After months of planning (by mostly the other assistant managers), it was time to execute the perfect Anime Expo. And though predictably things didn’t go perfectly well, all our volunteers did a mostly good job of adapting to their environment so to speak and carrying out the goals of the SPJA (Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation). Now that it’s all over and I have had the time to catch up on some much needed sleep I can communicate to all future staffers the most effective ways to survive LineCon.
- Prepare for no sleep. It’s been a while since I’ve gone with very minimal sleep every night (1-3 hours), but luckily I was able to work up a sleep surplus throughout the entire course of the year. This allowed me to not get too tired or fatigued from over-working myself a majority of the days.
- Go with the flow. Being that I mostly didn’t know what I was doing (even up to the first day of work), it was mostly on-the-job training. But eventually I was able to figure out what I was doing, which was mostly working the professional registration side of the booths, as well as checking artists, press, and industry and giving them their badges. Whenever volunteers had questions that I didn’t know the answer to, I channeled my inner history teacher and made up an answer (sometimes an educated guess). Hopefully the volunteers didn’t figure out I was mostly bs’ing them throughout the course of the convention. It was fun though, and I wish I had more negative interactions with guests where they dared to yell at me. Being that I dealt with the worst student last year (a literal demon), adults challenging me have no effect on me.
- Take some breaks. I quickly found out that many of our managers and assistant managers are workaholics, refusing to go on their much needed breaks and overworking every single shift. I can’t say I didn’t do the same, but I made sure to at least pee whenever I felt the sudden urge to do so.
- Learn strategic walking. Being that I already walk pretty fast, and seeing that I had to go basically from all the different ends of West Hall checking on volunteer help desks, I learned to quickly power walk against a bunch of Anime freaks. The key? Walk really fast and confidently that people will have no choice but to let you go through. You know you will have done this right when other people apologize to you when you’re the one actually bumping into them.
- Drink lots of water. It’s super easy to get dehydrated. I feel for all the volunteers that had to do Swag bag pickup, dealing with simultaneously the heat and needy attendees desperate for volunteer bags. Being that I was only there for a day, I definitely think those volunteers should all get plaques for their hard work (or at least an extra delicious meal from Don Chente).
- Check out some exhibits and shows. Even though I didn’t have much time to do so, I did end up checking some things in the con, whether on shift at entertainment hall witnessing some performances, or off shift at a comedy show competition (where the comedians weren’t actually all that funny).
- Make new friends. At the end of the day, you’re not going to end up enjoying volunteering if you don’t make connections with people along with the way. Being that I’m introverted and have some social anxiety sometimes, it was surprising how easy it was for me to talk to people this year and make connections along the way.
- Be a good manager. I can’t say I was that great of a manager this year, being that I didn’t know half of the things I was doing until I did it. I also made several dramatic mistakes that had emotional effects on people, like dumping all of a captain’s snacks onto the table for consumption. Oops. However, I do think I tried my best to talk to the people within the squads and whoever I encountered and tried to encourage and help them much along the way. Shoutout to Jennie and Martin’s squads for dealing with the heat box that was professional registration! I will use the skills I have learned being assistant manager for Anime Expo to hopefully be a good 7th grade manager next year when I’m in charge of all the 7th grade teachers.
Special shout-out to Jeanina for being my partner in crime, and helping to carry the team.
There were so many times throughout the course of the year where I questioned myself why I was putting so much time and energy into Anime Expo. Now after experiencing a full convention myself, I have to say it was very much worth it. Thanks to all the managers for all their hard work, and I hope they will all come back and forever remember me, Coco style. Thanks for nothing.
