Anime Central '07 Chicago May 11-13

[youth]

So this local con doesn't feel left out... It's their 10th anniversary so they're trying to go all out with the guests.

acen.org

Musical Guests - High & Mighty Color
Musical Guests - Spiral Spiders

Mitsutoshi Ogura
Hiroshi Kôjina
Yuko Minaguchi
Shinichi Watanabe
Masao Maruyama
Sunao Katabuchi
Yasuhiro Nightow
Noriyuki Zinguji

Lisa Furukawa, D.J. Chucky, No+Chin, Steve Bennett, Bruce Lewis, Tiffany Grant, Matt Greenfield, Toshifumi Yoshida, Trish Ledoux, Greg Ayres, Spike Spencer, Travis Willingham, Philip Moy, Jeffrey Moy, Michael Terracciano, David Fleming, Brittney Karbowski, Greg Weisman, Musical Guests-PLID, Chris Patton, Xero Reynolds, Rikki Simons, Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Christopher Ayres, Ananth Panagariya, Mohammad "Hawk" Haque, Doug Smith, Patrick Drazen, Mike McFarland, Kari Wahlgren, Jamie McGonnigal, Kirk Thornton, Travis Willingham, Brett Weaver, Jan Scott Frazier, Kyle Hebert, Robert DeJesus, Emily DeJesus, Special Musical Guests-"Voices For Peace"

Also it's really in Rosemont (suburb between the airport & the city), but it's easier to just say Chicago.

[Hayate Kurogane]

Huh. I was kind of wondering if I'd just missed an existing ACen thread, but I guess there wasn't one.

I'm going, and I refuse to miss the High and Mighty Color concert for any reason. Unless, for some inexplicable reason, it's on Sunday, which is the day that I can't make it. :(

A schedule would be nice. I mean, at some point in the near future they've got to decide: "well, only about 75% of the schedule is even vaguely for sure, but we do have to print up pamphlets or something, so let's call it good for now." Wondering where the heck the schedule is a week and a half before the con doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, based on other experiences. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Splitter]

I'm going to be there all three days. Haikara's going to rock the walls down ^^

[Galt]

I'm going to be there, working in the Dealers Room again (for Fast Food Anime). I'd love to see the High and Mighty Color performance - hopefully its not during the middle of the day.

Galt

[TalonG4]

Yeah, I'll be there this year. Friday and Saturday at least. I'm nearby so I just commute. It'll be my 7th ACEN and I can't wait to finally meet Tiffany Grant. My registration badge is in the mail and hopefully I'll get it before the Con. :sd:

I worry about this years ACEN due to the lack of communication from the staff.

[yowanda]

I wish we could go, but I'm 9 months pregnant and can't move around a bunch. But that's why my husband and I went last year and actually got a room for the whole weekend and everything, even though we live close by. I had a sneaky feeling we wouldn't make it this year. I've been a few other times in the past, and always had fun. And they never release the schedule until maybe a week before. Annoying, but I've gotten used to it. Maybe next year we'll make it again. I have to get my husband to cosplay...

[Spirit Of The Stage]

I am so looking forward to this - it's my first overseas con, a few friends I've known for a long time have been bugging me to come over to a US con and I've finally caved in. And if there is anybody from AnimeOnDVD that I can remember, I'll certainly say hi...

Though dreading the plane...Birmingham to Amsterdam to Chicago...16 hours altogether....*shudders*...but then again, sleep is not necessary at an anime con... :sd:

[Vincent_home]

Yeah, ACEN is less than a week and they still haven't had any programming schedules posted up or anything.

[Galt]

I just read over on the Acen forums that they are taking care of last minute tweaks to the schedule, so I reckon they will have something available shortly.

[youth]

In an Excel spreadsheet.
http://www.acen.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=17336&st=0&#entry398549

Industry attending:
- ADV
- Funimation
- Geneon
- Dark Horse
- Madhouse

yowanda: Have you thought about renting or borrowing a wheelchair for the w/e?

Spirit of the Stage: So what made you pick ACEN as your first U.S. con? High & Mighty Color?

Galt: Looks like you'll have to take off work early on Friday if you want to make the concert unless your dealer badge gets you special access.

[yowanda]

yowanda: Have you thought about renting or borrowing a wheelchair for the w/e?


