Sac Con 2010 March Report

For many of us, small cons can be a good place to get together with friends, another excuse to get in costume, meeting new people, and a day to relax. Sac Con's for me have always been like an old loved video game; I can always come back to it once in a while to remind me of those fond memories I once had. There's a very relax feeling every time I go to sac con, so I wasn't surprised to have that feeling again for the March Sac Con. There was of course the dealers room, game room, artists, and more. There was a lot room to walk around in, and even when crowded the people there are more mature and friendly to talk to. Not to say it wasn't before but I have witnessed some cosplayers not thinking right or some drama happen, but overtime Sac Con has matured to this great place where you can come in as a anime nerd or a comic nerd and still have a good time talking and relaxing there. Sure it may be not the biggest anime/comic book convention in the whole world but its small enough for a more casual experience.  So let me go through each room and give you a brief impression on each one.

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Gaming Room: There were the main body of consoles and games there for people who want to play a good decent amount of games. There was the Ps2 set up for DDR, the Xbox 360 with Street Fighter 4, the PS3 set up with the game BlazeBlue, and the Wii set up with any game really in there to play. There was no fighting, no arguing, just very relaxing atmosphere of playing video games. I am sure there was some tournaments that were played later on and I am sure it was crowded a bit, but even then I found no problems there.

Dealers Hall: It is what it is, the dealers hall as big as it is contained some new and old booths for people to buy and check out. The card tournaments were being held on stage like always and each isle in the dealers room consisted of manga, comic books, toys, posters, kinda everything nerdy and geeky. A smorgasbord of stuff you might want to buy or a primer to wanting to buy stuff at the next big anime convention. It's a also a great way for small time companies or people to sell stuff to people and get the word out. hmm now that I think about it, Sac Con has that kinda indie feeling, but yea like I said all the dealers were cool and very nice there.

Press room: This was interesting, I always considered that part of the con to be reserved for the artists, but when I saw that it was for the press it got me interested.  There I saw all the press type people there who sponsored Sac Con and other companies selling their products. While I did see some cool art work there, it was just very interesting to see all the press in one room. I guess its fine as it is, I mean I can see why it could be a bit hard to place what people in there but in the end you still have people going in there and checking it out.

The Front area/Panels/Artist area: The whole set up was great, I loved where the artists were put because as an artist myself, its hard to get your self out there if your buried  somewhere deep in the con with little exposure. I like that Sac Con put the artists in the forefront area after you gotten your badge to get in.  Also they were some in the dealers hall, and not to nitpick but I would love to see them more in the forefront where people can talk and see them more. The only odd thing out of the whole front area is having the Panel for the Voice over there in the front. I was kinda wondering if the noise level around them would make it hard for the honored gusts to talk over people so they can hear him, but being a small con I am sure it was no big of  deal to handle.

I would like to go on and describe how the room was set up for the costume contest, but to put it shortly it was handled fine with no problems at all. People were able to get in, people were enjoying themselves, yea went smoothly without a hitch. Overall its like what I said, Sac Con's are made to have a little fun in between the big cons like the fanime's and anime expos.  I wish for more small cons not only here but more everywhere else where there may be some people who are new to the anime world and or don't have enough money to go to a big con. It's nice to see that Sac Con is still a good place to get together with friends and hang out for a day, in costumes or not.

-Anthony Beanes