Convention Entropy: A Slow Spin into Denial

With Katsucon Twenty behind me, I feel like I’ve had the same conversation afterwards for the past decade. “Am I going next year?” The answer always ends up being yes immediately. Why would I say no? Anime conventions are different experiences for different people. For most people, it’s probably the only time in the year they escape their otherwise mundane worlds to enjoy their hobby among others who speak their language. For others, it might just be the same thing they already do in a bigger space. I’ve quipped a number of times that conventions are really the same thing every year. So why do I keep going? Why not just stop?

I don’t usually like to get into personal wah-wah shit in this blog, but some context may be required to frame the post here. You’ll know when.

Katsucon Double-X

It’s ANIMU CON time for me again, the only convention I really attend a year anymore that isn’t PAX, and even then, I work as convention staff each year. Because honestly, attending conventions as an attendee got boring after the second or third Otakon I went to long ago. For someone like me, who isn’t…

Boundaries

A good friend of mine shared something on Facebook earlier this morning that, while short and not particularly detailed given the subject material, naturally leads right into discussion points for anyone and everyone who has ever helped run an anime convention. They’re tough, tougher than most attendees think. It’s a lot like planning a wedding, except instead of only having to plan for a hundred people, you’re planning for anywhere from a thousand to ten thousand people. My fiancee might disagree with me there, since she planned all of our wedding, and will no doubt say it was much harder, but I suppose it depends on the person’s level of comfort with even planning.