Ha, I actually suggested this to my husband, and he looked at me like I was nuts. :) It's a moot point now anyway, since they've scheduled me for a c-section for the 10th. I'll be in the hospital all weekend. I'll just have to wait for next year.

[Spirit Of The Stage]

Spirit of the Stage: So what made you pick ACEN as your first U.S. con? High & Mighty Color?


Oh, nothing like that - just a few friends of mine I've known for years have bugged me to meet them at a US con and we finally decided on Acen.

Anyway, printed the schedule out now from their website so now gotta decide what I want to go do (I might be helping out with the karaoke) and what I have to beg my friends to do so I don't get lost... :sd:

[Galt]

Galt: Looks like you'll have to take off work early on Friday if you want to make the concert unless your dealer badge gets you special access.

Unfortunately, I doubt I can get out early so it looks like I won't make it. I am also bummed about the Yuri panel being at 4:00pm Saturday (I think last year it was at 10 or 11pm). Ditto on the shoujoai panel. Oh well. I'm still planning on having a great time anyways. :)

Galt

[Hayate Kurogane]

Yay, schedule!

So, uh... two concert sets? Is the performance room just that small, relative to the estimated number of attendees that would be interested in the concert? Or is there a difference?

[Splitter]

A Yuri panel that's not 18+ makes me a sad panda. On the bright side, there's YFAS, and that's a panel you all need to go to.

As far as industry panels go, it looks like FUNi has something special planned so I gotta get in on that. And if this is the con that Geneon announces Nanoha at, I have to be there to scream like a little girl.

[Vincent_home]

They have a duck hunt tournament in the gaming room at 9pm Saturday. I'm so down for that!

[Galt]

So, uh... two concert sets? Is the performance room just that small, relative to the estimated number of attendees that would be interested in the concert? Or is there a difference?

I'm thinking that the demand for the concert is going to be pretty high, considering that they are playing in Main Events. I assume that is the largest room.

I read somewhere on the Acen boards (which are a mess to find anything useful) that there was speculation that there may be tickets given out ahead of time. I think they did that awhile back when the Pillows were there. Don't know if this is true or not, but just keep it in mind.

Galt

[youth]

Good luck to anyone who has to pick up their reg tomorrow. I went to today's pickup & stood in line for almost three hours. They can't seem to get it right. :sigh:

On a positive note the hotel looks really nice with the completed renovations. Also saw a really nice looking Saber cosplay in her 2nd game black goth loli dress. :blush:

[Hayate Kurogane]

Good luck to anyone who has to pick up their reg tomorrow. I went to today's pickup & stood in line for almost three hours. They can't seem to get it right. :sigh:

A friend of mine reported the same thing, while reporting that the on-site registration lines were quite short. Other accounts from last year note the same.

There isn't an attendance cap this year, is there?

[youth]

There isn't an attendance cap this year, is there?

I haven't heard anything about that. The growth has been steady for several years now so expect around 13,000 if the trend continues. I'm sure they've planned for that much. They probably won't outgrow that area for another several years since there's more convention space they could use & also a theater nearby.

[Helschadenfreude]

So, uh... two concert sets? Is the performance room just that small, relative to the estimated number of attendees that would be interested in the concert? Or is there a difference?

I'm thinking that the demand for the concert is going to be pretty high, considering that they are playing in Main Events. I assume that is the largest room.

I read somewhere on the Acen boards (which are a mess to find anything useful) that there was speculation that there may be tickets given out ahead of time. I think they did that awhile back when the Pillows were there. Don't know if this is true or not, but just keep it in mind.

Galt


Only if you had a room at the hyatt, you automatically got a ticket to one of the concerts. Otherwise you had to wait to get in? or wait in line to get stamped? Not sure, I had the free ticket.

ACEN is a mess again.. I don't even wanna know how close the fiasco of mailing badges was.... why is it so badly managed compared to other cons? This is why I'm not going this year, even though it's the closest con to me.

[Helschadenfreude]

So, uh... two concert sets? Is the performance room just that small, relative to the estimated number of attendees that would be interested in the concert? Or is there a difference?

I'm thinking that the demand for the concert is going to be pretty high, considering that they are playing in Main Events. I assume that is the largest room.

I read somewhere on the Acen boards (which are a mess to find anything useful) that there was speculation that there may be tickets given out ahead of time. I think they did that awhile back when the Pillows were there. Don't know if this is true or not, but just keep it in mind.

