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Animania Adelaide Post Convention Mini Report

Last weekend, the Adelaide Festival Centre played host to the first Mini Animania to be held in South Australia. Animania has held mini conventions in other states with two in Brisbane (The Holiday Inn), one in Melbourne (Rydges) and one in Sydney (Citigate Central) in addition to their flagship convention in Sydney (Australian Technology Park). Entering a new state with existing competition (in the form of the already established AVCon), is not an easy task, but is not something new for Animania with already competition in Melbourne (Manifest) and Sydney (SMASH!).

Animania took a bit of a different spin this year, becoming a partner with OzAsia Festival, which has been running for the past two years. This meant that ticketing and registration for the event was done entirely through BASS. This theoretically should free up Animania's volunteers and enable faster entry into the convention. Whilst that was certainly the case, with most guests well into the venue within the first hour of the door opening (in comparison to Sydney Mini, during which the wait was a few hours if you were unlucky), it could be more the case that there simply weren't as many people queuing up.

Judging by the number of entrants into Animania's cosplay competition compared to other mini events, I would say that there was a distinct lack of attendees. Despite being a World Cosplay Summit Preliminary round for 2011, there were only a handful of cosplayers that actually entered and the quality of some costumes left a lot to be desired. Perhaps I've been spoilt by the huge jump in quality of costumes in the past few years, but I felt rather let down by some of the entries. (Mind you, the two WCS finalist groups were pretty good, but you expect that at that level.)

However, this is not something the convention organisers could have done much about. For all of the things within their control, they did them rather well. The main stage was quite possibly twice the size of Sydney Mini and the Games area had widescreen LCDs similar to those at Sydney Weekend rather than the el cheapo tvs usually found at Minis. There was also a small Cosplay Expo which has never made an appearance at an Animania convention other than at Sydney Weekend and the Art Area actually had a plethora of tables and chairs to sit down and draw at. The vendor's area was sufficiently large enough, but by mid afternoon, it was clear that some of the vendors were being overlooked by the crowd. It seemed that for once the supply outdid demand as the vendors area is usually stuffed like a tin of sardines at almost any time of the day.

The venue itself was more than large enough for the crowd attending and judging by the curtained off areas has plenty of potential for future growth. With almost all of Animania's mini conventions approaching the point of exceeding their capacity, this is a welcome change with some foresight given to expansion over the next few years.

The first year of a convention in a new location always has its problems, and whilst these were present they were at a minimum. Karaoke was ill placed and whilst it disturbed the least amount of people, wasn't attended very well at any time I was there. Furthermore, the screen was washed out by sunlight coming in through the large windows nearby. Most of my karaoke experiences have been in dark, intimate rooms and without an large audience that is the vendor's area so personally, I wouldn't have joined in either. There was also the matter of the Samurai group cancelling their act at the last minute, but no announcement was made about it. In fact, it was promoted on the main stage at one point. I can understand that last minute changes can prevent changes to the guide after it has gone to print, but not knowing on the day?

They say that a convention isn't necessarily about the event itself, but rather, the people. To an extent, I agree with this. If you turn up to an event expecting to be entertained, you're most likely going to be bored. Australian conventions seem to have a unspoken BYO fun rule. However, if the event organisers do a terrible job, then all is pretty much lost. For their first event in Adelaide, I think Animania did a fairly good job, but the fun factor wasn't brought along by the crowd. The level of organisation trumps existing mini conventions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney with a faster entry time, more on display, and better technology, but where was everyone? Animania has sure held up their side of the deal, but it feels like no one brought the fun.

Not living in Adelaide myself, I'm not sure how well marketed the event was. If their other conventions are anything to go by, they need to get the word out there and raise their attendance levels rather than riding on the success of past events. Would I go again? If I was in Adelaide at the time, sure, I'd drop in, but with the expectation that one year onward things are better. As Animania Weekend in 2008 left a lot to be desired and in 2009 it really picked up and shone through, I don't see why Adelaide can't do the same for 2010.