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Another amazing con season has come and gone. This year we witnessed everything from amazing upstarts (Shelby-con) to seasoned disasters (AARC) but none quite compare to Yama-con.
Yama-Con in Pigeon Forge, TN is an annual convention held during the first weekend of December and is Johnny Yong Bosch's adopted con child. Every year this con has a theme and this years theme was so fittingly decided as Villains. If you don't live in the south then you might not know but the week before the con, Gatlinburg and Sevierville which are the two surrounding towns of Pigeon Forge got struck with wild fires. Thousands of structures were burned, residents and vacationers were stranded in the cold and there were casualties. A lot of people were concerned as to whether or not the con would even happen but by one miracle or another the con went on. Now there were some personal predicaments that came about that almost prevented me from going to the con, predicaments such as all my finals were due that weekend. That my friends, is where coffee is your best friend and may sleep forgive you at some point.
So needless to say that there were a lot of scares leading up to Yama-Con but as all things in life go, the harder you work for them the better they turn out to be. That rang true for Yama-Con, I don't know if it is all the personal growth that has occurred to me since the start of the semester or that fact that when I finished my finals I had no life inhibitions but I made sure that I took part in as many events as possible so I could come back and write to you all.
This means that this year, I took part in Iron Cosplay, Karaoke, the Professor(?) Shy Guy concert AND the Cosplay Contest! I know what your thinking, "Aki?! Really?! What happened to the admin who was afraid of talking to vendors?!" well the answer is........
I have no idea. I seriously think the college experiences, like being handcuffed to a table and having to figure out how to karate chop my way out of it and roll off - literally, have really helped me to come out of my comfort zone and college in a whole helped me not care about life in the slightest.
So now that the ground work is laid out and you all know just how much of a struggle it was for this con to even happen this year why don't we progress to the review portion of this post!
*~~I waited until after Christmas to begin so that the traditional post con depression and until the after holiday depression would be on its way out~~*
As usual, I am reviewing this convention based off of multiple self set criteria that I find important for every con to have. The items on this list are things such as, friendly atmosphere, fair staff, organized events, clear signage, entertaining events, kind special guests, fair dealers room/artists alley, cleanliness, lively panels, lively social media presence and other things of that nature. (Sounds all official doesn't it ^_^ ).
The hype for Yama-con 2016 has been in the works since the closing ceremonies of last years con. Everyone knew the theme and the cosplayers were set loose with all the creative juices flowing. As always the facebook event group was constantly buzzing out notifications of people talking, updating or just sending warm wishes to those attending. They definitely met my requirements for a lively social media presence.
The process in which we got approved for press passes was swift and problem free on the staffs end. Heiwa and I caused them a little trouble though because we accidentally both applied; however they handled it swiftly, professionally and kindly. I am really thankful for their understanding in the situation. Something that also falls under the category of kind staff would be a unique experience that I don't generally have. I talked to people... Like real people... I got ditched by my group and decided to sit down at a table that some people were already at and by the end of the hour they had adopted me as their own kind. One of them was staff. It was very comforting and I really appreciated them.
The atmosphere was very pleasant. Because of all the problems leading up to the con there was a questionable feeling about the atmosphere. It was either going to be very good or very bad, this time it was very good. They were accepting donations and had their own merchandise booth in the main hall which assisted in providing the kind and caring atmosphere. To provide the fun buzz or excitement there was always something going on, literally. The cosplayers were running around looking fabulous, the panelists were traditionally running late and the staff were always available but never annoyingly present. It was a perfect atmosphere, though a little background music wouldn't have hurt.
Organization and directional units were similar to last year. The signage was phenomenal once again and they added a life size "Cosplay is not consent" sign which is a major plus in my book. As far as the actual organization of the schedule, I think it was well spaced and well planned so that none of the big panels would exactly overlap each other. The only issue I had with the organization or the building itself in relations to the schedule was the photoshoots, I found it hard to locate where the photoshoots were at and ended up skipping them because I couldn't find them.
There were more problems with the organization of the events than anything else that I noticed. As a participant of the events such as the cosplay contest and iron cosplay I have to say that there could be some more guidelines that were explained to the participants. The no rules feeling was nice but rules are an essential part of a successful event. During the iron cosplay event I know that team "Stranger People" broke open glow sticks and splattered them around their interdimensional portal which might have looked cool but, it made a sticky and stinky mess that was hazardous. For the cosplay contest there weren't really any defined rules so I am amazed that no one got up there and did a strip tease. I know the black butler group was a little suggestive when they were standing in line so it was a concern.
So yes, organizing the events and including some distinct rules would be an improvement but definitely isn't a requirement.
Lets talk vendors room/artist ally! There was such a wide variety of merchandise available this year including everything from Doctor Who to K-pop! There were a lot of repeat vendors but also a few new ones who were welcomed to the vending family. One thing that I watched out for this year was price consistency. One of my favorite rules that little cons use in vendors rooms is the listed prices. Listed prices are when people have to have a sheet, board or something where it is visibly written and available that has all the prices for all the items on it secured to the table at all times. This prevents crowd pricing, which is when the crowd is big the prices are higher and when the crowd is little the prices are cheaper. I noticed a few vendors who used the crowd pricing method. It isn't a con's fault when vendors choose to do this type of thing but it is something the con can fix if they recognize it as a problem.
One thing that almost everyone can agree about being important is cleanliness, not only of the location but also of the attendees because con funk is a real thing. Yama-Con was more or less, con funk free!! It is a huge honor for a con to recognized for being CFF. Now the rest of the building was remarkably clean as well, which was a huge relief because last year Heiwa and I ended up cleaning some of the tables off because the attendees were horribly messy.
Something new that I did this year was I interviewed a few people and got their opinions on the convention and one of the reoccurring issues I heard was that they didn't like the empty corner in the game room. Everyone thought it was a little depressing or a bit of an eye sore. I don't really have solutions for this because it is am empty space so literally anything can be done with it.
Another issue I saw when asking around was that people thought some of the special guests were a little rude or pricey. There are obviously many reason for both of the claims so I am just going to leave that information there with no personal opinion attached.
That is all there is for a technical aspect that I am going to cover in specific groups. So the over all positives and negatives about this year will be listed below in their respective categories.
Positives
- The community came together to support all the fire victims
- There was no con-funk
- The attendees were lively and entertaining
- The staff was friendly and approachable
- The cosplays were amazing
- Plentiful vendors and gaming stations
- Entertaining and for the most part friendly special guests
- stayed true to being family friendly
- ever present but never over present security
Negatives
- Crowd pricing
- No sound equipment in the gaming room
- Some of the guests
- The bald corner in the gaming room
- Limited karaoke list
- Sunday lulled
- The locations of the photo-shoots
- The lack of rules
- Lack of epic background music
- The end.
That is all for the technical review, I will be writing up separate posts for dissecting panels, concerts, people, events and other aspects of the convention. I appreciate and adore all that Yama-con has done for me personally and for its community and look forward to attending the "Paranormal" themed convention of next year!
~Aki Ame Okami
