Atsusacon 2013
Last year we were welcomed by the organisation of Atsusacon and the same could be said for the 2013 edition of Atsusacon. Last year we gave a decent amount of points to work on (in our opinion) and we were curious to see if anything has evolved towards our suggestions.
When entering the main hall for the event, it was clear that the organization did their best to provide the visitors with a wider range of shops and activities compared to the 2012 edition. The structure of the shops was also a big improvement and this all adds up in making the convention seem a lot more professional and less empty.
Atsusacon did not limit itself to only one hall to provide the visitors with activities and stuff to see, but they also made sure a smaller hall and several rooms were used for a cosplay competition and a few workshops. Whilst having a lot to do is fun, it would have been better if for example the cosplay competition filled up the main hall. After all, something that pleases the eye might already satisfy many visitors. Especially when taking a look at the cosplay competition, it was easy to say most of the visitors were interested in this event and this could have filled up the half empty main hall. Also not only to create the impression of having a lot more visitors, it’s also fun for visitors if they have the chance to see cosplayers and normal visitors in a more mingled fashion.
The usage of many halls may also provide the impression of grandeur. Sadly if you visited the convention unprepared you might have not noticed the small signs leading to the other halls which could result in missing out on pretty much half of the convention.
It’s also clear Atsusacon is aiming for a convention that revolves around activities instead of providing lots of shops for its visitors. An original concept and in theory a good one but it will be hard to find more and more activities for future editions and thus expanding its variety of shops should not be neglected. For example it’s fun the convention offered a cardgame workshop and also a small cardgame tournament. Sadly there was no cardshop or shopkeer that sold the cardgames, which prevents people who wanted to learn a new game and so on, to actually participate.
Having less shops will also encourage the few shopkeepers to offer you merchandise at high prices. If more shops are interested/attracted in selling their merchandise at the convention prices happen to be a lot more ‘fair’. Whilst offering lots of import items prices will already be fairly high but when they are even higher than at their normal rates, things might prove to be a tad too expensive for normal convention visitors.
Overall Atsusacon 2013 proved to be a step forward from the 2012 edition. Whilst some of the points in this article might be a tad more on the negative side, a lot of progress has been made. Bearing in mind it’s one of the newer conventions in Belgium, they might just be on their way to getting on par with others if this positive evolution will also occur for future editions.
Atsusacon 2013,
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Atsusacon isn’t actually an original concept. In fact, similar conventions have been active for more than ten years in the Netherlands. Because most of them exist longer than Atsusacon and because the Netherlands are bigger than Flanders, these are also bigger and they have no problems providing more activities. The possibilities are endless, as the program for last Abunai illustrates: http://www.abunaicon.nl/programme_schedule_popup.php
The only problem is the relative lack of fans providing activities in Flanders compared to the Netherlands.
Concerning dealers, the dealer-visitor ratio has to match or the dealers won’t earn a thing, as the money of the visitors would be spread over multiple dealers. This only gets worse if the dealers are forced to lower their prices to compete with other dealers. Currently, the ratio was about 50 visitors per dealer (over two days). Any more and the dealers risk making a loss or a negligble profit, which could very well result in the dealers deciding not to come again next year.