cons Queen City Anime Convention 2018

[naota 113]

Queen City Anime Convention will be a four day event in Charlotte, NC from August 23rd to August 26th, 2018. Queen City Anime Convention will feature a cosplay contest, an anime marketplace, fan programming, a video game room with tournaments, and more!

It is being held at

 Hilton Charlotte University Place 
8629 J M Keynes Dr, Charlotte, NC 28262

 

CONVENTION HOURS:

Thursday: 6:30PM-Midnight

Friday: 10AM-Midnight

Saturday: 10AM-2AM

Sunday: 10AM-5:30PM

Click Here to View Full Events Schedule

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I have already purchased my 4 day VIP ticket. The tickets are pretty reasonable for a local convention . From what I can tell this is the 2nd year for this convention. It is held at a hotel convention center. I believe it should be quite interesting. This is something I am looking forward to.  For more information you can check out https://queencityanimecon.com/info/ 

Edited August 8, 2018 by naota
Updated Post with Convention Hours and Schedule

[naota 113]

Who else is thinking about going?

[vash 6]

I would if I wasn't living in another state. However, I do look forward to seeing your review and photos.

[naota 113]

I would if I wasn't living in another state. However, I do look forward to seeing your review and photos.

I plan on taking lots of photos. I'll post them. Plus I am going to see if I can get more registered users to join while I am there.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[vash 6]

I see you have the photo gallery back online. I am looking forward to seeing the photos. 

[naota 113]

For those who are interested, They have just posted the schedule for the event. You can find it HERE: Queen City Anime Convention Schedule.pdf

[+Gendo Ikari 3]

This seems like a smaller convention. I want to know how this stacks to the other conventions you have gone to in the past such as Otakon, NYAF, NYCC and Hudson Valley Comic Con.

[naota 113]

I'll let you know when I finish the Convention on Sunday.

[naota 113]

Day 1

Thursday was day 1. I finished up my cosplay prop in the morning and I am happy on how it turned out. I had some time to rest and relax before going to convention. To my knowledge the pre-registration time was noted at 6 pm. I gave myself plenty of time to drive out to the convention and I got there about an hour early.  Upon arrival, I went into the hotel and scoped out where the convention was going to be held.

I promptly went downstairs and noticed that the queue board said registration was at 7:30 pm. My ticket said 6:00 PM. QC Anime Con's website said 6:30 pm and the schedule said 7 pm. This was utterly confusing and odd. At this time, I was like screw it, I am here and lets see how things are.  I went outside to get some air where I met some cosplayers dressed up in My Hero Academia Cosplay. We started talking and shared stories about past cons we went to and what not. 

Around 6 pm, we lined up inside where there was really no organization. we waited and the line got bigger and bigger. They started putting out the stanchions and said that Pre-Reg was delayed due to some "technical issues." That was fine it happens especially since this is the 2nd year for the con. Around 7:30 pm  the line started going and about 8 pm is where I was able to get my badge.

According to the schedule there was a meet and greet or PRE-CON mixer. I went to the panel room just to find out that it was cancelled. Many people were a bit angry. I can understand. We asked the con staff and they said that no one showed up at 7 pm and they decided to cancel. Yet we complained that it was on the schedule as 9 pm.  At this time, we decided it was a bust and I went home around 10 pm after shooting the breeze with other Otakus from the area.

 

Pros: 

1. For an opening day, It was free for everyone. 
2. For an opening day, there was many people cosplaying.
3. Many cool people there having fun.

Cons:

1. Not as organized as an event should be.
2. small hotel venue.
3. lack of communication between staff.

 

Overall the first day was alright. I expected some issues but the ones I saw I didn't like. But I am going to see how it goes for the rest of the weekend. 

[naota 113]

Day 2:

Friday was day 2. I woke up early got prepared for the con. I put on my Makeup, got dressed and promptly left early. I drove out to the hotel. While driving to the hotel, a truck kicked up a rock and I know how a chip in my wind screen. That kind of annoyed me. I got to the hotel and called my car insurance company to see what I need to do. From there I went into the convention and started mingling with other people.

 

As I already had my badge from the first day so I just hung round the line talking with random people. While waiting for the con to start I was very surprised to see many people knowing who I cosplayed as. This was a good win for me. As the starting time got closer, I made my way to the dealers room just to find out that they were running late and vip access was moved from 11 am to 1150 am. that was just a bit annoying as the opening ceremonies were at 12.

I went into to dealers room and walked around. I bought a FLCL tumbler and a grab bag. After that I went to the opening ceremonies which was... you guessed it, delayed. Lol I guess I am seeing a theme here. After a short wait the panel opened and it was pretty cool.

After the panel, I walked around and took photos, handed out my business cards for this site and just hung out with like minded individuals.  I attended a couple of panels and I had no issues. around 5 pm, I was tired and decided to leave early as I am going to be cosplaying on day 3.  I Believe that I will be staying there till closing as it is Saturday and it should be fun to go to the party. 

