Twenty years ago, I walked into Anime Expo with no plan, no convention experience, and apparently no understanding that there was anything to do besides wander around the Exhibit Hall.
It was not exactly an auspicious beginning.
In a recent post, I mentioned skipping Anime Expo after a lengthy streak of consecutive attendance, in favor of a couple of bucket-list experiences. While that streak came with a lot of great memories, it is only one chapter of my convention story.
I’ve been attending conventions for more than 20 years now, and at this point I’ve honestly lost track of how many I’ve been to. Somewhere in the 50 to 60 range seems about right. In that time I’ve experienced everything from small local conventions to massive events like San Diego Comic-Con.
Anime Expo and Anime Los Angeles make up the bulk of those memories, but there have been outliers such as Sakura-Con 2015, my first out-of-state convention, with Dragon Con in just over a month set to become my second.
Continue reading “From Wandering the Exhibit Hall to Finding My Community: Twenty Years of Anime Conventions”