You're probably wondering why the flow of convention reports stopped in early 2004. Well, it has a lot to do with the facts that 1: I've been doing a lot of staffing or promoting at these cons, which eats up more time than I expected, and 2: My attention span continues to shrink. Do you have any idea how much effort it took for me to work on this page again because of that? So there you have it. This is more a list of the ones I've been to lately.
| 1995 |
Otakon '95 |
Anime East '95 |
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| 1996 |
Katsucon 2 |
Otakon '96 |
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| 1997 |
Katsucon 3 |
Otakon '97 |
Anime Weekend Atlanta 3 |
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| 1998 |
Katsucon 4 |
Otakon '98 |
Neko-Con Ichi |
Anime Weekend Atlanta 4 |
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| 1999 |
Katsucon 5 |
Project A-kon 10 |
Otakon '99 |
Anime Weekend Atlanta 5 |
AnimeUSA |
Neko-Con R |
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| 2000 |
Katsucon 6 |
Animazement 3 |
Anime Central |
Otakon 2000 |
AnimeUSA 2 |
Neko-Con 3 |
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| 2001 |
Katsucon 7 |
Animazement 4 |
Anime Mid-Atlantic 1 |
Otakon 2001 |
Anime Weekend Atlanta 7 |
AnimeUSA 3 |
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| 2002 |
Ohayo-con 2 |
Katsucon 8 |
Animazement 5 |
Anime Mid-Atlantic 2 |
Otakon 2002 |
AnimeUSA 4 |
Neko-Con 5 |
| Early 2003 |
Ohayo-con 3 |
Katsucon 9 |
Tekkoshocon |
Animazement 6 |
Anime Mid-Atlantic 3 |
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| Late 2003 |
Shore Leave 25 |
Otakon 2003 |
Anime Weekend Atlanta 9 |
Anime USA 5 |
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| 2004 |
Ohayocon 4 |
Katsucon 10 |
Tekkoshocon 2 (Coming Soon) |
Animazement 7 |
Shore Leave 26 |
Otakon 2004 |
Anime USA 6 |
| Early 2005 |
Ohayocon 5 |
Katsucon 11 |
Tekkoshocon 3 |
Animazement 8 |
Anime Mid-Atlantic 5 |
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| Late 2005 |
Shore Leave 27 |
Otakon 2005 |
Anime Weekend Atlanta |
Anime USA 7 | |||
| 2006 |
Katsucon 12 |
Tekkoshocon 4 |
Anime North |
Anime Mid-Atlantic 6 |
Otakon 2006 |
Anime USA 8 |
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| Early 2007 |
Katsucon 13 |
Tekkoshocon 5 |
Balticon 41 |
Anime Mid Atlantic 7 |
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| Late 2007 |
Anime Expo |
Shore Leave 29 (very briefly) |
Otakon 2007 |
ZenkaiKon 2 |
Anime USA 9 |
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| 2008 |
Katsucon 14 |
Tekkoshocon 6 |
Balticon 42 |
Otakon 2008 |
Anime USA 10 |
Zenkaikon 3 |
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| Early 2009 |
Setsucon |
Katsucon 15 |
Tekkoshocon 7 |
CHS Otakufest |
Balticon 43 |
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| Late 2009 |
Otakon (planned) |
TigerCon (planned) |
Zenkaikon 4 (planned) |
AUSA 11 (planned) |
That puts the total at about 83 so far. You're free to count and verify for yourself, but at this point, mere details.
And now some zen:
As you can tell, I've been to a lot of these. What's also interesting is that on account of my work schedule that gives me every other Friday off, extra vacation time I get each year, my general "why the hell not" attitude, the fact that new cons spring up like weeds (I went to one that was hosted at a high school), and multiple cons running as either Saturday-only or Saturday/Sunday events, it's possible for me to go to even more on a yearly basis.
But!
I have been slowly coming to the conclusion that I would rather use my vacation time on something other than anime cons, and as I would also like to pay off a certain car loan that has sprung up lately, I have taken to proactively limiting myself to how many I attend.
Back in 1995, if I wanted to attend 10 cons a year, it would have been impossible because that many just didn't exist back then. Now, I have to make a conscious effort to not go to that many. I could draw the proverbial line in the proverbial sand and say "nothing beyond 100 miles" and the only ones I'd lose would be in my home state. So, that tactic won't accomplish much.
Will I still be going to conventions? Of course! I have no reason to stop entirely. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably hit a total of 100 sometime in 2011, and am in no hurry to push that ahead.