NDK 2022: Overview

This post will look at things that expanded over all three days of the con.

Dealers Room

Like last year, it was help in a very large room. This was actually great because you did not have the crowding issues and not has many people were pushing to get to look at things. This set up is actually much more friendly to people with mobility issues and would allow for mobility devices. In the back corner they had a section blocked off for the 18+ crowd. Yes, the products in this section were for adults, but I found it weird how even with that many of the booths were still censoring their products. For example, on artist still had the "naughty" bits covered with stickers. The funniest product I saw while in here were the penis plushies. Yes...penis plushies. I was slightly tempted to buy one just for the laugh value, but they were a bit on the higher end of the price scale for me to just by to laugh at. At least they had a diversity in colors. For the most part most of the other items were about the same as normal, but the prices on most things have massively climbed. It's said when a small Pokemon plushie will cost you $80. 

The one item I did see that stood out was an ITA styled coat. If you are not familiar with the ITA trend it is the purses with a clear plastic peak window where people can then display pins and keychains without worrying about losing them. This one booth had coats that had these peak windows on them where you could display your pins and keychains in the same way. This trend has become very popular and other designers and knock off specialists are turning out similar products to meet the demands.

https://peachiieshop.com/collections/ita-jackets/products/oni-in-stock-ita-jacket?variant=37923939156154

Kimono Exhibit

When asked if the con was a good one it is very complicated to answer. I would say the con is good, but the over all experience was not. I have been attending this con at several different venues since the early 2000s and have seen this can evolve. Most of the issues this con experienced this year came from the venue, the Gaylord Hotel and Resort. There were a lot of issues with them last year and many of these issues continued into this year.

Itasha Car Show

It is always fun seeing the Itasha cars. This time though there were also some bikes. Most of the cars I had seen and photographed at other events. Here is the link for a quick walk through: https://www.tiktok.com/@geekedcolorado/video/7138870936291462446?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 

Parking

Even though this is supposed to be a major convention hotel parking is horrible. When they built this place they did not build enough parking lots and they really need a major parking structure to be able to handle even a small sized con. The inside my be able to handle large crowds, but how to the crowds get here. There is no public transport that comes directly to this place since they chose to build it in the middle of nowhere. There was a shuttle being offered that would run from an RTD parking lot, but the shuttle did not run the full hours of the con, let alone extended hours to help people get back and forth before and after the con hours. Many complaints were made about this last year as well and nothing was done by either the hotel or the con. The hotel thinks that it is too good to pay attention to the negative experiences that people have there. These issues don't even cover the confusion around the parking price or how expensive it is to park. Even getting to this con by other methods is very expensive because of how far it is from everything.

For those that this was their con they only got to experience the negative aspects and it was hard for them to find the positive. These experiences are real and can impact if a person returns or not. Picture from NDK's Facebook page.

Picture from NDK's Facebook page.

Picture from NDK's Facebook page.

Picture from NDK's Facebook page.

This last one really stood out to me because it also shows that there was also some bullying going on towards those that were brave enough to speak up about their negative experiences. Like I also posted on this thread and was attacked to the point where I just deleted the post because of how nasty people were being. In my post I said that I would be covering these negative experiences and was attacked for just being a whiner. These experiences are real and many people had them. 

Mothers' Rooms

For a big fancy hotel they do not have even the basic things that visitors needs. One of these is mothers' rooms. These are very basic sitting areas that even most department stores have where women can go to breast feed or or pump milk. For a big convention hotel that is supposed to be "modern" they are missing this. I don't know if they expect people to do this in their room, but they are forgetting that has an event center many people coming will not be spending the night and they need spaces for the public to be able to do this. To be truthful even as a women I hadn't noticed this in the past. The only reason why I noticed this was because one of my friends attending the con was forced to pump milk in a toilet stall. This is unacceptable and is a form of discrimination against women. So much for a "modern" hotel.

Other Issues

There were also many other issues that I heard about from others. This included cars from the car show getting towed, photographers getting kicked out, the hotel turning off the waterfalls so people couldn't take pictures. Just all around not a good con from many people that I have talked to or even seen their posts online.

The Good?

The only really "good" things in relation to the hotel this year is that they did have a couple of water stations and they did have a few signs up on a couple of bathrooms making them gender neutral. They also did not keep up with the water station and later in the evening as we were getting ready to go there was no water to be had.

I keep hoping for the best for this con, but it just seems that things have gone down hill since they moved to the Gaylord. I hope that as soon as their contract ends that they move elsewhere, maybe even the convention center downtown.