Thank You For Attending London Anime & Gaming Con - Photos, Stories & Reactions

[Ferefire]

We'd like to thank all of you for attending London Anime & Gaming Con!

We look forward to seeing you all at the next London Anime & Gaming Con on the weekend of the 31st August! You can get tickets for that now at at this link.

Got any stories, photos or feedback? Put them in this topic

[Weskerwild]

So this was my son's first ever anime con and tbh even though I had no idea to what most of the anime was (sorry about that) the community is amazing and the day was alot of fun.

The Dungeon and dragons session was my favourite part as I knew what that was .

If I was to give any criticism it would be the staff need to sort out the flow of public before it opens not half way through the day, for example were the meet and great was at the main entrance to start with you could just walk through, but as it got busy all of a sudden staff are trying to put up bits of paper and trying to guide people were to go and just telling people to go another way but there was no instructions of were to actually go.

Maybe future events you hold this should be considered in the walk round before the event and have a flow system in place so everyone knows from the time they enter.

Thanks for a great day.

[Linfie11]

The venue is completely all over the place…having the voice actors as soon as walk through the door with no line up system. the voice actors were practically bombarded by everyone as soon as anyone walked in. Pretty poor honouring the voice actors. The ‘crew’ when QandA for voice actors were sat down and had to be told to get chairs on stage - felt bad for them. The gaming section split into different part of hotel which felt really separate. Hardly any signage and so busy in main entrance where it all interlinks and you had to put the voice actors. Non anime hotel guests were overrun by anime con guests…got a lot of disgusted looks. The anime ‘crew’ were using the event as a social get together and were so unorganised for example, did not know where toilets were, cash machine was, directions to gaming area. The gaming area was really poor in layout. Had one ‘crew’ staff member flat out run into me and carried on like didn’t happen. Had to wait for over a hour to get VIP passes. The VIP meet and great was 20 minutes late because four ‘crew’ staff were using the room to sit down and chat. No organisation on the meet and great and felt sorry for voice actors as they were embarrassed too.
On positive note - anime fans are the best and feels like family. Which is why the event should be better for us - the ‘crew’ are anime fans BUT a lot of them treating it more of a party just for them.

[Otosan]

Saturday was my 10yo daughter's first con after months of excitement and a long ass journey down.

I got us VIP tickets which was a total waste of money as believed (stupidly maybe) that we'd get in early? No! We just queued for ages in the rain for no reason.

Queued up for ages on 4 seperate occasions for our "VIP packs" which felt anticlimactic. The VIP experience and merch should have been issued to people on their way in, not making us queue up in the general merch queue.

The crew were pretty rude who didn't know where anything was and this coupled with non-existent signage meant we missed things we'd specifically earmarked to watch or attend. One lady in a red t-shirt was amazing though, she was so helpful.

The venue and access to and from was totally not fit for purpose and I'd say at best was a total sham, it was all a bit overwhelming really how bad the organisation was. Anime and Cosplayers are amazingly loyal and beautiful people and do not deserve this kind of treatment.

It was so chaotic and unorganized it was a safety risk and what should have been a joyful experience was overshadowed with how poorly trained and prepared the staff were, I realise this wasn't down to them as individuals but please Anime League, do better, get your act together and train and brief your 'crew' properly. This hotel was totally the wrong place to have this.

I'll be asking for a partial refund, not that I'll get one but I'm so angry about how chaotic the whole day was, no one seemed to be in control so I think a proper events management company might be in order as although the crew were I imagine well meaning volunteers and anime fans themselves, an event of this size deserves to be properly run.

Pity really and not good enough. This community and the many younger anime and Cosplayers deserve better as I don't think you'll sustain any interest in your events if you don't own this issues and get better. The whole day was amateur at best, promising so much and delivering very little

[loonk]

We had a lovely time at the convention.

The performances on the lower stage towards the end of Saturday were fantastic. Vegeta with the changing hair colour was something special


Enjoyed the Pokémon ball inflated photo booth.

There was a good selection of sellers to stock up on Anime items and art. We bought some nice novelty figurines of Sailor Moon

Enjoyed the karaoke (watching others) as unfortunately the scheduled time ran out so we didn't get to sing. Next time I suggest you limit the singing time per person/group to let more people have a go.

Definitely room for improvement with the directions, signage and general crowd control as discussed above by others.

