MechaCon

MechaCon
MechaCon mascots: Jett and Zee
Status	Active
Venue	Hilton Lafayette Marriott Canal Street New Orleans
Location	Lafayette, Louisiana New Orleans, Louisiana
Country	United States
First held	2005
Organizer	Sennin Productions LLC
Official website	http://www.mechacon.com/

MechaCon is an annual three day anime convention in Lafayette, Louisiana and New Orleans, Louisiana and held on a weekend sometime during July or August. MechaCon mixes anime, Transformers, and Japanese culture.^[1]

History

Established under Sennin Productions, LLC on October 2, 2004, MechaCon held its first convention weekend on August 26-28, 2005 at the Hilton Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana. MechaCon’s inaugural weekend is especially unique in that the now-infamous Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the coast of Louisiana mere hours after MechaCon closed its doors.^[2] With the arrival of Hurricane Rita on the Louisiana Gulf Coast less than a month later, the organizers of MechaCon (Jon Russo and Peter Bares) debated on the future of the convention.^{[citation needed]}

Considering a sophomore convention to be a necessary part of the social recovery of the Louisiana Gulf Coast region, MechaCon’s Organizers decided to proceed in planning a second MechaCon.^{[citation needed]} On August 11-13, 2006, MechaCon again opened its doors. As a special part of MechaCon’s 2006 programming, Harmony Gold USA provided fans of the Robotech franchise with the first-ever public screening of the film Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. 100% of the funds raised from the screening was donated to The Salvation Army’s ongoing Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita recovery efforts.^[3]

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
August 26–28, 2005	Hilton Lafayette Lafayette, Louisiana		Limit Break Cosplay, Tiffany Grant, Joshua Seth, Doug Smith, and Alec Willows.[4]
August 11–13, 2006	Hilton Lafayette Lafayette, Louisiana		Gary Chalk, Lisa Furukawa, Brittney Karbowski, Limit Break Cosplay, Kevin McKeever, Scott McNeil, Richard Newman, Doug Smith, Kira Vincent-Davis, Brett Weaver, Alec Willows and Jonathan M. Thompson.[5]
August 3–5, 2007	Hilton Lafayette Lafayette, Louisiana		Michael Dobson, Richard Epcar, Lisa Furukawa, Tiffany Grant, Matt Greenfield, Limit Break Cosplay, Mike McFarland, Kevin McKeever, Scott McNeil, Ellyn Stern, and Jonathan M. Thompson.[6]
August 1–3, 2008	Hilton Lafayette Lafayette, Louisiana		Greg Ayres, Beau Billingslea, Steve Blum, John Chambers, Francesco Forni, Lisa Furukawa, Ilaria Graziano, Carl Macek, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Tommy Yune.[7]
July 24–26, 2009	Hilton Lafayette Lafayette, Louisiana		Christopher Ayres, Greg Ayres, Garry Chalk, Samantha Inoue-Harte, Adam Jury, David Kaye, Kevin McKeever, Vic Mignogna, Wendy Powell.[8]
July 16-18, 2010	Marriott Canal Street New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana		Chris Cason, Richard Epcar, Todd Haberkorn, Carl Macek[9], Mike McFarland, Kevin McKeever, Vic Mignogna, Tony Oliver, Wendy Powell, Ellyn Stern, J. Michael Tatum, and Tommy Yune, Mari Iijima.[10]
August 26–28, 2011	Hilton New Orleans Riverside New Orleans, Louisiana		Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Blum, Scott McNeil, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Daran Norris[11], Jonathan Klein, Kyle Hebert, J. Michael Tatum, Samantha Inoue Harte, Eyeshine, Lisa Furukawa, Kevin McKeever, and Clover.[12]
September 7–9, 2012[13]	Hilton New Orleans Riverside New Orleans, Louisiana		TBD

Breaking with tradition, MechaCon 2010 will be at the Mariott hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana due to the con's growing popularity.^[14]

MechaCon has moved to the Hilton New Orleans Riverside for 2011.

References

1. ^ "MechaCon returns to Lafayette, LA in August" (Press release). MechaCon. 2006-01-17. http://www.animecons.com/news/article.shtml/229. Retrieved 2007-01-08. 
2. ^ "Katrina's effects on the anime community" (Press release). Animecons.com. 2005-09-05. http://www.animecons.com/news/article.shtml/179. Retrieved 2008-08-19. 
3. ^ "Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Charity Screening at MechaCon!!!" (Press release). Harmony Gold USA. 2006-06-02. http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=275. Retrieved 2008-08-19. 
4. ^ "MechaCon 2005 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/706. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
5. ^ "MechaCon 2006 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/923. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
6. ^ "MechaCon 2007 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/1235. Retrieved 2007-12-22. 
7. ^ "MechaCon 2008 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/1444. Retrieved 2008-08-22. 
8. ^ "MechaCon 2009 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/1739. Retrieved 2009-08-02. 
9. ^ "RIP Carl Macek". MechaCon.com. http://forums.mechacon.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3016. Retrieved 2010-04-19. 
10. ^ "MechaCon 2010 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/1939. Retrieved 2010-04-17. 
11. ^ "Daran Norris will not be able to attend this year’s Mechacon". MechaCon.com. http://www.mechacon.com/news/2011/08/daran-norris-will-not-be-able-to-attend-this-years-mechacon/. Retrieved 2011-08-22. 
12. ^ "MechaCon 2011 Information". AnimeCons.com. http://animecons.com/events/info.shtml/2455/MechaCon_2011. Retrieved 2011-08-23. 
13. ^ http://forums.mechacon.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&p=35155&sid=8a98c83a45975ff570a1aaa647e8dbbf#p35155
14. ^ "MechaCon Community Forums mk.II - View Topic - Ask the Orgs why MechaCon is moving". MechaCon.com. http://forums.mechacon.net/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=2113. Retrieved 2009-08-02. 

External links

• Official MechaCon web site