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Hi All! We just had 4 "online cons" just this past weekend. They were "Anime Expo Lite" (July 3rd - 4th), "Aniplex Fest Online" (July 4th - 5th), "FunimationCon" (July 3rd - 4th), and "KuroCon" (July 4th - 5th). FunimationCon seem to be running their con on their own page while also simucasting Aniplex Fest Online on one of their channel until the 4th. Everyone else was using Twitch and Youtube. The cons were basically streaming Panels that were live but most were prerecorded. I honestly missed most of Friday beccause my car was being worked on the entire day, and I couldn't get a stable enough connection on my phone to access the cons while I waited. But I stuck around at home for Saturday and Sunday for what I can get. The Good Like I said before, most of the programming were Panels. Some were live, but most were prerecorded. for FunimationCon, you had to preregister before you can get access to them (they will assign you a badge number to your email address). Everything else was on Twitch and YouTube. You can get on for free, but you have to register for both of these services if you wanted to intereact (chat) with the rest of the crowd. Aniplex had a DJ to do a virtual "Dance" and play some music videos and concert clips. Anime Expo Lite also had concert clips playing, too. Before I forget, Aniplex panels were mostly in Japanese but had english subs on them. I basically stayed with Aniplex until the very end. Some had vurtual "Dealer's Room" that you can click on a vendor's name and it will take you a page of some of their exclusive items that they're selling just for the online cons. You can still go back to Aniplex Youtube channel and watch some of the panels that you missed. It will only stay for a week. The Bad There were just too much going on at the same time. I had to have multiple windows open on 3 computers. I used my tv to watch the panels and music that I really cared the most with, while my other 2 computers were tuned to the other cons. It looks like that they were only using twitter for their main Q&As instead of using the chat window, instead. The Ugly Nothing really. But there were times when I wanted to go watch a panel , I would get a "connection time-out". I had to refresh the page a few times. Overall It felt more like I was watching a "Telethon" more than anything. Reading the chats was fun most of the time (there were a few trolls, unfortunatly). Will I do it, again? Why not? As long as it's free, it's still an interesting experience, but it doesn't replace the feeling of actually being there in person.

You hit the nail on this one. Like I said before, online cons are kind of interesting, but it all depends on what they are streaming. As you can see below, I've been attending cons for a very long time. The apeal that I get from cons is that I can get the chance to finally meet some of the people that I know only online face to face. I get to meet and greet some of the "Industry" people, which wouldn't be possible in any other way (unless they're local). I go to the Dealer's Room so I can personally check all the anime merchandise (I stll buy CD's of anime soundtracks and Blu-Ray discs and some other nick-nacks). I also feel it's more fun to watch some of your favorite anime in a video room with a screen that is more than twice the size of your living room wall with a bunch of other fellow fans. One time, I had as many as 3 industry reps in my hotel room along with my nephew. We were playing a mean game of Bomber-Man against each other. That was pure fun! We bearly had any sleep that night, but it was sure worth it! Those are a few things I'm not going to get from an "online" con.

Yeah online conventions I feel work best when it's literally streamed, and the streamer pulls ppl in through Discord calls and other means of participation like that. Just showing anime eps on stream (which I'm 99% sure is illegal unless it's Funimation / Sentai / Discotek etc doing it with their own content) isn't anything special and unique to most... I mean I have a Plex server with MANY MANY anime series and movies that I can just sit at home (or anywhere really) and watch... I don't even really sit in IRL con video rooms much for that reason. I had wanted to do a panel on music rhythm games for OtaOnline 2020 on Aug 1, but I didn't have time to really put it together in time... I might do the same panel IRL at a con in 2021 or beyond, but I'd have to work some things out to make it work properly. But all in all, online con aren't for me as it defies the purpose of a con... which is gathering with fellow otaku in person and nerding out about otaku culture and whatnot... something online cons in my view cannot do.

AMEN BROTHER. I think visibility was my biggest problem with the initial batch of online conventions. Being 4th of July weekend I had already made plans to catch up with my family on video chat, cooking way too much meat for a single household, and then marathon gaming with my friends online. By the time I remembered that these cons were going on I tuned into whichever one was running on youtube and saw they were just showing anime episodes so turned it back off. So if I as an avid con-goer bounced off of the stream then I doubt they did any traffic with the general youtube / twitch / other streaming audience. I still think the online convention concept can work but I think the marketing and the presentation in a post-COVID world still needs to get figured out. Repeat attendees and word of mouth growth gets stifled when there are no more events to physically go to this year.

Having two conventions at the same time in real life is nbd. On the internet, it makes zero sense. And Funimation knows when AX weekend is. Why did they have to counter-program? And you also had issues where I know the AX stream on YouTube got copyright struck. They should've thought that through.

There were times when I expected a phone number to appear at the bottom of the screen: "Please call and make a pledge of support to provide a contained con space free of foreign viruses (and other type of con-funk), for all the wondering otakus out there".