This article has been updated to reflect new dates for Amazing Art Expo in Dallas and Knoxville as well as a guest cancellation. It was later updated again with the Big Charlotte Anime postponement.

According to The Weather Channel, a massive winter storm is expected to impact over 180 million Americans with snow and ice from Friday through Monday. The weather service reports that the storm will "hammer parts of the South, Midwest and Northeast" with potentially damaging ice and heavy snow stretching from New Mexico and Texas to portions of New England. Winter storm watches have been issued from New Mexico into the Southeast, with forecasters warning that impacts will be most severe in areas where winter storm warnings and ice storm warnings are eventually issued.

The storm has prompted several conventions to reschedule:

• Dice + Diversions (Atlanta, GA) has moved to February 20-22
• Knoxville AnimeDay (Knoxville, TN) has rescheduled for February 28
• Peli Con (Denham Springs, LA) has postponed significantly to September 26
• Atlanta Comic Convention (Atlanta, GA) will now take place February 15
• Pasadena Celebrity Comic Con (Pasadena, TX) has been cancelled entirely, with organizers offering attendees either refunds or deferments to their Houston convention in October
• Amazing Art Expo events in Dallas and Knoxville have both been moved to February 13-15 and February 27-March 1 respectively.
• Garden State Comic Fest (Augusta, NJ) has cancelled Sunday programming but extended Saturday hours
• Big Charlotte Anime i(Charlotte, NC) had originally confirmed the event "is still happening despite the potential winter weather advisory." On Friday, they postponed the event until June.

Despite the weather warnings, several conventions have announced they will proceed as planned. MystiCon in Roanoke, Virginia, stated that "MystiCon is proceeding as scheduled. Forecasts are still doing what winter forecasts love to do around the mountains: changing their minds every few hours. We're keeping an eye on things, but there is no change to the convention plans."

OurCons, which operates PokeKon Fest events in Hebron, KY and Greenville, NC, as well as FrankfortCon in Frankfort, KY, announced that "the show is still on and will not be cancelled." However, guest Matt Hill has cancelled his appearance at FrankfortCon due to weather.

Convention-goers planning to attend events in affected areas are strongly encouraged to monitor local weather conditions, check with individual conventions for the latest updates, and prioritize their safety when making travel decisions. With winter storm conditions rapidly evolving, organizers may issue additional updates as the weekend progresses.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator and administrator of FanCons.com. He was once stranded at Katsucon after a snow storm hit the area in 2003.

If I had a nickel for every Midwestern anime con whose non-profit leadership and now-former-convention leadership have been in conflict and recently got lawyers involved, then I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that there's two of them. The first is Ohayocon and the 501(c)(3) that governs it, Cultural Exchange Society Inc. (CESI). The full story is a bit on the longer side, but suffice to say, it began in earnest with a logo dispute. And like a long row of increasingly large dominos falling one after the other, this eventually led to mass resignations and a movement to boycott the con. A number of the con's now-former senior leaders have since risen from the ashes to form Sekai Guild, and are launching a new anime con called Sekaicon, whose inaugural event is currently scheduled to take place April 11-13, 2025 in Newark, OH. Following the incidents that took place in 2023 and 2024, CESI recently filed a lawsuit against Sekai Guild, who soon filed a response. Nerd & Tie's Trae Dorn summarizes here and here. But interesting as that all is, it's not what we're here to learn about today. Rather, that would be the other anime con in question: Minnesota's own Anime Detour (AD), whose parent company is 501(c)(3) non-profit Anime Twin Cities (ATC).

What are Anime Detour and Anime Twin Cities?

With its first event having taken place in 2004, AD is the oldest anime convention in Minnesota that's still in operation (and the second oldest in Minnesota overall behind only Schoolgirls and Mobilesuits, whose last event was in 2010). And with a reported attendance of over 8,100 people, it's almost certainly the largest anime-focused con in the state as well.

ATC was launched just a few years later, in 2006. In the earliest archived "About" section of their own website (2013), they state that their, "purpose is to conduct educational, charitable and social activities related to the promotion and study of Japanese culture, specifically animated movies and television programs ("anime") and graphic novels ("manga") as well as the study of the Japanese language as it is used in anime and manga."

This isn't the first time AD and ATC have found themselves at the center of public discussion. In 2019, longtime staff member and previous con chair Stephen Gifford Jr. was arrested and charged with third degree criminal sex conduct (per Minnesota Court Records Online, he would ultimately be convicted). He was "suspended from all Anime Detour events as well as staff." This story is detailed further on Nerd & Tie and Anime News Network (content warnings for rape and sexual assault). That being said, noteworthy as this is, there's nothing suggesting a direct link between this, and the events currently unfolding.

So what happened in 2024 then? Following a successful event that took place March 29-31, 2024, an internal investigation about then-con chair Troy MacDonald was launched. About two months later, at an ATC meeting that was publicly live streamed, MacDonald and three members of the executive team-which notably included then-board member Kristen Loth-were removed from their positions. MacDonald was also banned from ATC events indefinitely (with a minimum of one year). Possibly in response or otherwise due in some part to this (and I want to emphasize the word "possibly" as it's impossible to verify each individual's circumstances), days before the meeting, AD's staff page listed only two vacancies among 27 positions. But by August, there were now a whopping 20 vacancies among 28 positions. And as for the catalyst that caused all this, well, it depends on who you ask.

