Coverage from NMAC '08

Well, it's finally done.
Northern Michigan Anime Convention '08 (AKA Ani-Pock Con ;) ) debuted this last weekend in Traverse City, MI, USA.

It was seriously three months maximum of planning, that's all, and it all came together in one day! Now I've finally had time to rest, recover from the fatigue sickness I got from all of the planning and event day stress, and I've got my computer running now since I nearly broke it after all of the work I was doing in the final days before the con!
But I do report that NMAC was a hit. We certainly have a great convention set up for next year.
I do not believe any A-Pers came up this weekend in attendance, but it was still quite the little event.

First off, opening ceremony introduced a different kind of masquerade event, Mr. & Mrs. NMA, which, as I've said, and you can quote me, is like prom king and queen for those of us who never stood a chance. Well we crowned two winners, the queen got a tiara and the king, a Nabeshin fro. They got lunch with special guest Tiffany "Asuka" Grant, got neat gift bags, and even got the first dance during the closing ceremony and dance.
If you ever wanted to see Kip... well... here I am in the opening con video. Guess which one I am (not the married one).

(Additional note: Ladies, I'm not the married one!)

Miss Grant, our guest of honor was a hoot! She is quite a personable gal and very flexible with all the things we had her doing. She even helped judge the Mr. & Mrs. competition. Baka Savant Productions premiered their latest movie to the con as our opening film. They are a talented bunch of parodists from within the state who use World of Warcraft as their engine for storytelling in their online video series, "The Chronicle of the Annoying Quest". Both Baka and Tiffany sat in and did autographs and panels.

The dealer's room was great. It was designed for few dealers, but each had unique merchandise and they had lots of space! One such anime video rental shop set up a booth in the dealer's room which was run by the same MacHarborGuy at Geek Media that filmed most of our convention and was the reason we got Baka Savants! Rob at Geek Media was a tremendous help in our first year in making our convention what it was.

We also had the usual things, gaming room, screenings, fanart room, and something near and dear to me, the Maid Cafe. I worked as a butler while I staffed two lovely maids to serve lunch and visit with our customers. Cafe visitors could also check out a manga as well. One of the maids, I have a tremendous crush on, she's so full of energy and was willing to do anything and everything for the con. She did the dancing in the opening video too! She changed outfits four times that day. It was great having her a the convention and as a maid.

We also had some terrific volunteers who did panels and skits throughout the day. A lot of great people to thank, who not only volunteered time and money, but some good effort as well. Several people come to mind as I write this. I really hope that you guys can experience an Ani-Pock convention someday, any maybe, by how successful our event was, you may consider launching your own convention.
Do it, I say!