Geek Babble- Youmacon 2023

 

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Youmacon dating back to 2013, when I first attended.  It was at a great time of the year but had severe organizational shortcomings.  The venue was beautiful but impractical.  The attendees were wonderful to interact with but the con started too late on the first two days.  At least it was good value for money.  I had intended on attending Youmacon in 2020 but those plans were torpedoed by the pandemic, and despite the convention having taken place in 2021 and 2022, it wasn’t until 2023 when I could work it into my schedule.  Throughout my years of attending Youmacon in 2015, 2016 and 2018, there were incremental improvements made to the convention, but it continued to be plagued by various organizational and operational issues.

 

Now, Youmacon still kept its date to the same weekend as when Daylight Savings Time ended, which for this year was the first weekend of November.  The website had been updated to provide more information with cleaner navigation.  However, certain details regarding the convention were missing from the updated website or changed very late into the year without clear communication to attendees.  For instance, Youmacon now allows one to have badges mailed for a $15 surcharge, but this information was only included on the final step when purchasing a badge.  Hotel booking information was for some reason not finalized until 4 or 5 weeks before the convention took place, and several even larger surprises arose after this information was posted.  First of all, there was no information regarding the Marriott Renaissance Center hotel block, which seemed odd, considering this was one of the main venues for the convention.  Were the rooms all booked up already by potential attendees?  In fact, no.  Instead, Youmacon would not be using the Renaissance Center as a venue this year and instead everything was to be held at the Huntington Place Convention Center (formerly known as Cobo).   Now, this was odd, as in years past, the issue was that the convention center closed down late at night which meant another venue was needed to ensure 24/7 operations, and there was no grand announcement on the Youmacon website to notify attendees of this change.  But perhaps the biggest surprise was the fact that the hotel rates had increased from approximately $160 per night to between $240 and $250 per night, and for some reason, the closest hotel to the convention center (a former Crowne Plaza now rebranded a Wyndham) located across the street had no convention rate.

 

 

Now, as the days began ticking by, more surprises arose.  I was notified that one of the two panels I had submitted was scheduled for a time unfeasible for me, despite me notifying the programming department of this schedule conflict.  This at least was corrected but for whatever reason, Youmacon failed to update its website to notify its attendees of the panel and event schedule release, along with its hours of operation.  When it comes to timeliness, Youmacon fails yet again, since said schedules and times were released only one or two days before the convention was to start, and again, with no announcement on its website.  Where could attendees go for this information?  Why, through an unofficial Facebook group or a Discord channel (unknown if official or unofficial), of course!  But perhaps the most surprising thing which Youmacon did put on its website the day before the convention was a message saying that a large number of badges had not been mailed out to attendees.

 

Now, in theory, this issue could have been partially solved by the fact that Youmacon now started badge pickup at 4:00 PM on Thursday, 2-3 hours earlier than usual, but in practice, badge pickup did not start until around 7:15 PM.  Thankfully, my badge was mailed to me before I left for the convention, and I was looking forward to attending a few panels that evening, including one on the anime “Silver Spoon.”  However, there was another surprise in store for me at this 10:00 PM panel, as a convention center staff member intercepted me in the hallway and said that the entire venue was closing down and all late-night events were cancelled.  A member of the convention center security staff had then informed myself and two friends of mine that it was because Youmacon’s third party security staff had left to go home at 10:00 PM due to union contracts, but this assertion was later countered on the Youmacon Discord group, whose members placed the blame on the convention center security staff.  I still don’t know who was correct here, but the unfortunate end result was still the same.

