Discussion: Kunicon to host over a dozen events next year

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:05 am

As I'm sure many people have heard through either the thread in the AMV contest or through various other websites, OtakuCon Miami was a disaster and is being torn apart on various websites, forums, etc.

What interested me when reading their forums is that apparently Kunicon is going to be the first anime convention group to try to run multiple conventions a year. I saw the number 25 being tossed on the forums, and they list 5 cons with dates on their website (kunicon.com) as well as 6 additional cities, including Philadelphia, my hometown.

This has me worried, because if Kunicon messes up in Philly then any attempt to establish a good convention in the city will be so much harder. I'm also thinking that basically flooding the USA with cons is going to dilute the quality - I have a sinking feeling that they're all going to be cookie-cutter cons with nothing particularly special to distinguish them.

Your thoughts on the matter?

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 12:04 pm

That's pretty much what a "creation" convention is in the world of Science Fiction. This also started as a string of cons untill it became a big business with cookie cutter formula... Frankly I see Conventions as a Fan related event by the fans and having a group do only one makes most conventions unique.

Vlad

echocharlie · Post by **echocharlie** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:12 pm

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:That's pretty much what a "creation" convention is in the world of Science Fiction. This also started as a string of cons untill it became a big business with cookie cutter formula... Frankly I see Conventions as a Fan related event by the fans and having a group do only one makes most conventions unique.

Vlad

I've heard that one of the people behind Kunicon also worked with Creation.

Org Profile · Post by **Vlad G Pohnert** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 11:22 pm

echocharlie wrote:
I've heard that one of the people behind Kunicon also worked with Creation.

Well lets hope that isn't the idea behind this, I've met the people who own Creation and both were more interested in the money and putting themselves on soap boxes rather than the fans... The other thing was that all the Creation con are identical and more of a "Show" rather than a fan run event with lots of fun events

Vlad

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 12:37 am

Vlad G Pohnert wrote:Well lets hope that isn't the idea behind this, I've met the people who own Creation and both were more interested in the money and putting themselves on soap boxes rather than the fans... The other thing was that all the Creation con are identical and more of a "Show" rather than a fan run event with lots of fun events

Well, OtakuCon was <i>horrible</i> by all accounts. Regardless of how big a negative it might be for the convention scene, I'd consider starting a petition to ask them to cancel their Philadelphia con if things don't improve...

DrngdKreationz · Post by **DrngdKreationz** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:03 am

We'll just have to see how they do in St louis then won't we?

Illia Sadri · Post by **Illia Sadri** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 1:25 pm

Well I am skeptical simply be the way that the staff seems to become very defensive at the mention of any sort of criticism. I staff conventions regularly and you don't do that. Many people bring up the same problems and concerns and its is dismissed on the forums. That is always a sign that improvement is not abotu to come.

Also the con scene is saturated at best. Particularly when considering that one of their choices is Philly which is on the insanely crowded east coast con scene. Atlanta also has a con and there are also the Florida cons which are also nearby.

I see this as potentially really sinking the anime con scene. As Vlad mentioned it's a fan endevour that brings about bits of originality in each. Do we really need ten or fifteen or twenty-five nearly identical conventions throughout the country in addition to the one or more that seems to occur nearly every week of the year somewhere in this country? The fans are going to have to choose and it is going to become so thinly spread that its going to very likely kill some of the conventions out there that we all enjoy.

So I personally am going to support the cons already established and are about fans.

momojess · Post by **momojess** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:15 pm

Actually, there are 5 sort-of-anime-themed cons in Atlanta. Mine is free, and half a year away from AWA, and is a webcomic con. There's a gaming con, a sci-fi con, and a furry con also. The con scene is insanely crowded in Florida, but I can see where it serves a purpose for some people. Think of the younger crowd, they can't travel to another city, much less another state, to go to convention. I wish I could've put on a con in Savannah, because although there are 5 cons in atlanta, there are none anywhere else in the state of Georgia. When I went to AWA 7, I was a youngun and had to beg and plead to go one day to AWA, and there was no option for an "out-of-state" con.

It's a good thing to support cons that you already love, but to stifle the growth of new cons makes "lucrative ventures" like Kunicon want to enter the market more. On the Porter model of market entry, market saturation level would be a high-priority for fan cons, and they are less likely to enter a market with high saturation.

Basically, bad cons will die out, or bleed money for years, and good cons will thrive. It's not a sin to go to a bad con, it won't hurt the circuit or promote bad cons to go to one, but it will hurt to go to one a second year.
~Jess~
www.momocon.com

Tsunami Jones · Post by **Tsunami Jones** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 1:00 am

I'm really interested to see how it goes. Here in Denver we only had one (NDK - 2005 will be it's ninth year), with Kunicon being the second. So far, a good sum of the other denver fans here that I've heard from seem to be enthusiastic about it (one person however, absolutely hated it claiming that we don't have a large enough base to support a second con

). If it's just a cookie-cutter con though, alot of people will be very disappointed, but according to Kunicon, they want fan-feedback about what they'd like to have at the convention. Hopefully, they'll actually listen to what they hear.

So really, the only real gripe I have with them so far is that for some strange reason the con runs thursday-friday-saturday instead of friday-saturday-sunday

.

Anyway though, I'm definitely looking forward to how the kunicons that are coming up soon turn out.

Miz Ducky · Post by **Miz Ducky** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 12:46 am

I was at Otakucon, and would much rather go to another MetroCon, than support another Kunicon. They tried to do too much with out putting an appropriate amount of effort behind it.