Anyone know if there is a lost property section. I lost my medal (see pic below). Please hand in to the hotel if you found it

[fluffyredfox]

Mega disappointed - first ANIME-con but NOT first con 
badly signposted from the start, hotel staff not aware at ALL about the con, very off putting (aware they didnt run but saying "i dont know" was very poor)
"helpers" giving out wristbands were more interested in talking to each other than answering questions or paying attention to the Q 
Map of event was very misleading, very poorly laid out 
same same same, boring dealers 
nothing original, over over OVER priced merch
gaming room was a joke
i understand Fri was the "preview" but if i was expecting better on the other days, wowzer, not a good start 
likely to avoid in future, so many other BETTER organisers

 

[LikkleMel]

So this was my son's first ever anime con and tbh even though I had no idea to what most of the anime was (sorry about that) the community is amazing and the day was alot of fun.

The Dungeon and dragons session was my favourite part as I knew what that was .

If I was to give any criticism it would be the staff need to sort out the flow of public before it opens not half way through the day, for example were the meet and great was at the main entrance to start with you could just walk through, but as it got busy all of a sudden staff are trying to put up bits of paper and trying to guide people were to go and just telling people to go another way but there was no instructions of were to actually go.

Maybe future events you hold this should be considered in the walk round before the event and have a flow system in place so everyone knows from the time they enter.

Thanks for a great day.

Hi there!

Thanks for your feedback. We are aware that we do need to put more signage up during the events. We always thought there was enough information and banners to show directions, but understand we just need to put more signage out everywhere to make things for clearer. We are going to work on this for future events.

I'm glad you enjoyed your time and hope to see you at another event! ^_^

[LikkleMel]

The venue is completely all over the place…having the voice actors as soon as walk through the door with no line up system. the voice actors were practically bombarded by everyone as soon as anyone walked in. Pretty poor honouring the voice actors. The ‘crew’ when QandA for voice actors were sat down and had to be told to get chairs on stage - felt bad for them. The gaming section split into different part of hotel which felt really separate. Hardly any signage and so busy in main entrance where it all interlinks and you had to put the voice actors. Non anime hotel guests were overrun by anime con guests…got a lot of disgusted looks. The anime ‘crew’ were using the event as a social get together and were so unorganised for example, did not know where toilets were, cash machine was, directions to gaming area. The gaming area was really poor in layout. Had one ‘crew’ staff member flat out run into me and carried on like didn’t happen. Had to wait for over a hour to get VIP passes. The VIP meet and great was 20 minutes late because four ‘crew’ staff were using the room to sit down and chat. No organisation on the meet and great and felt sorry for voice actors as they were embarrassed too.
On positive note - anime fans are the best and feels like family. Which is why the event should be better for us - the ‘crew’ are anime fans BUT a lot of them treating it more of a party just for them.

Hi there!

Thanks for your feedback we do appreciate feedback as we need to learn to improve for the next events. When you say Crew Members do you know what colour t-shirts they were wearing? Blue Shirts are volunteers and usually, it is their first time at the event itself we did notice this fact this year even when showing them where things were. If it was a Red Shirt they were of more of a senior role and I can discuss on a one-to-one basis on where things went wrong there.

From what I heard about the VIP Meet & Greet, it wasn't 20 minutes late because of the crew it was more about getting the guests ready and sending them up there, but I can discuss more with the person in charge of handling that. I apologize if it felt like that.

WIth the panel which day was this? As again, I can discuss with the 2nd Stage team and see what went on there. We are also thinking about moving the Voice Actors somewhere else just because and I'll be honest this is the first time they have been mega popular (which is good!), but also means they can't go in the usual spot now as we understand the flow needs to keep going.

With the Merchandise I am already thinking of revamping who we currently hand out merchandise as I agree it is taking too long. We do suggest to go later in the day as attendees do tend to rush in the morning to grab everything, but it is still too slow on how we hand it out and we are working on that for future events.

Again, we thank you for your feedback as if you don't tell us something is wrong we can't fix it for the future.

[LikkleMel]

Saturday was my 10yo daughter's first con after months of excitement and a long ass journey down.

I got us VIP tickets which was a total waste of money as believed (stupidly maybe) that we'd get in early? No! We just queued for ages in the rain for no reason.

Queued up for ages on 4 seperate occasions for our "VIP packs" which felt anticlimactic. The VIP experience and merch should have been issued to people on their way in, not making us queue up in the general merch queue.

The crew were pretty rude who didn't know where anything was and this coupled with non-existent signage meant we missed things we'd specifically earmarked to watch or attend. One lady in a red t-shirt was amazing though, she was so helpful.

