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AnimeCentral Report
May 16th-18th Mai Chicago
Anime Central is an Anime and Asian pop-culture convention that has been held for over 10 years. It has been counted amongst the top 5 conventions in America, gathering over 12,000 fans in its 3 days of activity.
They also count on a large amount of guests ranging from Jpop groups to graphic artists from America and Europe, live action actors, voice actors, and the list goes on.
This year, jrockradio.com had the opportunity to participate in this mega event, both as an exhibitor and as a member of the press. On this occasion, I myself, Michael “Zorro” creator and manager of jrockradio.com, and Carlos “FAT” in charge of logistics in Costa Rica and member of the Latin jrockradio.com team assisted the event.
The convention was held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare & the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago.
The first thing that impressed us was the sheer size of convention center and we were even more impressed when we got to the exhibitor area. Then the ACEN staff handed us our stand number and materials with excellent attention and organization.
By the time the doors opened, the line was astounding. There were thousands of people, hundreds of cosplayers, and a huge amount of vending stands, clubs, artists, organizations, magazines and more which promised us a first-class convention. There were also many people in Gothic-Lolita outfits and others wearing a more Jrock style. From the very first hour, a wave of people flooded the area, and us, with our stand all ready dedicated ourselves to promoting Jmusic to all those who came near us.
We had prepared stickers, chopsticks and shirts with the jrockradio.com logo to give out at the event, and thanks toJrockRevolution and JSHOCK, we had D’espairsRay and THE UNDERNEATH fliers and posters (which had even been autographed) as prizes for contests that we held at our stand. Thanks to Electric Orchid Productions , we also had materials to promote the concert by the oshare group Ayabie that will be held in Chicago as part of their first USA tour.
(Read the meet-to of Ayabie here)
Likewise, Locomotive Records (US record label of Blood Stain Child) sent us promotional materials to give away to the public. With all this, jrockradio.com came through at the convention with the same task that we do online:
Promote the best of Jmusic and inform about everything related to the Jrock scene in general.
It was great to see how many of the hundreds of people that passed by our stand each day told us that they already knew about jrockradio.com. We also felt enormously satisfied when we saw that many others seemed excited to know that there exists an online radio where you can learn about new bands, read about what is happening in the Jrock scene and get to know other fans. In fact, we have already seen an increase in the amount of visitors and we have been getting messages from people who heard about jrockradio.com at ACEN.
As press we also had the chance to go to the press conference and ask a few questions to HALCALI, the Hip-hop duo from Japan who were there as guests at the event, as well take pictures with them and talk to them a bit. They were always very nice and attentive to us and in fact, they even came by our stand later on and we talked to them some more and took more pictures. Without a doubt this was another memorable moment for us.
Soon we will publish our interview with them and our review of the concert, in which the eccentric Japanese Cyber Punk group PEELANDER also participated in.
Without a doubt, we give ACEN an A+ for the excellent location and the variety of participants, guests and exhibitors.
Finally, we thank ACEN for allowing us to be part of the event, the staff for always being excellent and professional to us and we celebrate this opportunity to collaborate with diverse Asian pop-culture organizations such as:
JROCKREVOLUTION.COM
JSHOCK
LOCOMOTIVE RECORDS
ELECTRIC ORCHILD PRODUCTIONS
JROCK CHICAGO
MANGA CAFÉ MAGAZINE
JROCK EVENT USA
To stay informed about the next ACEN, visit Acen.org
Thanks to everyone who showed us your support and everyone that visits us from all over the globe. On behalf of jrockradio.com and our teams in : Costa Rica, USA, Germany, UK, Brazil, France and Italy, once again we commit ourselves to showing you the best in Jmusic, all the details of the global Jrock scene, new bands, releases and more.
author: Zorro