QUEEN CITY ANIME CONVENTION VISIT AND PRESENTATION

Last weekend was the 2nd year for the Queen City Anime Convention in Charlotte, NC. The convention was held at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. There were multiple panel rooms, main event room, dealer room, game room, and a great outdoor area. This convention was one of the smallest I have attended, but still offered multiple panels and main event entertainment. There were plenty of water stations and the amount of people roaming the halls never felt overcrowded. The dealer room was surprisingly full of vendors and artists offering a wide assortment of merchandise. I enjoyed seeing many creative cosplayer costumes throughout the convention weekend. One of my personal favorites was a female cosplaying Veronica from Fire Emblem: Heroes, a mobile Fire Emblem game. I mentioned the game in one of my first posts on this blog due to its Gacha mechanic.

Me in the dealer room with Izuku Midoriya

Outdoor space of the hotel

I attended a few panels including one hosted by my friend on Japanese baseball. Dan's panel content was interesting and information. The panel covered the history of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), star players that came to the United States, stadium information, and other informative facts. It was a great introduction to the Japanese national sport. Dan and I attempted to play a few video games in the game room on Saturday, but most of the popular console games were always full. They did not have any arcade games to try like some other conventions offer. I managed to check out part of a rap concert on Saturday in the main events room. While I was surprised by how few people attended the performance, I thought the gentleman did well. 
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Dan presenting on Japanese baseball

My panel on traveling to Japan was on Sunday. I created a 40 minute presentation that is geared toward individuals who would like to plan a trip or visit Japan for the first time. Most of the information I cover is from previous posts and the other pages on this website. There were around 30 people in attendance for the panel. I was pleased with the great questions and engagement from the audience. I hope to have the opportunity to present again next year.

Me presenting