Nekocon

This was my first year going to Nekocon and I loved it! The fact you can park (for free) in a parking lot right next to the convention center was a major positive to the experience but so was the friendly atmosphere, nice layout and number of people for a 'small' con. The staff, from what little interaction I had with them, were nice and helpful as well.

I turned a fairly good profit, though I will admit that given the 50 fanart/50 original product rule I feel I could have made a little more if that didn't apply. While people showed a lot of interest in my original creations, more people gravitated to the fanart--which is understandable--and actually bought that versus the prior. So I guess my suggestion for those interested is be a little weary if not expectant that that may happen. Also the tables are said to be 6ft but I found that my 5ft display only barely managed to fit on it, half of it even fell off at one point. Luckily nothing was damaged and I managed to find a way to keep it from falling again, but it was an added paranoia the whole weekend. Other than those two factors, I think it's a great east coast con and those relatively nearby would find it worthwhile!

I'd never attended this con before but after not getting accepted to a few others that I was counting on I decided to give this one a try since sometimes smaller cons can be really amazing!

Pros are a lot of very cheap hotels fairly close. Halls opened and closed promptly when advertised. Lighting in the hall is good, though it gets chilly inside once the sun goes down. Tables were well spaced and I appreciated that they hadn't overfilled with vendors, nice wide aisles between rows.

The check in I found a little confusing, you're supposed to get your badge at staff registration, then proceed to the AA ops booth to fill out additional paperwork. I missed this second step and found the paperwork I needed to fill out on my table Saturday morning without further instruction. I didn't really have any interaction with the AA staffers so I can't speak much to that.

One thing that shocked me a little was that they had three IP staffers go through the hall and I was asked to take some items down. Asking some friends in the hall they also had some things taken down, but the criteria were very specific so I don't know how often this happened. I can't fault the con as they're trying to protect themselves, but just a fair warning to maybe be ready for this. I've never had it happen before so it really surprised me.


I made similar profit at another anime con 1/2 the size, but can't quite figure out why my sales were a bit lackluster comparatively. It's fairly cheap to attend so I'd consider going again, but over all I had been expecting a bit better.

This was a great little show! The venue is nice and easy to navigate. Parking is free. The hotels in the area aren't too pricey. The layout is very nice and spread out. The staff is friendly and well organized. It's been steadily getting better every year profit wise! We pulled in just under 2k in 2014 and about 2.5k in 2015.