The second JAMPcon recently held in Chattanooga, TN, has been the best JAMPcon in its 2nd year! At a new location from the Chattanooga Choo Choo in 2008, the Chattanooga Convention Center was perfect: everything you need from panels to the manga library, and Artist Alley was a walk away from each other, just like you would expect at a major convention.

Friday

This is also the first convention for me that I helped out with by running the Aniblogging 101 panel on Friday afternoon. While waiting to start my panel, I helped out setting up a business in the Dealers Room by putting up boxes of Anime DVDs and manga. The whole process took 3 hours, until the Dealers Room officially opened to the public at 1:30 PM. Of course, there is a reward for helping out: now I can start collecting both seasons of Dragonball GT!

After emerging from the room, I went to registration where I ran into familiar faces from BBAMAJAM (actually, half of the staff are of BBAMAJAM origin!). It was also where my panel equipment was for the 2:30 PM Aniblogging 101 panel that was to start in an hour…

Aniblogging 101 Summary

I came up with the Aniblogging panel a year ago after being asked how I got to where I am right now. (To tell the truth… I didn’t finish the actual presentation two weeks before the convention.) In the panel, I covered what there was to know on starting an Anime, or Otaku-centric blog, like Jamaipanese, Danny Choo, and our very own BBAMAJAM.org blog.

The order of the topics in the panel went like so:

1. Introduction

Who the heck I am and what this panel is about.

2. Choosing a Blog Platform

Choosing a suitable blog platform for your blogging biz.

3. Setting Up Your Blog

Blog tips and securing your blog.

4. Topic Ideas

Blogs (Jamaiapanese, Danny, and Zippy and the gang) and topic ideas for breaking the writer’s block spell.

5. Promoting Your Blog

Getting featured on Otaku.fm and Blog Link Japan, as well as social networking sites.

6. Revenue for Your Blog

Google AdSense, donations, affiliates links, and private advertising.

7. Conclusion

The end!

The attendance of the panel were only a few people, which was expected (and on a Friday), but the panel ran smoothly--with a few hiccups, like the images in the slide not showing. Orz… At the end, I ran out of things to say: I said I was going to be nervous about running it, but I wasn’t until at the end of the panel! Either way, I was happy to share my experiences with everyone. The attendance did not discourage me one bit, but only heightened my expectations for the future…

Friday (cont.)

The rest of Friday went on slowly, as with any convention. The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out with fellow Anime fans, watching the cosplayers go by. On a related note: I failed miserably getting a lot of pictures during the weekend, so expect a very few pictures. But that is to be expected helping around and refusing to carry my camera case on the belt of my costume anymore… (Lack of time making dedicated Auron armor with hidden pockets, FTL…)

Unfortunately, during the JAMP weekend, I could not attend events later in the evening due to the lack of funds securing a hotel to keep up with the action. The last panel of the day for me was Popular Dances: Beginners hosted by Ahna. Now I know how to do the Caramelldansen that doesn’t involve flapping both hands above your head throughout the song. ^^

Saturday

Saturday: the Day of Vic! It was the day fans in the Chattanooga area have been waiting for: Vic Mignogna’s very first JAMPcon appearance! But before Vic made his way to his panel, it was the America’s Next Top Cosplayer event, where I entered as Auron. A friend and fellow BBAMAJAM member, Kymberlie, entered the contest as well as Lulu, but as separate entries (we thought about it was at the last minute after the lack of planning from the beginning…). After facing our fate with awesome entries from a group of scouts from Sailor Moon, a very cute Honey-chan from Ouran High School Host Club, Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid, and a mother/daughter Avatar (movie) team. Many congrats to the 2010 ANTC winners!

After the cosplay content, it was officially time for Vic to make his appearance! The JAMPcon staff was totally unprepared for the huge crowd waiting to see Vic, so they scrambled to get in as many chairs as possible. But even with the seating filled to capacity, many people had to stand. Well, it was like that at MTAC—and the Sheraton’s main ballroom is a room bigger than the Chattanooga Convention Center’s ballroom for JAMP. The power of Vic is that amazing!

