yes, I am tired, I have been walking all day every day, cosplaying, I'm hot, I'm hungry, etc., etc. By Sunday you're just ready to leave. And pretty much everybody is packing up and leaving. So it really shouldn't surprise anybody. Especially if you as a con-goer took Thursday and Friday off from work and have to go back on Sunday. Or have school.
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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Yep. And the photoshoot schedule on Sunday is almost as full as Fri and Sat. Part of the difference may be that the Sakura hotels will store your stuff after you check out. The Sheraton dedicates an entire (huge) ballroom to that. We go back over, hand the ticket for the car and the luggage to the concierge out front and they bring them both right out. Then it's off to nap in the ferry parking lot... 
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Chinatsu Yoshikawa
Posts: 25 |
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I am always broke about halfway through the day on Saturday
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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1st - Saturday Afternoon (the obvious primetime block where attendance is highest, but before the cosplay contest) 2nd - Friday Evening (the next most-attended block that isn't too early or too late and doesn't conflict with the main cosplay contest) 3rd - Saturday Morning (better day, but with the inconvenience of waking up early) 4th - Saturday Latenight (plenty of post-cosplay-contest crowds present) 5th* - Saturday Evening (during the cosplay contest, thus not as popular) 6th* - Friday Latenight (so-so slot without huge drawbacks, but many people don't like to stay up too late, or are chasing latenight Saturday crowds instead) 7th - Friday Afternoon (too early for people with work/school commitments, or who want attendance from people in those categories) 8th - Sunday Afternoon (slower day, many people need to leave) 9th - Sunday Morning (all the issues with Sunday afternoon plus hotel checkout plus getting up early from a night of partying) * These two slots flip in the rankings if entries for "any time Friday/Saturday/Sunday" are factored in; the rest are unaffected. Not-so-secret method that I'm sure applies to other cons as well: the more flexible you are with submission times, the more likely you are to get your panel approved, as we're always looking for people willing to present in more "marginal" times like Saturday evening during the cosplay contest and Sunday in general. The flipside: if you only check a single in-demand time like Saturday afternoon, the more likely you are to get your submission denied altogether if the schedule fills up or your idea can't stand out from the competition. Whether this leads to panels of a more marginal quality filling the more marginal time slots is open to debate. To counter the shortfall on Sundays and other marginal times, we ask/make convention staffers who want to run panels (to) "take one for the team" by running in less-popular time slots. In the spirit of that sacrifice, I personally run a few Sunday-morning panels every year. We do schedule some major events like the AMV Contest on Sunday in an effort to retain attendance/energy at the event, and our Sunday schedules haven't been that much thinner than Friday/Saturday most years. And there's still Guest of Honor panels and autograph sessions as late as flight schedules will allow. Though no matter how well we can fill the schedule, Sunday can never contain things like dances/raves, nighttime concerts, booze-soaked room parties, and other social-life elements attractive to the teen/college crowd. Thus, Sundays are inevitably slower as many people only get badges for Saturday, or get weekend badges but only attend Fri/Sat. Of course, the dealers' decisions to pack up and leave are beyond our control, though apparently they wanted the room to stay open until the end of Closing Ceremonies this year instead of shutting down when CC started, like usual. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2442 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Tell me about it. I did my first panels this year on a niche topic (Muv-Luv… well it was niche 9 months ago when I submitted the first proposal) and at the three cons I did it at, my times were Sunday at 10, Sunday at 11, and Sunday at 10:30. First-time panelist + niche topic + willing to take any spot = Sunday morning. Of course, I was grateful to have a spot at all.
I appreciate cons that put something good on Sunday and don't just punt on the day (otherwise, why even bother renting the facility?). Last year, Anime Central had the Final Fantasy: A New World small-orchestra concert at 1PM on Sunday and that was a great time for it: something still very much worth going to, a leisurely wrap-up to the weekend, but not scheduled against a bunch of other major events like Friday or Saturday night would have been. |
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Dessa
Posts: 4438 |
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Hearing people (especially Zalis) talk about panel scheduling on Sunday, and I think I realize part of why Sakura doesn't really have a problem with interesting panels on Sunday:
1) We put swap meet panels on Sunday, so people are trying to exchange swag that they got in grab bags all weekend. 2) Our Saturday doesn't really have a "good" time for a panel, if you want to avoid major events. Saturday morning is the cosplay contest. Saturday afternoon is Cosplay Chess (much bigger draw than the cosplay contest). Saturday evening is the concert. So all day on Saturday you're competing against big events. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16935 |
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I guess I might be the odd one out who actually would like more on Sunday. C'est la vie.
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GhostStalkerSA
 Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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My experiences might be different because the cons I usually work aren't nominally anime cons and are relatively gigantic (New York Comic Con and PAX East, the latter still has some anime related stuff, but not so much anymore), but Sundays at those two cons are still usually packed. I've done NYCC for 6 years now, and though Sunday is a bit slower due to the Kids Day programming and we Crew usually try to take it as our slow day, lately it's been feeling like another Friday-lite (Thursday was already a Friday-lite, with Friday proper becoming Saturday-lite), especially since Reed started selling a lot more single day badges instead of 3- and 4-day ones, and there are a lot of people for which Sunday is the only day they can get badges for.
My usual area of Artist Alley is still packed on Sundays (I remember two years ago in 2013 when there was a massive line waiting to get in because Scott Snyder and Greg Cappullo were signing Batman stuff at the rear of Artist Alley, and right when we let them in, there was a massive rush to the back of the hall of Javits North, with one guy even faceplanting when he got tripped up), as is the show floor. We always have a heck of a time clearing the area afterwards, people just don't want to leave, even if the vendors and exhibitors are starting to pack up, but willing to do last minute deals and such. |
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