The venue and access to and from was totally not fit for purpose and I'd say at best was a total sham, it was all a bit overwhelming really how bad the organisation was. Anime and Cosplayers are amazingly loyal and beautiful people and do not deserve this kind of treatment.

It was so chaotic and unorganized it was a safety risk and what should have been a joyful experience was overshadowed with how poorly trained and prepared the staff were, I realise this wasn't down to them as individuals but please Anime League, do better, get your act together and train and brief your 'crew' properly. This hotel was totally the wrong place to have this.

I'll be asking for a partial refund, not that I'll get one but I'm so angry about how chaotic the whole day was, no one seemed to be in control so I think a proper events management company might be in order as although the crew were I imagine well meaning volunteers and anime fans themselves, an event of this size deserves to be properly run.

Pity really and not good enough. This community and the many younger anime and Cosplayers deserve better as I don't think you'll sustain any interest in your events if you don't own this issues and get better. The whole day was amateur at best, promising so much and delivering very little

Hi there! Thanks for your feedback we do appreciate it.

With the queuing, doors open at 10am and we do start wristbanding people before doors open, however, there is only so much we can do and when everyone with a VIP or Early Bird ticket is getting in for 10am there is going to be a queue unfortunately. We did keep the line going once doors were open at 10am and from what I heard the queue was at a manageable level by 10.45am. I will be honest with you people were starting to queue from 8.30am to get to the front of the line and even we were surprised at that.

Like I responded to another post, with the Merchandise I am already thinking of revamping who we currently hand out merchandise as I agree it is taking too long. We do suggest to go later in the day as attendees do tend to rush in the morning to grab everything, but it is still too slow on how we hand it out and we are working on that for future events.


We are also going to use more signage, more banners for future events. I have said in a previous post about this too.

Which crew members were rude or being clueless were they wearing red or blue shirts? As I can help identify there problems there for future events.

Again, we thank you for your feedback as if you don't tell us something is wrong we can't fix it for the future.

[Linfie11]

The venue is completely all over the place…having the voice actors as soon as walk through the door with no line up system. the voice actors were practically bombarded by everyone as soon as anyone walked in. Pretty poor honouring the voice actors. The ‘crew’ when QandA for voice actors were sat down and had to be told to get chairs on stage - felt bad for them. The gaming section split into different part of hotel which felt really separate. Hardly any signage and so busy in main entrance where it all interlinks and you had to put the voice actors. Non anime hotel guests were overrun by anime con guests…got a lot of disgusted looks. The anime ‘crew’ were using the event as a social get together and were so unorganised for example, did not know where toilets were, cash machine was, directions to gaming area. The gaming area was really poor in layout. Had one ‘crew’ staff member flat out run into me and carried on like didn’t happen. Had to wait for over a hour to get VIP passes. The VIP meet and great was 20 minutes late because four ‘crew’ staff were using the room to sit down and chat. No organisation on the meet and great and felt sorry for voice actors as they were embarrassed too.
On positive note - anime fans are the best and feels like family. Which is why the event should be better for us - the ‘crew’ are anime fans BUT a lot of them treating it more of a party just for them.

Hi there!

Thanks for your feedback we do appreciate feedback as we need to learn to improve for the next events. When you say Crew Members do you know what colour t-shirts they were wearing? Blue Shirts are volunteers and usually, it is their first time at the event itself we did notice this fact this year even when showing them where things were. If it was a Red Shirt they were of more of a senior role and I can discuss on a one-to-one basis on where things went wrong there.

From what I heard about the VIP Meet & Greet, it wasn't 20 minutes late because of the crew it was more about getting the guests ready and sending them up there, but I can discuss more with the person in charge of handling that. I apologize if it felt like that.

WIth the panel which day was this? As again, I can discuss with the 2nd Stage team and see what went on there. We are also thinking about moving the Voice Actors somewhere else just because and I'll be honest this is the first time they have been mega popular (which is good!), but also means they can't go in the usual spot now as we understand the flow needs to keep going.

With the Merchandise I am already thinking of revamping who we currently hand out merchandise as I agree it is taking too long. We do suggest to go later in the day as attendees do tend to rush in the morning to grab everything, but it is still too slow on how we hand it out and we are working on that for future events.

Again, we thank you for your feedback as if you don't tell us something is wrong we can't fix it for the future.

