Aka-Kon was really the first attempt at a full scale animation convention in Vancouver. There were a lot of various problems with logistics, planning and staffing but it happened and placed itself into the history books. It, on the outside, was a refreshing change for those anime fans who are just starving for a good convention. |
Cosplay! Simply two words (Costume and Play) put together. For a time other than Halloween, anime fans can dress up in anime costumes and act out lines of their characters. And the cool thing would be is, that since you are surrounded by other anime fans, they will actually recognize who the hell you are suppose to be. |
This convention had a small dealers room with various anime goods, which was missing from the city since we have not had anything like a comic convention ever since the decline of the comic and card industry, in the early 90's. |
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Do NOT alienate the local clubs. |
If you don't have to live in the area, it is not a good idea to start poking the bee's nest with a stick or throwing rocks at the bears. Although, they are just sticks and stones, names are really bad for PR for the Con Chair and Con staff to go bashing the local fan community about what they do and how they do it. |
Take due care how you word statements and comments about other conventions and guests. |
Even though, guys may like to dress up in Sailor Moon costumes; it doesn't give you the right to call them "Raving Homosexuals", especially when you are in an important position like the CON CHAIRPERSON. |
Take better care of attendance and registration. |
One or two people sort of did registration for most of the day on Sunday. Although the convention is boasting an attendance of 700+, I would have to say a better estimate would be about 400 including volunteers and dealers. That I would believe since Paul's Comic Convention in the past hit about that high before. When talking to the registration girls, they commented the badge numbers were not sequential, they jumped in numbers several times and they also concur that there was no where near 700 badges assigned. |
Define the job that the volunteers need to do and let them do it. |
The idea behind getting volunteers is to allocate some of the work load off your shoulders. Once someone starts doing their assigned job, higher up staff should not walk all over them and undo what they have done, especially when they are doing a good job. Point in question, the Aka Message board was run by Lorna of VSWAT and she does a good job of that even so much that she was doing it on her own server. If it is working, leave it alone! |
Volunteers are people too, they aren't toilet paper. They aren't to be used and thrown away. |
Volunteer staff for video rooms, security, and registration were all poorly managed. They were all over worked, under staffed, positions were not filled, replacement shifts not done. Hell, it got to a point where there was almost a coup de ata or mutany. There was also no recognition or even a party or goods for the volunteers. Really sad... |
Con Chairperson needs to allocate jobs to the respective departments to do rather than trying to do everything yourself. |
Running and setting a convention takes a lot of time and a lot of work. More than what one man can do. That is why you elect a compentant staff. Tell them what to do, and they will do it. That is their purpose. Use them for that... |
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