Diamond Dust Cosplay: ConnectiCon 2008 Report

Costumes Worn:

Midnight Rose, Original Design
Poison Ivy, Batman
Princess Reina, Final Fantasy V
Princess Tutu, Princess Tutu

Performances:

Anime Unscripted: Guest Performer

Music Videos:

Drama Category: "Awakening Saturn"
Upbeat Category: "Path To Power"

Convention Photos:

ConnectiCon is a medium-sized multi-genre convention held annually in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Unlike other major New England conventions which focus almost exclusively on Japanese anime and manga, ConnectiCon also caters to fans of science fiction, fantasy, comics, webcomics, and Western animation.

Convention Overview:
For its sixth year, ConnectiCon returned to the spacious Connecticut Convention Center, and hosted an array of activities including panels, contests, gaming events, performances, and cosplay activities. Guests included science fiction actors Ellen Muth of Dead Like Me, Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager, bellydancer Amira Sa'id, and musical bands Konami Kode and Ikeda Katsu. For cosplayers, the Masquerade, Hall Contest, Cosplay Chess match, Cosplay Dating Game, and Cosplay Court Case gave them opportunities to show off their costumes and perform. Although the convention center's crazy carpeted floors and annoying backlighting did not do much for photographers, the official hotel, Hartford Downtown Marriott, was connected directly to the convention center through an outdoor courtyard and both provided several beautiful areas for photos. However, one drawback to the convention center was that the events were so spread out, it was often difficult to know what was going on of interest and where. Also needing improvement was the con staff, who were often disappointingly disorganized. Finally, in the future, I would also like to see the con focus even more on the "multi-genre" aspect of the convention, as it often felt like a typical anime con with some additional guests and screenings. The other fandoms should be incorporated more into the con's main events; for example, allowing non-anime costumes into the masquerade or live-action sci-fi and American cartoon entries to the music video contest would be some simple ways for the con to integrate the multi-genere concept into in its programming. Promotion of the non-anime events on the same level as the anime ones would also help lessen the anime con atmosphere. Despite this, however, the events were thoroughly enjoyable and the con has a lot of potential to mature into a great event.

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