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This is probably kind of goofy, but there were really two highlights for me:

1) hearing we pushed more than 8,900 people through pre-reg Thursday night, and we had over 26,000 registrations overall, and

2) seeing the convention center go from completely empty Thursday morning, to being chock full o' people over the weekend, and then back to empty Sunday afternoon

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This is probably kind of goofy, but there were really two highlights for me:

1) hearing we pushed more than 8,900 people through pre-reg Thursday night, and we had over 26,000 registrations overall, and

2) seeing the convention center go from completely empty Thursday morning, to being chock full o' people over the weekend, and then back to empty Sunday afternoon

And lying down in the space where we had the reg booths! That was something...

Mine were :

1. Shaking Speed Racer's (Peter Fernandez's) hand, and seeing the pleased expression on his face when I told him the Speed Racer was never just a cartoon. It was a Heroic Cartoon, and that Speed Racer was a Hero.

2. Seeing Maruyama San stand up with the Five Year staffers at the After Con meeting when the President asked all the staff who had worked five years to stand up. Madhouse did an excellent job with the Opening Animation, and Maruyama San's support is just thrilling for me.

3. The pleased expressions on the faces of the people checking in for Pre-reg on Thursday night. We got them all in, that entire line, by 9:40 p.m.

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My favorite part was meeting the bands from sunday and seeing the performances. I liked all of them very much, though Marbell actually surprised me the most. All of the members were really nice and I was especially surprised at how much english they could speak and understand. Mar especially.

Also, I really like the bandai panels. They were really fun.

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JAM PROJECT. The concert and both Q&A panels. I can't thank you guys enough for bring them over. If I had to name a specific highlight, it'd be during the autograph session when I was taken aback when each member shook my hands passionately. I've never had a passionate fan-encounter with guests as great as JAM.

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3. The pleased expressions on the faces of the people checking in for Pre-reg on Thursday night. We got them all in, that entire line, by 9:40 p.m.
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3. The pleased expressions on the faces of the people checking in for Pre-reg on Thursday night. We got them all in, that entire line, by 9:40 p.m.

That you did! :)]

Hm... i liked the autograph session on Saturday for the bands. I probably amused them with my elementary Japanese; especially when i randomly said 'atama ga hen desu.' Did i use old person Japanese without knowing? > >;;;

Don't know. Youre Japanese is a step up from mine!

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Heh, My highlight(s):

The Ultimate Lolita Fashion Show--I don't know how they're going to top that next year. They even filled the whole room!

[saturday] Otaku Bellydance Demo/Workshop--You people need to bring her back because she rocked, and actually, Panel 3 would have been a better stage IMO.

Tony Oliver--He was so class throughout the weekend, a nice man.

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JAM PROJECT. The concert and both Q&A panels. I can't thank you guys enough for bring them over. If I had to name a specific highlight, it'd be during the autograph session when I was taken aback when each member shook my hands passionately. I've never had a fan-encounter as filled with burning passion and hot-blooded glory--almost like I wanted to go punch out a giant robot-- with guests as great as JAM.
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This is probably kind of goofy, but there were really two highlights for me:

1) hearing we pushed more than 8,900 people through pre-reg Thursday night, and we had over 26,000 registrations overall, and

2) seeing the convention center go from completely empty Thursday morning, to being chock full o' people over the weekend, and then back to empty Sunday afternoon

agreed that was kinda amazing.

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I have a couple of memories from last weekend:

1. Helping to process almost 9,000 people on Thursday night. I did that by being a supplies runner. Nobody ran out of supplies during that evening. I hope the unofficial goal for next year's Pre-Reg night should be to surpass the power of Goku (over 9,000 people). Then, Have Adam Sheehan make the announcement at Opening Ceremonies. At every Funimation panel he does, that is his opening line. ;)

2. Finally getting to meet Masao Maruyama. Head of one of my favorite studios Madhouse. One of my fannish rules is that Madhouse doesn't make bad anime.

3. Lastly, seeing the Opening Animation at the Masquerade. I had that feeling of those otaku who saw the founders of Gainax do their opening animation at Daicon in the 80's. That was amazingly cool. I hope that people can see it online soon with full recognition of the animators who did it. I know the issue about putting it on Youtube, but I hope that can be worked out. I love the Giant Crab destroying the Eva the most.

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SO very many highlights, being my first con.

#1 Jam Project Concert. I was so stoked to see them play live. I hadn't heard of them before the con, but that just meant I found a new band to like. :P

#2 Meeting Peter and getting his autograph on my books. He's so awesome. The Last Unicorn was my favorite movie when I was a child.

#3 The Harrassment of Kyon AMV. I saw that amv three times over the course of the con and it never stopped being hilarious. I also loved the Death Note amv that won the drama category.

#4 The fanfiction panel was great fun. I had known of the one panelist online, and it was nice to meet her in real life..

