Forum - View topicNEWS: France's Japan Expo to Host California Con in Late Summer 2013
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soulfringe
Posts: 18 |
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The question is where in California. I feel like it would be SoCal, though given the slew of summer socal cons, I would think NorCal to be the better venue. Too many cons in the same area in such a short time = broke attendee demographic for that area.
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Vertical_Ed
Company Representative
Posts: 278 Location: New York, NY |
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Wow. As a member of the industry another trip to California in the summer would be a back-breaker. AnimeExpo and San Diego ComicCon are tough enough given that they are only two weeks apart. I have regretted not going to Fanime since I was a regular, as a fan, but the scheduling makes it really hard for me to attend as industry. Late summer is also tough with Comiket in mid-August and then the slew of licensing events in Tokyo in Sept-Oct. |
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DJcream
 Posts: 60 Location: NorCal |
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Personally, I'd like to see the event happen in NorCal. The biggest anime convention in that region is Fanime, which happens on Memorial Day weekend (typically after finals). If Japan Expo schedules their event in Late Summer, then that would be a good enough time apart for another con in the area.
I also think that either Sacramento or San Francisco will probably be the best bets for location. Both have great domestic/international airports off major highways/freeways and offer a big enough venue (Sacramento Convention Center/Moscone Center) to hold such an event. The issue is the time frame after Anime Expo. For those with low income, attending both conventions within the span of a month will probably be an issue so attendees will be weighing either one next year. |
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bacondreamer
Posts: 99 |
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Sean is pretty much a veteran in running convention at this point so I'm pretty sure that he understand the difficulty of running another 10K+ convention in the middle of the busy con season (May - Aug), not only that, with AX, SDCC & Otakon in July, many dealers are already having a hard time making it between the coast, so I don't think it'll be likely this event will be around the same time frame as AX/SDCC/Otakon.
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1747 |
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Woot! Please bring your con to NorCal! I am tired of traveling to SoCal to enjoy a con.
Any time late summer (August or September) would be perfect. I look forward to seeing what Japan Expo USA will bring. Been looking for a solid replacement to AX, and I'm hoping that Japan Expo is exactly what I'm looking for. |
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soulfringe
Posts: 18 |
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While Sacramento does have a Convention Center, i'm not sure how well that would also go. Sacanime is now moving to the con center for the upcoming winter and with SacAnime happening in winter and late summer, it probably wouldn't be the best option. Especially if Kintoki con makes a return in the early summer.
Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have at Moscone Center in SF, but I have only been there once for Wondercon couple years back. Seemed like a pretty cramped place to me but that was with 39,000 attendees for the weekend. |
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jotaru
Posts: 4 |
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It's a bit weird to have a french con trying to expand to the US, especially California has several major cons in summer. Yeah, a NoCal location will be ideal, who wants to compete the consumers' money and time with the big cons like AX and San Diego Comic Con in particular. If they really want to have it in SoCal, labor day weekend will be the best, or consider to partner it with AM2.
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kenshin77
Posts: 84 Location: The OC |
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Too many Cons exist here in California. I think the only way Japan Expo USA gets off the ground is if they either Partner up with a con or Buy out an existing convention.
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naniwhale
Posts: 24 |
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I think they should buy out AX this is a much better after looking at there line ups.
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matthewlow
 Posts: 147 Location: San Ramon, California |
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Well living in CA I can't complain about another convention to go to... especially if they get Inafune back again (wishful thinking).
NorCal has FanimeCon for May. SoCal seems already filled to the brim with AM^2, AnimeExpo, and San Diego ComicCon taking up June and July. I can see possibly early/mid-August to give attendees a slight break, but still, there's only a week or two or three between each convention! Not to mention SacAnime in Sacramento in late August, and the tiny Kintoki Con that shouldn't be counted as a con in mid August. A convention in SF would be nice. It would make public transportation easy too. |
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Sewingrose
 Posts: 579 |
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Well looks like I'm going, but the only question is where in California. SoCal would be the best, but I probably will be willing to drive up to it if it's in NorCal, school doesn't start till September and I have friends up there, and hot damn that line up.
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TokyoGetter
 Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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Good lord, man... busiest con season, hottest month, most difficult travel period, etc... why don't they nail down a mid-late Fall con?
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Jariten
Company Representative
 Posts: 179 Location: Here and there |
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Ed is absolutely right. I'll take it a step further: These people are trying to compete for the limited funds of young anime fans in the same market, where they already struggle to split their time and money between AX, SDCC, and Fanime - which, for those of you keeping score, is still one of ten largest anime cons in the country and is a major part of the California anime fan's schedule, even though there's little industry presence at the show. To try to do this - even if they do run a better show - is a foolish move at best. I hate to say this, since I know a lot of the folks involved, but this idea is sheer lunacy. That they have already announced a California location and didn't seem to consider any other area (many of which I am certain would be happy to have them) is beyond foolish. I hope they pull it off (and their con will need to be flawless to do so) but if the past is any indicator, it ain't happening. |
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midnightsiren182
Posts: 10 Location: Bay Area, CA |
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Oh? So you know some of the players involved, then you should know me too. 
For the record, a lot of places were actually considered beyond California. Sean didn't just arbitrarily decide one day, "Califorrrrrnnniaa" in some The Wizard-esque fever dream full of dinosaurs and Super Mario 3. There were other places/states considered, but ultimately he decided on California for numerous reasons which I will respectfully let him elaborate on. Because you didn't seem to know this, I am going to guess you don't have all the facts and are speculating. And it's cool you guys are already talking about this, but just remember speculation is not fact, and it's hard to judge how the con will do/where it will be right now without all the facts. But I totally get the concerns posted here. Also for perspective, the East Coast has TONS of cons. There is sometimes a con every two weeks in the span of a 5-8 hour driving distance and the closeness and frequencies of those numerous cons actually don't do much damage to each other. I've statistic'd ten years alone of con history across the country in terms of attendance numbers alone. I think there is enough room still in CA for another con. Remember, there is more than just SoCal, and in NorCal there are only about 2-4 something cons, yes? Even in SoCal, there are only three something major anime cons, and then SDCC. The thing to realize is, it's not about competing with other cons for con runners. Most of us don't see it that way, so Japan Expo isn't trying to come in and compete with other cons in CA but rather offer another con for people to attend. Anyway, Sean is aware of this thread and before I ramble further I will stop since he is the man with the plan. |
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SEFA-Hellbuny
Posts: 3 |
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*chuckles* Man, I feel like we should have announced on the last day of Japan Expo.
We actually did a hell of a lot of research into where we wanted to go. This isn't a project that started overnight. I would say there is about 3 years of planning to get to the stage that we're announcing that we're even coming to the United States. And this has gone through multiple different iterations and scenarios. Regarding our initial attendance estimates, I mentioned this on ACML, but we know that our initial first year figure is high. That doesn't mean we'll be budgeting against that number. Our parent company has pretty darn extensive experience launching new events. As to location, we know it's shoehorning in another convention into the schedule. If you tell me a time and a location, I can give you a list of things wrong with it, a con near that location/time, or one of a million reasons why it's foolish to start a new con there Well, I actually won't tell you, I mean, proprietary market research and all lol But I would suggest taking a look at the NE's convention density vs. California / West coast as a starting point. I'll respond more when I haven't been running around like a chicken with my head cut off all day -Sean "Hellbuny" Chiochankitmun |
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