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Mini Animania Sydney 2010 Convention Report & Photos

Aurora Entertainment (AE) hosted the 2010 Mini Animania convention at Australian Technology Park (ATP) on 20 March 2010.

This marks the first of the Animania series of convention this year, with AE hosting other conventions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide later this year.

Traditionally, Mini Animania in Sydney has been hosted at the Citigate Hotel (formerly the Carlton Crest Hotel), but as attendance grew the venue was no longer able to accommodate the event. ATP has also played host to the main Animania Festival, Sydney, for the past two years. Unlike their flagship event, mini is held in bay 4 of ATP, which is a substantially smaller venue. In contrast to the main festival, Mini Animania has carpeted floors throughout and airconditioning serving two thirds of the event space.

The layout of the event was an improvement over that at the Citigate Hotel, with few bottlenecks and ample space to move about. The stallholders area was relatively spaced out considering the number of vendors, artists and community groups that were present. Madman Entertainment were again not present. The stallholders area was the first to be hit when the doors opened, on time. Staff processed preregistered attendees while they waited in line, rather than at the door, a concept they've used at previous conventions to improve entry time. By 11am the majority of people were inside the venue. Patrons buying tickets at the door could not be processed in line, possibly due to the security risk of collecting money outdoors.

I never saw more than a handful of people playing twister at any given moment, but Cosplay Chess was relatively popular. The Cosplay Expo and Asian Ball Jointed Doll displays made a return to mini. The Cosplay Expo appears to be becoming a regular feature at Animania events. The ABJD display is a recent addition, appearing last year at the Sydney Animania Festival, but not at any of the mini interstate events.

A purpose designed auditorium was used as the main stage and took up about a third of the total event space. According to floor plans provided by ATP, the auditorium seats about 520 people. During the cosplay event, the theatre was completely full. Other events on the main stage included a talk by former WCS finalists Katherine Lee and Gabriella Lowgren; Game show, "Who wants to be OVER 9000?"; a talk by the Australian representatives for WCS 2010, Amber Martini and Melanie de Chantraine; an introduction to the German representative for WCS 2010 and guest judge; and the awards ceremony.

The next Animania convention will be held in Melbourne on 10 April.