I profiled Anime Saint George early in my efforts to profile "profan" activities at cons, and was thrilled when the Con Chair invited me to be a guest of honor! You don't really turn down an invitation like that, and I thought it might be a nice little vacation.
So let's get to the review!
THE LOCATION:
Saint George is a small city in Southern Utah. It was really a pretty relaxing place to visit – nice municipal airport, friendly people, really pleasant. It's got a lot of interesting history, from movies filmed there, to having an Air Force base and more.
The Hotel, Best Western Abbey Inn, was pretty neat – it had a separate building for events, and the convention was held in three adjacent rooms. This made access easy for all events, and meant rooms could be combined easy for other events. Of course the wireless helped us geeks enjoy things, and the rooms were awesome – kitchenette, big begs, low prices.
The area also had some good restraunts and services in walking distance. Pretty much, a complete package – certainly made it more of a vacation.
THE CONVENTION:
This was a tightly-run small con. There were the usual delays here and there, but it overall ran pretty well and was run professionally – not just in organization, but in things like informing people about tax codes, having extra guides for people, proper rules, and more. It's the kind of con that feels "scalable" – all the parts of a big con are here, so it runs as smoothly as much larger events.
Noteable elements:
- The Dealer's Room. In this case much of it were artists, and our old friends Scuttlebutt Ink. The artists were all good and some were new or relatively new to the art game – and all pretty good with professional signs and cards. I of course had to pick up a few things.
- The events. The events were tightly planned since there was one panel room. That was smart – nothing was extraneous. There was also a lot of game shows and contests, which made it feel more of a group effort/party. I think that works well with a smaller con – it's a lot more personal.
- The videos. What I found interesting is that videos were run about 4 eps at a time (I'm usually used to 2). That meant, with limited space, there had to be more selectivity of chosen series, but also meant you got more than two episodes. I'm thinking that may be a good model for some conventions – because you can't get into the series without some time.
- The people. It was a younger crowd, but with some older attendees, and some cool parents and older relatives there with their younger family members. Some of these people I talked to, and they were all pretty neat – I like seeing that level of support. I met a lot of just plain interesting people, and several talented artists.
MY EVENTS:
Fan To Pro: I did my usual Fan To Pro presentation. It went decent, and I met some neat people at the panel. I am thinking of changing it – I think it should be more interactive, it really is a bit too lecture-like. Plus, some of it could be in other presentations – I could do a whole one on relocation
I also got a lot of interest in my book, which was nice.
Career Brainstorming: The crowd was really on for this one – we had people really jumping in to help each other with ideas and come up with career ideas for each other. Some people even talked about cooperating with each other on future efforts or conventions. A seriously on and solid crowd.
This presentation may need a bit more polishing, but overall I think it's proving pretty solid.
OVERALL:
Overall I had a blast. Fun people, nice town, good events, and everything running smooth. I like the fact that it was a convention, but also maintained the friendly feel with a mix of layout and right events. I think Anime Saint George has a good future ahead of it – and it also made me think more about the nature of cons of different sizes.