Katsucon’s Maid Café ‘Cherry Tea’ is looking for new maids, butlers, cross-maids, and cross-butlers for KXX (Katsucon 20). Applications will be accepted until May 19th, so to http://www.katsucon.org/programming/maid-caf/ to apply!

Dear Attendees -

First and foremost, let me take this time to thank you for attending Katsucon 19. While I know that there were a great many difficulties with the hotel and with the other convention, I do hope that the rough interactions won’t overshadow your good memories from K19. Please forgive me for the informal matter in which I will be writing this letter. It’s taken me days to figure out what I wanted to say/what I could say and I decided that I see no reason to hold back things that I believe should be said. My feelings are this; you, as attendees, pay money to attend this convention. You are our customers and you deserve more than the politically correct statements that have been released. Don’t get me wrong, everything that you have been told by our convention staff has been correct. Daphne, (my VC and the current ExecVC for Katsu XX), has particularly taken the brunt of the complaints and questions and I commend her for her strength and ability to remain professional throughout it all.

As you all know, there were a lot of situations that were completely out of our hands but please know that we did everything that we could, through many meetings over the weekend, to address the issues and try to stand up for both our attendees and our staff. To say that we were blindsided coming into this situation is an understatement. Please trust that if we had been better informed prior to the convention the vast majority of these issues would not have occurred.

You should also realize that the BBYO were just as blindsided as we were. Take that statement for exactly what it is. I’m not excusing anyone’s behavior or dismissing any trauma that anyone has gone through. I’m just saying that both groups walked into a hotel that hadn’t prepared for them. In order to make it through the weekend the best that we could, the leaders of both of the conventions had to literally come to the table, multiple times to figure out how we could make it work. It was done quickly and to the best of all of our abilities for both groups. The BBYO leaders that we met with were very nice and we all tried our best to make the most of a really bad situation. Obviously, it wasn’t perfect. Considering we were working on the fly, we could not anticipate every situation and fix it before it happened.

We could not anticipate that there would be people on all sides of the fence, that would make things difficult for everyone and I am so very sorry about that. No one should come to someplace that they feel safe and accepted only to have that taken away from them. Did BBYO have their bad apples (attendees/leaders)? Absolutely. Did Katsucon have their own problem people (attendees/staff)? Certainly. Does that excuse anything? No, it doesn’t. We can all talk until we’re blue but it won’t change the reality that there were issues with both groups. I know that you’ve all been told to send any issues that you encountered to info@katsucon.org and I agree that you should definitely do that. It will help greatly if you have the name on the badge of the person you had issues with, a complete account of what happened as well as the names and contact info for any witnesses of the event. Your complaint will not be ignored, we just need some kind of substantiated proof of what happened so that the investigation can go further.

I’ve been reading your thoughts/concerns/complaints through the various online sites since the convention ended and would just like to randomly address somethings that caught my eye. I saw someone stating that we got the gazebo back because a big name cosplayer threw a tantrum. That is so far from any truth that it is ridiculous. I can honestly say that *I* threw an uncivilized tantrum but my tantrum didn’t make any difference at all. (Tantrums seldom do.) It was the BBYO leaders that realized, after meeting with us, how important the gazebo was to our attendees and voluntarily gave it up for our use. I’ve seen people state that we should have purchased that hotel space ourselves and you’re right. Had we known that the gazebo space was rented along with the Cherry Blossom Ballroom, we would have done what we could to acquire that space. But even had we known, it would have been too late for us to do anything for K19. The BBYO had contracted that space with the hotel long before we had signed our contract.

Going forward, we don’t have any other conventions scheduled against us at the Gaylord. That doesn’t mean that something might not come up but currently, it looks good. Want to know what you can do to make sure that we have the hotel to ourselves? Reserve your rooms for Katsu XX EARLY. Get your friends to reserve their rooms. The more sleeping rooms we have, the more space in the hotel we get. If we show them early on that we’re going to fill the hotel, they won’t feel the need to sell any of the other space. After seeing our occupancy levels for K19, I have absolutely no doubt that you guys can do it for Katsu XX.

This is going to seem random but I have to address it. Another complaint that I’ve seen is the ongoing complaint about the rave being with the game room. Understand that we absolutely know that this isn’t the ideal situation. You would be wrong to think that we wanted it that way. But sometimes, there are things that you have to settle on in order to make things happen at all. Ideally, the rave would be in a space all it’s own with sound proof walls to keep the noise in the room. However, we do not have the space, at this point, to make that happen. So, we are left doing the best we can. We will continue to try and acquire more space, as we do want to encompass the whole convention center/hotel and throw you the most awesome convention ever. But again, please remember, we have much more leverage with your reservations behind us.

Regardless of the issues that occurred, a lot of things went well for Katsu 19 and we thank you all for your attendance and your support. With that behind us, I’d like to introduce you all to a man that I believe most of you already know, Keith Mayfield. Keith is our con chair for Katsucon XX. He has been our con chair many, many times before and has always done an amazing job for our staff and our attendees. Keith has been such a huge influence, not only for Katsucon but for all of us that have worked with him for the past 20 years. It was only natural that he be the person to lead us into our twentieth year. Keith and his staff are going to make Katsu XX our best convention ever. Trust me, you won’t want to miss a minute of it! I look forward to seeing each of you there!!

Sincerely,

Christine Larson
Con Chair, Katsucon 19
JCI Division Head, Katsu XX

We’d like to say a quick thank you to the BBYO for sacrificing some of their rented space in the Gaylord National this weekend to enable our attendees to take photo in the treasured Gazebo. We’re very grateful.

It’s an interesting for all of us this weekend, working with a more crowded space than usual, and it’s been a pleasure to be able to take on that challenge together with your team.

We wanted to give you a litte bit of the inside scoop. When you arrive at the Gaylord, the best entrance to use from the Garage (or elsewhere) is the main entrance. This will get you right to the front desk, and has easy access to the convention area.

See you in the morning!