Galt


When the pillows were there, they had only two sets as well. The set I went to had a LOT of empty seats... probably not half of the audience that went and watched the FMA movie at Anime Expo last year.

[Dolza]

I will be there tonight and tomorrow. Probably go to Anime Hell tonight - we will see other then that.

[Mozart]

Three hours in line last night for those of use who didn't get their (bulk rate mailed) badges...gotta be a new record!

[Justin Richardson]

Three hours in line last night for those of use who didn't get their (bulk rate mailed) badges...gotta be a new record!

Yea, that line looked sick.

Its sad.. the line for the people who didn't select for their badges to be mailed was SHORTER than those who did. There were some people talking about how those who paid for the special anniversary badge got them last week but I dunno if thats true or not. *shrugs*

[Dolza]

I got may badge 2 weeks ago. I must have been one of the lucky ones.

[JeffDM]

When the pillows were there, they had only two sets as well. The set I went to had a LOT of empty seats... probably not half of the audience that went and watched the FMA movie at Anime Expo last year.

The concert I went to had something like 50% empty seats, it was a very large room. For some reason, they still thought it was necessary to do a UV light check on the tickets to prevent people from using counterfeit tickets.

[JeffDM]

Good luck to anyone who has to pick up their reg tomorrow. I went to today's pickup & stood in line for almost three hours. They can't seem to get it right. :sigh:

That was highly disappointing. I know it's an all-volunteer con but I just don't see how they can mess it up that badly. They even shut down the payment booth entirely for half an hour for lunch. I've been to expos in other industries that had 100,000+ attendees and there was NO wait for the preregistered because they were mailed to attendees a month ahead of time. In this case, the non-prereg line looked 50% shorter, which made me glad I didn't preregister, but even that registration was a little closer to a short Rube Goldberg machine than a registration line.

[animejulie]

I stood in line with my niece for 3 hours, too. I was more than a tad pissed, because I paid for her badge to be mailed, and they waited until the week before the con to mail them out, BULK mail! I don't mean to slam the con organizers, but any idiot should know that if the mailing time is 10 - 21 days, you get them out more than a week before the con.

Between the 3 hours wasted in the pre-reg line, and the 2 hours wasted in a traffic jam in downtown Chicago, I am a little bitter about my ACen adventure - I will be skipping this con in the future.

[ragnar]

I got may badge 2 weeks ago. I must have been one of the lucky ones.


You were extremely lucky, and must have gotten one of the few to be mailed out priority mail. Mine came the day before we left,and the other person with me had his arrive late Thursday, after we were already there.

[Vincent_home]

My friend got his badge in the mail yesterday. Too bad it wasn't there BEFORE the con.

Did you guys hear what happened during the con though?

There was a drunken swordfight and someone got stabbed and they closed off the 4th floor and clean up the blood, some little Chinese kid got kidnapped and the Rosemont police zerg rushed the whole floor, someone threw a metal spear from the 6th balcony and made it into a random car's tailpipe, and during lunch someone on the 4th or 5th level threw a shopping cart off the balcony and it landed with a loud CRASH that could be heard in the hotel. A spectator watching got hit by the debris from the shopping cart. The Hyatt just finished in millions of dollars in rennovation and someone brought a skateboard and grinded on the railing and broke ALL of them in the hotel.

[Helschadenfreude]

My friend got his badge in the mail yesterday. Too bad it wasn't there BEFORE the con.

Did you guys hear what happened during the con though?

There was a drunken swordfight and someone got stabbed and they closed off the 4th floor and clean up the blood, some little Chinese kid got kidnapped and the Rosemont police zerg rushed the whole floor, someone threw a metal spear from the 6th balcony and made it into a random car's tailpipe, and during lunch someone on the 4th or 5th level threw a shopping cart off the balcony and it landed with a loud CRASH that could be heard in the hotel. A spectator watching got hit by the debris from the shopping cart. The Hyatt just finished in millions of dollars in rennovation and someone brought a skateboard and grinded on the railing and broke ALL of them in the hotel.

I am SO glad I wasn't at Acen this year. And people wonder why the hotel rates keep going up quite a bit.... I wonder if the Hyatt will welcome Acen back.. although the multimillion screen was messed up Expo a few years back and they are there this year... so I don't know(although this is from hearsay the breaking the screen thing)

[IamBoogiepop]

My friend got his badge in the mail yesterday. Too bad it wasn't there BEFORE the con.

