The location of the Saturday, June 16 general meeting has been changed to our hotel, the Hilton Vancouver and Convention Center. All four of the remaining general meetings until the con will now be held at the hotel. The calendar and other areas of the web site (including the newsletter PDF) have been updated to reflect this change.

The date and time of the meeting have not changed. The meeting remains on Saturday, June 16 from 2pm to 5pm.

Announcing the launch of three contests: The mascot 2008 contest, the program book cover 2007 contest, and the pocket programming book cover 2007 contest!

Artists, here’s your chance to make your work a part of Kumoricon. The winner of the mascot contest will receive a free Artist Alley booth at Kumoricon 2008!

The mascot will be prominently used in Kumoricon art and publicity material for the 2008 convention year, including but not limited to the web site, promotional flyers and posters, advertisements, merchandise, and badges/membership cards. It should be an immediately attractive, original, anime-style character or characters reflecting the “cloudy” theme of Kumoricon, typically with an umbrella. We need two versions: one adult or teen, and one chibi.

The cover of the 2007 convention program book introduces attendees to the convention upon arrival; every attendee receives one. It is full color and letter size. Fully detailed, colorful backgrounds and foregrounds work best.

The cover of the 2007 pocket programming guide is a smaller, simpler design. It is grayscale, possibly with lower resolution than the main convention book. Lightly detailed and shaded or all-white backgrounds, with strong, contrasting shades, lines, and geometric patterns work best.

Entries must be received by Sunday, July 15, 2007, at 11:59:59 PM, Pacific Daylight Time. [Update: This has been extended by one day so that entries can be turned in at the July 15 general meeting.]

Please read the entire rules and instructions for entry in this forum thread.

We have also just posted galleries of entries from the last two years’ mascot contests, and last year’s cover contest (as well as photo galleries from recent events at which Kumoricon has appeared).

Good luck!

Kumoricon welcomes A-Key Kyo and Kirk Thornton as guests of honor for 2007, both returning for a second year.

A-Key Kyo is a J-pop and anime cover band formed in Portland, who plays at Japanese cultural festivals and events.

Kirk Thornton has voice acted in over one hundred roles for anime and video games and has voice directed many series.

Please visit our guests page for full bios and photos of all our guests!