This past weekend saw the debut of
AMC Expo, formerly Armageddon but no longer affiliated. Being the first running since splitting from Armageddon, AMC had a lot to prove; and sadly it fell a bit flat.
A lot of conventions this year stepped up their game with organization since PAX came along, especially regarding lines. It's natural now to compare Supanova to AMC, seeing as they're similar conventions and are now both at the Showgrounds. This year Supanova changed so you needed a pass to access their area of the showgrounds, and had a lot of signage to let people know which lines they were meant to be in. This was especially helpful for those coming in via the train. AMC however, stuck to the usual setup of having people line up at the exhibitor's hall entrance, with minimal; and misleading signage. Having bought my ticket from Ticketek, I lined up in the line marked 'Ticketek', only to reach the front and find out those particular scanners didn't work when scanning mobile devices and that I needed to line up at the VIP section (though that scanner didn't work either and my code had to be put in manually). A similar occurrence happened on the Sunday, this time they made it clear where people with tickets on mobile devices needed to line up (not with signage, but with volunteers), but the scanner wasn't working, and I saw several people with mobiles be scanned through the paper ticket line. There was also a VIP entrance, with red carpet, but this entrance was pretty useless as regular ticket holders, with their passes, could cut the line to walk straight in.
The exhibitor's hall setup followed their usual formula, though the aisles seemed a bit wider this year which is always appreciated. However, they split up the artist's alley in a very odd way. Their were two major splits with each side of the hall having some artist alley, and then a second split on the right wall. Further artist's were sprinkled throughout the space but weren't receiving much attention due to their location.
Another noticeable difference between Armageddon and AMC was the lack of attendees. Perhaps because they haven't been clear that they are formerly Armageddon, or maybe it's because PAX is only two weeks away, but their was significantly less people at this convention than I've seen before. I could walk around the halls reasonably comfortably on both days, even during the peak hours in the morning and lunch time. Their was also very few people during the last hour of Sunday. Usually there will be people trying to get in last purchases, and cosplayers saying goodbye outside; but there was almost no one.
Sadly, I wasn't able to check out much of the other activities during the weekend, so I can't comment on how they were run. But overall, whilst I enjoyed myself, it was mostly due to friends and not the convention itself. AMC was a good convention, but compared to others it just didn't reach the mark. I think they really need to fight to compete with PAX, especially since they're so close together, and they need to work out tweaks with organization to allow attendees to enjoy themselves from the moment they enter the showgrounds.
Enough of the review, you're all here for cosplay photos! There were so many great costumes and characters. If you're interested in purchasing prints of you photos, you can find more information
HERE.
Cosplayers, if you see yourself uncredited, please let me know so I can fix it.
And don't forget to like
Slippery Photography on Facebook
Kojaku: Zen Fletcher