Asking around, you'll quickly find that there's plenty of theories and speculation with varying levels of plausibility about what led to this, although there's a handful of recurring story elements (anecdotally, I encountered many versions of the, "ATC wants more power" or "ATC doesn't like MacDonald" theories. To emphasize though: these are speculations, and unverified). Still, even the most plausible sounding theories are exactly that: only theories. And while it might be interesting to explain and further explore some of these theories as more facts come to light, the fact remains that as of now, they can only at best provide a hazy and partial image of what's going on right now. So with hopes of getting a clearer image of what's going on here, I decided to go directly to the sources and hear their side of the story:

The Anime Twin Cities Board's Version of Events

When describing what led to the removal of MacDonald, the ATC board's version of events is simple and straightforward: it was a necessary response to a growing pile of complaints made about him. "Troy was a bully, who thought that he was larger than the convention. A great number of past and present Detour staff, Department Heads, and Vice Chairs didn't want Troy to be the leader of Detour anymore," the ATC board told FanCons.com. The ATC board keeps the specific details of these complaints confidential, but told FanCons.com that they were "numerous," dated as far back as 2019 (and that he was previously spoken to about them in 2022, "and asked to see demonstrated change, which did not occur."), and they made an allegation that, "dozens of staff of all levels-including general staff, Department Heads, and even Vice Chairs, many of whom were appointed by Troy himself-[left] rather than continue to work with him."

The ATC board soon hired an attorney, who conducted an investigation that lasted 45 days. In the aforementioned live streamed meeting, he reveals the following results:

"It is my finding that Mr. MacDonald has on four different counts failed in his responsibilities to the corporation and this board. First, Mr. MacDonald as an executive officer, like all executive officers of this corporation, serves at the pleasure of the board. Minnesota law and this corporation's bylaws make it clear an executive officer can be removed with or without cause by the board. During his most recent interview with my investigator, Mr. MacDonald gave an answer, "I refused to answer on questions related to hostile work environment, workplace harassment and employment retaliation." As an executive officer Mr. MacDonald was required to participate and fully cooperate. He did not do so.

Count 2 are allegations made regarding workplace harassment, hostile work environment, and retaliation. My investigator and I found that the allegations made to be credible and that there were many victims of Mr. MacDonald's actions. Furthermore as of last week I was still receiving complaints regarding recent actions of Mr. MacDonald. As such I would indicate that this behavior is not in the past, but is ongoing.

Count 3 is based on an admission made by Mr. MacDonald during his interviews. Mr. MacDonald indicated he was a fiduciary or in control of corporate resources of value like spaces and contracts. Mr. MacDonald indicated to my investigator he did not document his usage of these financial resources. The board must demand of its executives that when they handle financial resources, that they document all their decisions in their decision making.

The last count, members of the board, is that by his own admission there were conflicts related to his control of financial assets at the convention. But Mr. MacDonald admitted he never during or after the conflicts notified those above him, the board, of disputes that occurred with corporate financial resources. In our investigation it appears that there were credible allegations that some individuals were intentionally financially harmed by Mr. MacDonald during the convention period."

Troy MacDonald's Version of Events

MacDonald tells FanCons.com that while he's been an attendee for longer, he's been staffing at AD since 2013 (as the con was preparing for the 2014 event). He became its chairman as quickly as 2018 (working toward the 2019 event).

MacDonald shared that he felt blindsided by the investigation and his subsequently being removed from his position, and told FanCons.com that he still isn't sure why this happened or what caused it. He claims that no issues were brought to his attention in an official capacity prior to his removal. Also of note, MacDonald alleges hearing as soon as the Sunday night of the 2024 convention that ATC board president Christina Kramer had been sending out emails to department head's personal emails, asking them to review him. MacDonald had no idea what he could've done to warrant this, and soon found himself suspended-and ultimately removed-for reasons he could only guess.

A few weeks later, he recalls getting a call from a private investigator who was hired by an attorney, who asked him questions that MacDonald describes as "vague" and "hard to track." "I wasn't told what was being investigated," he told FanCons.com, "There was a few topics that I was asked questions on-I was never once asked questions about any sort of monies. I don't know what they were looking for-I have no answers." He'd further clarify that while he doesn't remember if there were any general questions about finances, he wasn't asked about any specific transactions.

When asked what he was asked about, MacDonald mentioned banned individuals (including ones who were banned by the ATC board), and "historical events." His attorney clarified that the private investigator "explicitly told" he and his client that he wasn't familiar with ATC or AD. He was given a list of questions, and that more or less seemed to be it. So if MacDonald would ask for further detail, the investigator couldn't offer substantial answers. All the same, the attorney told MacDonald "to answer all the questions that were asked." Following this investigation, MacDonald recalls there being a second question and answer period, followed by silence, and then finally the fateful meeting.

Loth feels similarly in the dark about her own removal. Similarly to MacDonald, she claims she was caught completely off-guard by these whirlwind events happening fresh off the heel of a successful year for AD, and ATC didn't make it clear to her what she had supposedly done wrong. The reason given in the meeting where she was ultimately removed was, "sharing confidential information with unauthorized individuals" (it's never specified further than this) but she's unsure what, specifically, it's in reference to-what information she allegedly shared, and to whom she allegedly shared it with.

