Azuki Panda

This is only my second convention so I can only speak from limited experience. Overall it was pretty enjoyable and it was quite fun to cosplay for the first time even if not very many people knew who Strider was. It was pretty funny to have the random Subway guy yell “Strider!” when I walked by on Friday morning.

As far as panels, I would say that none of them were that spectacular. The props workshop run by …And Sewing is Half the Battle was full of useful information on a variety of different materials. The AMV Contest was interesting and had a lot of good entries, but also had at least a few that were not so great. I was disappointed with how the Gunpla Building panel was run and am seriously considering running my own panel for Colossalcon in the summer.

The attendance for Ohayocon was really great and I got to see a lot of really well done cosplays. I’ve only been to Colossalcon before so this was a much bigger convention in comparison. It seemed like the organization of the convention was a bit lacking and I’m not sure if it’s due to the larger size.

I participated in the masquerade in the craftsmanship competition and it ended up being kind of a headache for me. It was really great to get my work judged so I can at least get feedback, but while I was waiting for the actual walking across the stage, my belt fell apart again and it would not hold with the white tape that I had with me. I ended up having to hold it on the left side as I walked across the stage and I ended up having the side that’s facing the stage come apart. I saw a picture after and I felt really embarrassed.

Well, on to a list of some of the pros and cons of the convention:

PROS

Staff
Thanks to all the staff who donated all their time to ensure that the convention is able to function. The security staff who inspected my sword even complimented me on the construction. It was nice to see the staff actually interact and not be robots about doing their jobs. I have read a lot about people complaining about certain gophers/staff who were less than pleasant but fortunately I did not run into any such people.

Organization
Overall the event was fairly well organized with plenty of staff/gophers everywhere. While the printed schedule was not always accurate, the staff did their best to keep an updated schedule on the projector.

Panels
There was a large selection of panels to choose from so I feel that everyone should be able to find at least one or two panels that they wanted to attend. There were a lot of activities and panels spread out throughout the day so I had very few times where I felt lost about what do to.

Cosplay
There was a large amount of cosplay and I was really impressed with a lot of the costumes. I really enjoy talking to cosplayers who make their own costumes because they are usually a lot more enthusiastic about explaining how they made certain parts of it.

CONS

Staff
I was getting on to the elevator when one security staff asked to see my sword (which was already tagged with a zip-tie on the handle) and made sure to inspect it even though there was already a zip-tie on it. All that needed to be done was to ask if it had already been checked and if had not been checked to inform me about where to get it inspected. There is no need to ask for the actual weapon AS I’m stepping into the elevator with my hands full of other things as well.

Rave
I’m listing this down here just because so many people have complained about it. I’m not much of a rave person, but went and checked it out with a few friends. The line was long, but as it has already been addressed it is because of fire code, which falls under legal rules. If you don’t like it complain to the government and safety board, not to the con staff. Second, I also felt that the DJ was spending a lot of time talking. The music wasn’t exactly for me, but that’s my personal preference (meaning I don’t want to argue about the music choice).

Panels
I would like to echo previous comments I’ve heard regarding disorganization of a lot of the panels. I was there for the one group that took over the room for a “singles dating” panel because they couldn’t find the people for the panel that was originally there (I believe it was some type of late-night comedy thing). They seemed very unprofessional and after people realized they were not joking about the original panel being canceled it cleared out about 80% of the room.

Several other panels I attended had panelists that were not prepared to run the panel. I understand hectic schedules, but poor time management is no excuse to run a bad panel. Part of the reason I have been wanting to continue attending conventions is the panels and I was sorely disappointed with quite a few panels.

Another issue I would like to touch on is panelists who are drinking. I know that drinking is allowed as long as you are over 21, but it detracts from the professionalism of the panelist. I didn’t respect what the panelists had to say as much because I felt that they were not taking the panel seriously and were just there drinking and having some laughs even though it was supposed to be an informational panel.

Photoshoots
It would have been nice to have a listing of the photoshoots on the schedule or in the program. I wanted to take some pictures of some of the photoshoots but wasn’t sure where all of them were being held.

Map
It would have helped to have a better map of the areas. It does not help me much for it to just list all the rooms as “gaming” or “panel” when I have never been to the convention before. I spent some time initially trying to orient myself and had to ask for directions several times.