Atsusacon 2014
We’re halfway through the year and it is time for the next event in line: Atsusacon. During the last attendances we had some working points for the convention. Read on to find out how the event turned out!
Atsusacon had the same overlay like the previous years. The main hall only occupied half of the available space, but it held quite some activities and shops. When entering this hall, you could already see what you could do to entertain yourself. The dancing queens could take a shot at the Dance Dance Revolution stand, while the Mortal Kombat-lovers had the time to watch the demonstrations or participate in a workshop of the several martial arts that were featured by Atsusacon. If you’re into gaming, you had the chance to play one of the numerous old school games on old school televisions. You could also try your luck against other Pokémon trainers! When you’re more into boardgames, there was room to play some with your friends. It is good to see that the organisation is trying to offer new activities. They try to innovate and reach other target groups as well.
The main hall offered quite some shops. It has to be said that there was a variety of merchandise. You could find several cosplay-related items, but also some nice goods like Pokémon dolls. Having diversity is nice, but this has its downside. As there is no competition, the prices of the goods were quite high, maybe a tad too high for the common shopper. Another remark is that there was only one entrance to the shopping area because the other one was used as an exit. Although this is great to manage the crowd, it seemed unnecessary at the time.
Running around on a convention can make you hungry. The organisation provided both sandwiches and hotdogs or the new stand with Japanese food and sushi. It is clear that Atsusacon is trying to offer other nomnom possibilities as well, which can only be cheered on.
It is a fact that there were a lot of tables for both dining possibilities as for gaming purposes, but this made the hall feel empty and less occupied than previous years.
There is room for cosplay as well. The smaller hall upstairs was reserved for the cosplay events. As we explored these halls, we also saw quite some amazing costumes. Next to that, there were also some workshops. These were held on the second floor. If you didn’t see the floor plan on the Atsusacon website it would be hard to find the upper halls, as there were only small signs that could be easily overseen.
As stated in the previous reviews, it would have been nice if the cosplay events were more involved in the main hall. It is nice for the visitors to see the work the cosplayers have put into their costumes and it is a great way for the cosplayers to show off their pearls. As a bonus, this is also a good way to fill up the rest of the vacant space in the main hall.
Overall we can conclude that the organisation is trying to innovate their event and that they’re trying to find new and fun activities. It would have been nice if the workshops and events were more integrated in the main hall.
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The main hall wouldn’t be a good place for lectures and workshops though. Those activities need a room of their own to provide the right atmosphere and to lessen noise. Atsusacon is trying to provide a similar experience as Dutch conventions like Abunai, which take place in a meeting center of a hotel. Those conventions have one hall for dealers and all other activities take place in different rooms. This provides a much cosier experience than the general Belgian expo’s.
Hi Gurenn,
Our reviews are always quite positive, seeing we see the effort companies put into hosting their events. Also the review never stated it SHOULD host the events in the main hall but if you can run through the dealer hall in roughly 3-5minutes a bit extra filling up would have been nice.
Lectures etc are best to keep seperate but bigger items such as a cosplay stage, on the other side of the hall would also lure some extra spectators that would otherwise not go up to the second floor, seeing there were hardly any clear directions on what was actually happening on the upper floors.
As for ‘a much cosier’ experience, this would also be true, if the main hall did not have that many gaps.
Also I would value your opinion a bit more if you were not one of the organisers of Atsusacon itself. It makes our work seem quite useless, if you come in and correct our writers about how they felt during the visit of your convention. This is also very crappy publicity if you go around and respond to a positive review about your event. (Which was actually in some way very mild.)