What Happens Now?

So to recap: in a nutshell, the ATC board alleges that this was all predicated by what could diplomatically be described as a track record of unprofessional behavior by MacDonald. Specific details of what that means, however, haven't been forthcoming. Meanwhile, MacDonald alleges that he has no idea what ATC is taking issue with because they haven't told him, and that the investigation was shallow and flimsy.

Publicly available social media posts, including (but not limited to) a thread on the matter on r/animecons, suggest that there's a significant degree of backlash against ATC amongst a number of members of AD's community-many of whom seemingly either support MacDonald, dislike ATC, and/or don't like the way the ATC went about this. Furthermore, in the time since this, there's been a lot of discourse amongst AD's community over the legality of what happened-especially with regards to whether or not ATC broke their own bylaws by doing all of this. Not being a lawyer, however, I'm not well-equipped to discuss this at length. That being said, when we spoke, the ATC board told FanCons.com that they didn't have plans of pursuing legal action relating to this incident. However, MacDonald, Loth, and a number of other involved parties have retained lawyers and intend on pursuing legal action. And on Monday, March 24, 2025, they filed a lawsuit against ATC alleging wrongful denial of access to records, violations of the Minnesota Nonprofit Corporations Act, and defamation. Among the counts listed are unlawful organization of bylaws committee, Loth's unlawful suspension and discipline, MacDonald's investigation, suspension, removal, and termination of membership, improperly held elections and annual meeting, false report to police, and censorship of public ATC Board meetings, deletion of ATC records, and abuse of access rights.

The latter two allegations come from after the meeting wrapped up. For starters, the false police report: the lawsuit alleges that the ATC board suspected that the public backlash against them had been "either directly or indirectly" conducted by MacDonald. Of note: the plaintiffs-which include him-allege having done no such thing. The allegation continues that "one or more of the Defendants anonymously called the Eagan Police Department and requested a wellness check (also known as welfare check) on MacDonald…Defendants' request for a wellness check was only pretense, the call to the Eagan Police Department was made for the purpose of intimidating or harassing MacDonald, in an attempt to silence the social media posts upsetting the Defendants, which they erroneously attribute to him."

Worth noting about this ostensible wellness check is that MacDonald had been residing with his elderly parents at the time, and it's claimed that the police specifically asked to speak to his parents. This all happened during the morning-when MacDonald, as is alleged all the defendants know, is often asleep.

And then, there's censorship of public ATC Board meetings, deletion of ATC records, and abuse of access rights. To summarize: it's alleged that ATC board member and AD head of technology services, Bruce Levine, "selectively muted participants, including ATC members, in multiple regular ATC board meetings," "permanently deleted member comments from recordings of ATC board meetings," and "continued to delete comments from recordings of ATC board meetings after ATC board received an April 18, 2024, preservation notice from [Loth], by way of her counsel."

Loth shared a small number of recordings of ATC board meetings with the YouTube live chat feed visible with FanCons.com. However, in large part due to recording quality, FanCons.com hasn't been able to verify the extent to which comments have been removed as alleged in these uploads. To be clear: this only applies to comments in the live chat on YouTube; not, say, comments left later in the main comment section, or comments on other platforms.

That comments have been deleted from relevant posts is an allegation that was also notably made by Twin Cities Game Fest in June 2024, when they posted the following: "Hey folks. So on the Anime Twin Cities and Anime Detour pages, people have been asking valid questions about actions taken by the board. Comments on their YouTube channel have been deleted and or/altered. They are outright censoring people who are asking for clarification, and wanting the truth for what is actually happening. I am working to utilize my Twin Cities Game Fest Facebook page and Discord servers to help facilitate discussion so people can actually really find out what is happening without their voice being silenced."

Is There a Boycott?

As of time of writing, there's no formal movement to boycott the convention. In fact, Loth and MacDonald told FanCons.com that they had no plans of encouraging a boycott, as despite everything that's happened to them, they both still have a great love for Anime Detour. Loth, in particular, told FanCons.com that while she'd love to go, she doubted she'd be allowed to. In her words, this belief is "based off of the way people have treated me on social media, from the people who are now running the event. I haven't been told that I can't, but I would assume that they wouldn't want me to be there, so I'm not attempting." When asked to elaborate on the way she's been treated on social media, Loth alleged that following the incident, she's been blocked and/or unfriended by several people who remained on staff. Furthermore, she received a cease and desist from an attorney representing ATC. Loth, however, isn't sure what it's in reference to.

"I haven't been saying anything on social media because I'm not trying to make things worse, I'm not trying to inflame the situation. Even with not doing so-and I've gone back through my social media to review multiple times, to see if there's anything that can even be misconstrued as talking about them-and I still received a cease and desist [from an attorney representing ATC] basically of them accusing me of doing bad things on social media to them that I have not done," she told FanCons.com, whom she and her lawyer shared the cease and desist letter with. She would further clarify, "They also didn't tell me what I said, supposedly. They just said that I was doing it. But not what it was. So again: even if I had been doing something, I don't know what am I supposed to stop? Because I haven't been informed of what I've done." Noticeably, this allegation greatly resembles the wellness check mentioned in the lawsuit filing. When asked about the cease and desist (which was later than our previous correspondence, and after the lawsuit had been filed), ATC responded: "As we are currently embroiled in a legal situation we cannot further comment on these matters at this time."

