And now, the moment you've all be waiting for!
But before that, I must apologize for how slow my updates have been. I intended to post these live, and before I know it the clock had moved well beyond the goal time of midnight on November 17th. Hopefully I can do this faster next time. I kept having to go back and fix some general errors that are non-spellcheckable, so I'll quickly point out that the Boutique was listed on the incorrect side of the elevators in my post previously, but it has since been revised to tell you its correct location. Sorry for the confusion!
Overall, this convention was pretty evenly matched by the other events we've attended here at CaliConBlog. Since this was my first official assignment, I was really excited and planned a complicated schedule that I definitely could not stick to, so I'm really grateful to have had co-reporters Avi, Ryan and Lucas with me for PMX 2010. Without them, this would hardly suffice as full coverage of this con. There's probably going to be a few more things we'll need to cover, but in the meantime I hope the first-ever web version of the Tsunami Scoreboard is enough to tide you over (again, surf puns totally intended).
As a convention attendee of only two years, I will admit I have not seen the very best of a majority of anime convention in my area. I am unable to vouch for the preference of Anaheim over Los Angeles for Anime Expo, and a lot of the time it makes me sound a bit a like a n00b, but I figure this is also where my true strength as a convention reviewer lies. I'm able to wrap my head around quite a few different perspectives of convention attendees, and I think it would be helpful to have a guide written for the average Joe from the point of view of an average Joe who's been surviving at these things for a couple years or so.
PMX this year totally surprised me. I'm used to seeing a complete meltdown in the con staffing field when it comes to "Oh my god! New location!! Whatdowedo!?" but this year's staff at PMX was ready to grab the bull by the horns and flip it over a table, and then flip the table too. Masquerade especially proved to me that if a convention staff works together and organizes accordingly, anything is possible. It was almost like being at the old location with all the same stuff, but having moved around slightly like a rubix cube--only this time, everything fell perfectly into place WITHOUT painting over the original color of the squares. They didn't cut any corners, and I anjoyed the actual con itself most of all.
As for hotel staff, I would like to say I'd give them the benefit of the doubt next year if I had the money to do so. Unfortunately, that kind of hassle isn't something I'm interested in wasting any more money on. I'd rather not let them have the whole, "Oh, we're new at this" cop-out I'm used to hearing. They really, really dropped the ball here--inexperience or no. The service provided was absolutely dismal, and I often wonder why the bellhop expects a tip when he came up to my room two hours earlier to tell me that I was being loud when it was actually the noisy college guys across the hall who threw a party anyway. And they weren't even connected to the con!
My tips for next year, if anyone's planning to use my review as reference material are these:
1. Be a Boyscout--always be ready for ANYTHING! This should even be a standard rule of thumb for any convention of any genre, not just anime and not just in California. Like any trip you would take for leisure, always expect that 50% chance of rain on your parade and bring an umbrella, just in case. My old Band director used to tell us, "It's better to have a coat you can fold and place on your lap than a pair of sweats that you left out on your bed because you thought you wouldn't need 'em after all."
2. Don't be afraid to spend that extra $5 for comfort. I had a couple issues in my own room in which the hotel wanted more money for a deposit because we decided to pay in cash, and there was this whole mess where a lot of people wound up paying for each other and covering each other for money that went missing, and miscommunications and everything you could possibly think of, and then some brave, brave heroes appeared and offered to spot money until everyone else was settled. However, I was a bit weirded out by some of my roomies being very, very opposed to chipping in $5 more. Why dispute $5 if you're gonna spend maybe six times as much in the dealer's room anyway?
3. Communication sense is key! The buddy system. I really, really should have set that up this time around. Seriously. Especially when the security guys were carding us at the elevator--I almost got stuck outside because I was loaning my key to Avi who went back first because she wanted to get some rest for the action-packed events crammed into Saturday's schedule.
4. Save the drama for your llama. The easiest way to ruin con is to let the things other people do or say effect your enjoyment of the event. They way I see it now is that con is my vacation, and if you're gonna try and ruin my vacation, I don't have to talk to you. I can just walk away.
5. Have fun! A lot of people tend to forget this, even bloggers like me. Sometimes cramming a schedule chock full of events you wanna see or write about to take pictures of takes away from fun when fun becomes work, so spreading out the tasks between the four reporters we had was a pretty good strategy. I think I'll stick to general convention review. I like doing it, mostly because it requires being observant, and con is a very good distraction.
I hope everyone who we saw at PMX enjoyed themselves, and for all of you readers still paying attention to my walls of text, I offer up the Pacific Media Expo 2010 Tsunami Scoreboard's fourth number for THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (which is what I call the overall con rating).
Drum roll, please!
6.5 out of 10
And so, PMX somehow managed to keep the exact same score I gave it last year, but the momentum is good, so I expect great things in the future. I personally would like to see more J-Rock if at all possible.
Post comments to chat with us about what you hope to see at PMX next year and we'll share our opinion with you too!
"I give PMX 2010 one huge heroic thumb's up!!"Here I am, cosplaying as a prototype version of
Historically Accurate WWII Fighter Pilot
America from Axis Powers Hetalia.
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