A-Kon 27 was a busy year for us! After the short comings of A-Kon 26, A-Kon 27 definitely made up for it.
Held at the beautiful Asian-themed Hilton Anatole in downtown Dallas, it continues to hold the 4th largest anime convention’s attendees. I noticed a slight decline in attendance and that’s probably due to Dallas Comic Con (Fan Expo Dallas) being held the same weekend. I’d love to see the numbers as well as see how many people attended both!
One of the things that made our con experience a lot better this year was the mass change in staffing! This new team is working towards making the effort to improve the convention for attendees, guests, staff, and us as press and we couldn’t be happier about this.
This lovely movement helped us get many interviews with the stellar lineup of guests this year, which included: Cherami Leigh, Todd Haberkorn, Matt Mercer, Kyle Herbert, Kristen McGuire, Morgan Berry, Austin Tindle, David Vincent, Alex Moore, Jim O’Rear, and more on the voice acting front. Many cosplayers also joined the roster: Malindachan & Ex-Shadow, Ryuu Lavitz, D Piddy, Carl Martin, and Yaya Han. Youtube personalities like Octopimp & Sparky and Circus Freaks. Authors like newly published Ryter Rong, Helen McCarthy, Nathan Brown, Teresa Patterson, and S.M. Sterling came to share their writer-ly knowledge. Several concerts were also held with bands such as Steam Powers Giraffe, Yousei Teikoku, and Marquis of Vaudeville.
Please stay tuned for our interviews in the coming weeks!
A-Kon has always been good at providing a variety of merchandise in the Dealers Hall and, from my own personal knowledge, the largest Artist Alley! Always a plus when lovely artists are familiar faces for me.
Panel rooms not being big enough for the demand is a problem with this growing convention. No shouting from volunteers this year as the biggest panels operated on a ticket system. This helped a great deal. I still feel there needs work done on the scheduling as a lot of guest panels and industry announcements overlapped with each other. I know Saturday is the highest attendance day, but I appreciate them to be spread out. (It also makes it easier for us as press!) Also, all the bands limited the amount of space. Content of the panels, of the ones we were able to get to, were fabulous! Standard Voice Actor Q & A, sneak peeks, fan-run panels, AMV contest, writing panels, etc. We were unable to go to it, but FUNimation brought along Psycho-Pass: The Movie and The Boy and the Beast (a packed house!)
After last year, we’d become weary if we would attend the full weekend or at all, and I’m glad we decided to come. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and hope this progress continues!
Check out this year’s foray of cosplay!
See yourself? Leave a comment! We’ll give you credit and a link!
Assorted Panel photos
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