Anime Detour 2025 is scheduled to happen March 28-30 at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency Hotel. Prior to the filing of the lawsuit, the ATC Board told FanCons.com that they believe the backlash will "absolutely not" have an effect on Anime Detour 2025's attendance.

As 2024 draws to a close, we are taking a look back on the year and setting some goals for the next year of the FanCons.com site. In 2024, we listed 2,008 events. This is a significant increase from ten years ago when we only listed 864 events. In fact, we've consistently listed around 2,000 events each year for the past five years. With so many conventions and a small volunteer staff, it's become increasingly difficult to keep up.

After reviewing our options and the types of information being submitted, we've decided to make some changes to our policies to better align with the original purpose of the site.

I launched AnimeCons.com in late 2003 as a site intended to list every known anime convention—past, present, and future. In that year, there were 147 anime conventions. (It's possible a few were missed initially and added later.) Over the years, the number of anime conventions grew, and the distinction between anime conventions and other "pop-culture" conventions began to blur. I started receiving more and more submissions for conventions that were anime-adjacent, making it increasingly difficult to determine which events should be listed and which should be excluded.

At the beginning of 2012, I launched FanCons.com to address this issue. While both sites shared a common database, AnimeCons.com would only display conventions with anime programming, while FanCons.com expanded to include any type of fan convention. This allowed submissions for comic, furry, horror, sci-fi, and other conventions. A few years later, I created specific sites for some of these sub-genres, making it easier for fans to find conventions focused on fantasy, furry, horror, science fiction, steampunk, toys, and video games. After the initial setup of each site, they required minimal maintenance, as they all pulled data from the same FanCons.com database. Fortunately, I've had several volunteers who've helped curate this data, making it possible to manage without having to do it all myself.

In recent years, particularly after conventions resumed following the COVID shutdown, we've seen a surge in submissions for collectible and hobbyist shows, including card shows, pin collecting shows, swap meets, and fan marketplaces. These events are often held multiple times a year—sometimes monthly. As you can imagine, keeping up with literally hundreds of submissions for these events has taken time away from other important tasks, such as processing submissions for traditional conventions, adding missing guest listings, or finishing development on a new member registration system to replace our long-broken one. While we've previously rejected submissions for events that focused exclusively on sports cards, we've allowed others (especially those selling Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon cards) to slip through. Unfortunately for those show promoters, that will soon be changing.

To better manage our resources and maintain the site's original purpose, we're refocusing FanCons.com on fan conventions. While collectible events attract large crowds, they often lack the type of programming or interactive content that typically defines a fan convention. Going forward, we want to list events where you can go and participate in convention programming. We want to feature gaming events where attendees can play games, not just buy cards. We want to list comic conventions where you can engage with others about comics, not merely browse tables of back issues for sale. We want to feature toy conventions that celebrate fandoms like Lego, My Little Pony, or Transformers rather than events which only have vendors selling vintage Hot Wheels or Barbies. If you see a video game convention listed, we want it to be a convention where attendees can actively participate in gameplay or tournaments. However, tournaments alone are not actually conventions.

To achieve this, we will no longer accept submissions for collectible shows, swap meets, flea markets, or geek marketplaces. Additionally, we will stop listing weekly or monthly events being held at comic or collectible shops that are promoted as "conventions" or "mini-cons". (This includes guest appearances at stores which are promoted as a "convention".) Some events may still blur the line, and we anticipate having to make some tough decisions. We understand that some event promoters may be disappointed or upset with these changes, but after carefully considering our options, we believe they are necessary to maintain the site's integrity and focus.

These updates are now reflected in our Policy on Listed Events, which also outlines other event types we do not list, such as club meetings, film festivals, concerts, bar crawls, music festivals, and karaoke contests. Any events currently listed that do not meet the new criteria will remain in our database, but we will no longer publish future dates for these types of events.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator and administrator of FanCons.com. He has attended 195 fan conventions since attending his first in 1991. Thanks to his son, he's also frequently attending train shows (but those get listed somewhere else entirely).

On December 17th, FanCons.com reached a significant achievement as its convention database surpassed 25,000 entries. Launched in October 2003 as AnimeCons.com, the database initially focused on anime conventions before expanding in 2012 to include events from a broader range of genres, leading to the creation of FanCons.com.

The database has grown steadily over the years, reaching 5,000 conventions in June 2014, 10,000 by December 2017and 15,000 by March 2020. By October 2022, it had surpassed 20,000 conventions, and with the recent addition of the 25,000th entry, the site continues to serve as an invaluable resource for convention enthusiasts worldwide.

The 25,000th entry was Con Nichiwa 2024, an anime convention hosted by Monkey Paw Entertainment in Tucson, Arizona, in November 2024. This convention is one of several retroactively added during a week-long review process to ensure that no past or upcoming events were missed.

