Nekocon 2011 Convention Report

This photo obviously was taken post Episode 3.
When Nekocon approached me and asked me to be a featured panelist, I admittedly was a bit skeptical. I was used to big cons, the likes of Otakon and Anime Boston, with their grandiose events, floods of people, and swarms of high profile guests. What could a smallish local con in Virginia possibly do to match those experiences (especially one that would require a rather lengthy commute by train)?

It quickly became apparent to me that not only was my cynicism grossly misguided, but Nekocon completely blew me out of the water. In fact, Nekocon is perhaps the best convention I have attended to date.

For those of you who do not know, Nekocon is a mid-sized anime convention located in Hampton, Virginia. The actual convention takes place at the Hampton Roads Convention Center (HRCC) and the Embassy Suites Hotel next door. It boasts musical guests, a rave, plentiful panel programming, a masquerade, a dealer’s room and artist’s alley, a LARP, and plenty of other attractions that are quite common to anime conventions in this day and age. It is a non-profit, fan run convention, and traditionally draws in around 4000 attendees a year. Most of the attendees are local; indeed, most of the staff comes from the Old Dominion University Anime Club nearby.

I was invited to do five panels, four done alone (or with Rukan) and one with Charles Dunbar. One thing I noticed was that the panel rooms were gorgeous and huge. There had apparently been major efforts to expand the paneling space and layout, and they exceeded all my expectations, considering how much smaller the convention center was when compared to the ones I am used to. And, thank goodness, because some of my panels (like Mythbusters) were standing room only.

I’m not going to dwell on how I did on my panels. Suffice to say, they all went very well. I learned quite a bit, I think the attendees learned quite a bit, and I received a lot of good feedback (mostly positive, some constructive). Even my Madoka panel, which was the one that caused me the most worry, went over well (although I had to cut some of the material from the presentation due to time constraints). If you really want every gory detail, feel free to email me and I’ll happily discuss my panels. However, for now, let’s just say that my experiences at Nekocon definitely contributed to my growth as a panelist.

What’s more important is that, in the end, this may be the first convention where I actually felt like part of the convention.

Don’t get me wrong – Anime Boston is great. Anime Boston 2010 was my first ever anime convention, and just for that it will always hold a special place in my heart. But, the mentality I took when going to Anime Boston was that of purely an anime fan – I was there to indulge my interests in the medium and maybe to buy a few things. I went with a close circle of friends, and we mostly kept to ourselves. Although this type of attitude slackened in future conventions, and I began to open up more to the surrounding con attendees, these interactions never really exceeded the exchange of casual pleasantries. This wasn’t indicative of any innate shyness I may possess, but rather a result of how many people attended these cons and how much there was to do. There was no time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

Even when I started paneling at Otakon 2011, there was still a perceivable wall between me and the rest of the con. People approached me, asked me questions, and commented on my panels, but there was always this distinctly felt barrier that I was the lecturer and they were the listeners. Once again, this was not a function of anything antisocial about my personality, but rather that there were too many people. And those people were busy; they had to run from one place to another, and apart from attending my panels out of interest, were not that keen on any type of interaction beyond the formal interaction between instructor and student. Of course, this situation is also a result of my not knowing many people on the con scene at that time. Again, please don’t misunderstand – paneling at Otakon 2011 was amazing, but not necessarily from a social perspective.

Nekocon vigorously knocked down that wall. Here, I found myself talking at length with attendees, and not just about the content of my panels, and not only about anime culture, but about all things big and small. Here, I found myself connecting to people in a way that I could definitively describe as “companionship,” something I found somewhat lacking in other conventions. Here, I could finally smell the roses. And they were very, very sweet.

I think only part of why this happened comes from Nekocon’s smaller size. Another part comes from just how warm and sociable the people at Nekocon are. Fans at any anime convention are automatically accepting, but usually in a more crazed, frantic way. Here, there was a feeling of family, a feeling that transcended the usual awkward bursts of energy that come with fan culture and into something coherent and socially meaningful.

This is probably in large part owed to the relatively mature ages of the attendees, given the existence of so many local colleges. I mean, for example, I gave an hour long heavy sociology lecture at NINE AM on SUNDAY and there were still a decent number of people hanging onto every word I said. That’s the kind of passion and intellectual curiosity that I hold in the highest regard. And, I’m convinced that I would have felt this warmth and passion even if I were not a featured panelist, but came as a regular attendee.

I confess that I didn’t go to the rave. I didn’t buy anything in the dealer’s room. I didn’t see the concert. I didn’t get an autograph from any of the guests. I didn’t even take more than a few pictures. But, that was because I was too busy drinking in the atmosphere and meeting like-minded people. I was too busy being part of the convention. And as far as I can tell, this was the first time I’ve felt this way about an anime convention.

Nekocon is a manifestation of what anime conventions are about. It’s not about buying that artbook that you could just order online or dancing all night (although admittedly many people do go for these things). Rather, it is about celebrating a culture and contributing back to it just by being there; it is about a give and take between fans, other fans, and fandom, where each of these empower and are simultaneously empowered by the others. When I started going to cons, I only took. When I started paneling, I only gave. But now, Nekocon has filled in the missing pieces, and I feel closer than I ever have to the fandom as a whole.

Perhaps I am being a bit emotional in this post. If that’s true, it’s probably because I’m writing this on the train ride back from Nekocon, and I am sad to see it go. But, I can still confidently say that Nekocon is as close as possible to a true, undiluted anime convention experience, if such a thing exists. Other conventions may have more money and resources, but Nekocon has more than enough heart and soul.

Thanks for a wonderful weekend.

PS: I do have some minor gripes about some things (cough cough cell phone reception), but they're really not worth mentioning.

PPS: A last note: A huge thanks to Bernie Klein, the head of the Nekocon Programming Department. You made this con possible for me, and you made this con as memorable as I am sure it will be for many people. You are a true professional, and Nekocon is damn lucky to have you.