In the Shadow of Ayacon...

About two weekends ago from the time I started writing this entry, I went to my first Kitacon, a relatively small convention that has been running for some time in the spring of every year for a while, from what I could gather. Although it was nice to be away on a holiday for once, I will have to admit something right here, right now, while everyone else lavishes praise on Kitacon 2014.

Meh.

Literally that is all I have to say on the convention.

OK I will elaborate. It was fun but not spectacular. As much as I enjoy being at these sorts of events, this Kitacon turned out to be a bit of a damp squib for me. There are various reasons for this. Some directly related to the convention. Some not. Some personal. I will go into a long and possibly rambling posting here on some of those reasons.

• Family Issues 
• Shortly before I set off for Kitacon, a close member of the family fell ill. This soured my mood at lot and I guess the concern for this member of the family must have been in the back of my mind. I will admit I did ask to make sure they were OK on a call back home.

• Bigger Adventures Await
• I am due to visit relatives on a holiday for two weeks abroad. So Kitacon feels like a small side distraction as I mentally prepare myself to go on a long trip away in a foreign land. Albeit one I am used to going to.

• Issues with the Venue and Accomodation 
• The Hilton Metropole NEC was an alright hotel. However, for such an upmarket and prestigious brand it did fall short in certain areas. The biggest problem I had was a draughty window in my room that didn't shut properly. And even when technical staff came to repair it, it didn't stay fixed for long. And as for the room itself, it was a bit cramped and in need of a fresh coat of paint. I accept it was a single room but for the Hilton, it felt less like luxury hotel and more like a posher student halls of residence. It does not help that I have been in more spacious and fancier budget hotel rooms. There was some noise coming from a lower floor due to ongoing refurbishment works and a lack of facilities in the immediate area meant we were basically a captive market to the hotel catering, which to be fair wasn't terrible and was actually decent for the most part. This isn't something the committee could really influence but it does mean in the future I will consider staying off site if I go to the next Kitacon. They do get kudos for having younger members of staff who did recognise what was going on and were even Anime geeks themselves.

• The Lack of Daytime Panels and Events
• I was used to running around to different panels at the conventions I went to. Granted I only ever really been to two different conventions. Clashing timetables have become a fact of life for me when it comes to anime conventions. However, after the opening ceremony, there turned out to be very little to do at Kitacon during the daytime. Opening happened around 4PM and by the time it was finished, even after taking into account the delay to enter the main event hall to see the ceremony, there was little going on. In fact, there was little going on between registration and the opening ceremony to the point where I toyed with visiting a nearby video gaming exhibition and conference in the nearby NEC, had it not been for the pricing for tickets, for what little time I would be spending. It was only until the second day anything seemed to be happening. The third day seemed to petter out.

• Night Time Partying 
• Oh dear. This is where I start moaning like some old man talking about the "good old days". As someone who is used to staying off site when it comes to conventions and going to bed early to get up early and catch daytime events, the amount of annoyance and disturbance I got from the late night partying, especially on the second night, tested my patience a few times. Had it not been for the industrial strength earplugs that I use at work, I probably would've gone insane. Although I am used to the boisterous nature of anime conventions during the later hours, the noise started to go beyond reasonable levels. Not everyone is looking to party long into the wee hours and I think some of the revellers may have forgotten this. And it was telling when on the next day a member of the committee had to announce that complaints from non-convention guests staying at the hotel we were holding the convention at, complained to the hotel staff, who in turn forwarded those complaints to the committee. Who then advised us that this was no longer tenable. Even at Ayacon, they called on those who wanted to party to be reasonable and not disturb those wanting some sleep. At least they toned it down on the last day. Related to the last point above, this made Kitacon feel more like an otaku booze up that happened to have daytime panels tacked on before it as an afterthought. I'm sure that is not what the committee intended but given the lack of daytime events before, this did not help my perception. Don't even get me started about concerns regarding rubbish left behind...Not a good image to give of us geeks...

• Timing and the Lack Thereof
• Anime Conventions are infamous for not running exactly to time. It happens. I accept that. I have grown used to it. However running an hour late doesn't really help matters. Especially if anecdotal evidence is correct where some of my fellow attendees had difficulty waiting in a long line due to temperature issues, lack of ventilation and panic attacks caused by the overcrowding in the line. I feel sorry for those who did have such issues. There wasn't much the committee could do with the nature of queuing but it would've been nice to see some enforcement of the timetable especially for larger events. Or some more information of ETA's, reasons for delays if that was not possible. Even just knowing there was a technical glitch is helpful, if it doesn't make the queue move faster. I know how frustrating it is for customers waiting in a line to be delayed. I deal with queues as part of my day job.

•  Legacy of Previous Conventions
• Or rather, one convention, as I will detail below...

When they made the announcement at the closing ceremony that the committees behind Kitacon and Amecon had joined forces to alternate between holding the big summer convention in alternate years, they made references to the "dying embers of one of the greats". Now, I may be wrong, but that sounded like a reference to Ayacon, specifically Ayacon 2013, the very last convention to be held using that name and committee line up. And that I feel is the biggest problem Kitacon, and Amecon for that matter, has. They are both literally in the shadow of Ayacon. That convention was very special, not just for being the last ever Ayacon to be held, but for doing nearly everything right. The location, events and social atmosphere. It still reverberates in many attendees minds.

And that is a bad thing. Very bad indeed. Why? Because Ayacon 2013 spoiled me. And probably spoiled many others. It set the bar very high. So high that every other convention afterwards may struggle to even reach part way to those heights. It may eventually happen that another convention surpasses Ayacon in bringing an all round entertaining experience for us geeks, but any committee set on such a goal will have to work very hard, possibly to beyond the point of insanity and enduring serious financial and social hardship, in my humble opinion to do so. The Ame and Kita committees have set themselves a very hard task to take the position as the big summer anime convention in the United Kingdom that all attendees look forward to. And on the basis of what I have experienced so far, they need to do a bit more work before I can have the enthusiasm to attend the next Kitacon.