While Con Nichiwa 2024 marks the milestone convention, it highlights the ongoing effort to ensure that conventions of all sizes and genres are accurately represented in the database. The inclusion of retroactive entries like this demonstrates the site's commitment to being as comprehensive as possible in its coverage of fan conventions.

In addition to conventions, FanCons.com also tracks convention guests, with 8,693 entries, including notable figures such as actor Michael Ironside and comic writer Ron Marz.

Looking ahead, FanCons.com plans to continue growing its database, with a focus on documenting conventions from all over the world. This includes not only current and upcoming events but also historical conventions, going as far back as the first known fan convention in 1889. The site's ultimate goal is to provide a comprehensive archive of fan convention history, preserving important events for future generations.

Despite its extensive coverage, many conventions are still missing from the database. FanCons.com encourages event organizers to submit their conventions for inclusion, with new submissions reviewed for accuracy before being added.

The data on FanCons.com and its affiliated sites (AnimeCons.com, FantasyCons.com, FurryCons.com, HorrorCons.com, SciFiCons.com, SteampunkCons.com, ToyCons.com, and VideoGameCons.com) is maintained by a team of volunteers dedicated to ensuring the database remains up-to-date and accurate.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator of FanCons.com. He has attended 195 fan conventions since attending his first in 1991.

Having looked at literally every convention web site in order to add them to FanCons.com, I've seen a lot of great web sites and plenty of terrible ones. Sometimes a site might be designed well, but missing essential information. Other times, the convention might have a bare-bones design, but they at least have all the information out there.

Mandatory Pages

There are some pages which should always be included:

1. A Home Page
   Obviously. Can you even have a web site without a home page? In any case, this will likely be the first page people see, so it should always include essential information:
   • Name of the convention
     Pick a spelling, spacing, and capitalization and stick with it. Avoid referring to yourself as "YattaCon", "Yatacon", "Yattakon", and "Yatta Con" in different places.
   • Dates of the convention
     Include the year too so that people know it's up-to-date and not leftover from last year.
   • Location of the convention
     Be specific and give the full hotel name and the town. Make sure to include the full name of the hotel since if you're just saying "Holiday Inn" and there are two Holiday Inns in town, people might go to the wrong one!
   • Convention description
     Tell people what your convention is and don't assume they'll figure it out. It's amazing how many convention web sites don't do this simple thing. All you really need is a paragraph which says something along the lines of, "Founded in 2005, YattaCon is an anime and tabletop gaming convention with a regionally recognized cosplay contest, 25,000 sq ft dealers' room, and an artists' alley featuring over 250 independent artists."
   Although some smaller cons will squeeze all their information onto the home page, at some point it will become ridiculously long and you should really split everything out into separate pages.
2. Location / Hotel
   This page should list your venue. Again, be specific about the venue name since there might be more than one "Marriott" or "Embassy Suites" in town. Link directly to your hotel's registration page...especially if there's a page which gives attendees a discounted rate. Give people a physical address of your venue to plug into their GPS. If your convention isn't in a hotel, consider providing links to some nearby hotels. Even if your event is only one day, vendors from out of town may be unfamiliar with the area and might appreciate the recommendations.
3. Registration / Tickets
   This might seem obvious, but some conventions actually do not give any information on how much it costs to get in. It's best to give a complete picture of what it's going to cost people to get in the door. List your current online registration rates. If the rates go up at some point, tell people when and what the new rate will be. You'll find they're more likely to sign-up early if they know it's going to save them $10 to do it today versus waiting until next week or next month. Also, be sure to mention what the cost will be at the door, especially if it costs more to pay there.
4. Guests
   If your convention has guests, you'll need a page where you can list them all. Some conventions with many guests might break these out into multiple pages such as actors, comic artists, cosplayers, etc. On the guest page, you'd want to list the guests and provide a photo and short biography of each guest. Some conventions list guests in alphabetical order, some list them in the order they were announced, some will list in order of perceived importance and status, and a few conventions seemingly list guests in completely random order for unknown reasons. At the very least, make sure your list is up-to-date and don't only post announcements on social media. When you start planning for next year's convention, make sure to take down last year's guest list so attendees don't assume the same guests are coming back again.
5. Contact Information
   People will have questions. They might be attendees, guests, or vendors, but they will need a way to contact you or your convention's staff. Provide contact e-mail addresses for various departments (or use a contact form if you don't want to reveal the e-mail addresses to spammers). You might want to set up a Google Voice number for voice mails, but only if you'll actually check the mailbox regularly. A lot of conventions don't have a physical mailing address, but a contact page would be a good place to put it if you do. This page could also be a good place to link to your social media. You might also want to include text telling people to contact the hotel directly if they have questions related to their hotel room.
6. Policies
   Once your convention has grown beyond a simple club meeting with a couple dozen people, you definitely need to set some rules if you haven't already. Publish these rules on your site so that people can't claim you never told them something was against the rules and so you can point to a rule or policy when needed. Among your policies, you should include your current COVID-19 policy (because, yes, it's still out there). Also, a well-written code of conduct or anti-harassment policy is essential and Cosplayer Survivor Support Network has a helpful sample harassment policy and also rates conventions' existing policies.

