The Florida Anime Experience 2011 in Review

I debated titling this post “The Florida Anime Experience 2011 – The best con you likely didn’t go to” but I decided that would be too long.

The convention finished up this past weekend (May 27th-29th 2011) at the Ramada Celebration Orlando Resort near Disney World.  There were about (from my estimations) somewhere between 200-500 people who attended.  It’s hard to guess without the ticket numbers but the con was unarguably small.  The dealers room had about nine vendors, give or take, and the artists alley was somewhere between 5 and 6 strong.

Normally, the bigger the con the better.  We talk about Otakon and Anime Expo for their sheer numbers and the power that cons like this can harness in the way of content and bringing in guests.  This con completely shattered that opinion for me.  Created by our friends over at Wasabi Anime they told us that their goal for the con was always to have a con for the fans, not to be the biggest show on the block.  At that, they really delivered.

The con had three voice-actor guests: Brett Weaver (See Episode 83), Brittney Karbowski, and the guest of honor Steve Blum.  They also had other guests such as the Anime World Order Podcast, and of course the A.A.A. Podcast.  The con-goers were given ample time with the guests to go and get signings, have Q&A panels, and voice actor panels with all three every day.

The con also had this thing that for some reason even much larger cons cannot get down: PANELS!

I always say that panels can make a con, but for some reason so many cons just can’t get their act together and have them, or have them run smoothly.  There were no such problems at the Florida Anime Experience.  From a technical side as a panelest their setup was simple ans easy to manage which meant from the con-goers side everything was on-time and running smoothly.

This con had everything an anime fan could want from a con in just the right amount.  If you were there don’t let the first year’s small number of attendees discourage you, this is a con that has its stuff together so I doubt it’s going anywhere.  If you missed this year, or were skeptical, you really missed out.  The small numbers made things feel cozy and you had ample time with people like the voice actors that you just can’t expect at a larger convention.  Even the large main events panels sported small numbers, which allowed everyone to get in any questions they wanted.

We at the A.A.A. Podcast would also like to say a big “Thank You!” to the staff of the Florida Anime Experience.  All the staff seemed to be well trained, clued into what was going on, and genuinely helpful.  Yet again, something which seems so easy but so many cons lack.  Without the help of the staff and people running the convention we would not have had the opportunities we had.  So thank you, and we look forward to next year.

This was truly a great con that we are already looking forward to and planning for next year.

Multimedia from the convention:

Steve Blum’s one-on-one A.A.A. Interview and More Coverage: Episode 85

FAE Facebook Page

FAE Twitter

Photos from the Convention:

See more photos on the FAE Facebook Page