Convention Reviews: Natsucon

Almost empty halls during what should have been the busiest part of Friday. 

                Natsucon is the summer convention held in St. Louis, Missouri. It was always known as the "meh" convention - but this year it became a complete disaster. I wish I could write a long review on this event, but unfortunately - there was so little there and even less stuff to do, that if I made this review long, it would be nothing but extensive bulge and I'd rather keep things direct.

                To start off on a good note, one good thing about this event is that it's a place to gather to see local nerd friends. At this point, it's the only reason many people go - to see friends they haven't seen since the last event. Luckily this helped this year because the actual convention was so bad, the only way to have fun was to hang out with friends.

Friends spending time hanging out together in the halls. 

                Yet there were so many less people this year. Security tightened to a point that it was considered offensive. Attendees weren't allowed in through the main doors unless they had a badge - if you did not have a badge, you were forced to enter a specific entrance where you couldn't go through the halls until buying a badge. Many people found this offensive and intimidating. They also warned other friends not to come to the convention because of it, so much that Saturday  there were less people there than there were Friday.

                As far as panels and things to do - the event was severely lacking. Everyone was complaining that the event was boring. They were the exact same panels and guests as they had the past two years - eventually that becomes repetitive and attendees don't want to go to the same stuff every year. Even the game room, which was usually the main thing to do was lacking this year according to attendees. Most people ended up just hanging in their hotel rooms or outside of the convention center.

Pic 1 of the Dealer Room. As you can see, it's almost void of attendees.

Second pic of the dealer room. 

                This convention has really gone downhill. I wouldn't recommend anyone to travel to attend this event - because it's basically just like a really boring house party - as several attendees described it. Everyone was buzzing about how terrible the convention was. Even locals who attend just to see friends like usual were saying they won't return.

Peak time in the game room. 

Registration line Friday night. 

                Another problem I can say is that St. Louis has 5 nerd conventions - and they're all held at this same locations and there is no diversity - It's like attending the same convention 5 times. And the cons don't really change - it's like they found a system they were comfortable with, and just repeat it over and over which is a bad way to run conventions. A good convention keeps some things the same each year, while adding news things and growing to be better each year. The cons here stay the same, there's nothing new to experience which is not a smart move. I'm hoping that these cons start to realize their errors and learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately, as far as Natsucon goes - I don't think it will recover from their problems this year.

                So let's rack up the points now and give this convention its rating. Small conventions are rated a bit differently than large conventions so some categories have changed. Guests' rating has been removed because small events have more limited funds and it would be unfair to judge them on the amount and variety of guests that big conventions should be rated on because they have more funds to spread. Con Space Utilization has been added because smaller events usually have smaller locations, less space, and are new to organizing a convention floor and thus they should be rated on how they handled that hurdle. Without further ado...here's the rating:

Convention Staff and Security: 4/10

Cosplay Variety Range:  5/10

Convention Activity Level: 2/10

 Convention Panels Level: 3/10

Registration Line: 8/10

Attendance Growth: 4/10

Convention Uniqueness: 2/10

Convention Layout: 4/10

Convention friendly level: 9/10

Convention Space Utilization: 6/10

Other Issues and problems worthy of point deduction: -5

Total Points: 42/100 Points
Overall Rating: 42%
Convention Grade: F

Convention review written by Abra Gauthier aka Warkified Chocobo.