Recommended Pages

Some additional pages you might find useful:

1. News
   It's great to have a place where you can post news and announcements about the convention. If your pre-registration has gone live or you want to tell people about the latest guest, this is the place to let people know. Yes, you can also announce on social media, but those posts often get buried. Keep a record of all your announcements on your site with the latest at the top.
2. Programming
   You've undoubtedly planned some programming for your convention. Contests, panels, game rooms, video game tournaments, or other exciting things to keep attendees entertained. Promote them! Let people know what kinds of events you're doing. This is also a good place to post a schedule once it's ready.
3. About / History
   Even if you included a brief summary of your convention on the home page, there's surely a lot more information you can share. If you've been around a while, you might even want to provide stats showing your convention's growth over the years.
4. Frequently Asked Questions
   If you're being asked the same questions over and over, then there's an issue you probably need to address. If people are asking who your guests are, you should add or modify your guests page to state that guests will be listed there upon announcement. If people are asking how much it costs to attend your convention, then the pricing on your registration or ticketing page might not be clear. However, there are often some other questions you'll get that don't really fit in any existing page. In those cases, a FAQ could be a timesaver. You could always start with some general questions (such as "Can I cosplay at the convention?") and then add to it later as other common questions come up.
5. Volunteering
   Nobody can run a convention by themselves. Everyone needs help. Why not create a page on your site by listing open staff or volunteer positions and try to recruit some help? Be sure to not only list a description of the job you're trying to fill and the expected number of hours they'll have to work, but list what benefits staff and/or volunteers at your convention will receive. Common benefits are: free admission, staff shirt, hotel lodging (often shared with other staff members), a certain number of meals, and other benefits like priority access to events or autographs while off-duty.

What Not to Include

Finally, there are some things you want to avoid having on your site:

1. Splash Pages
   This isn't 2005 anymore. Avoid using a "splash page" that people have to click on before getting to the home page. It delays people from reaching your home page and gives them an opportunity to click away before seeing your content. Splash pages will annoy repeat visitors and can also hurt your convention's search engine ranking.
2. Ads
   Are you running your convention site to advertise your convention or to make money from site visitors? Really, ads are just as out of place on a convention site as they would be on the site for your favorite restaurant.
3. Temporary Pages
   If you have a guest page up and don't have any guests yet, that's fine. Tell people on that page, "Guest announcements are coming soon!" However, if you plan to put up an "About Us" page, wait until it's ready before you start linking to it and don't post it with placeholder text like "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua." Some Wordpress installs default to having pages which say something like "Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!" Never leave that page up!
4. Attendee Lists
   Some conventions, particularly sci-fi and furry cons, used to like to publish lists of everyone who was attending so that people would be able to see if any of their friends were attending. In the last decade or so, such lists have been less welcome because they're handy for stalkers to see if their victims will be there. Some conventions even fought resistance and continued publishing the lists because "That's how we've always done it!" By now, this concept is now viewed as outdated and an invasion of privacy.
5. Incorrect Guest Information
   This might seem obvious, but it actually happens quite often. Usually the convention updates their web site to display next year's dates in the header, but they leave last year's guest list up. Now attendees, particularly those who were unfamiliar with last year's guest list, assume that all these guests will be at the next convention.
   Also, if a guest cancels, that should be noted. Do not simply delete the guest from the list. Let people know they have cancelled. (You don't have to say why.) If you simply delete the guest like they were never announced, people may not notice they're no longer listed and be disappointed when they show up expecting a certain guest to be there. There's no shame in having a guest cancel, so go ahead and tell people and list the guest as "cancelled".
6. The "Comic Convention Website" Wix Template
   Using Wix to host your small convention's web site is fine. Plenty of conventions will use it when they're just starting out. However, although you might be tempted and it might seem like a good choice, absolutely do not use the "Comic Convention Website Template" they offer. On its own, it's fine...except that at least half the other conventions hosted by Wix also use that template. Your site will end up looking almost exactly like those. Attendees familiar with that other con might even assume both conventions are run by the same organization...which might be a problem if that other con is not great. Pick a template other cons aren't using...or at least one that's not used by so many!

I hope you find this helpful in planning and organizing your convention's new web site. The web site, if it includes all the necessary information, can be your biggest and best option for marketing your convention.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator of AnimeCons.com which eventually spawned FanCons.com. He is one of the founders of both Anime Boston and Providence Anime Conference. Patrick has attended nearly 200 fan conventions and viewed well over 4,500 convention web sites.

Ohayocon finds itself embroiled in controversy. This long-running event, a favorite for anime enthusiasts, is now facing a boycott and allegations of mismanagement.

At the heart of the issue lies the formation of Cultural Exchange Society Inc. (CESI) in late 2022 by Ohayocon owner Melissa Phelps. This move aimed to secure non-profit status for the convention. However, doubts arose shortly after with the emergence of Conventions of Ohio Volunteer Event Network (COVEN), a collective formed by former Ohayocon volunteers. COVEN voiced concerns about volunteer representation, financial transparency, and particularly, Phelps' potential salary.

Things further escalated when the convention's logo (a red cross) was discovered to violate the Geneva Conventions. A blue version may have potentially violated Blue Cross Blue Shield's trademark and a sakura blossom version may have been too similar to the logo for Sakura of America. What may have been an inconsequential logo change at other conventions ended up becoming a flashpoint for deeper anxieties, igniting a dispute over the logo design and fueling questions about CESI's leadership.

