Fan Expo SF

[Drunk Monk]

Doing some other research, I stumbled across this and am placing it here...for later...

https://fanexpohq.com/fanexposanfrancisco/

Fan Expo to launch S.F. comic convention in 2022

Roland Li April 29, 2021Updated: April 30, 2021, 7:11 am

Fans at a Fan Expo event in Canada before the pandemic. Fan Expo San Francisco has booked Moscone Center in the fall of 2022.Photo: Fan Expo HQ

San Francisco is expected to get a new comic convention in 2022, the first such event since 2017 and a sign of recovery for the city’s battered tourism industry.
Fan Expo HQ, the biggest comic convention organizer in North America, has committed to hosting the event for five years at Moscone Center. The first edition of Fan Expo San Francisco, which doesn’t have a finalized date, is scheduled for three days at Moscone West in the fall of 2022. It will have capacity for up to 50,000 attendees, assuming public health restrictions have been lifted.
“San Francisco is the sixth-largest U.S. market. There’s a huge population that can support events like these. It’s a very creative and innovative city,” Andrew Moyes, vice president of Fan Expo HQ told The Chronicle. “We’re also creative and innovative. We celebrate fandom … we see a great future.”
Plans for the event — which celebrates all things pop culture including comics, anime, gaming, and sci-fi and horror genres — include a show floor with merchandise for sale, an artist’s alley, cosplayers, autograph signings with creators and celebrities, and panel discussions, Moyes said. Celebrity appearances and ticketing information will be announced at a later date.

A greeter helps people navigate the entrance to the mass vaccination site at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Thursday, February 25, 2021.Photo: Nick Otto, Special to The Chronicle

Moscone Center hasn’t hosted a convention in over a year and is currently being used as a mass vaccination site. But Fan Expo’s convention is now one of Moscone’s first confirmed events in the next two years, along with the American Society for Surgery of the Hand’s annual meeting in September.
“Now, more than ever, we’re proud to welcome partners providing safe and inclusive spaces for people to build vital community connections,” said Bob Sauter, general manager of Moscone Center, in a statement.
San Francisco’s tourism industry suffered an unprecedented loss of $8 billion in spending last year. While Moyes did not have an estimate for the Fan Expo event’s economic impact, he expects it to be a major boost.
“We expect it to ripple significantly through the economy,” he said. “This will grow every year.”

Attendees browse comic books at the Comic Madness stand during Silicon Valley Comic Con at San Jose Convention Center on Saturday August 17, 2019.Photo: Cody Glenn, Special To The Chronicle

The last major comic convention in the city was San Francisco Comic Con in 2017, which moved to Oakland a year later.
Another comic convention known as WonderCon started in the Oakland in 1987 and grew to become a major attraction by 2003 when it moved to San Francisco. It eventually moved to Anaheim in 2012 because of Moscone Center renovations. Event organizers wanted to return to San Francisco in 2014, but were never able to secure a date as other conventions competed for the space.
SiliCon, formerly Silicon Valley Comic Con, had been scheduled in San Jose last October but was canceled because of the pandemic.

Cindy Tsai and Michael Boehm of Foster City pose in front of Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose on Sunday, March 20, 2016.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

Fan Expo HQ’s next events will be Fan Expo Boston and MegaCon Orlando in August, followed by events in Dallas, Canada and Denver.
The company is owned by Informa, which organizes conventions including Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“There’s definitely room for another awesome experience,” Moyes said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that San Francisco Comic Con was the last major comic convention hosted at the Moscone Center in 2017.

Why hasn't SF been able to sustain a major comic-con? 

SVCC has converted to SiliCon hosted by Adam 'such a dick' Savage. They've announced dates for 2021. I plan to attend, assuming the pandemic is mellow enough by then.

[Greg]

Well, SF isn't really known for it's Geek/Nerd culture.....

[Drunk Monk]

NOVEMBER 25-27, 2022

MOSCONE CENTER WEST

https://fanexpohq.com/fanexposanfrancisco/

FAN EXPO San Francisco is an all-new comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event. It is packed with exciting family-friendly activities and celebrity guests. The all-ages pop culture convention expects to host thousands of fans.Media Accreditation will open 3 months prior to the show

[Drunk Monk]

Press passes approved for me and Tara. 

YAY!

[Drunk Monk]

We were invited to this last night but neither of us could make it. Too bad. It was probably a great networking opportunity and I probably would never get a chance to get into this venue again...

Eat. Drink. Celebrate fandom.  FAN EXPO San Francisco is thrilled to invite you and a guest to an exclusive Press Preview Happy Hour at EPIC Steak, San Francisco’s premier waterfront steakhouse, on Tuesday, November 22. The cocktail meet and greet will begin at 5:30pm. You will get the chance to interview key FAN EXPO spokespeople ahead of the inaugural event and meet surprise guests!

[Drunk Monk]

Ming Na Wen will be at the expo on Saturday!

Yaaaasssss. She is the only celeb I really want to see. We’ll find out if the main hall is FESF’s hall H. There are a few others I wouldn’t mind seeing. We’ll just have to discover how this goes…

FYI MNW is there today signing & posing. $75 for a pic or an autograph. That’s the highest price I saw but I didn’t look too deep. I requested an interview but never heard back…

[Greg]

Hard pass.

