March 30, 2012I-Con 31

April 1st, 2012 Castle Point Anime Convention

We had a double convention this weekend.  First up was a trip out to I-Con,  as previous years it was a mixed bag.  Every year the ticket price goes up as they keep bringing in more and more expensive guests.  Unfortunately this year none of them really appealed to us or was slated for Saturday.  And its always the location is way to spread out and we hear they are going to be trying a new location next year.  So hopefully it will be much better just because of the a new venue.  At night their talent show/masquerade was run much better than in previous years.  It even started and ended earlier than scheduled.  Other than that the constant threat of rain kept everything on damper.

On Sunday we dropped by Stevens Institute of Technology to see if their anime club could keep up the years of work they’ve put under their belt in running their Castle Point Anime Convention.  They gained a lot of buildings and expanded more than they had in previous years.  Everything was well run and there didn’t seem to be any glaring hiccups.  Their Masquarade/Cosplay Contest needed the most help as basically nobody showed up.  Everyone was in line for the ever popular Cosplay Dating Game.  One strange thing did happen,  out of the blue there was a siren and announcements going on that everyone should go indoors and wait for the police.  With all school tragedies happening in the recent years, it was interesting to hear Stevens had some saftey plan in place.  Nobody questioned what was going on and just went inside.  We found out later the warning was sent out accidentally.  But good to know when something serious happens people still listen to instructions.  In all it remains a great hangout convention.  I’m not sure if too many people really go to the panels.  But everyone does get their money’s worth of fun.