Did you guys hear what happened during the con though?

There was a drunken swordfight and someone got stabbed and they closed off the 4th floor and clean up the blood, some little Chinese kid got kidnapped and the Rosemont police zerg rushed the whole floor, someone threw a metal spear from the 6th balcony and made it into a random car's tailpipe, and during lunch someone on the 4th or 5th level threw a shopping cart off the balcony and it landed with a loud CRASH that could be heard in the hotel. A spectator watching got hit by the debris from the shopping cart. The Hyatt just finished in millions of dollars in rennovation and someone brought a skateboard and grinded on the railing and broke ALL of them in the hotel.

You missed three medical emergencies (give or take a seizure :( ) ACEN WAS A MESS!!!

~Justin

[youth]

I've been following the numerous complaints on their forums. That wasn't a full sized shopping cart but more a toy one that you'd put a doll in.

For all the complaints I didn't think it was a disaster like their forums make it sound.

I remember hearing about the screen mess at AX. I think it was just discontent congoers making their own entertainment by throwing around things like paper airplanes & one oo them puncture the screen.

[Galexia]

Everything was running perpetually late. Most of the IRTs, even if they were nice, didn't know what was going on. There were two that were really nasty to us in line, even though all we did was line up how they asked us. Just cause they're fustrated doesn't mean they should take it out on an innocent. The shopping cart was a toy one. Con goers kept messing around with the buttons on the escalators. The masquerade was a farce -tickets were required and they didn't see fit to tell people. I peaked inside and there were about half of the seats empty. The saturday concert for H&MC was almost full, as soon as headcounts were done, people got out of their seats and rushed the stage. Friday I think it was pretty empty since the registration was screwy. In the morning, when we went to pick up the badge, there were four lines merged into one, and they didnt let us into the exhibit hall (where they finally spread out) until almost an hour or more after we got there. Ah well. It was still fun, even if the organization was sorely lacking.

[IamBoogiepop]

For all the complaints I didn't think it was a disaster like their forums make it sound.

Oh, I didn't either, by any means. It was my first ACEN, and I had a great time. There were a few things I would change, and a few balls that definitely got dropped, but besides that-I enjoyed myself... but I was a guest, and not a con-goer, so I can't speak about most of the things that people complained about.

I still stand by my statement that it was a MESS though in comparison to other cons that I've been to. They need to examine some things for next year...

It was awesome meeting and getting to talk to you, Youth! I had no idea you were the proprietor of Anime My Way (my favorite sites to check out the OPs and EDs of new shows)! Great site!

But yea, ACEN was a mess... but it was a hot mess. I am so there next year!

~Justin

[youth]

Hey it was nice to meet you too & thanks for the kinds words. I'm not the type to be recognized so it was a surprised. O.O Glad you enjoyed yourself enough to be making a comeback.

Hopefully ACEN will get their act together for '08, but after ten years...you wonder. :sigh:

Anyone else in the area there is also Reactor coming in the fall. That oughta be interesting since it's more of a party con & they'll have a new(I think just renovated too?) hotel. :sd:

[IamBoogiepop]

Anyone else in the area there is also Reactor coming in the fall. That oughta be interesting since it's more of a party con & they'll have a new(I think just renovated too?) hotel. :sd:

Yea, it is in a new and newly renovated hotel... so we'll see what happens. I might check it out to see some new friends I made, but I doubt it.

~Justin

[Galt]

I ended up having a great time at ACEN, even though I didn't do anything at the con outside of working in the dealer's room. For me, it was cool just hanging out with some friends and meeting lots of people at the booth. I also bought tons of cool stuff.

Wish I could of hit one of the H&MC concerts or the yuri / shoujo-ai panels, but oh well.

I'll definitely be back next year (working, of course).

The registration lines on Saturday looked insane when our shuttle pulled up to drop us off. I feel bad for anyone who had to deal with that mess and the pre-reg badge fiasco.

Galt

[Mary]

I have been going to ACEN since its first year. 2006 year was just dull and disappointing - I went for two hours and decided to cut my losses and leave. This year was much much better in many ways. The Dealers room went through a HUGE improvement from last year. Better vendors, company reps all made a big difference. - There were enough goodies and interesting choices that I spent 8X what I did last year.