[King Bob]

Lou Ferrigno was on the news becaus he's going to be there

[Drunk Monk]

Well that was fun. Saw Data and Zuko. Some others who I didn’t really know.

[Drunk Monk]

We walked the entire vendor and artist floor. It was comfortable as Friday was only the preview. Some good artists, cool toys and such. Tara bought some Lego figurines (Xmas gifts) and an extremely violent animal rights comic from New York (seller said it makes punisher look like Gandhi). 

Sat in on a talk by an artist for GoT who got her fan art picked up right out of graduating from the art academy. She was contacted by email and ended up working on many seasons. Now it’s her career. there was self serve peats coffee and fine cloth bagged teas for everyone - better than the press room offerings at siliCon (feckin Adam savage).

We’ve got tomorrow more or less planned: Dante Basco (voice of Zuko that Tara was fangirling over), some sword workshop (for article), maybe Giancarlo Esposito, meet an old Kung Fu bro when he does his shift at golden gate garrison 501 in his TFA stormtrooper armor, catch an artist Tara follows on tiktok who does poison Ivy covers, and ming na wen (all celebs mentioned are panel presentations in the main room, which is pretty big but no Hall H. 

The Kfm coverage is simple - I set it up at siliCon. Just need pix. Lotsa sword booths. 

Ferrigno works the con circuit a lot. He may have been at siliCon even. He gave his panel tonight but we didn’t bother. 

Fav cosplay so far was a 9 tailed fox. Tara knew the anime. She’s a little perturbed that she can recognize almost all of the anime because she watched so much during the pandemic.

I’m happy to be back with the fandom.

[Drunk Monk]

Today went pretty much as planned only I never made it to a sword workshop and we skipped Esposito. We had a blast.

It was much more full but not uncomfortably so. We could still maintain 6’ and most were masked. We were in only one crowd for the cosplay red carpet and one long line for Wen but still got in and got good seats.

Dante and Ming Na gave great talks. The interviewer was good and even the fan q&a was solid. Didn’t know Dante was also in Hook and was Jake Long, not that he was Filipino from Pittsburgh (here not pa). He shared lots of funny stories about working with Robin Williams, Spielberg, and how in awe he was that Luke Skywalker was his dad in Avatar. Ming Na was hilariously candid with tales of her many franchises - she said she’s still never met Eddie Murphy despite Mulan. There was a genuine moment when a young woman during the q&a asked if she’d seen Turning Red, and then revealed she was the voice actress and how much Ming Na inspired her. Wow. That brought the house down.

I got a few good comments on my Tatsu cosplay and found another cosplayer with the same apron. I’m pleased that my cosplay cost well under $20 and was comfortable and obscure. The people that got it were select, just how I like it. 

Tara got as many comments on her T as I got on my cosplay which was CLAWS ‘cat lovers against white slavery’ - I didn’t even know that was a thing ;-)  she schooled me on anime which she has far exceeded me on - I didn’t know Chainsaw man, but that costume was trending. She bought a signed print by the artist she follows and we had a nice long chat with her. She also bought some pins and stickers. We have such great father daughter bonding at cons. Truly delightful.

We debated which fandom was stinkier - anime or mcu. I say mcu because the costumes are leather, plastic and spandex which doesn’t breathe. Tara felt it was anime because despite her love on the genre, she feels the demographic is just more slovenly. We discussed fanime - which is a big San Jose event. I’ve never been but now I’m curious.

The production was very pro and well managed. Good attention to detail and amenities. They worked to make the inaugural event special. I hope it thrives. What a FANtastic day and a half. 

Tara may go back tomorrow morn because the press passes were just laminates and no additional check. She might take Bri if she can break away from her studies for a bit or another nerd friend from the tea shop.

I’m totally down for next year.

[Drunk Monk]

Lou Ferrigno was on the news becaus he's going to be there

Update today: 

GUEST UPDATE: Lou Ferrigno is no longer able to appear at [color=var(--accent)]#FANEXPOSanFrancisco[/color] today. Fans who purchased Photo Ops will be contacted for refunds.

Tara went back with Bri. They're there now. She says it's smaller today, like Friday, less crowd and several vendors pulled out already. Hope they made enough to continue...

[Drunk Monk]

Press passes approved for me and Tara again. Yay! 

With law school, Tara doesn’t know if she’ll have the time to do that much, just pop in and out maybe. Stacy wants to get a dog friendly hotel and spend the weekend in SF (also to give Tara & Bri space to study without me imposing). My JNK KF brother Dirty HOel and his son Toch have tix - it’ll be their first major con. We may reprise our lightsabering from SNWMF last summer. Being natives, they reject Thanksgiving, so I cajoled them into geeksgiving. 

Looking forward to being back in the fandom. Now to request some interviews…

[Drunk Monk]

No response on the interviews but I was t expecting any. They snubbed me last year too.

Today check in starts at 3, doors at 4. Tara scrambled to get a paper done (more or less) all day yesterday so she’s game for all of today. Our plans are to meet up with DirtyHOel & Toch, check out the floor, and hopefully get into Mark Hamill’s talk.

[Greg]

To the nerds!