I complain that it's hard to review a con when I'm stuck promoting at it. It's even harder when it's the one I actually work at.

This year was my fifth Middle Tennessee Anime Convention, the fourth I worked at and the second I was actually staff for. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was my busiest MTAC ever. We had a packed house this year with well over 4,000 attendees. We even sold out of our badges. With some more responsibility on my shoulders this year, I was running around and being fairly busy. I didn't get to take my own photos, which is sad because there were some truly photo-worth sights. Luckily, that's what everyone else with cameras were for.

Starting with content, there was a lot. We had seven different programming tracks: art, cosplay, Japanese culture, martial arts, mature, music and otaku. All of which had plenty of panels and events. The two panels I organized were the Running an Anime Club panel and the Super Sentai panel. The other host talked most of the time in the anime club panel, which was fine as he knew what he was talking about.

The Super Sentai panel, however, was a bigger blast than I had expected. I hosted it with some input from friends in the MTSU Anime Club. I had a nice powerpoint presentation, if I do say so myself, including some neat clips (never get tired of the 25 red rangers from Gaoranger vs Super Sentai). It wasn't just Super Sentai though. I actually based my panel around that and Kamen Rider, with about equal content for both (if not more for KR). Also showed off some of my toys. I was fortunate enough to have both a Kamen Rider 1 and a Green Ranger cosplay in the audience. I even got my picture taken with Kamen Rider 1, as you can see for yourself.


I'm on the right, in my 5-second cosplay of Tsukasa (Kamen Rider Decade) from Blade's world. Yes, it's my belt.

I also ended up sitting on three other panels: Fandumb, Crossover Fans and Running a Convention. Fandumb is talking about what all is dumb about fandom, which is always funny. Crossover Fans is for those fans of anime and other fandoms, such as me and superhero comic books and movies. Running a Convention was the oddest as I had the least experience as any of the other panelists, which included our con chair and the con chairs of MomoCon and OMGcon. It was fun as usual. Like I said in my MomoCon post, it's about the stories.

While I didn't get to enjoy these as much (nor are they my cup of tea), MTAC really bulked up its mature and music tracks. I've been hearing differing opinions about whether such a strong focus on those is a good idea or a bad one. Particularly that it detracts from the anime nature of the con. I can see both sides. What do you think? What kind of content do you prefer to see at cons?

There were some hiccups along the way though. Delays plagued us throughout the con, some of which partially the fault of a freak storm and tornado during Thursday set up. Some fire alarms went off too by accident, but otherwise, not much incident.

All in all, it was busy, crowded, even rowdy at times, but I had a blast. I got to work along side some of my very good friends and help put on an amazing show. I'm resubmitting all my panels again, even asking for more of my Super Sentai/Kamen Rider panel.

With that said, I very much enjoyed the Middle Tennessee Sleeping Convention that coincidentally took place the day after MTAC.

(crossposted here)

Con Nooga is a small sci-fi con in Chattanooga, TN for its second year. Went down to it Saturday morning to promote MTAC. It's nice to occasionally have such a short trip, just barely over an hour from my place to the con if you don't stop.

The con itself is at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, which is a deceptively big place. It used to be an actual train station, and railroad tracks and trains are still around on the property. Problem is, it's all spread out. There's the actual hotel lobby that used to be the train station, three different hotel buildings on the complex, trains that have been converted into hotel rooms and a diner, and random other buildings. Panels and events were usually toward the front of the property in the main train station building or the nearby convention/ballroom building. However, the dealers room and some other events were in a building on the far side of the compound, and it's a decent walk. Luckily, there are bus and trolly services to go back and forth.

Didn't really see any events or guests as I spent most of the time at the MTAC booth, but as with every con, we got to talk to plenty of random visitors to our table, and that's always interesting. Then there's dinner with friends, and that was nice. Still, we had a fairly early Saturday night, not knowing anyone throwing any of the usual Saturday night room parties. Then we manned our table some on Sunday, packed up and left for home.

Probably one of my shortest con trips, but it was generally enjoyable and relaxing. We weren't really active or running around much. Just a nice little trip to Chattanooga.

