Forum - View topicAnime Expo 2022 - The Irresponsible Management of This Year's Artist Alley
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LightningComet
Posts: 48 |
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I am certain that many individuals (artists included, obviously) heavily rely on conventions such as AX to showcase their work and bring in more business. It's sad that these poor conditions have made doing this extraordinarily difficult for them. I'm very glad that some attendees have taken it upon themselves to raise awareness of these issues, and I hope the conditions improve. Negligence should not be tolerated, and certainly never be neglected.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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I saw the part about the CO2 levels last night. It was a health hazard on its own, let alone with an airborne virus that thrives on events like this. And I wish I could say I'm surprised by the utter disregard some people had for convention rules.
As drastic as those CO2 numbers changed, it's pretty obvious that ventilation is inconsistent, and it's especially troubling that it was worst in a spot where people are effectively stuck there. |
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myskaros
 Posts: 598 Location: J-Novel Club |
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Some observations and stories I heard (I was working in the exhibit hall the entire con):
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Wasureta
Posts: 51 |
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After reading this article, I'm sooooooo happy that I changed my mind and didn't go this year. It's been so long! I thought Artist Alley has always been stuffy, but now I know others think so too. AX should've gone around and revoked badges.
Fanime was great. I was there for two days and I only saw one person without a mask (that wasn't eating or drinking). With that experience, I made the assumption that anime fans were smart and cautious. Now, I have doubts. |
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Stampeed Valkyrie
 Posts: 826 Location: PA |
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I think I wore the mask 1 time during the entire con, I did have one with me at all times but unless forced I wont wear it. The mix of people wearing and not wearing was pretty mixed overall. Artist's alley was packed as usual.. there were booths that had signs about masks, and had I wanted something from them I would have put it on. But I would have taken it right back off when done.
The Covid check was probably the funniest thing yet, went in line, had my papers.. lady didn't even look at them just gave me a wrist band. Add Anime conventions to the list of things you need an ID for.. but not to VOTE... A vocal minority of people complained loud enough that AX reversed its policy after saying they would not be needed. They definitely underestimated the number of people that came in, felt like they expected more people to stay home. |
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blooperboy
 Posts: 131 |
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Seconded - I also heard this from some industry partners who attended. |
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Sakurafire_
Posts: 64 |
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Would this level of neglect based on previously advertised protections be grounds for a class action lawsuit? It definitely contributed to a lot of artists losing a lot of income.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2945 Location: Email for assistance only |
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Not just water, they were confiscating food brought in, leaving vendors to try to figure out how they were supposed to eat if they didn't have anyone to watch their booth in their absence. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4426 |
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Honestly, I've come to expect the opposite. I skipped my local convention last year despite having a rolled over badge partly because of the forum arguments that centered around trying to come up with reasons why the conventions rules about Covid didn't have to be followed. Just in general, the convention setting tends to make some people use poor judgment in the name of "having fun," and I think the general risk of that is amplified by conventions not happening for two years. The inconsistent enforcement of Covid rules is certainly troubling, especially since it's not like there wasn't ample time to decide how to enforce it. The other issues are also troubling since it's like some conventions have forgotten how to operate safely after two years. |
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tygerchickchibi
 Posts: 1448 |
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Wow.
AX did it for money. I don't think that they were going to enforce it, even if they updated the requirements. So I'm guessing that there wasn't a cap on attendance? Lawd I'm glad I didn't go there. Now I hope that there isn't a rise of covid cases after this. |
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gravediggernalk
 Space Cowboy Posts: 246 Location: Alabama |
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AWA removed people from the venue in 2021 for being unmasked (outside of roped-off areas specifically for eating). Why AX and smaller but still large conventions like AWA haven't followed suit is beyond me. AWA kept COVID-19 cases to a minimum im 2021 *with the MLB World Series happening literally next door*. Everyone else this past year has seemingly given up on protecting attendees/artists/vendors.
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1577 |
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Those CO2 levels in the artist alley are terrifying, it must have been awful for the people in the back rows who were there all day
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xxmsxx
 Posts: 564 |
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What the... I always thought I should go to AX at least once in my life. Looks like I should just go once at this point. It looks like it is full of industry panels anyway. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1747 |
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AX always does it for the money. This is a convention that touts itself as a charity with the same charity tax status as the NFL, a 501(c)(6) organization. If you purchase anything at their charity auction, it is not tax deductible. If they truly cared about their attendees, they would have figured out a better way of passing out autograph tickets instead of encouraging attendees to line up for them at 11pm the night before, outside, blocks away from some of the worst parts of LA. For AX veterans, these unsafe conditions in the Artist Alley and the rest of the convention surprised no one. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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As someone who once considered AX far better than Fanime... it's the complete opposite now, honestly. On mask compliance alone, for Fanime it was easily over 99%, while for AX it was probably around 70-80%, which is just atrocious for the country's biggest con during yet another surge of new variants. Most of the staff and security, even ones hired specifically to enforce masking, were not even wearing masks themselves! So, unsurprisingly, those who consider themselves immune to disease took that as a sign to not bother. The lack of masks was a problem everywhere, but for Artist Alley, it's become clear that having it underground, with booths packed way too close together (almost half the space was used for autograph lines, which used to be in the exhibit hall upstairs, along with various exhibit-hall-esque things), is just a terrible idea. I tried going in there on day 1, but had to leave after about 10 minutes due to the heat; can't believe the artists survived in there for 8 hours. Even after they finally addressed that problem, it was still nearly impossible to move around in there. Fundamentally, AX is just too damn big. They need to cap 4-day badges at around 30% of the current numbers, and cut back on the absurd number of generic anime-merch exhibit hall vendors so they can make better use of the available space (artist alley used to be in the back of the exhibit hall!). But they won't do any of that, because money. Instead, they're launching a spinoff convention in the fall. At this point, I'm just gonna recommend people go to Fanime and ALA instead of AX and "ax." |
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