#5 Seeing anime on the big screen. ;)

I'm already planning for my next convention. Otakon got me hooked. :D

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Definitely watching the numbers go up on the computer as we checked in pre-regs on Thursday night, and watching Matt (TheMinion) generate the at-con reg reports every few hours on Friday-Saturday. The attendance total this year was incredible.

Oh, and closing ceremonies, which I have never attended before (and I've been going to Otakon since 2000), was AWESOME. The intro to the AMVs and the opening animation for the con were both mind-blowing, and our videography staff did an AMAZING job on the convention recap reel. I actually felt like I'd had a chance to attend the con after seeing that. ;)

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Mine were:

-Seeing Kappei Yamaguchi

-Otakon opening animation

-Helping out at pre-reg on Friday morning

-having a staffer call me a "super gofer" at the otacafe when I was helping out

-a couple con attendees coming up and asking me about the con I run/ran (its in the process of coming back), that really touched me.

-Watching the masquerade, I haven't sat and watched a masquerade for a while.

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Hearing how my new Staff recruits, all friends from Xbox Live scattered across the country, were loved by their supervisors (Brian, Philip and Stephen @ Masquerade). ;)

This was their first anime convention, period, and they all had a blast.

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Hearing how my new Staff recruits, all friends from Xbox Live scattered across the country, were loved by their supervisors (Brian, Philip and Stephen @ Masquerade). ;)

This was their first anime convention, period, and they all had a blast.

I have to say, this reminds me of the girl we brought to the con for the first time this year. We've been inviting her for years, she's my younger daughter's BFF, just turned teenager, and we've been infect... introducing her to Anime. She *is* an Avatar fan.

I talked to her mom after the con, and was told that BFF says that this past weekend was the Best Vacation EVAR, and that her daughter RAVED about how cool Otakon was!

She's looking forward to coming back with us next year!

She loved you guys. you were a hit!

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The opening animation.

Also, when Mike S. came by Panel Ops late on Friday night and asked for one of my cookies. :lol:

I got to shake his hand, and say "Hi! Welcome back!" to Peter Beagle.

I think I've seen and talked to more Guests this year than since I was Con Chair in 2002.

I told Mike S. I liked him as Dean Venture. He's kind of cute.

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Just seeing so many people of all ages and color together enjoying anime and seeing all the cosplay up close and personal. It was my first Otakon so just being there was awesome enough. Also my first Rave exp. and was pretty damn cool!

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This is probably kind of goofy, but there were really two highlights for me:

1) hearing we pushed more than 8,900 people through pre-reg Thursday night, and we had over 26,000 registrations overall, and

2) seeing the convention center go from completely empty Thursday morning, to being chock full o' people over the weekend, and then back to empty Sunday afternoon

I must agree with you here, these were highlights for me as well.

However with #1, I'd have to say a true highlight was seeing that we had processed 8,994 attendees in less than 5 hours & knowing that I was a part of making that happen. :lol:

Other highlights of the con for me would have to be:

~ My grand entrance into Gofer Ops Thursday. :D

~ Getting the chance to finally meet & work with Cousin Sue. :D

~ Sitting in Video Ops, watching Duck Tales, & having random attendees pop in & ask if it was really Duck Tales we were watching.

~ Getting free drink

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Sorry, wouldn't let me finish. Evil computer... Continuing on:

~ Getting free drink

~ Getting free drinks at the Rat Friday night :D

~ Peeking in on the Sunday music acts doing a sound check Saturday morning. :D

~ Watching This Is Otakudom in the Con Suite :)

~ Joining in with a few thousand other Otaku & my best friend to sing AC/DC's Big Balls during ReDeath. :D

~ The satisfaction of finally opening my 1st bottle of Ramune. :)

~ Being told by several that I better come back wearing a black shirt next year. Priceless. :lol:

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#3 The Harrassment of Kyon AMV. I saw that amv three times over the course of the con and it never stopped being hilarious. I also loved the Death Note amv that won the drama category.

Definitely watching the numbers go up on the computer as we checked in pre-regs on Thursday night, and watching Matt (TheMinion) generate the at-con reg reports every few hours on Friday-Saturday. The attendance total this year was incredible.

Oh, and closing ceremonies, which I have never attended before (and I've been going to Otakon since 2000), was AWESOME. The intro to the AMVs and the opening animation for the con were both mind-blowing, and our videography staff did an AMAZING job on the convention recap reel. I actually felt like I'd had a chance to attend the con after seeing that. :)

This is probably kind of goofy, but there were really two highlights for me:

1) hearing we pushed more than 8,900 people through pre-reg Thursday night, and we had over 26,000 registrations overall, and

2) seeing the convention center go from completely empty Thursday morning, to being chock full o' people over the weekend, and then back to empty Sunday afternoon

I must agree with you here, these were highlights for me as well.

However with #1, I'd have to say a true highlight was seeing that we had processed 8,994 attendees in less than 5 hours & knowing that I was a part of making that happen. :lol:

Yeah ... setting the bar even higher for us next year and all the videos shown at closing ceremonies were definitely the highlights for me.

