Anime Expo - Behind The Scenes

One of America's largest anime events took place last month - Anime Expo was held between the 1st and 4th of July and was attended by over 100,000 anime fans from all over the world. Guests included MAY'N, Megumi Nakajima, Nabeshin, AKB48 and more.
While I didn't feel that I deserved to be invited to such a prestigious event, I humbly accepted and not only did I get to absorb an incredible experience, I also got to meet a load of comrades.

The main purpose of my visit was to meet and help connect my comrades with other comrades and hope I did that through events like Los Angeles CGM Night.

Today we will take a peek behind the scenes starting with the Press Junket. Each of the guests were lead to hotel room where interviews took place one after the other for a few hours.

Some of the press folks awaiting their next victim ^^;

Taking a much needed 5 min lunch break.

Saber complained about the food so the folks looking after us gave her a 500 USD AMEX gift card to buy some grub. They work just like a standard credit card.

Saber took us to eat some nosh at Little Tokyo (I think that's what it was called). Great company and fab food.

Saber ended up using the 500 USD in a jiffy so she asked for another one - only to be given a 1000 USD AMEX gift card @.@

Saber then went and got herself a basket ball that cost 1 USD and then decided to keep the rest of what was on the card. Oi Saber!

The whole of Anime Expo was managed from one hotel suite called the "Green Room" or "GR" for short. This is where the staff come to get orders, hang out, sleep and play some Street Fighter.

The Green Room is also where the guests came to mingle with the staff...

...and is also where I came to raid the place for food. This photo was taken after the event but during AX this room was filled with *everything* just *everything* !

All the Anime Expo staff were volunteers - everybody worked their bottoms off around the clock and were not paid a single dime. But instead they got something much more valuable than money. They got to be part of something big in a field that they are passionate about and also got to mingle with the guests and make a load of new comrades. The connections and experience that these folks have made is something that can not be easily bought.

I've been running my business for a few years now. Much of the work I do (not all!) is for free which helps me build my network and gain experience. This also means that as I'm doing a load of unpaid work, we barely cover our costs - but that's OK for now as long as I'm paying Chris every month and we are not starving ^^; But the network and experience that I'm still building now will help me recover costs in the future.

The takeaway here is to always think long term and think about the future you. If you believe in yourself then invest some time on building your network and experience now because you will make it in the future anyway. Thinking about ROI (Return On Investment) from day one means that you are focusing too much on the cash and are not willing to devote time to building relationships or gain valuable experience that you need for the future. Thinking short term will always mean that you fall short of your destination.

Going back to the staff, many were Japanese Americans but also included Taiwanese, Chinese and Korean folks who spoke fluent Japanese too. Some of the folks flew in from overseas just to help out on AX. If you speak fluent Japanese and can translate clearly between the local teams and guests, are good at working with ambiguity and with large teams (and for free) then AX needs you next year - keep your mince pies on the AX site for updates on volunteering.

I remember when Street Fighter 2 World Warrior first came out in the arcades back in the UK. T'was 1991. I always chose Chun-Li back then. These days however, I end up choosing Ryu and manage to do 2 Hadouken and 1 Shouryuken before its game over for me ^^;
What SF character are you most skillful with?

Had a nice room although I didn't get much time to relax in it - nearly every day I was up until 4AM working on the presentations or with folks back in Japan. Would be often woken up at 7AM with a "Danny you are supposed to be at the Ballroom!"

Most of the times the room looked like this though ^^; That windbreeaker is from my times at Microsoft. I was surprised at how cold it got at times even though my Twitter comrades told me that it was quite warm at night!

The opening ceremonies took place at Nokia Hall (or was it Nokia Theater?)

What was supposed to happen was that I was to go on and make out that I was the MC for the morning. Then the real MC would come along and kick me off where the music would start to play straight away. Events didn't quite happen the way it was supposed too ^^;

The AKB48 girls as seen from back stage.

And a snap from my seat at the closing ceremonies. Will leave you to gander at the rest of the photos while I catch up on more posts as usual ^^;

Almost forgot to mention. Just wanted to say to all the AX staff that it was great meeting you all and hope to see you again soon - ping me when you are in Tokyo and we'll grab a bite to eat - I'll bully Saber into letting go of that 999 USD ^^;