As President of AnimeCon.org, I have the immense priviledge of organizing some of the most fun events in the entire world. These are three-day experiences where you can come and be a part of a community of like-minded nerds, play board games, meet special guests, and dance the night away.
As I recently wrote about regarding convention rip-offs to avoid, there are also a lot of cool things you might want to pay attention to.
A big part of my job is trying to run the best anime cons, and here are some things I want to highlight.
One of the biggest things that makes me sad is when I read feedback from our attendees like “There was not enough Japanese culture” or “I didn’t know you had Japanese music performances until after I got home!” or “I totally would have gone to the maid cafe if I could find it!” – So this email is an attempt to highlight some of the things that might be hard to notice!
First, Japanese Culture! This year’s Con Alt Delete convention put actually quite a large focus on bringing the “Japan” from “Japanese anime” to our event! But many people couldn’t find it, because we admittedly did a poor job of labelling the room. But in our Japanese culture room, we had demonstrations of authentic Japanese koto music, authentic Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations, and more.
We don’t take the connection between Japan and anime lightly. I personally spent a lot of time reaching out to individuals and hiring them, and paying them for these awesome immersions in Japanese culture.
Next year, we are excited to be bringing 3 incredible guests from Japan to ANIME MIDWEST! I am also personally working on inviting some local Japanese musicians to come by and play some ambient music for us all to enjoy.
I know in the past we’ve had some awesome guests from Japan. But we have also had our share of screw-ups.
One year, we didn’t receive our VISA application approvals until the day before the convention for some guests; far too late to arrange their flights and travel. It was frustrating, as many people had excitedly taken time out of their schedules just to come see them.
But this year, I am trying to figure out a better way to communicate the status of our Japanese musical guests, and we are applying for visas much earlier and paying expedited processing fees, even though we are applying early.
Of course, at some of our smaller conventions, like Anime-ZAP! or Kanpai!Con, it can be hard to include authentic Japanese culture. Flights from Japan are expensive. But if you’re interested in Japanese culture be sure not to miss it at Anime Midwest this year!
Second – Our ConSweet
Our team works really hard to help keep costs low for attending, since our event is a 3-day convention, and providing free instant ramen and soda is a big part of what we’re trying to do to help keep those costs down. Everyone knows that hotels are now charge $5 for just a bottle of pop, and we want to help make attending be more affordable. So at the next convention, don’t forget to stop by the ConSweet, where admission is free and included in your badge.
I’ve noticed all other conventions have completely removed their ConSweet from their programs. This makes me sad, as I’ve always found the ConSweet one of the biggest ways to make the convention more accessible to more people.
If you don’t know what the ConSweet is, it’s one of our meeting rooms where you can stop by and get instant ramen noodles and hot water or grab a soda, in order to hydrate and stay energized during the convention!
Third – Autographs
As I mentioned before, some cons have zero free autographs, while we still have them. This is because we try to invite guests to our events who also love the community and the fans; not just people who are after dollar signs. We want our focus to be on the fandom and the community. Most of our guests are happy to offer 1 free autograph per person during the scheduled autograph times. Yes, they still have mortgages to pay back home, so many of them do charge for additional autgraphs or for autographs at other times however.
This year, I am going to work hard on improving our communication, our convention maps, and everything so that our conventions can be the best of the best!
We’ve been spending the year reviewing all our previous notes, attendee feedback, concerns, and more, in hopes that we can make 2025 better than any year we’ve ever had!
Stay tuned to our email blasts for this year as we announce guests and more – and check out our convention websites, we already have some awesome guests listed at most conventions for 2025! Happy New Year!