Thank you for getting back to me. The crew member that ran full pelt into me was a blue shirt. Did not apologise but carried on running through the venue. I would like to disagree with the VIP meet and great we were stood outside till 720pm. I enquired within the room where a group of blue and I believe a red shirt were having a chat, no organisation of the room and told to basically go away. The Voice actors attended at 710pm and then went away after peering into the room obviously told not ready. The room when finally went in was disorganised and whole thing was so embarrassing for the voice actors!!! The Saturday QandA second stage…had blue shirts playing with each others hair and not organising the stage ready for voice actors. Honestly just felt like a party made for crew members and not catered for us actual paying customers. The VIP merch definitely needs looking at as waiting over a hour for stuff is ridiculous! My sister bought me and my son tickets to this for Christmas and she’s mortified on how poor we found the whole two days with us leaving early.

[Rich-Allen1976]

On a similar note, I came to last year's Sheffield AL con last September, was a bit cheeky really and printed out 2 copies of my tickets and came on both days, I was expecting to stick around on the Saturday for the cosplay masquerade (I wouldn't have won but I wanted to have a go anyway) but my support worker was crying about working beyond 5.30 PM so we had to come away, even though I'd booked the shift till 6 so we could've done the masquerade and still got back in bags of time, it was only Town.

Also, they told me the talent show was at 11 the next day, but they didn't specify whether that was 11 AM or PM! I turned up a couple of minutes after 11 AM, they told me the talent contest had been and gone! I wouldn't mind but I specifically booked a super early Taxi, on a Sunday, to get there in time.

[Mochiyuxu]

Went to my first LAGC on Friday. Ppl were lovely, and I'll likely go again.

Highlights - interactive events. Just dance off was great. It may be a good idea to buy 2 more controllers so more ppl can dance at once. Or, make it a 1.5-2hr slot.

Anime theatre was a nice chill area to cool down in. Unfortunately, there was no signage about it on the main floor. Only red shirt staff knew where it might be.

Not all the gaming stations worked? The old consoles especially didn't seem set up. Were they just for show? Didn't get to try any consoles after 20 mins of waiting.

The programme of events online had a speed dating event on Friday. On the day of, it disappeared and no member of staff seemed to know about it. Was pretty disappointed as it would've been a convenient way to meet lots of ppl. Such short notice changes reflect disorganisation.

If cosplay catwalk or other events have a deadline registration time, this should be advertised. This was not communicated to the audience or on the programme guide as some ppl had an issue signing up after 4pm.

Overall, LAGC did a good job. I left Novotel happier than when I entered.

[Otosan]

Saturday was my 10yo daughter's first con after months of excitement and a long ass journey down.

I got us VIP tickets which was a total waste of money as believed (stupidly maybe) that we'd get in early? No! We just queued for ages in the rain for no reason.

Queued up for ages on 4 seperate occasions for our "VIP packs" which felt anticlimactic. The VIP experience and merch should have been issued to people on their way in, not making us queue up in the general merch queue.

The crew were pretty rude who didn't know where anything was and this coupled with non-existent signage meant we missed things we'd specifically earmarked to watch or attend. One lady in a red t-shirt was amazing though, she was so helpful.

The venue and access to and from was totally not fit for purpose and I'd say at best was a total sham, it was all a bit overwhelming really how bad the organisation was. Anime and Cosplayers are amazingly loyal and beautiful people and do not deserve this kind of treatment.

It was so chaotic and unorganized it was a safety risk and what should have been a joyful experience was overshadowed with how poorly trained and prepared the staff were, I realise this wasn't down to them as individuals but please Anime League, do better, get your act together and train and brief your 'crew' properly. This hotel was totally the wrong place to have this.

I'll be asking for a partial refund, not that I'll get one but I'm so angry about how chaotic the whole day was, no one seemed to be in control so I think a proper events management company might be in order as although the crew were I imagine well meaning volunteers and anime fans themselves, an event of this size deserves to be properly run.

Pity really and not good enough. This community and the many younger anime and Cosplayers deserve better as I don't think you'll sustain any interest in your events if you don't own this issues and get better. The whole day was amateur at best, promising so much and delivering very little

Hi there! Thanks for your feedback we do appreciate it.

With the queuing, doors open at 10am and we do start wristbanding people before doors open, however, there is only so much we can do and when everyone with a VIP or Early Bird ticket is getting in for 10am there is going to be a queue unfortunately. We did keep the line going once doors were open at 10am and from what I heard the queue was at a manageable level by 10.45am. I will be honest with you people were starting to queue from 8.30am to get to the front of the line and even we were surprised at that.

