EDIT: This article was originally published on June 30th, 2022 but has been updated on July 8th. I was not initially happy with everything. Unfortunately, due to being extremely busy and not feeling well, and now having developed COVID in the last few days, I am only now getting everything together. My apologies!
Tekko (formerly Tekkoshocon) is Pittsburgh's anime convention since 2003. In the almost 20 years of existence, Tekko has grown from just a few hundred people in a hotel to over 10,000 attendees inhabiting the David L. Lawrence Convention Center for four days! Despite this growth, Tekko has fallen on some hard times recently, and, should you choose to accept this mission, requires the assistance of the community.
COVID has done a number on several conventions, and Tekko is no different. Convention Center regulations have caused what historically been a spring convention to occur in the summer. Now also the DLLCC is requiring significantly more payment upfront, causing Tekko's funds to spiral way into the red. At the start of June, they opened a GoFundMe with the aim of raising $60,000 to have the convention this year and $100,000 to have it in the future. Thankfully, with the help of Schell Games, the first goal has been passed, but there is more to do.
I want to mention here that I wanted to write this post for a while, and I wasn't sure how to word things. I wanted to encourage people to donate or attend the events that I'll mention momentarily, but I also wanted to express my concerns as an attendee, member of the press, and former member of the Roboto Project board of directors during a similar financial crisis. I wanted to say how I was concerned that even raising $100,000 might not be enough. I figured, the financial issues were going to have ripple effects.
- COVID is not really going away. It will get better, as it already has, but the convention's safety concerns (which I personally love!) anger some people while others fear any large event. This severely cuts attendance for several years.
- How likely will the general populace want to attend a convention that looked like it was at the end of its rope? Obviously the Tekko-faithful will come, but how many will come from outside? Especially if you have to come from out of town, it's awkward to plan for something that appeared (for a short time) that it might be falling apart.
- This Tekko is seven months after the last one, so there will probably be less attendees and special guests do to it being recent after the other and right near other, larger, cons. There's only so much money and time!
- Announcements and schedules continue to go out way too late. This is still a concern I have, but even this may be getting better! Actually since the original writing of this article, Tekko has announced that the convention schedule is coming this upcoming week. That's still not ideal, but I appreciate the communication! Plus, anything is better than the schedule coming out the day before the event!
Based on my concerns, I was not certain that everything would run smoothly even if the second goal of $100,000 were to be met. Now, again, I'm not a staff member or anything, so I only know what I see from the outside, and the point isn't to kick something when it's down; it's to mention how much I have fun at Tekko and would like to see it continue, hoping that some changes might be made for it to be more fun and get even bigger! Thankfully, I think a lot of things have moved in the right direction with a few small announcements!
Recently, Tekko announced that now industry guests will sign autographs for a fee. I don't like this rule; I don't want to pay for autographs. I've only done so once. Still, it's a necessity as things are. You either pay yr guests totally upfront or they make money from attendees paying them. Apparently, the industry peeps were wanting the latter. This also means that there is a greater potential for more famous guests, for a larger amount of them, and for more events featuring said guests (that hopefully will not cost extra money). That's something I am happy to see, as I have had issues with the slow drip of guest announcements and the fact that the guests are almost all recent voice actors. Maybe there will be more diversity now! Plus, if contracts can be figured out sooner, that might fix those last-minute announcements! Of course, the main thing here is that this is going to keep Tekko afloat, Instead of having to fund everyone upfront, it will be easier for the Tekko staff to manage their money with these new rules! So I don't think Tekko is going anywhere for the time being, most likely anyway!
The GoFundMe is still not at the $100,000 needed to truly ensure Tekko's future. I urge you to donate (during the Tekkothon, see below!) if you have any interest in this and any money to spare. There will also be two cool events coming up to help the financial sphere.
The first event is on Saturday, July 2nd, 2022 in Bethel Park. Details are here. This will be a car show and cosplay car wash. They also plan to have vendors and a small cosplay contest. I am not super into cars, but I actually really did enjoy seeing the anime cars at Tekko in 2021, even if I found them oddly placed in the vendor hall. Now they have their own place to be for their own cool event! This should be a fun, morale-boosting get-together for Tekko attendees! Maybe I will see you saw you there!
The second event is the next week, July 9th, and it will be online. This is the Tekkothon, a Tekko fundraising telethon-style livestream event. It looks like it will be a pretty fun stream with multiple guests and events going on! I'm particularly interested in the founder of Tekko appearing to do some Q&A, I know that some merch that was created for the canceled 2020 Tekko will be part of the giveaways during Tekkothon, but there I think there will be some other neat stuff too. You can get in on these giveaways by donating the amount asked for during the stream and by including yr Twitch name and the giveaway code in yr donation note! Find more details here.
With both of these events ready to go, I think Tekko will be okay financially. Attend these two events if you are able! Donate money to the GoFundMe! And attend Tekko next month - July 21st to July 24th in Pittsburgh, PA! I'll be writing about the event (and my thoughts on Tekko's future once all is said and done), and I hope to see you there!
Comments
Post a Comment