Vic answered the crowd’s questions, as usual—until towards the end of the panel, I had a burning question to ask him:

“A Fullmetal Alchemist related question: what is your favorite character, besides Edward?”

(Not a burning question, I guess, but it was the first time asking a voice actor a question at all—and an unofficial CEN.TAKU.ME exclusive interview question.)

Vic’s response: “Alphonse”: for the obvious reasons since the both of them (Ed and Al) are so close like real [life] brothers. He also praised Al’s new voice actor in FMA: Brotherhood, Maxey Whitehead, for replicating the same emotions Al’s original voice actor, Aaron Dismuke, did before he lost his “child” voice after the first series was completed.

After the last question from an audience member was answered, the panel was over. It was now time for autographs! But I have plenty of autographs from Vic… for now. But I asked him for a hug, which made my day! ^_^

The rest of Saturday afternoon went smoothly. But I was a little disappointed at the thought of going home early again… After BBAMAJAM’s Next Top Artist (an original YouTube production in progress…) and the Popular Dances: Advanced panel was over, I had to miss out on the Bleach panel. And I was hoping it made up for the one I missed at MTAC… well, I’m a little behind on the anime, anyway…

Sunday

The last day of JAMPcon. It was time to say goodbye after waiting for an extra year for Chattanooga’s first and only anime convention to come around…and leave us again. The biggest event of the day was Cosplay Chess—a new event for JAMPcon in addition to Jesus Link’s Dice Roll that took place on Saturday night…

The concept is the same as other Cosplay Chess events at Metrocon and Anime Boston: the volunteers play chess normally with a traditional chess board. The chess board for the cosplayers—which perfectly matched the tiles on the floor of the Convention Center is used to replicate the actions of the actual board in play. If a pawn is knocked out, the cosplayer is out, and so on.

For our Cosplay Chess event, there weren’t a lot of cosplayers, so we had to make do with normal people or those wearing hats of Heartless hats or Menchi (Excel Saga), which was just as fun anyway! There were two games: one where the king of the White side, being Jiarya (that same Jiarya that beat me in Random Battles from MTAC) from Naruto, and the king of our Black side being Flint (The Cay of Tokyo Tower) from Pokemon.

The first game went a little faster than the next one. I wasn’t knocked out at all in both games—but I lost…AGAIN to Jiarya! The score is now Jiarya: 2, Auron 0. Damn it! How could—*censored due to multiple spoiler references*.

The event lasted 2 hours—and a straining back or 7! I made the mistake of being a pawn two games in a row, making me stand in one place. What did I do to you, Zippy?! (/cry) Especially since Auron is so old, and tired. No worries, the Black team won this time! (Though Jiarya wasn’t involved, that ups my score! ^^)

The game was over immediately after the final checks. The closing ceremonies were to be held in the next two hours. After changing back into my regular clothes, I followed a few staffers to a restaurant a block down from the CCC—where we ran into JAMPcon’s other guest, Travis Willingham! It was the first time being so close to him in person, but I failed to see his panels at both MTAC and JAMP… *sigh*, maybe next time.

After watching the closing ceremonies, it was a little emotional. This is the reason why I don’t prefer staying before such an event, but now that I’ve attended enough conventions, it didn’t feel so bad; there was a musical number written by an attendee called “The 12 Days of JAMPcon” (video by byohazrd13) and a huge JAMPcon group hug at the end. ^_^

Summary

Although I didn’t get to stay the entire weekend, it was still a blast! There were a few problems with JAMPcon in 2008 that involved scheduling, but this year was handled perfectly! Plus… It did not rain at all!

I have no complaints about JAMPcon. Not a complaint, but many WTF scenarios from other people Saturday night when there was a Republican fund raiser dinner at the other end of the CCC, and on Sunday when a local church had their services, being approached by a couple of members who invited us to join that seemed to not care about our interests… but I digress.

With all else said, I recommend checking it out! If anyone pre-registered for 2009, waiting an extra year paid off. The next JAMPcon is already being set in stone. The theme High School! Bring your best Ouran High School Host Club costumes!