February 12-14 2010

KatSNOWcon! became an unofficial title for Katsucon’s 16th convention.  This year the event was being held in National Harbor, MD, right outside of Washington DC.  The previous weekend DC was sacked with a large snowstorm and the city was literally buried.

The major highways were cleared and the convention was going to be taking place indoors so the event continued as scheduled.  This year Katsucon moved into the Gaylord Resort which is a part of National Harbor, a large complex geared toward conventions and tourism.  The hotel itself is a major part of the location and had a multitude of meeting and hall spaces along with a gorgeous open atrium in the middle that made it look like a little town was placed right inside a building.

But enough with the location.  Like  every con it starts with registration, and this is where many conventions fail.  This was not one of those cases, as the official badges did not arrive in time because of a late FedEx shipment.  The staff worked through this issue immediately by making temporary badges until they arrived.  Also planned even before the snow, they had registration hours on Friday open until midnight so even people arriving late could get badges.  On Saturday the registration line was checked a couple of times in the morning to see how the crowd was being handled.   Surprisingly, the line was minimal the whole time with people being processed quickly.

The next thing after registration that gets checked is the schedule.  Katsucon’s schedule for a midsized con was jam packed from start to finish.   They had panels starting at 6 a.m. and events starting at 2 a.m.

Here’s some coverage of a few panels we attended over the weekend:

Friday
Guests Uncensored (18+)

Ever wondered what your favorite voice actors really did at the convention all weekend? Katsucon attendees 18 years or older got to find out that and much more during Friday night’s guests uncensored panel.

The guests, including Chris and Greg Ayres, let loose at the late-night panel. A lot of what they talked about is better left to the imagination, but what I can say is that all of it was hilarious. This was my first time going to one of these panels, though they are common at conventions, and after checking it out I would highly recommend it to anyone else old enough to attend.

The Ayres brothers in particular were hilarious and kept the entire room laughing late into the night. Chris Ayres told one story about being invited to a small convention where his hotel room was situated in such a seedy district of the city that he backed out, after a hilarious but un-repeatable confrontation with a convention chairperson.

Understandably, no photography or recording was allowed at the panel. As I’ve mentioned, these voice actors were holding nothing back. But there are some stories from that panel that have been burned into my memory for many years to come.

If there was a downside to the panel, it may have been the lack of structure. Guests were coming and going at will, and occasionally bringing up friends from the audience. At the same time, however, the lack of any sort of formality or structure seemed to suit the atmosphere. At one point, Greg Ayres even had to leave to rescue Friday night’s rave after it’s original DJ couldn’t make it (Greg Ayres often DJs for conventions, in addition to being an accomplished voice actor). But even this didn’t ruin the mood or bring the crowd down. All in all, it felt like hanging out with a bunch of friends, sharing hilarious, if x-rated, stories.

Saturday
Cosplay Electronics

When I went to this panel early Saturday morning, I couldn’t have told you the first thing about electronics. But by the time I left I was not only knowledgeable, but excited about getting into lighting effects and applying them to my costumes.

The panel’s host did an amazing job of explaining seemingly complicated things in such a way that both experts and complete newbies alike could understand. He started with EL-wire, which is a flexible type of wiring that glows brightly, then moved on to LED lights, which are tiny lights that can produce effects like glowing eyes and laser shots.

The best part was that the panelist demonstrated every single step of what he was explaining. We got to watch him strip and rig up EL-wire. We also got to see him string together LED lights. He even provided a cheat sheet with suggestions of where to get materials and helpful reminders.

This was easily one of the best panels I’ve ever gone to. If you ever notice it on a con schedule and have even the slightest interest in adding lighting effects to your costumes, definitely check it out. I never thought I’d have the skill to use things like LEDs, but after this panel, I feel confident that I could tackle a project like that.

Sunday
Geek Comedy Tour

Nothing ends a convention quite as nicely as hours of nerdy jokes. Five comedians from the Geek Comedy Tour were good enough to wake up early Sunday morning to provide just that.

