optimisticDuring this Memorial Day weekend, the Bay Area had at least three conventions going on: BayCon here at the Doubletree San Jose, FanimeCon a short distance away at the San Jose Convention Center (site of ConJose), and up the peninsula in Burlingame, the KublaCon gaming convention. One might think that such a situation would result in all three events having reduced attendance, but it appears that the opposite is the case. Both FanimeCon and BayCon have booming attendance. If anything, BayCon seems to be reaching the limits of growth, or at least of parking availability.
ashi was running a free shuttle between the two conventions in his car, which he'd painted up to announce the service. Lisa and I talked with him yesterday evening, and he said that someone here at BayCon noticed his FanimeCon badge and that was how that person found out that there was a big anime con going on less than 5km from BayCon -- and he went down there for one day.Personally, I'm astounded that FanimeCon can put on a Worldcon-sized convention every year, and hope that we can continue to have the anime conrunners cross-fertilize ideas with SF/F conrunners. (As many of you probably know, three of FanimeCon's directors are also directors of SFSFC.) I think both our (overlapping, related) communities have things to learn from each other.
Now I need to hurry up and get packed and checked out of my hotel room.