I'll try to write down my thoughts after reading the posts in
>>104357608.
Good fun, I went last year, this year and I'm pretty sure I'll go next year as well.
Vexpo grew a lot from last year and I'm not quite sure they were ready for it. Echoing the point about queues from
>>104357608 queues for single events (Concerts, M&Gs, Panels) often stretched around the booths to the point that figuring out where each queue ended was tough to make out. Which was annoying, but in a way also a good icebreaker to start a conversation with the next guy in line.
Leading to my next point, the audience. Sure it's vtubers, what do you expect, but especially at the concerts, where you're sat really impacted how much fun you were going to have. Anywhere but front center and the standing area the people were just completely devoid of enthusiasm. Strangely enough that was not as big a problem last year not sure why.
The floor planning was a disaster, honestly. What worked well was separating the Main and Exhibition Stages to two opposite ends of the hall.
What did not work well at all was the positioning of the Meet and Greet Booths. Who's idea was it to put them in the center of the Hall? I didn't manage to win a m&g ticket this year but everyone I talked to said that both understanding the talent and being understood by the talent was impossible. They really need to work on a solution for that issue. Either separate the M&Gs into a second hall with the Vendors and the Gaming area or use Headsets and figure out a way for the staffers to monitor what's going on with an earpiece or whatever.
The company booths and Vendors were great. Seeing all the big fan creators was fun. I spent way too much money, but at least I don't have to wait for shipping I guess. All the big hitters had their stands outside the Artist Alley, which is understandable but funnily enough I think that led to less people actually knowing about them because for merch everyone just went to the artists.
The maid café was hidden all the way at the back, strange choice in my opinion, especially as they put way more effort into decorating their stand as a café this year.
In my unqualified opinion, swapping around the M&Gs and Maid Cafés would have made a lot more sense.
But all in all, good times. I'll definitely be back next year. I've heard from everyone I talked to how much fun the fan meetups are, I'll try to go to some of those as well if I can manage to keep myself engaged in one of the discord communities.
But even just talking to random people you meet in line, on a smoke break or the pub a couple halls down was great. Talking about what everybody enjoyed at the con, which vtubers they follow or even where someone got a specific piece of merch was a lot of fun. I talked to a guy who I met last year already and it was like catching up with an old friend, even though I only met the guy twice now. The sense of community really was something special. Maybe it's the /vt/ bubble speaking here, I'm not usually the type of guy to hang out in fan discords, but online you just don't get anything like that.
