Otakon

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Otakon
Otakon 2006 Logo.
Status	Active
Venue	Baltimore Convention Center
Location	Baltimore, Maryland
Country	United States
First held	1994
Organizer	Otakorp, Inc.
Attendance	22,852 in 2007
Official website

Otakon is a fan convention in the United States focusing on East Asian popular culture (primarily anime, manga, music, and cinema) and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku. Otakon is traditionally held on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in late summer at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district. It is considered the second largest and one of the longest-running Anime conventions in the United States.

Contents 1 Programming 2 History 2.1 Event history 3 Otakorp 4 Future expansion 4.1 Four-day convention 4.2 Facility Expansion Options 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Programming

As one of the longest running and largest conventions of its type, Otakon offers a very broad range of programming, exhibits, and other events. Typical Otakon programming includes:^{[citation needed]}

• Multiple video rooms in which anime and live action Asian films are shown on big screens throughout the convention. Fan-produced content including fan-parodies and anime music videos are also shown. In recent years, Otakon has also dedicated a theater to running 35mm films.
• Panels and workshops on subjects such as voice acting, how to draw manga, Japanese culture, and a variety of other topics. Industry professionals announce new acquisitions, and expert guests discuss or show tricks of their trade and field questions from the audience. Many panels and workshops are conducted by fans rather than pros.
• A "Dealers' Room" in which commercial vendors such as publishers and retailers set up booths and sell anime- and manga-related merchandise.
• "The Alley", an artists alley with writers, musicians, and craftspeople as well, and an art show for amateur artists to display, advertise, sell, and auction their artwork.
• A video game room for console, arcade, and computer games, with tournaments scheduled throughout the weekend.
• Musical performances throughout the weekend. Since 2003, there has been at least one concert at each convention featuring a Japanese musical guest.
• The "Otakurave", a late-night dance party hosted by Baltimore-Washington area (and sometimes national) DJ's.
• Cosplay and a skit-based Masquerade show. Many attendees spend most of the convention in costume as their favorite anime, manga, or video game character. Many enter daily contests, and some participate in skits in the Masquerade show, one of the largest convention events.
• Weekend-long anime-themed live-action role-playing with hundreds of participants.
• Opportunities to meet guests and collect autographs.
• A special children's track called Ota-chan.

