The PR calls it “co-locate”, which is a fancy new corporate term for holding two events at the same time and place. Anyway, in a move that most people figured was coming, after this year, New York Anime Fest and New York Comic-Con will merge. If you read our interview with show runner Lance Fensterman earlier this week, you could see the handwriting on the wall, you could probably read between the lines that this was coming, as exhibitor support for NYAF (especially among the dwindling ranks of manga/anime publishers) was slipping. Together, the two shows will take up the entire Javits Center, and although there will be separate programming and scheduling for the two shows, one ticket gets you into both.

Next year, both shows will be held October 8-10. This year’s final stand-alone NYAF is Sept. 25-27. PR below:

Reed Exhibitions (RX), the organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC) and New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced that both shows will co-locate next year, with the 2010 installments of these events taking place at the same time and place, October 8-10, 2010 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan.  New York Comic Con, which last took place February 6 – 8, 2009, is the second largest popular culture event in America as well as the second largest public event in NYC.  Since its inception in 2006 the show has played host to some of the greatest and most popular celebrities, creators and artists in the pop culture world including Neal Adams, Brian Michael Bendis, Stephen Colbert, Neil Gaiman, Stan Lee, Grant Morrison, Alex Ross, Kevin Smith, Art Spiegelman, and Joss Whedon, to name just a few.  The next New York Anime Festival is September 25-27, 2009 at the Jacob K. Javits Center and includes guests such as Yoshiyuki Tomino — the Director of Mobile Suit Gundam — and Yui Makino — the voice of Sakura in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
 
 “Our decision to co-locate NYAF with NYCC is the final installment of a strategic plan to place and sequence our pop culture events in a manner that best serves the needs of our fans and exhibitors,” notes Lance Fensterman, Vice President of the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group.  “We are launching the Chicago Comic and Entetainment Expo (C2E2) in April 2010, and we have moved NYCC to a permanent October date, thus providing a spring and fall balance to these two key events which will remain in place as we move forward.  Rather than create a third date for NYAF, it was decided a co-location would be better for anime fans, professionals, exhibitors, and partners.  We spoke to attendees and exhibitors of both shows before making this decision, and everyone agrees that this will provide an opportunity for both shows to further grow and prosper.” 


 
The jointly-held New York Comic Con and New York Anime Festival 2010 will occupy virtually the entire Jacob K. Javits Center in 2010.  Both shows will maintain distinct guests and programming space and share a common show floor.  And, more importantly for attendees, fans will be able to attend both shows for the price of one — as a ticket to NYCC 2010 will also provide access to NYAF 2010 and vice versa.  “Co-locating NYCC and NYAF provides value, pure and simple,” Fensterman concludes.  “We want to reach as many people as possible and this is clearly the best way to serve our audience and grow our events at the same time.” 
 
For more information on NYAF, please visit www.nyanimefestival.com.  For additional details on NYCC, please view www.nycomiccon.com.  For the latest news about the Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group please follow the group’s official blog, www.mediumatlarge.net. 

1 COMMENT

  1. Nothing new… Science-fiction conventions “co-locate” various programming tracks and fandoms to maximize attendance, naming a Guest-Of-Honor (GOH) for each to pull people in. Media, artist, gaming, author, costuming, space, renaissance… San Diego took this model and expanded it to great success, and Dragon*Con is one of the few SF cons which uses more than one official hotel. (This year used four, and those four hotels sold out months in advance.)

    I knew NYCC was occupying the entire center (gonna miss the NY Times Travel Show…) in 2010. It will be interesting to see how they fill the extra space on the Third Floor.

  2. I always thought it was stupid to have some seperate ‘Anime’fest, as if that were not part of the comic book culture. At least it’s together now. :)

    I just wonder how much more crowded the next NYCC will be from this?!? O.o

  3. “I always thought it was stupid to have some seperate ‘Anime’fest, as if that were not part of the comic book culture. At least it’s together now.”

    As I commented over on comicmix, I have come to suspect that there’s not as much crossover between anime fans and “typical” comics fans as you might think. That being the case, having separate anime shows and comics conventions doesn’t particularly strike me as a stupid idea. (Certainly, there are plenty of manga/anime/J-pop only cons going on across the country on a local level.) But in the case of these two New York shows, run by the same company, it certainly makes sense for them to combine aspects of of the two shows while still arranging cool convention experiences for both anime fans and comics fans.

  4. “will occupy virtually the entire Jacob K. Javits Center in 2010”

    um. Isn’t it easier just to say they rented the whole thing? Which meeting room _won’t_ they be using (and why not?) and why should that make a difference? Is there, like, a staff meeting from a local small business who inexplicably reserved a single a full year in advance and with such an iron-clad contract that they can’t be bumped?

    or am I misreading the word ‘virtually’ and NYCC/AF will be building a Javits Center in Second Life and all the geeks can make special cosplay avatars to attend the event(s) online?