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Yuri Lowenthal. Enough said.

Spending time with two of my greatest friends.

All of the wonderful things Bandai incorporated and learning about a new show.

Kadokawa Pictures Panel.

My first 45 minutes in the Dealer's Room. Seriously. I walked and just stared, people probably laughed at me. It was an overwhelming sight.

Being shocked by my enjoyment for the Artist Alley.

Walking around the Dealer's Room completely broke and still enjoying it.

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Mine were the Lolita Fashion show, which is going to be even better next year (PanelOps willing, of course)! and finding out that Kappei-san loved us as much as we loved him <3 I always love finding out that the guests are as fond of us as we are of them; for some reason, I get a huge kick out of hearing how our reputation as a good convention--on both sides of the stage--just keeps getting better.

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1. Being there with friends. This made a HUGE difference from when I came back in '05 basically by myself.

2. Each time I was stopped and asked for a picture.

3. Each time the picture was followed by a hug request. The first one was from a Tsunade cosplayer on Friday. A rather auspicious start.

4. Meeting and talking with Mookie (Dominic Deegan) and Jim (Morlock Enterprises) again, in AA and the Dealers' Room, respectively.

5. Giant infant Tetsuo.

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Mine were the Lolita Fashion show, which is going to be even better next year (PanelOps willing, of course)! and finding out that Kappei-san loved us as much as we loved him <3 I always love finding out that the guests are as fond of us as we are of them; for some reason, I get a huge kick out of hearing how our reputation as a good convention--on both sides of the stage--just keeps getting better.

You and me both.

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Hmm... I'd say the best part for me was seeing a bunch of younger people playing instruments, and have the older, more experienced people encouraging them to keep going instead of ruthlessly bashing them. To see a group of people that have never met before do something so encouraging really helps to renew my faith in people.

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JAM Project, Kappei Yamaguchi, the Sunday concert were all amazing, but I have to say the opening animation takes the cake!

Great, now my head has swelled. You owe me a new hat. :)

(I was Guest/Industry/Press Relations Chief and Producer for Otakon Opening Animation 2008, which means that all of those things fell to me and my excellent team to make sure they went smoothly. It makes me very happy to hear that the stuff that we worked so hard on brought you a lot of pleasure.)

-Jim

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Waiting in line from 11pm-8:15am, sounds like a drag but I really had fun with the other people in line!

What? Why on earth were you in line for nine hours? What was this for?

Some people were in line overnight both for the Thursday pre-reg check in, and for the Friday morning Registration.

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I remember we passed the convention center on the light rail at around 11AM and the line was already wrapping around the building. I guess I'm not hardcore enough, because we kept going, went to our hotel, checked in early, unpacked, and chilled out there instead. We would have gotten our badges before dinner, but it was pouring and a bunch of us had expensive electronics on us.

The Otakon pre-reg line in the last two years has been EXCELLENT and we got our badges after maybe an hour's wait on Friday morning. Waiting for the regular registration line on Friday I can see, though, but not for nine hours. A few folks from our group waited four or so hours, but this was fairly late in the morning (11AM).

On that note, another highlight for me for the con was seeing the number of people who followed the oft-repeated advice to not line up early for pre-reg.

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My highlights of Otakon 2008:

-TCGing on Thursday doing pre-reg (I was the TCG wearing the red shirt doing line control and yelling for people to leave the BCC after they got their badges).

-TCGing in the Art Auction guarding the entrance and being told by the person who signed my timesheet that she would submit my name to become a possible staffer for 2009.

-TCGing in Video Ops watching Duck Tales and seeing people's faces when they walked by and saw Ducktales.

-TCGing for the Info Desk.

-TCGing in the Con Suite, volunteered for one more hour.

-TCGing in the dealer's room where I actually was used as a blockade to escort a Japanese group from an autograph session on Saturday.

-Saturday dealer's room rickroll, numa numa dance and the Pokemon theme song sing a long hosted by a Ghostbusters cosplayer, all three videos are in my YouTube account, YouTube name is KSweeley

-Sunday's Pokemon gathering.

-Sunday's Join the Point chant, one video of the chant even has me in it:

I'm the one in the very front wearing the red shirt. This is what everyone is pointing at: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/ksw...08/DSC00228.jpg

Had a awesome time at Otakon's 15th anniversary and was extremely honored to be a TCG and hope to come back for Otakon 2009!!!

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The two biggest highlights for Otakon this year were:

- THE JAM PROJECT CONCERT! I never thought I'd see these people live in person in the United States.... and here they were! I was dancing, singing with the band with their anime songs, and just having one big time. It was the best anime concert I've been to ever.

- Saturday's showing of the AMV Contest. This was the first year I was a finalist in the contest, and I've tried to get into the contest 4 years in a row. The fifth time was certainly the charm! I had the DBZ video in the Action category, and it got some enthusiastic applause and cheering after it was shown on Saturday! That just made my weekend even more awesome.

I've already booked my rooms for next year's Otakon. I'm coming back for more!

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