Anime Expo 2008
Convention Report
by Pedro Rodriguez
Ever since it was announced that Anime Expo would be held in the Los Angeles Convention Center, there has been some skepticism about the move. This was mainly driven by the quality of the location that Downtown Los Angeles has gained over the years. As luck would have it I had the opportunity to go for two straight days. Putting my own assumptions aside. I decided to give the place a fair chance and went to see how things went down.
Stepping out of the light rails, it was surprising to see the level of rejuvenation to the area. While there has been some coverage about projects taking place north of the LACC, other buildings were also getting knocked down for other projects, while others remodeled. Over the course of the trip benefits of the location began to appear. For one Downtown was reasonably quiet due to the extended weekend, which meant you could visit landmarks in the area with relatively little disturbance. Another benefit was that AX was the only convention at the center, giving the attendees more area to play around in.
The morale of the attendees was high, as teenagers and young adults scampered around the lobbies as they do every year. Throughout the convention, there was also a chance of running across a group of youths dancing as they were being led down the hall as they were being led by a guy with a boom box. For the most part people were getting along with each other.
Upon arriving at the Dealers Room (South Hall) I encountered the first real issue with the convention. When I showed the staff my badge I was immediatley told to return after ten. Apparently there was nothing to distinct one badge class from another short the text below the person’s name. While I wasn't bummed about not getting priority entry, there was word about people with legitimate business in the hall getting turned away just because the staff didn’t take the time to read their badge.
The opening of the Dealer’s room was another matter by itself. Having attended larger conventions at the LACC, I was expecting something in the nature of waiting in the lobby and going up multiple doorways. This was not the case. After waiting over five minutes at the bottom of the stairs we were told that the lines were outside the convention center and that we would have to cue up out there. What really made this inconvenient was the fact that every door leading directly outside was roped off, which meant that unless you knew of a special passage way to the other side (Kenita Hall), your alternatives was very limited and very inconvenient.
There are some attendees that are hoping that as the convention expands it should naturally be moved to the San Diego Convention center in the near future. Many have correlated the success of Comic Con International becuase its location, and that moving AX down there will solve a lot of the problems facing this convention. Okay here's my official statement:
There are no major problems with holding the convention in Downtown Los Angeles. There is no reason in needing to move the convention to another location, nor would moving to another location solve any of the current problems. While the size of the San Diego convention center may be appealing for a growing convention, the LACC has hosted larger cons than this one with little or no problem. One major example is when they hosted the Electronics Entertainment Expo in 2006 and was able to accommodate 60,000 attendees - a show that was almost one and a half times the size of AX.
The city of Los Angeles is also working on a two major rejuvenation projects in hopes of competing with the city of San Diego and its convention area. One such project lies adjacent to the convention center called "LA Live!" a 2.5 billion dollar project that will span over six city blocks. The Nokia Theater was completed as part of phase 1 (of 3) last year. The next phase is expected to be completed by the end of this year and will include a variety of restaurants, shops, and clubs. Finally by the time July 2010 arrives, the last phase will be completed which will include the JW Marriott, and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, as well as more meeting rooms, and ballrooms.
While the area around the San Diego Convention Center maybe more appealing than the area around the Los Angeles Convention Center, the are only so many places you can go to on a limited budget. Not to say that "LA Live!" will be affordable either, it’s just that dining in Gaslamp Quarter will be less expensive. Furthermore problems like the badges and crowd control won’t be solved just because the location has moved. To add a twist to an old saying, a rider changing horses in the middle of the stream will get just as wet.
In conclusion, many of the issues that the convention faced were not because of the location, and there is a lot of potential in the LACC that AX has yet to tap into. While the staff's performance was satisfactory to previous years, the fact is there are other conventions that are handling the same issues and bigger crowds more proficiently. I admit that I had some good times interacting with the masses, but with economic times as they are, and with fans limited to how many trips they can venture, AX will have to convnice people that they are the best choice in anime conventions.