Not Interested Entertainment

Grow­ing from its roots as 3-day anime marathon in 1997 with 200 atten­dees, this lit­tle con has grown in to a mas­sive event with over 7000 atten­dees. Two years ago, it took up res­i­dence in the Raleigh Con­ven­tion Cen­ter after out­grow­ing its pre­vi­ous hotel con­ven­tion cen­ter home. Accus­tomed to oper­at­ing with a tried and true sys­tem of run­ning the con in a smaller venue for so long, adap­ta­tion to a new venue takes trial and error, and Ani­maze­ment is still exper­i­ment­ing to make the most of its new home. Some of the events logis­tics are still under con­struc­tion, but the Ani­maze­ment expe­ri­ence over­all remains a smooth run­ning oper­a­tion, with few delays, most prob­lems quickly solved, and an eye towards con­tin­u­ous improvement.

The con still has its dis­tinc­tive mix of events and attrac­tions, with empha­sis on Japan­ese cul­ture thanks to the heavy involve­ment of var­i­ous Japan­ese groups from the com­mu­nity as well as the Japan­ese School of Raleigh. The bar of cos­tume qual­ity level seems to rise every year, but one of the things that makes Ani­maze­ment spe­cial is that despite its unique and com­pet­i­tive Crafts­man­ship and Cos­play com­pe­ti­tions, the atten­dees’ pri­mary goal remains above all to have a great time. The Dealer’s Room has grown, and while hav­ing many things found at most other con­ven­tions, there was also a great deal of items not com­mon to other cons, includ­ing a deep love for old-school. The Artists’ Alley has become mas­sive in size, pack­ing a large ball­room almost to the brim as well as spilling out all along the mez­za­nine rather than the sin­gle string of tables in pre­vi­ous years. The Art Auc­tion also had a notice­able rise in the cal­iber of work avail­able for bidding.

This con con­tin­ues to grow. While there were a few snags (Crafts­man­ship Judg­ing was a fre­quently vocal­ized exam­ple), staff have already indi­cated they have learned from these expe­ri­ences and plan to incor­po­rate the lessons learned into run­ning next year’s con. Ani­maze­ment has grown in 1K incre­ments mul­ti­ple times now, and has never expe­ri­enced a drop in atten­dees. Ani­maze­ment 2010 was no dif­fer­ent, and once it’s set­tled into its new home, this con is sure to hit the 10,000 mark in no time.

You can view pho­tos from the con here: http://photos.notinterested.org/v/AZ2010/

–Spook­loops