What do you think makes a successful convention?

>How many conventions have you attended?
6 a year for the past four years or so. Before that I only went to 3 a year, since around 2002.

>What aspect do you look forward to the most?
Meeting up with friends, meeting new people, cosplaying, and generally having a great time.

>How much are you willing to spend on a weekend ticket?
It highly depends on the con. If the con provides great programming or something special I'll pay more (my favorite con costs $85-90ish). Small cons or poorly run cons I won't want to pay more than 55.

>Does a cute waifu mascot make you more willing to go? Or do you just go because it's something to do in the area?
No. I can't imagine paying money for a con just because it has a nice image banner.

>Do you prefer a bigger venue or smaller?
Medium. The best cons are ones that are successful enough to attract congoers from across state lines, but not so full that they've filled their venue to capacity. I have a great time going to small local cons, but I'd never foot the financial cost to go to one that's far away.

> Do you attend panels? What types?
Panels at anime cons are lacking and I usually don't go to them. At big or gen cons like Dragoncon I attend costuming panels, workshops, and stuff with interesting guests.

>What makes a bad Con a bad Con?
An exec team who's unwilling to make changes or improve because "people will come anyway". A lot of the big east cost cons suffer from this and it's usually obvious when a con's problems are out of staff's control vs stemming from poor management.

>How many conventions have you attended?
Not sure of the exact number, I'm somewhere over 100 by now. Averaging somewhere around 7-8 cons a year for 15 years.

>What aspect do you look forward to the most?
Getting to see friends, and any events that I might be looking forward to, if applicable. Dressing up, meeting new people, running panels or events if I'm doing them and visiting the artist alley and dealer room.

>How much are you willing to spend on a weekend ticket?
In the last several years I haven't spent much and rarely buy. I end up staffing or I end up getting a badge for helping out with convention promotion tables. Usually about 50-60 is the average that I'm willing to pay. If it's more than that, I see what I can do to reduce the costs. I try to pre-reg if it's an expensive con. I'll only pay more if the event is really worth going to, but usually by now, you've seen one, you've seen em all when it comes to anime cons.

>Does a cute waifu mascot make you more willing to go?
Nah. But I do appreciate good art and a good website design. It will make the event seem more professionally run. Normally I go because it's either local, or something that I've developed a long tradition of attending.

>Do you prefer a bigger venue or smaller?
I like my tiny cons for the closeness and homey feel. I like my big cons for all the cool shit you can buy and all the people you can meet up with.

> Do you attend panels?
I try to. J-fashion panels, art, and other hobbies I'm into. Don't go into many fandom panels unless it's something I feel real passionate about and know the person running it.

>What makes a bad Con a bad Con?
Don't know anybody. I'm the oldest person there. Nothing in the dealers room. Artists are crap or have nothing of interest that I want to buy but good art. Panels are all meh. Something bad happens that ruins the con. But honestly after 100 cons, I've never had a truly BAD con experience. Just a few that were really MEH for the above reasons.

>>9455364
>What do you think makes a successful convention?
Friends.

Ok let me show what the worst con I have gone to in the last 3 years. anime usa. I could have ghosted the con, and I would not have missed anything. Artist alley/dealers room was generic and most of those artists went to other cons in the region, there was literally 0 programming, even at utterly mediocre cons there is a programming room that I can use as a chill base (I compare it to say Castle point which is a tiny college con and Castle point is so much better because they have programming).

The venue as a photographer is utterly amazing and i could have literally just taken photos, paid 0 dollars and felt sort of bad that I was a mooch. If Anime USA wants to get dollars (I 99.9999999 do not ghost cons but there was nothing), they need to rent out the amazing classical areas as convention only space, otherwise it's a legit "spending money on this con is terrible."

>How many conventions have you attended?
I've lost count but I don't go as frequently as I used to. I used to go to 3-4 cons per year but now I usually just go to about 2.

>What aspect do you look forward to the most?
I love being able to see friends and kick back and relax and just think about weeby stuff as opposed to school/job/stressful family situations.

>How much are you willing to spend on a weekend ticket?
I think the most I've spent is somewhere around $70 on a ticket alone and $70 on an event within the convention. I don't mind paying more but the convention has to live up to the money I've paid or I'll be unlikely to attend again.

>Does a cute waifu mascot make you more willing to go? Or do you just go because it's something to do in the area?
No, I don't really care but I can appreciate cute badge/promo art.

>Do you prefer a bigger venue or smaller?
It depends on the convention. I've been to cons were they've had large numbers but a small space and it was miserable. On the flip side, I've been conventions with fair sized numbers and huge space and it made the convention seem dead. I think finding the right venue is a bit of playing a "Goldilocks" game sometimes. You gotta have it be just right.

> Do you attend panels? What types?
I hate character Q&A panels. They're cringy as hell and I think they should be banned from conventions. I like to go to panels with well-researched educational fan panels or industry panels.

>What makes a bad Con a bad Con?
Bad panels, no structure/organisation, boring guests.

>>9455364
>How many conventions have you attended?
I want to say around 15? 1-2 a year since 2007

>What aspect do you look forward to the most?
being around a ton of other cosplayers, being in cosplay myself. spending time with friends, being surrounded by cute stuff and indulging in my urgers to hoard cutesy anime shit. sometimes concerts, depending on who's there.

>How much are you willing to spend on a weekend ticket?
I mean I just forked over 75 dollars for Sakuracon so...

>Does a cute waifu mascot make you more willing to go? Or do you just go because it's something to do in the area?
Yes! I love when conventions have a repeating mascot character, like how anime revolution does.

>Do you prefer a bigger venue or smaller?
Bigger, mostly. I know a lot of people prefer small or medium cons, but I prefer cons that have 15-25k in attendance with a decently sized venue/location. It just makes everything feel more exciting!

> Do you attend panels? What types?
In recent years, not often. Usually I'll attend the panel of a voice actor/designer/musician/other type of guest. There are a few fan-run panels that repeat every year that I attend, but other than that I don't like the majority of fan panels...

>What makes a bad Con a bad Con?
boring guests. boy oh boy was this year's Sakuracon a disappointment for that. Luckily, bigger cons can kind of make up for it just on account of having that entertaining atmosphere.
poor organization, long lines, and small dealer's rooms also would make the list. Overall it seems like it'd be pretty hard to have an actual bad time at a con, these are just things that make it less enjoyable than it could be.