Also the panels improved. More industry panels helped - last year it was disappointing. And though they still had some panels where it was clear that the panelists neither were prepared or in one case sober - There were also many panels were the presenters came with slide presentations and lots of prep work

Celebrating 10 years their anime rooms didn't have a lot of new shows but kept a good collection of old favs from across the years - they did have companies introduce some new anime showings (BLack Lagoon & Suzuka) which was nice and I would like to see more of

The music acts were more enjoyable to

Where I think they did fail and fail spectacularly three areas

1)Registration. People who preordered their badges but did not receive them ( I am still waiting for mine and I live in IL) We had to wait in line for 2 hours only to find out it was the line to find out which line we really were supposed to stand in. And then spend another 3 hours (not counting the time they stopped the line for an hour to let the printers cool) to get our badge - and then have to pay $5 for the priviledge after already paying the con fee + $1.50 for shipping. They will refund the money - so they claim if we send back the original badge - but only the $5 dollars and not anything else.

2)Secondly was the Incident Response Crew. For people assigned to crowd control they sure spent a lot of time ignoring people looking for help and kibitzing with their budies. One of the reasons that the line to ask which line you were supposed to be in took for ever what because the IRC were to busy gossiping to each other and other staff to bother to pay any attention to the peop in line. The second day I skipped the line to ask which line to be in and took my friend to the correct line jumping the huge number of people waiting to be directed. I mean I don't expect them to be everywhere but really did the car show need that many standing about?

The Hotel was just as bad - they were pretty much non present (though physically in site) until Saturday night when they arbitrarily decided not to let people on the ground floor take the elevators up. You had to walk to the second floor and of course the escalators by that time were broke. And on top of it you could not go from the stairs directly to the elevators but you had to walk all the way around and only use one entry - That improved traffic flow how? What a mess.

Video room policies were annoying too depending on who was working - some would not let you in with a bag (what were people who were there for the day supposed to do with purses etc?), some were no cameras - but hey you could bring in cell phones - ridiculous since Cell phones are cameras these days. Plus it wasn't like the animes weren't already available in a better format on the web illegally in some form or another. All that for old shows and yet I walked in the Black Lagoon and Suzuka with my camera out front and center and no one stopped me there - and they were new animes - Practicallity would be wise

3) The last mistake was the scheduling of the Costume contest. First was by scheduling earlier on Saturday to allow for the Dance to start earlier. This combined with the registration lines meant that you could end up standing in line for 5 hours and if you wanted to see the costume contest from a decent postition have to run and stand in line for the masquerade with out having much or any time for the rest of the con.

Second the organizers did not allow enough time so the costume contest ran over by an hour and the halls were even more crowded than normal by people waiting for the dance or the other events that were postponed as well. And not an IRC in sight. Also usually there is an hour to an as people who were hoping to get close up pictures of the costume contest participants. There was no time or room to get the pictures - which was disappointing. The Delays also impacted other panels - pushing them out causing long lines and having them overlap with the Dance which meant you could not over hear the panels

[Spirit Of The Stage]

Took me a while to actually post about this...

Overall, my first US con experience was a pleasant if long trip - lack of sleep and jet lag sucked but the adreneline of meeting some friends for the first time, meeting new ones and wondering how a con about 10 times the size of the largest British con could hold up to...

Well, the lines are a lot longer for a starter... :sd: Didn't get my ID so had to wait in line con for about 2 hours which sucked after just coming off a plane, but I was in cosplay after checking in so wasn't all bad and got to mingle with other con-goners.

Fave moment: Meeting both Nabeshin and also Spike Spencer and getting one of his 'What Happens at the Con Stays at the Con' CDs - highly recommended. Karaoke was also great (Duet the E21 third opening and also did Ebay by Weird Al), Midnight Madness and being introduced to the horrors of Fisting of the North Star, AMV Editor was hilarious but sadly, due to lines missed a few things I wanted to have a look at.

Aside from that, whilst exhausting, was very enjoyable - people actually recognising who I was cosplaying was great (do you know how many Eyeshield 21 and Kaleido Star fans in the UK there are...well, you can probably count them with one hand...) and meeting friends I've known for years for the first time was a lot of fun.

So, how long will I wait in line next year... :sd:

Here's my friends con report and you get to see my ugly mug as well - both semi-normal and in cosplay... (http://www.firstagent.net/cons/07acen/page1.htm)