Back from JapanFest in Atlanta. Aside from me being sick the whole time, it was pretty fun. It was another MTAC promotional trip, so we had the booth set up. This time, we shared space along Stubby Chubby, and I think we both did well. I was surprised at all the people who came up to find out what MTAC was. JapanFest is a Japanese culture festival, not an anime convention, but there were still plenty of people interested, probably more so than AWA. There was also some interesting things to see, like cases of trademark infringement and Go-on Red from Go-ongers.

Despite not being an anime con, JapanFest still had two anime viewing rooms. The second one also substituted as an anime panel room three times a day, panels all brought to you by MTAC. I participated in the anime trivia game with Lucas and the anime fandom 101 panel with Cole and the president of Atlanime, an Atlanta anime club that provided the anime for the room. I really liked the panels. I think participating in the panels I've been in has made me kind of like panels more. I guess I've always liked presenting stuff I know to an audience, but then again, what egotistical geek doesn't?

Of course, the down side was me being sick. Seems I have a sinus infection, as student health services confirmed for my today. Friday started with a small irration in my throat. Saturday was kind of sore with some coughing. Sunday sucked big time to the point where I could hardly talk when I woke up. Luckily, some hot tea with honey and some orange juice early on helped me through the day.

Later today, I have to go get some prescription meds to kill this infection, and I'm going to kill it with a vengeance. That and watch more Heroes. Season three started well. Let's hope it continues well.

And then I survived yet another Anime Weekend Atlanta.

AWA was fun. My time was divided among the MTAC booth, panels, and friends. AWA actually had panels I was interested in this year, which made me feel bad because I wasn't at the MTAC booth as much (kind of my job). The panels I attended were the Bandai and Funimation press events and panels by anime podcasters and journalists. The more blogs and magazines I read and podcasts I listen to, the more I'd like to be involved in something like this. I'm not sure what though. Plus, I'll need the initiative, and I'm a bit weary of trying new projects right now with club, con, school and friends' projects already filling my schedule.

Working what time I was at the MTAC booth was fun. I like to talk to people and get them interested in MTAC, whether they've heard of it or not. We had a pretty decent booth out in the hall, especially considering most everything we brought to set up with was in the dealer room combined with Stubby Chubby and a couple of others. That booth was awesome. The one we actually manned out in the hall was pretty cool too. It wasn't as showy, but not as showy with our con booths still tend to be pretty showy. It attracted a lot of people to us, and that's the important thing.

Dealer room was same old, same old. Same old in that too much crap I wanted. I ended up buying all of GaoGaiGar, all seven volumes of the 90s Skull Man manga, and a Gurren Lagann revoltech. I was quite pleased.

Hanging out with people is generally the best part of AWA, and this year was no exception. I enjoyed hanging out with the MTSUAC group that went, all excited over the happenings of the con, seeing people's cosplay, wanting each others purchases and so on.

I also have photos up at Facebook.

It was fun, and I'll be back next year for sure. Now all that's left is to figure out what to write about AWA for my magazine writing class's article. That's going to be a pain. Later.

So Dragon*Con was a week ago. How was it, you ask? It was a blast, of course.

I left Thursday afternoon and stayed until Monday afternoon when I was done working. thursday night in Atlanta, Lucas took us to an Obama support rally where we watched Obama's speech to cap off the Democratic National Convention. It was a very well done speech, but the food was a bit pricy.

Friday began my first Dragon*Con, where I volunteered in the anime-manga track.The work was easy, just sitting in panels and making sure no one died or anything. It did take up time I wanted to spend actually going to other panels, but there's so much good stuff to see and people to meet that it's hard to nigh impossible to do everything I would want.

I did manage to get in some good panels. I attended quite a few animation track panels, including one with the hilarious George Lowe (Space Ghost from Space Ghost Coast to Coast). His panel was far too crowded for the tiny room in the Hyatt we were in. Lowe entertained the audiende with antedocts of his career and with spit takes which made me glad I was off to the side.

The Star Trek DS9 reunion panel was entertaining with Avery Brooks (Captain Sisco), Michael Dorn (Worf) and Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisco). Brooks was a very smooth and soulful speaker and was easy to listen to. My favorite quote probably came from Michael Dorn though when he, the guy who played a Klingon warrior and Starfleet officer for so many years, said if he had an army, he would make them put their weapons down and have sex with the enemy.

