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[Vexpo 2 Thoughts]
Back home, so my thoughts on Vexpo 2 (also my post last year for ref):
Location- Still at the NEC, still pretty good. Tried out some of the other bars and restaurants this time and general exploring of the area. Also actually went into Birmingham, there's a lot of good weeb shops in the city center, highly recommend if you get a hot minute.
Con size- Pretty good upgrade from last year. Moved from Hall 8 to using the entire Hall 10, so tripled the area size; even then it was at max capacity and everything felt compressed together. Funnily enough MOE actually did increase their size and introduce a preorder system so was able to get in this time. Regarding the main stage, i'll be real I can't remember too well what it looked like last year and how much capacity it had. But this year it was decently sized and had space for around 500 people.
Vendors- Increase from last year though still a fairly small amount compared to other conventions. However the quality of stuff they were selling has shot up dramatically, this time there was *actual* phase merch in good quantity. I even found a bunch of my oshi and typically she doesn't get much fan merch.
Corpos- A bunch of names in that image are dead now lmao. We had Phase, V4Mirai just across the walkway like the fucking Sony v Microsoft walkway at E3. Globie on the opposite side of the room. New corpo called Varience or something. Chromashift were bundled with V4M. Astraline didn't have a booth this year so they snuck in with Kawa. And some micro's. Everyone had pretty good sized booths desu, tv's with live M&G's are standard and everything was aesthetically decent.
Panels/Events- Went from 26 to 44 events + 2 concerts. Hory shitto my dude. Most stuff was good quality, I actually liked the selection more then Offkai this year, there were many I couldn't go to though due to how much was going on. Also so many concerts bruh, Vexpo is now a music convention (not complaining I love funny jpg singing). Actually on that topic we went from low budget productions last year to having 2 separate 3D concerts (i'm not sure if Chromas was 3D too, I didnt go).
Scuff- There was buffering on the main stage with some acts (especially in the Anarchy concert), I assume that's due to where the performers are in the world. The small panel rooms also had tech issues like video or sound not working. Also badge processing had lots of issues, part of that is the NEC's fault though due to the type of facilities they give to cons.
Turnout- Fucking insane, went from 1000-ish last year to 2500? Was a horde of people. As I mentioned, we hit max capacity in Hall 10 already. Akas sold out, saturday tickets sold out, sunday was heavy. Definitely gonna need to move to like Hall 20 or something next year. Also yes, Vexpo 3 is confirmed.
Phase- I'd say that Phase had less of a presence this year compared to Vexpo 1, not because they did less stuff but simply because the con is growing a faster rate; when it was smaller Phase stood out more as the big dogs there. The booth was a bit bigger, but like Offkai they will need to separate it out into an Industry booth and merch booth simply due to demand that comes over; it crushes out the events they have there. Panels they did were fine, Phase Ablaze was fucking amazing (yes it only filled half the stage get over it) way better in everything, setlist production quality dancing etc, compared to Origins of the Stars v1 (never saw v2 at San Japan).
Random things of note:
-Didn't get transformers con pestering me this year, instead it was retarded Reform boomers. I'm never staying at the fucking Hilton ever again.
-The con had more water stations, praise thee.
-I wanted a certain piece of merch that you can only get via gacha bags, Cece got me one that *just happened* to have it, TY <3
-I mentioned this the other day but there was an illegal concert held in a park on the thursday, was fucking great even if we almost got arrested.
-Actually was was way more active this year compared to last and never had time to just stop and look at my phone (a good thing). Days were like 7:30am to 2:30am for me, which is why I pretty much didn't post anything during the con.
-Not sure if I met any current PCG'ers around or at the meetup, I didn't ask this time so wouldn't know (at the very least I hope you liked the ribbon).
-Had an interaction with a corpo chuuba pretending to be a 'generic ordinary fan (tm)' and failing badly, I don't really care who they are I just thought it was funny
-Heard an amusing interaction while waiting for Anarchy, a group of I assume Vshojo fans were seething about Phase fans being full of themselves and shit (which is true) and then admitting to being TVA doxxers. They really are what they claim to hate huh.
Feel free to ask anything
See you next year