 

 

Come Friday morning, there were scores of attendees lined up awaiting badge pickup, and I went to check out the convention’s arcade game room which was tucked into a corner of the convention center.  Now, unlike at AKON, most of the machines were up and running by the time my friends and I entered the room at 11:00 AM.  The selection was phenomenal, with at least 60-80 machines of varying game genres, and an enthusiastic staff member gave the group a tour of the entire room.  Most other events did not start until mid-afternoon, and by that time I was wandering around the convention hall just observing that Youmacon was able to cope with the crowds despite having less floor space to work with than prior years.  Thankfully, the attendees were just as friendly as ever, level-headed and just wanting to enjoy the convention.  Huntington Place was a bright and airy venue which was easy to navigate, and Youmacon seemed like it was using more of the venue than in years past.  There were several food trucks outside, a small food court inside, and various kiosks where it was very easy to grab a decent meal at relatively reasonable prices.  Moving the entire convention into Huntington Place took away the inconvenience of having to walk between two separate venues.  Things were well-placed throughout the convention center and it did not feel stuffed beyond capacity, as walking around could be relatively easily done without bumping into or tripping over other attendees.  However, that also meant that Youmacon’s attendance had shrunk quite substantially.

 

I did briefly stop by the Renaissance Center on Friday evening and it was somewhat disconcerting just seeing it almost completely devoid of Youmacon guests.  The food court in the basement did have a few restaurants open, and I did not encounter any security staff members asking people to leave the building.  It was also around that time I received notification that one of Youmacon’s signature events, the Maid Café, had been cancelled for the entirety of Friday due to venue issues.  Additional venue issues persisted into the next morning, when convention center staff members were attempting to stop convention attendees from holding photoshoots from taking place in a large open atrium area.  While this was addressed by convention staff shortly thereafter, to my knowledge the Maid Café cancellation had spread to Saturday as well, and convention staff had to be pressured into offering cash refunds to attendees rather than vouchers for next year’s Maid Cafe.

 

However, not all hope was lost.  I must give my compliments to the AV staff who ensured that the room where I held my panel was correctly configured for both Saturday and Sunday morning.  Convention staff members also made sure that lines for panels were orderly formed.  The dealers room had been expanded versus in prior years, had wide walkways, and signs marking each row.  The items being sold was impressive, covering a wide variety of series and games, and variety of items being sold was just as impressive.  However, it seemed that the expanded dealers room came at the expense of a smaller artist alley, which was no more than a third the size of the dealers room, with a total of maybe 30 different booths.  Another shoutout to the arcade and gaming staff here.  While I did attend a somewhat enjoyable panel on Saturday evening, I was told the next morning that there were more issues when convention center staff tried to shoo people out of the Saturday night dances, an issue which attendees claimed stemmed from a misunderstanding about Daylight Savings Time.

 

 

Needless to say that by Sunday, what little enthusiasm I had built up before and during the weekend for Youmacon had long since drained away through these repeated mishaps.  The best times during the weekend were from conversing with various attendees, but there remained an overarching theme amongst these individuals: many had said they plan on skipping Youmacon in future years.  I had also spoken with many attendees who commuted to the convention from their homes instead of putting up with the high lodging costs.  Now, my experience with staff members was positive, suggesting that there is a certain degree of enthusiasm, professionalism, and organization within individual departments.  However, when tasks spanned across different departments or involved high-level management, things go awry very quickly, and the consequences reverberated throughout the entire convention.  What irritates me is that this is not the first Youmacon to suffer from high-level organizational and operational issues, and the problem seems to have not been adequately addressed in the past decade.  On the contrary, the issues have gotten much worse this year, and there was a constant failure of the convention to adequately and transparently address various issues to its attendees.  The mood amongst attendees, including myself, seems to be a crisis of confidence towards upper management.  Judging from the various conversations I was a part of, it was an ever-growing crisis that had been brewing for several years now and stems from much more than just mere disorganization, and attendees have now reached the breaking point.

 

Since the first time I had attended Youmacon in 2013, its best asset was its attendees, which begs the question: is Youmacon worth attending if its attendees decide to stop attending?  I say no.  Now, certain aspects of this year’s Youmacon may have improved over prior years, but the severe organizational and operational issues and poor value for money resulted in a convention that is not worth putting the effort into attending or paying for anymore.  Would I return to Youmacon in the future?  Sure.  I’m willing to give second chances, but only if there is evidence that the problems which caused issues in the past have been addressed and resolved.  It was enjoyable while it lasted, but until Youmacon fixes its longstanding operational problems, I will be taking my business and time off elsewhere.