Continuing my convention season after-reports...

Less than a week after Fanime was over, I was in Dallas, Texas, for A-Kon 18. Our convention season this year was interesting in that all the major cons we attended took place in a relatively short amount of time.

It's good and bad-- good in that we can put away our travel stuff now, and really focus on getting the game done... but bad, in that it'll be a long time before the next time we get to meet up with forum members again. That's why y'all gotta keep coming back to our forums. ;D

And no, I don't normally speak with a drawl, though admittedly, I do have a fair amount of country and blues music in my playlist, along with a wide range of other stuff. (Hey, that could be another blog entry right there, heh. Not that it has anything to do with Shira Oka...) I did meet some people with varying Texan accents, but it wasn't nearly as many as one might expect.

So anyway, the following are three (-and-a-half) of the most memorable things about A-Kon for me. There's actually quite a few more things I could mention, since A-Kon and Dallas were pretty different from what I'm used to, but I do have other work to do. :P

Click here for photos taken at A-Kon

Memory #1: Unusual booth layout and ultra-friendly con staff.

At most conventions, you have rows and rows of dealer booths connected to one another, and each booth has a back wall to it. The booths in A-Kon's Exhibits Hall area were basically their own little islands, right outside the Dealers Room.

My booth space was especially close to the crossroads-- it was facing the lobby area and the Dealers room entrance, to the right of that was the skyway connecting the two buildings of the hotel (the "hotel" side and the "convention center" side), and behind me were the escalators and elevators leading to the other floors of the con (registration and artists' alley downstairs; panels, etc. upstairs).

So I got a good amount of traffic coming from all directions, even from behind me. It was a little unsettling at first, since our booth usually has a solid backdrop, but I got used to it. I even decided to keep a laptop open as an extra monitor, so that people coming from the back could see the promo video playing as they passed by.

I was blown away by amount of personal attention I received from the Exhibits Hall staff, both before and during the con. Everyone seemed really friendly. I've never had so many staff members introduce themselves to me during a con. And they all seemed willing to help with anything I needed. I wouldn't have been able to put up our Okashi banner without their help, for example. And on one of the days, since I was there alone, a staff member even watched my table for me while I went to get lunch.

Part of it was probably due to the fact that there were only 12-15 booths/tables in total in the Exhibits Hall area, but still... it was much appreciated.

Memory #2: Kevin Smith, Jack Sparrow, and Master Chief fit right in.

I saw more pop culture references at A-Kon than at most of the other anime conventions I've been to, and it seemed to be more acceptable here. The booth next to mine had a huge Transformers cardboard backdrop (maybe around 7 ft. tall) and they were giving away free (non-anime) movie posters. And I also noticed that a handful of the booths in the dealers room had nothing to do with anime or Japanese culture, as far as I could tell.

Some of the non-anime cosplays were actually quite convincing, including all the ones I mentioned above. I overheard someone asking his friends if that was really Kevin Smith... I wish I got a photo, because he really did look a lot like Silent Bob.

And speaking of cosplays I wish I got a photo of... there was a guy in a PINK Master Chief cosplayer... I really wish I got a picture of that. :P

Memory #3: Sonic Burger!!!

So who here has seen those Sonic commercials on TV, wondered where the closest Sonic restaurant was, then found out there aren't any within driving distance?! (A-Kon people, you don't count. :P) I'm not sure, but it seems that they're mostly concentrated in the Midwest/Southwest parts of the US, but showing their commercials nationwide. At least that's the impression I get from talking to a few other people who've also experienced this...

Anyway, on one of the nights after the exhibits hall was closed, I decided to go for a drive and explore the Dallas outskirts a bit. I drove for a while on random highways, and eventually ended up in a fairly busy area with strip malls and fast food restaurants and such, so I decided to stop for dinner... especially when I spotted a Sonic!

It was a drive-in-- you know, as opposed to a drive-thru. You pull into a parking space with an ordering kiosk built in next to the driver side window. Once you're ready to order, you push an intercom button on the kiosk, place the order, and wait for a guy to bring the order to your car when it's ready. It was pretty cool, I guess. I was tempted to take some pictures, but it didn't seem wise to act all touristy in such an unfamiliar place, being alone and all. Call me paranoid. :P

I was a little disappointed with the actual food once I got it, though. There wasn't anything particularly magical about it... don't ask me what I was expecting. I'll stick with In-n-Out, my fast food restaurant of choice. Then again, I did forget to order one of those weird drink combinations, so this warrants further investigation...