With Otakon* having spent its last day at the Baltimore Convention Center, I share photos from the mini comic con at the Odenton Library this past May 14. It was a smaller event but hugely attended with many costumes including the super hero pictured above. I thought the library hired them as they posed for pictures, performed gymnastics together, and generally drew quite a large crowd. As I learned from speaking to a library employee they were not hired for the event. They were there of their own accord helping to make the event awesome. What I missed, being up on the 2nd floor at our vendor table, was R2D2’s visit. I think he arrived with Obi-Wan Kenobi but I’m not sure. From large to small venues, this comic/anime/cartoon/super hero/video game stuff is quite popular.
Anyway, Otakon is moving to DC. Since its debut year (1999), it has grown and grown till it can’t grown anymore in the same location. Which is great for them but sad for Baltimore and Maryland. I wasn’t an attendee but I am sad to see it go from a Maryland venue, the struggling Baltimore Convention Center. Competing with every other city’s venue, the Convention Center saying goodbye to such a successful event is like pulling an anchor store from a mall. It may be ok, but it may not. That is a lot of business gone from the convention center, from the City, from the surrounding businesses. I wish Otakon well in its new diggs but I also hope another (or several) winning event will find its way to Baltimore. If you got something going on, contact Stacey Knoppel, director of sales and marketing because, a s Governor Larry Hogan says, Maryland is Open for Business!
*http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-ae-otakon-sendoff-20160810-story.html
@otakon @mdbiz @aacpl @larryhogan
Missy Hodges 