A-Kon, formerly known as Project: A-Kon, is a three day anime convention

Anime convention

An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels...

 held annually in Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 usually on the last weekend of May. First held in 1990 with just 380 people in attendance, A-Kon is North America's longest running national anime convention.

Departments

A-Kon consists of several departments, ranging from Kon Patrol to Medical to Children's Programming. Each year, usually in February or March, they post a web page for volunteer sign-up. Volunteers work at least sixteen hours during the weekend and receive a free pass to the convention. Working for 20 hours, volunteers aged over 18 can receive a hotel room, shared with 3 other staff members.

Programming

While the focus of the convention is centered on anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 fandom

Fandom

Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...

 and screenings of films and television series, many other activities take place encompassing various segments of geek

Geek

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...

 and Japanese pop culture. These events include panels with American authors and artists, a Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...

 room, cosplay

Cosplay

, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...

, scavenger hunts, martial arts demonstrations, an art show, and concerts by Japanese bands. The convention also maintains a vigorous social network presence on Facebook and Twitter, having over 9,000 and 3,000 followers respectively, through which they post information and run contests throughout the year.

History

The name seems to be a play on the early anime series Project A-ko

Project A-ko

is an animated movie that led to later releases set in the same series, and spinoff release as well. This parody series references a number of other works of anime from the 1970s and 1980s...

 + Convention

Convention (meeting)

A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...

.

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests

External links

• Project: A-Kon web site