Tens of thousands of people attend Otakon each year. Attendees arriving in the morning on Friday should expect to spend a couple hours in line to pick up their badges, though the lines are generally gone by Friday afternoon. Attendees who have pre-registered can arrive on Thursday to pick up their registration badges so they can gain instant access to all the convention events on Friday.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
July 29–31, 1994	Days Inn Penn State State College, Pennsylvania	379	Robert DeJesus, Neil Nadelman, Lorraine Savage, Sue Shambaugh, and Jeff Thompson.[2]
September 1–4, 1995	Penn State Scanticon State College, Pennsylvania	506	Teruo Kakuta, Toshio Okada, Toren Smith, and Adam Warren.[3]
August 9–11, 1996	Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn Hunt Valley, Maryland	1,065	Steve Bennett, Robert DeJesus, Masaomi Kanzaki, Matt Lunsford, Neil Nadelman, Steve Pearl, Sue Shambaugh, Jeff Thompson, and Adam Warren.[4]
August 8–10, 1997	Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn Hunt Valley, Maryland	1,835	Ippongi Bang, Kuni Kimura, and Matt Lunsford.[5]
August 7–9, 1998	Hyatt Regency-Crystal City Arlington, Virginia	2,609	Hiroshi Aro, Tiffany Grant, Shoji Kawamori, Kuni Kimura, Tristan MacAvery, Lisa Ortiz, and Jan Scott-Frazier.[6]
July 2–4, 1999	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	4,637	Chris Beveridge, Tiffany Grant, Amy Howard-Wilson, Mari Iijima, Kuni Kimura, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Shin Kurokawa, Kazuto Nakazawa, Fred Schodt, and Shinichiro Watanabe.[7]
August 4–6, 2000	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	7,692	Yoshitoshi ABe, Mandy Bonhomme, Amy Howard-Wilson, Kunihiko Ikuhara, Ian Kim, Steve Pearl, Gilles Poitras, Yasuyuki Ueda, and Simon Yam.[8]
August 10–12, 2001	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	10,538	Steve Bennett, Rodney "Largo" Caston, Jo Chen, Colleen Doran, Fred Gallagher, Tiffany Grant, Scott Houle, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Ian Kim, Shin Kurokawa, Masao Maruyama, Hikaru Midorikawa, Fred Perry, Gilles Poitras, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Adam Warren, and Pamela Weidner.[9]
July 26–28, 2002	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	13,313	Steve Bennett, Chris Beveridge, Rodney "Largo" Caston, Fred Gallagher, Yoko Ishida, Wendee Lee, Masao Maruyama, Yutaka Minowa, Kiroyuki Morioka, Neil Nadelman, Yasuhiro Nightow, Fred Perry, Gilles Poitras, Tatsuo Sato, and Lianne Sentar.[10]
August 8–10, 2003	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	17,685	Steve Bennett, Mandy Bonhomme, Johnny Yong Bosch, Justin Cook, Julie Davis, Robert DeJesus, Brian Drummond, Fred Gallagher, Scott Houle, Yoshiaki Iwasaki, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Itsuro Kawasaki, Tsukasa Kotobuki, Pontus Madsen, Masao Maruyama, Rica Matsumoto, Dr. Susan Napier, Satoshi Nishimura, Kristine Sa, Fred Schodt, Jan Scott-Frazier, T.M.Revolution, and Pamela Weidner.[11]
July 30 – August 1, 2004	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	21,274	Angela, Matt Boyd, Siu-Tung "Tony" Ching, Luci Christian, Koge Donbo, Richard Epcar, Christian Fundin, Mohammad "Hawk" Haque, Chuck Huber, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Pontus Madsen, Ian McConville, Yutaka Minowa, Ichiro Okouch, Ananth Panagariya, Chris Patton, Monica Rial, Chris Sabat, Tatsuo Sato, Yuzo Sato, Lianne Sentar, and Matt Thorn.[12]
August 19–21, 2005	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	22,000	Greg Ayres, Katie Bair, Matt Boyd, Brian Carroll, Luci Christian, Justin Cook, Richard Ian Cox, Huw "Lem" Davies, Ben Dunn, Christian Fundin, Fred Gallagher, Mohammad "Hawk" Haque, the Indigo, Yoshinori Kanemori, Toshihiro Kawamoto, Dave Lister, Pontus Madsen, Masao Maruyama, Ian McConville, Mike McFarlan, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Scott McNeil, Vic Mignogna, Mitsukazu Mihara, Seiji Mizushima, Ananth Panagariya, Fred Perry, Piano Squall, Puffy AmiYumi, Scott Ramsoomair, Xero Reynolds, Monica Rial, Michelle Ruff, Michael "Mookie" Terracciano, and Toshifumi Yoshida.[13][14]
August 4–6, 2006	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	23,902	Christine Auten, Troy Baker, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Christian Fundin, Fred Gallagher, Caitlin Glass, Kate Higgins, Kouta Hirano, Hirotsugu Kawasaki, Ayako Kawasumi, Nana Kitade, Yuri Lowenthal, Pontus Madsen, Masao Maruyama, Mike McFarland, Mucc, Kazuto Nakazawa, Monica Rial, Antimere Robinson, Patrick Seitz, Makoto Tateno, Nobuteru Yuuki, and Yoshiki Hayashi.[15]
July 20–22, 2007	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland	22,852	Attack All Around, Morio Asaka, Steve Blum, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Aaron Dismuke, Eminence, Christian Fundin, Fred Gallagher, Caitlin Glass, Ryuhei Kitamura, Kenji Kodama, Pontus Madsen, Vic Mignogna, Maki Murakami, Mamiko Noto, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Tomokazu Seki, Stephanie Sheh, Mike Sinterniklaas, Michihiko Suwa, and Steve Yun.[16]
August 8–10, 2008	Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland		Richard Epcar, JAM Project, Masao Maruyama, Derek Stephen Prince, Ellyn Stern, and Kappei Yamaguchi.[17]

[edit] Otakorp

Otakon is run by the Pennsylvania-based non-profit organization Otakorp, Inc.^[18] whose focus is on using Asian popular culture as a gateway to increase understanding of Asian culture.