On October 2nd, the convention director and the director of marketing were abruptly removed from their positions. This sudden dismissal, perceived by many as a "mass firing" or even "union-busting," sent shockwaves through the community. CESI countered these accusations, claiming that volunteers, due to their status, cannot form unions.

The result was a fractured community. Over 90 individuals, including former leadership and volunteers, have declared a boycott of Ohayocon 2024. The convention's official Discord server has transformed into a platform for criticism and heated discussions.

Despite the turmoil, Ohayocon 2024 is scheduled to go ahead as planned from January 19-21. However, the shadow of controversy looms large, leaving many to wonder about the future of this iconic Ohio event. The situation remains complex, with accusations and evidence swirling from both sides.

Anime News Network has a very detailed write-up of the entire fiasco which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to know more and anyone planning to attend the convention this weekend.

The following interview with Brian Cutler, President of Otakorp and Chairman of Otakon was conducted at Otakon 2023 by Doug Wilder of our AnimeCons TV podcast. This was originally planned to be a podcast episode, but had to be transcribed due to poor audio quality.

Doug Wilder: Alright, we're here at Otakon with Brian Cutler, the President of Otakon for this year. So, I've been going to Otakon for quite some time. One of the things I kind of wanted to start with is, first off, I wanted to say congratulations because I think you guys really fixed a lot of the lines that a lot of people kind of complained about for last year. This year, especially, the convention really hit its stride for using the space in the convention center. How do you feel about that? Is there any special challenges or anything that you guys looked at?

Brian Cutler: Sure. So, thank you for that feedback because a large amount of work that went into planning for this year was trying to figure out how best to better utilize the space to spread our membership throughout the buildings better. Because we had a lot of feedback last year about the lining situations. And our opening the back of L Street in the south building as well as enabling a better line situation in the Marriott really did alleviate the concerns. I think that there's still some room for improvement in a couple areas, but overall we're extremely pleased with the turnout of the new ingress plans. Again, it's a huge help. The funniest thing I heard all weekend was someone was in line for ten minutes waiting for a drink and they said, "This is the worst line I've been in all weekend!"

Doug: That's really good to hear! One of the big pieces for the convention this year was you had Big West and their presence and I heard a lot of staffers put a lot of effort into making that happen. Can you speak to that?

Brian: Yeah, so that was a huge collaborative effort. We started that back in October. We had some meetings with a few of the representatives from Big West and that's been nearly constant, touch base with them every week, every few days. We've been in contact with them just to make sure things happened without a hitch and the involvement of the guests that we managed to get from the Macross series also made this extremely special.

Doug: So moving forward at Otakon, what do you see as some future challenges or things that maybe you're excited to look forward to for the convention?

Brian: So right now we're evaluating, as I always do, I evaluate the space usage. So, we're looking at what's popular as far as what's being attended, what's not being attended, right-sizing rooms. I think I finally got a few of the rooms to the right sizes. The locations are getting better. We added the featured event space down in the Marquis which turned out to be extremely, extremely well received and well executed so I'm looking at that. And as we continue to choose which guests we invite, we're looking at trends as far as musical guests and opportunities to get things like mangaka and that sort of guest to come next year.

Doug: To play onto the opposite of that, because Otakon's been around for a good long time, what are some of the things that maybe you've seen in the past that you'd like to try and bring back like maybe a guest or style of event or things like that?

Brian: As far as moving next year, I think we're looking at bringing back things like Thursday events. That's something that we've really been exploring over the past few years because it was so well received in Baltimore.

Doug: A matsuri.

Brian: A matsuri, yes, exactly. Some sort of street festival or content in the building if we can swing it even if it's limited. But it's something that we're exploring especially to celebrate our 30th anniversary, that's something that we can perform too.

Doug: That's going to be amazing!

Brian: Yes!

Doug: That's makes me feel old... [laughter] Well, is there anything else noteworthy that you want to want to mention about the convention this year or want to shout out or anything?

Brian: Sure! Last year we had an explosion in attendance. I would say that we are continuing the upward trend and we have definitely surpassed our attendance mark from last year.

Doug: That's great to hear.

Brian: Yeah, so we are still growing and also the convention center still has room to grow with us which I think is really important. Once we work out a few more of our logistical issues, and it may be just changing the start times of some things just to ease congestion where we can, I think next year's really going to be extremely special and I hope that everyone can feel that and we can continue the success of Otakon.

Doug: Great! Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.

Brian: Thank you.

Today, the FanCons.com convention database has passed the 20,000 convention milestone. The database began in October 2003 to power AnimeCons.com, but expanded beyond anime conventions with the creation of FanCons.com in early 2012. The 10,000th convention was added in December 2017.

The 20,000th convention to be added was LumaCon 2023 which is scheduled to take place in January 2023 in Petaluma, California. LumaCon is a small, free one-day comic convention organized by librarians in Petaluma. The convention is targeted toward kids and features an artists' alley with professional artists mixed in among local student artists. 2023 will be LumaCon's eighth year of in-person events (in addition to two online-only events during the COVID-19 pandemic).

The FanCons.com site also has a database of guests which passed 7,500 guests just over a month ago and has recently added such notable guests as actor Oscar Isaac and horror movie host Svengoolie.

