Aresef

Yeah, I think there are going to be some corporate events that can go virtual and stay virtual but not an event like an anime con. Cons are about interactivity and seeing your friends, which is harder and less impactful on Zoom.

I mean, maybe it only seems like there are a lot of virtual cons because there are a lot of meatspace cons you wouldn’t normally consider going to. Those physical events often serve a particular region (as opposed to the heavy-hitters like Otakon and AX) and are used to sharing a weekend or a month with other events elsewhere. It’s not normally a problem. Me, I don’t do a lot of virtual cons because I like the magic and interactions of physical events.

I'm not a staffer and can't speak for the con. But I think whether there's a con and whether Otakon survives are two different questions. I mean, you've seen the emails, you know what the situation is and you have a sense of what they face if there's not a con and what they face right now with bills coming due and not a lot of money to pay them. It's clear the point of no return is coming on whether to plan like there's going to be a con or planning not to have one. In each case, neither of the then-whats are very fun. And I would say, again, as an observer, it would be very hard--perhaps

Or rather, $250,000 is what they need to pay whether there's a con or not. If you want a breakdown, their 990s are public. The $250,000 figure matches up with what their 2018 990 says for their legal, accounting, storage costs and such.

So I gave $60. But what I want to know, and I know I'm not alone, is where that money is going. This isn't a telethon or a Kickstarter, I'm not necessarily expecting a progress bar. But I think we as members deserve to know, to the extent it wouldn't violate any contracts etc., more about what Otakorp's finances are at this point in time, what big expenses are coming due, how we got here and what the consequences of the rona could be for Otakon going forward. For example, the venue. One of the things we've divined from 990s and news clippings is that Otakon signed a five-year deal with WEWCC.

Yeah, and I think that after the fires are put out, we'll figure out what conventions look like going forward. I think we've seen the end of shoulder-to-shoulder dealer's rooms and any kind of raves for at least the next few years or more. But I don't think a lot of smaller cons are long for this world either. Look at what the prospect of two years sidelined could do to Otakon. MAGFest is hurting. Katsucon is hurting. AUSA's venue no longer exists.

Yeah, this is the no man's land I've been talking about in the Discord. If WEWCC is open but with restrictions that don't make Otakon's math work, I don't know what the contract language looks like, but they might be in a position of choosing between putting on the con at a massive loss or canceling guests, either way vomiting gobs of cash. And then you have the artists and dealers who pay all this money expecting all this traffic that won't be there. Or, and this is where it gets real screwy, what if the cap on attendance is smaller than the number of people registered? Yikes.

I'm not staff and I don't speak for anybody but me but the letter made it pretty clear that if there's no Otakon this year, they still need money to keep the lights on. Insurance and force majeure may protect Otakorp from cancellation fees and what have you but there's still merch that isn't being sold, booths that aren't being booked, memberships that aren't being registered. Otakorp signed a five-year deal with WEWCC. 2021 is either the fourth or fifth year of that deal (depending on whether the pandemic changed things up). I don't know if that deal's already been extended or what. My p

After I'm vaccinated, sure. I'm in phase 2 so it shouldn't be that long. That being said, and I've talked about this a bit in the Discord, it's not really up to me or us otaku or even Otakorp whether these cons can all go on. It's all dependent on the facts on the ground and the restrictions the District has in place (not to mention whatever travel restrictions remain in place on a regional, national or international level). One of my cons set for June in Los Angeles punted to August 2022 because there just wasn't any other option. And it's not even that big an event. And then you ha

They're listed on the guest dropdown but not on the main guest page

Changing consumer habits, neglectful ownership and now the economic slowdown really put Harborplace in a tough spot. It's lost a lot of its personality and got really chainy. Like I'm going to go downtown and go to Ripley's or eat at Bubba Gump. Nah.

He is a massive clown and got exactly what he deserved.

It's a bummer, that store was great to visit. I'll miss their magazine rack.

That can be force majeure but it's any extraordinary event out of the control of both parties.

The mods were rockstars. The presentation was slick. It was really easy to move from "room to room," so to speak, on Twitch. The volume was, yeah, all over the place. This was a huge problem with MAT3K, where I had to turn my TV way up to hear things clearly. And I wish some of the panels had had more time. I'm not sure if this was necessarily communicated to a couple of the presenters who mentioned things like "oh I only have 30 minutes."