Otakon is the annual meeting of Otakorp, Inc. Otakon attendees do not purchase "tickets" to Otakon; they actually become a member of the non-profit organization that runs Otakon with their paid attendance to the convention. Everyone who pays the annual membership fee to attend Otakon is also a supporting member for Otakorp and is able to participate in sanctioned events, contests, or giveaways that might occur during the year.

All staff are unpaid volunteers, although registration tasks are supplemented by temporary workers provided by the Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association, and certain services such as legal and accounting work are by contract. Otakon 2006 listed over 500 staff on its roster, though not all work the convention directly.

Otakorp, Inc. also sponsors film screenings as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC, and assists with programming at other film festivals.

[edit] Future expansion

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In light of Otakon's consistent growth and the continuing popularity of anime in North America, Otakon expects to continue for many years, though Otakon itself may have hit a plateau in terms of attendance. The Baltimore Convention Center is likely to remain the primary venue for Otakon, mainly due to a lack of other venues of sufficient size in the area.

[edit] Four-day convention

While the idea of a four-day convention has some support among the general membership (especially among younger members), the idea has been summarily dismissed as unworkable by Otakon staff. It was attempted in 1995, over a holiday weekend, back when Otakon fit comfortably in a small hotel, and even then it was an exhausting prospect that didn't pay off. In those days, the entire convention could be set up in a matter of hours, while it currently takes two full days to prepare the site. At its current size and functional requirements, Otakon would face a significant additional expense in running an extra day, and both industry and dealers have said that it would not be worth their time and money to attend a fourth day. Finally, it is clear that few staffers would be able to afford the extra day (most staffers already use as much as a week of vacation time to help run the con). With almost zero support from staff, industry, or dealers, there is virtually no chance that Otakon will ever attempt a four-day convention again. (This has been noted in Otakon's FAQ on the website.^[19] )

[edit] Facility Expansion Options

From various comments by the organization's senior staff, it seems clear that there are only two serious contenders for possible expansion of the convention: expanding within Baltimore to the new Hilton hotel (currently under construction and attached to the BCC), or moving to the much larger D.C. Convention Center. It also seems clear that while DC remains the most viable option if the convention moves, the new convention hotel would be a more logical expansion choice. (Other nearby locations such as Philadelphia are simply not large enough to accommodate Otakon, or have been ruled out as unsuitable.)

Otakon 2006 convention chair, Jim Vowles, has stated that there is no firm decision to move Otakon to the D.C. Convention Center due to cost and logistics. Vowles stated that "the move to DC would be a bigger challenge than some people think -- and the true cost is as yet unknown" and that it would take "at least a year to plan any such move", and that if Otakon does indeed decide to move from Baltimore "it should be considered a more or less permanent move if at all possible."

Mr. Vowles continues, "Realistically, unless the BCC is leveled and rebuilt, it will not be a serious competitor with DC, but it may continue to suit our needs for quite a while. Eventually, we're either going to reach the plateau of our growth, or we're going to need to move, and at that point it's pretty much got to be DC. But Baltimore and the BCC have been our home base since 1999, and we put in two years in Hunt Valley before our big growth in the mid/late nineties. I don't see us casually tossing that history aside. So in the meanwhile, we continue to investigate the options in ever greater detail. Real hard numbers are the next stage of the game." Later comments indicated that the differences in how the convention would use the space were likely to mean a significant increase in cost.

In a 2006 interview with Geeknights, Vowles again denied a possible move, and noted how determined Baltimore City was to keep the convention around. "Baltimore at this point is motivated to keep us, and they're putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak. This year we've seen a noted increase in city support for the event. And frankly, we know pretty much exactly how to use Baltimore's space, and we know all the local players, from hotels to venues to vendors."^[20]

The much-debated Baltimore Hilton Convention Center Hotel had broken ground by 2007, and is slated to open the week following Otakon 2008^[21], so the earliest it would be available for use is for Otakon 2009.^[22] (In fact, Otakon was mentioned often in local press coverage^[23] as an example of a city event that would make use of the facility.)

As Otakon has increasingly made use of the 1st Mariner Arena for large events, there is some concern^[who?] about proposals to shut down or relocate that facility in the future.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Otakon official web site