invalidname's Anime Expo feedback

Can you please tell us why you would not want to recommend Anime Expo to friends/family?

There's a sense out there that as the biggest con, AX must therefore be the best, but it doesn't hold true. AX is three times bigger than Anime Central, for example, but it's not three times better: each has roughly comparable exhibition halls, artist alleys, cosplayer participation, etc. There are surely some exhibitors and guests who only come to AX, and that's fine, but given the challenge of dealing with a crowd of 100,000+, I honestly think nearly all anime fans would be better served by their regional con of 20-35,000 people (the ACens, Otakons, Anime Weekend Atlantas, Anime Bostons, and what have you), than by trekking out to AX. That's not to say I think AX is bad (although the line fiascoes on Saturday were very much a self-inflicted wound), but just unless you're already in LA and AX is therefore your local con, you're not missing out by staying local. And honestly, it's better for the industry and the community if a single con doesn't get a monopoly on the best guests and events. Much as I loved seeing the Anisong World Matsuri idols on Friday night, I'm happier still that there will be a similar concert out at Otakon, meaning this isn't AX-exclusive.

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* The Entertainment Hall was quite novel, particularly the well-built / well-lit cosplay sets, and I certainly appreciated you hiring Cospix to do free cosplay photography. It also helps that this area stayed open longer than the Exhibition Hall.
* I was surprised that overall, AX has fewer panels than other top-10 cons, and almost no fan panels (I recall looking at the 2016 schedules and seeing that ACen had nearly 200 and AX had 12). There seems to be a fundamental difference in values, where AX would rather have a smaller number of very large events (with attendance in the 500-2,000 range), while other cons happily run 15 panel rooms at once and if only 20 people show up for something, that's fine. Personally, I prefer the more-and-smaller approach, but hey, you do you.
* It took me two days to figure out the deal with the outside lines for most of the larger panel and event rooms. I realize now it was on the map, but I kind of wish it could be made more clear that "hey, if you're going to live programming 1, the room is here, but you need to line up out here"