Anime Expo: Future

This weekend, I attended Anime Expo 7at the LA Convention Center and thoroughly enjoy it! There were MANY people (dressed in costumes, or cosplaying), lots of fun things (some for free), free Hi-Chew candy, and movies and anime shows. They even had panels and forums that people can attend to learn new things like origami, how to use markers and Photoshop, understanding the culture of anime and Japan, and so forth. It is fascinating how in the past three years that I've attended, I feel like there is more and more people coming to the convention. I know that at first they started with about 10,000 people coming, but more than 70,000 people attended the convention. People all over the world attends; I've talked to people who came from Japan, Germany, Korea, and the UK. The convention has been going on every year for 20 years around the weekend of Independence Day. To think that the animation industry is becoming so popular is exciting.

So it got me thinking, I think it is important as teachers to be aware of our students' interest and culture. In the past three years I've attended workshops that are so useful for me as an educator: a Photoshop workshop, how to use markers to color, creating Origami, how to get into the Animation industry, Korean Pop 101 forums, etc. If the teachers are aware of such informational conventions
(such as Anime Expo, Photography Expo, etc) and advice and/or suggest them to our students, then not only will we appear as being "aware" of the world and support our students' interest, but our such awareness can facilitate the want to learn. To rephrase this last thought: if I suggested to a student who was quiet but knew they liked manga, I can suggest AX to them, who in turn will be excited and want to research about it, (hypothetically) plan to attend it, look at the program guide and learn of available workshops that might interest them, and learn from those attended workshops. This is what I hope for of myself and my students, but the idea tickles my want to spread the greatness of anime and animation. I am partial to anime, since I've grown up with it.

Convention are soo cool!