We plan to continue cataloging information on the next 20,000 conventions around the world and adding historical information on past conventions going as far back as the first known fan convention back in 1889. There are still many, many more conventions out there. Any convention organizers who don't see their conventions listed can submit them. After the submission is reviewed for accuracy, the information will be added.

All of the data available through FanCons.com and its affiliated sites (AnimeCons.com, FantasyCons.com, FurryCons.com, HorrorCons.com, SteampunkCons.com, ToyCons.com, and VideoGameCons.com) has been painstakingly entered by hand by a team of unpaid volunteers with an appreciation and love for conventions.

Patrick Delahanty is the creator of FanCons.com and executive producer of AnimeCons TV. He has attended 191 fan conventions since attending his first in 1991.

Otakorp, the parent company of Otakon, has sent out a newsletter which conveys rather dire circumstances for the future of the convention. In it, Otakorp President Brooke Zerrlaut states that they will need to "make a decision to continue planning for Otakon 2021, or potentially close our doors forever." The convention is seeking donations to help strengthen its finances.

The full text of the message is as follows. (Emphasis is theirs.)

A Message from the President
As much as we hope you love coming to Otakon, we love making it happen even more. We were devastated to have to cancel Otakon 2020. In a year where so much was going wrong, we held onto every chance to do something positive, but were ultimately unable to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we turn the page on 2020, we're hopeful and looking forward to a better 2021.

Now, more than ever, Otakorp needs your help.

As you may be aware, Otakon is the annual convention of Otakorp, Inc. Otakorp is an all-volunteer run, nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization, whose mission is to promote the appreciation of Asian culture and its fandom, primarily through its media (anime, manga, music, movies, video games, etc.). As a volunteer organization, every dollar that we make from our memberships goes towards realizing that mission to promote and celebrate Asian culture, and our largest event is our annual meeting - Otakon. We use the proceeds from each year to plan the next Otakon and make sure we survive until then. So without the income from Otakon 2020, and the early pre-registrations we would normally see at this time of year, we are in a very precarious position. Put simply, in the next few months we will have to make a decision to continue planning for Otakon 2021, or potentially close our doors forever.

We are hopeful. Our decision will come at a pivotal time during the rollout of the vaccine. We continue to work with our partners in DC to explore options to safely gather later this year. In the meantime, family, friendship, and community are more important than ever to stay connected. Because of this, it is even more crucial that we do not fail in our mission.

That is why we are reaching out for the first time ever, and asking you to help us continue our work together. Otakon and Otakorp have always existed because of you, the community that has funded, advocated, volunteered, and celebrated with us since the beginning. We recognize that this comes at a time when we all continue to face great challenges. Your generosity will enable us to survive to continue planning for our next events, just as soon as it is safe to do so.

Making a 100% tax-deductible donation, large or small, is the safest, simplest, and most effective way to support our organization and Otakon as we adapt to ever-changing circumstances due to COVID-19.

We have shared so many experiences over the years and we hope to be able to share many more. It is because of you that we continue to strive to live up to our motto - By fans, for fans.

Thank You!!

Brooke Zerrlaut
President, Otakorp, Inc.

Most conventions have cancelled in the last year with many of them needing to wait for the government to prohibit conventions from taking place in order for the convention to take advantage of a "force majeure" clause in contracts. This clause allows the convention to be cancelled without cancellation fees or penalties. In the event the government hasn't prohibited conventions from taking place during the pandemic, this would force a convention to either cancel (paying large cancellation fees) or take place (potentially putting people at risk and having reduced attendance). It's a difficult position that may affect more conventions going forward.

Last May, our AnimeCons TV podcast interviewed the Otakon 2020 Convention Chair and the 2020 Otakorp President. The episode may be watched on the animecons.tv site or on YouTube.

On April 9th, we announced that April 2020 was the first conventionless month in over 40 years as the final convention scheduled for that month was cancelled. After some research, we found there hadn't been another calendar month without any sort of fan convention since at least January 1974.

Most May 2020 conventions had already been cancelled or postponed by the start of the month, but the second half of the month still had some conventions that were holding out and had not announced cancellations. The final convention on the calendar was a comic convention in Miami, Florida that was still scheduled for May 30th. Yesterday, on the 26th day of May (or what feels like the 87th day of March), they updated their web site and social media with their new date for the increasingly popular weekend of October 10th while never actually mentioning the old date was cancelled.

Although our database of old conventions is incomplete, the last time we have a record of there being two consecutive calendar months without any conventions was back in December 1973 and January 1974. If you know of any conventions held in those months (or any we're missing in our database from any year), please let us know!

This weekend will be the 11th consecutive weekend without any conventions taking place anywhere on the planet. As of publication time, the next scheduled convention is North Texas RPG Con, a gaming convention being held June 4-7 in Irving, Texas. According to their Facebook group, they still plan to move forward with the event, but have moved most games online and estimate that in-person attendance will be under 100 people with games limited to no more than 6 people per table.

The following weekend in June also only has a single convention. Currently, there are only 16 conventions left on the calendar for all of June 2020. Keep checking our convention listing on FanCons.com for the latest updates on cancellations, postponements, and new dates.