 

Pros:

1. More People Cosplaying.
2. Great way to speaking with like minded people.

Cons:

1. Scheduling conflicts
   1. A occurring theme

 

Overall I enjoyed day 2 better than day 1. I have already posted the photos I have taken onto the gallery. I am looking forward to day 3 to see where it goes.

 

[naota 113]

Day 3

 

Saurday was day 3. I woke up as Early as I did on Friday to get prepared for the convention. While I getting prepared I found out that the heel on my right boot was missing the heel cover and the heel on the left boot was cracking. I guess this is what happens when you buy cheap Halloween prop boots. It looks like I will be be writing a nasty review on the quality of those boots. But I digress. Once I fully suited up as much as I could to be able to drive without any issues I drove up to the hotel/convention center. I got there early and since I already had my badge I was was able to walk around meet people, see the dealers room earlier than regular con guests and enjoy what was there to offer.

Through out the day I was stopped to take photos by eager fans of D-Gray Man and those who were curious about the character. I attended multiple panels such as "Should Batman Kill the Joker" and "What is it to be a Hero, A philosophical discussion about My Hero Academia." Both those panels were interesting but not really my cup of tea. However, Kudos to those who put the effort into the panels and props to their audience engagement.

Outside of the standard Walk the Con, see the Booths, meet up with people, I decided to stay till the end of the day as I could. I stood for the Discordia Dames Burlesque Show. That was quite interesting as it sounds. It was an 18+ show highlighting "NERDY" striptease. I enjoyed it. I think many of the audience members enjoyed it and overall it was a great time. I decided I was going to attempt to stay for the Dance party. Boy was that a disappointment.  There was 3  DJ's. I didn't get a sense of electricity or enjoyment for the time I stood there. It felt like mediocre music not worth its salt for me to dance to or mingle with. especially in a extremely dark room with only some small dj lights and glow sticks.

Pros: 

1. A lot of people were there.
2. Many people in cosplay
3. interesting panels to intrigue most con goers

Cons.

1. Some small scheduling conflicts. (which I was assured it would be fixed for next year convention.)
2. The late night party kind of sucked for my opinion.

Overall it was a great time with the exception of having to drive 30 minutes to go home and then repeat the drive back in the morning for day 4.

 

[naota 113]

Day 4

The last day of the convention. Sunday morning I woke up early even though I went to bed around 2 am. I guess my biological clock was like you are making up regardless of the time you set. Anyways, I got dressed. I decided it was the last day and it was easier to go as a NORMIE and not dress up. This was a great decision as I didn't need to worry about make up or my shoes breaking It was just a day to check out the panels take more photos and see where the wind will take you.

I arrived early and checked out the dealers room. I got a Majora Mask Hip Flask for 20 bucks and some additional prints and trinkets. Next I checked out the swap meet area and picked up 3 FLCL plushies for 8 dollars and had a good 30 minute discussion about FLFL.  Next I attended the Press your Luck Anime edition game show where I was a contestant. It was recorded and was told it should be posted to you tube sometime in the near future. Once that is found I will post it here. 
 

The game show was a great experience I had no issues with that and had a great time. After that I walked aimlessly around the convention center taking photos talking to people and handing out my business cards to promote this site.  All in all it was a great time. At 3:30 pm I attended the last panel Hosted by a cool guy name James. He hosted a panel about Food in Anime and how it is in real life. There was some technical difficulties but I didn't mind He was a great speaker and kept the audience engaged. 

At the end of the panel, I exchanged contact info with the remainder of the people I kept running into and drove home where I promptly relaxed and fell asleep waking up from around 2 pm in the afternoon on Monday.

Pro:

1. Got some discounted wares in the dealers room
2. met great people
3. attended a game show and an awesome panel.

Cons:

1. None that I can think of. 

 

Retrospective of the whole convention

As a whole I enjoyed the whole convention. Besides it being a very small venue and not as large as I am used to, it was great. I wish there were more exhibitors and space for demonstrations, panels and a dedicated registration area away from the main con hall. Looking at how it was laid out, they could have done it better such as separating the registration line from the panel rooms and main hall that way it was easier to get in and out of the panel rooms, dealer hall and main hall. Other than that. I commend them for making the necessary adjustments to get people onboarded into the convention as quickly as possible. Hopefully next year the communication will be better and pre-registered badges will be mailed out. But Kudos to them anyways. I look forward to next year.

 

 

[vash 6]

@naotathis is a nice write up of your con experience. It looks like you had a great time. The photos look top notch for your 8 nearly decade old Point and Shoot Camera. and i am very impressed with the turn out on your cosplay. 

[+Gendo Ikari 3]

I am glad you had a good time at the convention Naota. It looks like you got some good photos.

 

[naota 113]

Thanks Gendo. I wish I had more time to take more photos. I was also hoping to have some video but that didn't work out as planned. Hopefully next time I will have some video.

[vash 6]

Naota, Imagine if you did cosplay on all of the days of the con. you may have never had time to take any photos at all. i guess it is a blessing and a curse. LOL. 

[naota 113]

Without Further Ado, here is the game show I participated in.

 

 b