I somehow found myself in a lot of Smallville panels, which was cool to see Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor). On Sunday, I accidently went to a wrong panel and saw him and James Marsters (Spike from Buffy and Angel) instead. Rosenbaum was funny as he was in the previous panels, and Marsters talked about how to solve energy shortages by combining methods of obtaining solar and hydrogen energy. Everyone was in awe of that. It wasn't the Adam West panel I was trying to go to, but it was still pretty cool. Plus, I get to hold it over my aunts' heads that I saw Spike in person. Of course, if only Dragon*Con was a week later, I could have asked Marsters why they just raided his make-up closet from Buffy and Angel for his Piccolo.

There was some running around, as to be expected at a four-hotel convention. I was mostly going back and forth between the Marriott and the Hyatt. We were staying at the Marriott, 46 floors up in fact. It was cool to be up that high in an atrium hotel, looking all the way down to the lobby. The view from the window was nice too. One great thing about the Marriott and the Hyatt was the tube bridges so you could avoid the street, as well as stop by the food court in between. The food court includes a Dairy Queen that was open until 1 A.M., which was a great help to me and many others I saw.

And luckily, I managed to get some photos. I am getting better, but I'm still getting some grainy and blurry photos. I'm still learning to use my cheap camera (an Olympus FE 210), and here's what I have so far:

Dragon*Con Gallery 1
Dragon*Con Gallery 2
Dragon*Con Gallery 3

In addition to photos to remember the event, I figured I would try something new and twitter random happenings at the con. I guess it was my first experiment with live blogging.

( To check out the fruits (maybe sour by now) of my labor, check behind the cut. )

I can't really think of anything else off the top of my head. That's what I get for procrastinating on this for a week. Some journalism student I am. Guess that's all for now. Next con: AWA.

Finally getting around to talking about MTAC on here. It was one busy weekend, and I'm still recovering from some con funk, but it was all in all a great time.

Got in Thursday and did some swimming with Tina and friends before I got to work. Actually staffing at a convention is a lot different than just attending. Seeing even more of the behind the scenes than when I volunteered was pretty awesome. Of course, it was more work too, but it's worth it. Setting up, running back and forth and doing random things during, and tearing down the con. Besides, plenty others worked much harder with much less sleep than I did. It was all quite an experience I'm willing to repeat next year.

In particular, the ramen eating contest was a blast. I helped make the ramen and got to be one of the servers on stage for the actual contest, wearing a black trash bag and a cardboard box for a helmet. The room was filled. It was the biggest mess of ramen, vomit, and peanut butter I've ever seen.

I also got to run my first con event, given not that well. Given how much I'm on the MTAC forums, I guess it seemed natural to give me the forum meet and greet. All we did was introduce ourselves with our real names and forums names. We even had nametags thanks to MTAC forum-goer Ayelmar. Afterwards though, not much else. I believe there were photos take, but no group photo (which didn't dawn on me until after the event). After the introductions, people started to leave and the event basically ended. At least it gave people time to get to opening ceremonies, but next year, I want to do a bit more, perhaps something more involving.

And I helped Phil run his Super Sentai panel, which was fun despite some technical issues.

I guess one of the biggest highlights of the convention for me was closing ceremonies. I was given an Outstanding Volunteer award by Lucas and the MTAC staff. I'm still not sure I deserve it that much, as other people did a lot more work that I did. Still, I'm really grateful for it.

Sure, this year had some issues, particularly on Saturday night. I personally spent most of that night helping a friend out who had a bit too much to drink, and luckily he's ok. There's issues at every convention. They never run completely smoothly. Being on staff for a con and going to more and more cons show me that more and more. Still, the important thing is how every bump in the road is handled, and I thought everything was handled quite well. After all, we did get through the weekend alive.

Getting through the weekend alive does mean another thing though: we get to read the feedback from the MTAC forums. Most of it has been praise, constructive criticism, and valid points. Occasionally, there are some ignorant posts, but it's nice to see both staff and fellow con goers responding to those intelligently and respectfully. Obviously there are some things that can be done better, and we'll see what we can do to that respect, but some things are just beyond our control or are just completely pointless complaints. There's always something to complain about.

