Convention Center Needs an Anime Invasion
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Like (THE WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER is hurting for business. As The Post's Dana Hedgpeth reported on Monday, "convention attendance is dropping, the surrounding neighborhood is yet to be transformed by the promised new development, and conventioneers are filling fewer hotel rooms than expected." So the massive convention center complex — which stretches from Mount Vernon Square to N Street NW — is sort of a white elephant, with no adjacent convention center hotel and little in the form of street-level retail, which was supposed to transform the 9th Street NW corridor in Shaw.
A visit to the recently opened Old Dominion Brewing Co. on Friday night was typical of the area: the place was fairly busy, but not buzzing the kind of activity one would expect near a convention center.
Contrast that scene with what unfolded in Woodley Park over the weekend: Hundreds of anime conventioneers, many in costume, who made the Omni Shoreham Hotel their home for Katsucon 13, which included activities like the Anime Parliament, the Anime Name That Tune Championship, karaoke (naturally) and A Beginner's Look at Asian Ball Joint Dolls.
While having a late dinner at Open City on Saturday, this writer experienced what the full onslaught of an anime invasion is like. Fifteen anime conventioneers took control of the crammed space, stealing the chair where this writer's coat was positioned. After Free Ride's laptop nearly fell victim to one loud conventioneer's careless bumping of a water glass, a representative of the table grouping — who was devoid of a wig, fake weaponry and other anime accents commonplace in the neighborhood over the weekend — came to apologize.
"I'm so sorry, sir. Not all us are like this," he said.
Woodley Park residents — like this writer — often get steamed over National Zoo tourists and conventioneers who don't understand the principles of two-way sidewalk foot traffic. That's the kind of traffic the Washington Convention Center desperately needs. So, c'mon, Convention Center, land these events. At least downtown, the anime fans would have had plenty of room to spread out.
» "Convention Center Not Living Up to Lofty Goals" [WaPo]
» "Convention Hotel Called Crucial to Bookings, but Deal Beset by Several Snags" [WaPo]
» "A Thwarted Renaissance Near the Convention Center" [WaPo]
» "Katsucon 13 — Omni Shoreham Hotel" [Katsucon 13]
Photo of last year's Anime convention at the Omni Shoreham Hotel by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post
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Talk to your reps at the Washington Convention and Tourism Corp if you want more conventions. Katsucon is too small for the center to take it. They need to focus on getting the real citywides that drive over 10,000 tourists into the city on any given week.
It makes ZERO sense for the city to steal business from other hotels already in the city. While you might prefer not to deal with the Katsuconners and the tourists the flood Woodley Park, either attending conventions at the Wardman or Omni or visiting the zoo, stealing them away to fill the convention center doesn't make any sense at all either. We have people we pay to find business for the city and if they aren't doing their jobs they should be held accountable for it.
By Alexander , Posted February 21, 2007 11:42 AMThe only anime convention which could make effective use of the DCCC would be OTAKON, held annually in Baltimore. But the center's expense, lack of adjacent hotels, and reputation for having "strict" labor conditions makes it less appealing. OTAKON has looked into the center and determined it is better to remain in Baltimore and cap attendance than to move to DC.
By Dave , Posted March 16, 2007 8:17 PM