Like I responded to another post, with the Merchandise I am already thinking of revamping who we currently hand out merchandise as I agree it is taking too long. We do suggest to go later in the day as attendees do tend to rush in the morning to grab everything, but it is still too slow on how we hand it out and we are working on that for future events.


We are also going to use more signage, more banners for future events. I have said in a previous post about this too.

Which crew members were rude or being clueless were they wearing red or blue shirts? As I can help identify there problems there for future events.

Again, we thank you for your feedback as if you don't tell us something is wrong we can't fix it for the future.

Thank you for getting back to me. The staff I had an issue with were in Blue shirts. Appreciate these guys were probably volunteers from the anime and cosplay world but most quite rude and dismissive as they were clearly overwhelmed by even the most simple of questions. It's a joy to be able to attend such an inclusive event but having staff who aren't able to interact with paying customers or deal with simple requests seems a bit silly, maybe their skills are better used elsewhere if they can't manage? I'm not being mean, it's just about having the right staff in the right place who have the tools to do their jobs well. It was quite distressing to see these guys struggling and I did feel quite sorry for them.

We got out VIP packs after 2pm, having queued up for ages a previous 3 times. I felt so sorry for the lovely lady behind the counter who was on her own.

Can you tell me where I can get a partial refund please for my tickets? This would be a fantastic good will goodwill gesture and help repair some of the damage done, especially for my daughter who isn't sure whether or not she wants to go to another event like this in the future. Thank you

[dungeongnome]

Hiya!

So this was my first time at the London Anime and Gaming Con, but not my first convention. I've been to a couple of Star Wars cons in the past and MCM, and I found them to be quite overwhelming, so I wasn't sure how this one was going to go. But, the tickets were reasonably priced, so I thought I'd take a chance!

I opted to go for the Friday only. I didn't know this was a "preview" day back when I bought the ticket before Christmas and, when I found out, I still wasn't clear what that actually meant. After reading some comments online and sending an email to Anime League, I came to realise that it was going to be kinda a lighter version of the rest of the con. I was a little disappointed, but it explained the cheaper ticket price and I figured I'd go along and have a good time anyway.

I'd like to note at this point that I emailed Anime League twice with questions, and each time I received a friendly and useful reply promptly. So, thank you!

I had an Early Bird ticket and I arrived at the venue at about 11am. Somehow I got turned around when coming out of the station (I'm an idiot and used the wrong exit!). Luckily, there was a worker/volunteer on that side of the hotel who was able to signpost me to the entrance. I didn't even have to ask - I must've looked lost! He was super friendly and helpful, and straight away I felt welcome.

While there was a queue when I arrived, I was given my wristband quickly and soon found myself inside. I'm not sure if it's because Friday was quieter, but I was able to find my way around quite easily.

The queue for the merch was quite long, but it moved really quickly, and the worker/volunteer on the queue was really polite. The lady on the merch was delightful too.

My highlights from the day were: the Q&A with the voice actors (this was super interesting!), being able to meet a few indie comic/manga/book authors, and the awesome vibe of the place. Everyone there seemed to be in a great mood, and my anxiety didn't bother me at all. Other cons I've been to haven't felt as friendly.

Sure, there were a number of generic merch stalls, but that's to be expected at this kind of event. It would have been cool to see more indie creators (like Shao Dow, etc) on the Friday as I could have happily bought more comics/manga/books, but I understand there's only so much that can go into the preview day.

I had an absolute blast, and I will be back soon! I'm tempted to do the whole weekend next time!

For anyone who struggles with crowds/anxiety, I'd definitely recommend trying out the Friday - there's still lots of convention fun, but there's a chilled vibe.

[yuki-san]

I went last year and left feedback back then about how the whole thing felt weirdly high security with the constant bag searches etc. There was less of that this year for sure which was good.

However overall I have to say it was a bit of a let down. The same old stalls selling the same old merchandise, almost identical to last year in some parts. Some of it was ridiculously overpriced too, sellers charging £10 for one small kuromi pen... really?

Totally agree with the others about the staff being unhelpful and treating the whole thing as a private party. Asked for directions a few times and basically got treated like a nuisance interrupting their good time

And the party afterwards was really not good... nightcore music? Really? Come on, what happened to the super fun remixed videogame music of 2022?

And please god, WHY were there so many guys walking around shirtless? Wtf?

I very much doubt I'll be attending next year unfortunately