Colorado Anime Fest 2022: Day 2 Saturday

Day two started with the press breakfast which was actually a great networking event. This was the first con that I've attended as press that did this. It was fun talking about all the different camera's and software that people use. The most interesting part was learning all the day jobs that people had as their main gig. 

Panels:

Food Opinions to Get You Canceled with Xander Mobus

Program Description: We all have them: Disgusting, terrible food secrets that would surely get you driven from the internet were you to share them! Bring them along and share them in a safe space for people with terrible taste. P.S. Pineapple on pizza is old news! Society has accepted it.

Notes: Zander likes eggs on pizza and thinks that burritos are better than Tacos. Khoi Dao likes having sea salt potato chips in blueberry yogurt. 

Overall Impressions: Before Zander even got to the panel Khoi Dao snuck in and said that he would be helping to run the panel. The panel basically turned into a mini competition between people in the audience where two people would present weird things they would eat and the audience would pick a winner. This panel was actually really funny. I ended up winning one of the rounds and got a sandwich in tube that Khoi had brought from Zurich in Switzerland on his last visit there. He said that he had lived there and it was something that he had enjoyed eating it. I'll be doing a video later for YouTube of me trying it. We'll see how that goes.

Identifying Bootlegs

Notes: This panel never happened. The panelist never showed and one of the con workers at about 10 minutes after it was schedule to start told everyone that the panel wasn't happening. So the panel itself was a bootleg.

While waiting for the panel that would never happen I decided to take a pic of the bag I had won by spinning the wheel in the auction room. They had lots of different prizes you could get and who knows, maybe some day I will cover Anime Expo.

Inside Japan: More Than Just Tokyo!

Program Description: (The panel descriptions disappeared from COAF's website, but this panel focused on the different areas in Japan you could visit with the tour group that was hosting the panel.)

Notes: Even though beach episodes are popular in Japanese anime, they do not recommend them because they are not what the animes make them out to be. There is a lot of things that can kill or injure you. They also do not recommend people go to zoos or pet shops because there are a lot of issues around them in Japan. They do have the ability to make trips that are accessible for people with special needs like mobility or dietary. There is a good amount of English signage in major cities and this was one of the things that having the Olympics there has helped to improve. They also recommend that you get travel insurance and one of the ones they recommend is insuremytrip.com . According to the panelists their company has special connections with a lot of places where it is harder to get tickets, and this allows them to get people into things that other companies can't. They recommend that you plan your trip at least 6 months out in advance. Travel to Japan for tourism is still due to covid and only one of the limitations has been taken down. It could still be awhile before trips can be scheduled again.

Overall Impressions: This panel was jam packed with info while at the same time being a sales pitch for their company. All of the panelists worked for the same country and they had all spent at least some time in Japan. The one thing I did not like about the panel is they were not up front about the the costs. It would have been better if they would at least disclose price ranges so that people can have an idea of what they are looking at spending if they want to travel with the company. 

Between the above panels I decided to get us lunch at a place within walking distance and left Mommy Geek behind to cover more panels. While I was gone a panelist was very rude to my mother and broke some very basic rules around ADA. I won't go into too much detail (I'll leave that up to Mommy Geek to tell as much as she feels comfortable with in her post if she wants to), but when I got back and found out about it I went directly to the staff and reported it. The panel that it had happened in was still going on and I was able to point out the person that did it. From there I will admit that I felt like the con staff did take care of things. One of the things that one of the staff members I talked to about it said that the con staff is aware of how to work with ADA and other issues, but the panelists do not. The one thing I would recommend is that the convention develop some type of training module, presentation, or something that they can make it a requirement for all panelists to complete before they run their panel. This should include things like how not to violate ADA and basic concepts around DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). I would be more than happy to help the con build this to help people in the future not have the same experience that my mother had gone through. This is one of the reasons why I have Mommy Geek help me cover cons, it is a test to see how well the con can handle someone with different types of disabilities. COAF seemed to at least try to take care of things when they happen, but they have a lot of growing in how to prevent things before they happen. Once again, I'm always willing to help with this. 

Later in the evening we were going to try to go to the Yummy Yaoi, Yummy Yuri panel, but there was some confusion with the staff because they kept saying that this panel was the Cosplay Cabaret which wasn't scheduled until 12pm and the Yummy panel was at 10pm. After giving up trying to talk to the staff member up there we had decided to just go home for the night. As we were heading for the elevators, all of a sudden the doors we were about to pass through slammed in our face and alarms started going off. Needless to say everyone made a rush to the stairs and by the time I got Mommy Geek down to the base of the stairs she had her second asthma attack of the day. It was so bad we couldn't move her any more. Some of the con staff stayed with us till a staff member of the hotel brought as a wheelchair. The problem is they brought us a really small one that the average American could not fit in. The staff member then had to run back and get us a different chair. With this we were finally able to get her out of the building. As someone that has been a fire warden at one school and on VERT teams at other schools, the hotel would get the lowest of negative scores I could give for their horrible response to an emergency situation. The con staff were much better at handling the situation then the hotel was. Once again this hotel proved just how bad they are and that cons should find different venues. Once outside we were able to get her asthma attack under control and once they let the people return, I took the chair back in and we called it a night. 

This day had been a bit too much for us and we were just done with the day.

Picture 1 From: https://www.eventeny.com/events/coloradoanimefest2022-1816/?fbclid=IwAR2Whj2iVtllb4oHvlXvDYBzDB1nPuWfAYaYPhxWpcKZwaecbgAzJ25Znu0

All other pictures were taken by Geeked Colorado members.