Oh, and I took no pictures whatsoever. Sorry. There'll be plenty coming from the MTAC, and you can check out a lot at the MTAC photo forum.

Here's to MTAC Ninja in 2009!

After finding out Friday morning that I had broken my finger from my last post and putting it in a splint, I headed off to Con-Nooga, a first-year general sci-fi con in Chattanooga, Tenn with Cole and John  to promote MTAC. All the fun on the trip was mostly from hanging out with them. The con itself was kind of slow. Given, I was stuck in the dealer room/exhibition hall most of the time there, so I missed a lot of the actual con stuff, but the general feel from the dealer room itself was slight boredom. It doesn't help that the dealer room was located a good bit away from the rest of the con in another building at the complex, requiring walking or driving through the parking lot to get there. At least I got to talk to one of the dealers a lot, even about Gundam and Macross, and it's always good to have a geeky conversation every now and then. I even bought some Macross and Kamen Rider Den-O figures from him.

Speaking of geeky, we all stayed in the hotel room Saturday night and watched Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze and the American Godzilla movie instead of the usual late-Saturday-night con party stuff. Still, it was fairly enjoyable staying in and watching TV, especially since most of us were just plain tired.

As for the whole promoting MTAC thing, I think we did a decent job given the low turnout. We got a few people interested in the con from the anime 101 panel that Cole and I gave. Being my first actual panel, and with no planning and completely ad libbed, it went pretty well. The audience seemed interested and even asked enough questions to keep us going. A lot of the people there even stopped by our booth afterwards (not like the mention of MTAC shirts didn't help any though). I was even asked to do a spot for a local anime music station, which I wish I could listen to, but oh well. Plus, our booth was pretty awesome. We ended up using every grid we had to build it.

We ended up leaving this morning before the dealer room closed. A good bit of the dealer room was already packing up, as they pretty much felt they wouldn't get many more sales to match the few they made the previous days. Take down of the booth didn't take too long, and we hit the road back towards Nashville.

All in all, it was fun to hang out, but the con itself from the dealer room wasn't too thrilling. I'm sure others had fun, but since the only other part of the con I experienced was the panel Cole and I ran, I don't really feel adequate enough to give an actual review of it. One of the things about staying at the MTAC booth most of the time is that I don't get to roam around too much, but I do get some feel of the place from interacting with attendees, dealers, panelists, guests and staff. This one seems like it can improve upon itself and be better next year.

That was a fun trip. Got to Columbus at around 2 in the morning Friday, and while Cole and Heydn tried to set up the booth, those who would be manning it at 8am went to sleep. It eventually got finished sometime around noon, and it was a pretty awesome booth with the grids, rope lights, banners, music and the projector. It didn't get quite as much attention as it did when we got our Con Kitty there Saturday, but it still went over well.

Sitting at the booth was mostly entertaining by having other people in the booth to talk to. We would get some people to talk to us about MTAC, but mostly, it was to find out where Ohayocon registration was or where or when events were.

Got a few photos of mostly some cosplays I liked from the shows I like. Also took some photos of the two wallscrolls I got, the only actual merchandise I bought at the convention. Feels weird to spend more money on food than I did on useless but nice-to-look-at wall decorations.

The trips there and back were interesting to say the least, involving discussions of movies, comics, cars, TechTV, NSFW and many 20 questions games, some of which were also NSFW.

Got back around 1 this morning. Glad I didn't have anything to do today. Sleep was really nice. I had a lot of catching up to do online though. Always the rough part about coming back.

Ok, I've been back for a little over a day. This may take some time, so bear with me.


As for pics, you can check out my photobucket here
or my facebook here and here.

That's right folks.

You've all been waiting for this moment and it is finally here... Pre-registration for MTAC Infinity is NOW AVAILABLE! Remember, pre-registering is the ONLY way to guarantee access into MTAC!

For all three days of MTAC, you only have to pay $25 dollars. This lasts until Thanksgiving when the price tier goes up, so if you want in cheap, now is the time.

Our registration staff is looking forward to seeing the orders roll in and assisting you with any needs you may have. For some helpful details on pre-registration, visit our registration page.

Enjoy!