Despite the event taking place on Sunday, and before noon, the Geek Comedy Tour drew a line of con-goers that stretched around the hall. Featuring Chris Barylick, Joe Deeley, James Jones, Jimmy Merritt, and Jake Young, the tour is a group of comedians who specialize in a brand of comedy that con-goers in particular can appreciate.

Joe Deeley, who acted as the event’s host, warned the crowd right from the start that the humor involved would normally get the five funny men heckled. At Katsucon, however, jokes about video games and robots earned them constant laughs.

I was lucky enough to be in the front row, where the astounding energy of all five comics was palpable (seriously, how they had that much energy on Sunday morning was amazing in itself). Unfortunately, the event got cut slightly short because of the charity auction occurring in the same room directly after it. That put a damper on the final act, which was a real shame because it was one of the funniest.

Still, the Geek Comedy Tour is definitely worth seeing if it comes to a con near you. You can also check out the guys ahead of time via their Web site: http://geekcomedytour.com/

Besides panels there are other activities that draw people to the convention. The dealer’s room is one of those draws;  it was setup open enough to allow movement with little bottle-necking.  It had some industry booths, regular merchants and artists/craftsmen that were deemed too commercial when they applied for artist’s alley.   The artist’s alley and game room were mixed in together.  The game room was outsourced to  GPX Gaming and this was one of the few game rooms that have actually been pleasant. It was in a wide open area with plenty of air circulation.  The artist alley had a good mix of artists and they did try to keep it geared for the starting artists trying to make themselves known.

Katsucon also had a Maid Cafe.  Coming from the northeast, maid cafes really don’t exist like their inceptions over in Japan because of labor contracts and facility issues.

They were able to transform a sports bar/restaurant into a Maid Cafe. Being able to see one in action and attracting customers was an interesting sight. The maids were able to sit customers down, serve and interact with them.  They also had Yunmao Ayakawa come as a guest to run a workshop for maids.

Which bring us to the large main cosplay event, the masquerade.  The crowd was handled very well and the staff was able to get everyone seated in time for the show to start.  Overall the show was entertaining as there were a little over 20 groups performing.  One skit that did stand out to us as  it was a risky swing dance skit.

As you can see from the photo, the skit participants Jeb and Chrissy were flying around.  The other skits were primarily dance skits ranging from Michael Jackson to a Village People parody on yaoi, with a few dramas and comedies mixed in.

The winners are as follows:

Best Novice : Captain Harlock and Friends presenting Captain Harlock
Best Master : Level Up Cosplay presenting Yaoi YMCA “Operation Disco”
Best Overall : Princeton Society of Fellows in Spiral Energy Engineering presenting Tsubasa Chronicle
Best in Show : Cupcake Cosplay presenting Macross Series

If you want more photo coverage of the other presentations please check out the Masquerade Photo Gallery.

Despite the snow I believe everyone who attended had a good time.  I even caught a glimpse of a snow fight in action and dropped by to take a few photos of it.  The facilities allowed for many cosplayers to snag amazing photo opportunities.  Everyone took advantage of the scenery available.  And despite there being other conventions going on in the hotel, there wasn’t any mention of any trouble between the groups.  From the convention feedback panel, the staff of the Gaylord Hotel (despite of any of the incidents that happened over the weekend) indicated that Katsucon was still very welcome to come the next year.  The only thing visible from Saturday night’s aftermath were a few empty bottles floating in the water.  The facility staff was very diligent in keeping their facilities in top shape.  I do hope everything does work out between Katsucon and the National Harbor area because it was a nice combination.  Without the official attendance numbers out it did seem that the turnout was light and I have faith that they at least broke even from taking on a larger location.   All said and done, may Katsucon 17 next year be another great anime convention.

Please check out the photo gallery we have of Katuscon 16.  And we also have a direct download link.