Daniel Perales 108 Posted November 18, 2023 Report Share Posted November 18, 2023 (edited) Hi All! Just got back from Anime-NYC. So far, it's ok. But this news caught my attention: Anime NYC Moves to August in 2024 With Expanded Javits Presence - News - Anime News Network With this change of date, this places Otakon right between two major industry anime cons, now. With these conventions barely a month apart now, I'm afraid that Otakon is going to be squeezed out of existence. Just to put things into perspective: Anime Expo: July 4-7, 2024 Otakon: August 2-4, 2024 Anime-NYC: August 23-25, 2024 Edited November 18, 2023 by Daniel Perales Added the dates Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clutch 87 Posted November 19, 2023 Report Share Posted November 19, 2023 Isn't Otakon the original one for the East Coast? Where do the attendance numbers land for those other conventions compared to Otakon? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Daniel Perales 108 Posted November 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2023 1 hour ago, Clutch said: Isn't Otakon the original one for the East Coast? Where do the attendance numbers land for those other conventions compared to Otakon? Let's use the attendance numbers for 2022 as a reference: Anime Expo 2022: Over 100,000 Otakon 2022: Over 40,000 Anime-NYC 2022: 55,000 Anime-NYC is the newest convention (started in 2017), and it took off like a rocket compared to Anime Expo and Otakon in their years of existence. If it wasn't for the COVID-19 pandemic interruption, it would have been probable that Anime-NYC attendance numbers would have caught up, or at least closed in on Anime Expo's numbers by now. They already surpassed Otakon numbers as you can see. According to the article, it looks like they're going to take the entire Javis Center and maybe other venues around the Hudson Yards and Times Square area next year. We just had New York Comic Con last month in the same venue and their attendance numbers were over 200,000. On second thought, having Anime-NYC catch up to both Anime Expo and New York Comic Con will be a real feat since those 2 cons are a 4-day event while they're only a 3-day event. Otakon tried to be a 4-day event once way back in 1995 and it almost killed them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lightningneko 3 Posted November 20, 2023 Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 It might affect attendance for Otakon and/or AnimeNYC if planning for two conventions in the same month. If both required a hotel, I would have to pick either Otakon or NYC. At least I only need a hotel for one convention. Still, Otakon has been my alternate to NY/NJ conventions since 2015 so I'll likely continue to go to otakon until Real life finally catches up to me. I did notice that while 3-day and Saturday tickets sold out quickly for 2023, Friday/Sunday waited until maybe the last week or two weeks to sell out. 200K might be an estimated challenge for AnimeNYC, but 100K may be possible. And if the mention that other venues around or near the convention being used is true, any special events/concerts that fill up quickly/sell out in less than an hour, more would be able to get tickets for those events. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Daniel Perales 108 Posted August 28 Author Report Share Posted August 28 Well, the con came and went. The preliminary numbers of attendees for AnimeNYC did indeed hit 100,000. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Attendee7000 35 Posted August 30 Report Share Posted August 30 It's kind of difficult to compare numbers from different cons because every con seems to count them different, and Otakon uses a method that just about comes up with the smallest number possible (They don't count dealers, guests, and others not on a membership badge). And if you want to make sense of turnstile numbers then divide by 3 (A single person will get counted each day). There's probably not that big an impact on the two cons being close to each other. Otakon shares specific numbers with the membership, so you can see who's from where. In 2023 it was: Maryland: 12783 Virginia: 9726 Pennsylvania: 2898 DC: 1774 New Jersey: 1635 New York: 1287 Delaware: 664 North Carolina: 429 Florida: 388 West Virginia: 278 You can even see how Otakon's NY & NJ numbers have been as AnimeNYC has grown: New York: 2018: 605 2019: 1118 2021: 861 2022: 1312 2023: 1287 New Jersey: 2018: 1253 2019: 1492 2021: 1480 2022: 1908 2023: 1635 So I don't think I'd be too concerned about impact to numbers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Daniel Perales 108 Posted September 6 Author Report Share Posted September 6 On 8/30/2024 at 10:05 AM, Attendee7000 said: So I don't think I'd be too concerned about impact to numbers. I think it's too soon to tell right now. But, I did come across reading and hearing complaints about Anime-NYC about lacking certain things because of how close in time between 2 major cons. For example, some companies don't have enough serious wad of money to spend sending people and things to two major cons in a short amount of time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomDent 24 Posted September 9 Report Share Posted September 9 I wonder if there's a possibility in the future for Otakon to move to a different time of the year so that it's not so close to other major cons; either earlier (late spring/early summer) or later (late fall/early winter). I can see moving to an earlier time of year being a major (nearly impossible) move since it would seriously cut down on prep time for the first year with the new date. I wonder how hard it would be to move toward the end of the year (before winter sets in). Then there's also the hurdle of getting it approved with the WEWCC. I guess I'm just curious whether it would be a feasible move or not and whether it would help or hurt with congoer attendance and major industry attendance. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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