After years of fan requests, the Animekon convention made its return to the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford (LESC) last weekend, delivering a rich showcase of creative cosplays, animation and gaming.
The two-day event drew scores of loyal fans and pop-culture enthusiasts to LESC, Two Mile Hill, St Michael, much to the delight of patrons who had long called for a return to where the convention first launched.
Owner and chief executive officer of Animekon, Omar Kennedy, noted that while the Wildey Gymnasium has served the convention well as its home in recent years, overwhelming fan requests intensified efforts to return to LESC.
“Because there were changes with Ross University being there we were not sure that there would have been enough space for us to do what we wanted to do. After doing some investigation and working with them, we realised that there were things that we could do to make sure that we had a full entertainment venue so we decided let’s go for it,” he said.
While sales figures are still being tallied, Kennedy reported that gross was up by 30 per cent at the time of counting. Exhibitors gave their buy-in and fans responded in massive numbers, he stated.
Now in its 15th edition, the convention continues to grow, attracting a cross-generation of patrons that vary from curious first-timers to hardcore enthusiasts of various pop-culture fandoms.
Kennedy highlighted that in the decade-and-a-half since its inception, the world has seen budding interests in gaming and animation grow, leading to a multi-billion dollar creative industry.
Thus, the Animekon brand has placed a concentrated focus on empowering local creators and positioning Barbados as a regional and international hub for pop culture and the creative industry.
“We want to make sure we have the most unique items and services coming out of Barbados. The pop culture industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s absolutely tremendous and there’s a lot of money to be made, ranging from video game production, to film studios, to cosplay, to esports, to speculative fiction . . . we have the talent and if we can get a few persons to make it to megastar level that means that could have a lot of benefit for Barbados,” Kennedy said.
As they have done in recent years, the convention held panels designed to offer insight to budding or established creators with internationally renowned cosplayers James Davis (Ryrostudios) and Michael Ford (Sir Julius Cosplay) to give insight into the art of advanced costume creation.
“We have seen a massive increase in creator-owned content this year, and we will be even more creator- focused. So when you look at our event guide and the things that we’re pushing online, we really want persons who are the artists, who are the creatives to be at the forefront so that they can monetise not just in Barbados, but internationally to make sure they can bring in foreign exchange and to really be able to turn potential mom-pop stores into fledgling businesses, then into even corporations or full companies,” he added.
As the convention prepares for the next five years, Kennedy highlighted efforts to expand the reach and strengthen the creative economy.
Last year, the brand helped produced its first feature film The Silence After under the Animekon Studios banner. The studio has also demoed two video games based on intellectual properties created by Kennedy and his wife and co-owner Shannon Kennedy.
“We’re going to do different things to ensure that we can go on different avenues which have not been really thought of previously and can do incredible things to the world and that we can start exporting as well,” he added.
(JRN)