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!

The Northwest Film Center, a part of the Portland Art Museum, is showing several anime and Japanese live-action movies including Paprika and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence as part of their Japanese Currents film series. These showings run from May 3-6 in the Whitsell Auditorium. Kumoricon flyers and posters will be displayed at the venue!

Please visit our forum thread for detailed information and showtimes and to discuss meet-ups with other forum members.

You can also visit the NW Film Center’s website for information. Here is a Google Maps link to the Portland Art Museum.

Quick reminder: On a separate note, the current tier of registration ends tonight at midnight! Until then you can pre-register for $30. After that, the price goes up to $35.

We’ve performed a software update and made a few improvements to the forum, as listed in this post. However, as a consequence of one of these changes, some users may experience trouble logging in the first time after these updates. If you are immediately logged out after trying to log in to the forums, please return to the www.kumoricon.org home page, click the “Forums” link in the left bar (this ensures you are using kumoricon.org rather than kumoricon.com to access the forums), and try logging in a second time. In our testing, logging in a second time always worked. If you experience problems after a third login attempt, please contact webmaster@kumoricon.org. Thanks for your patience.

That’s right: you have 6 days to register before the price goes up to $35. If you pre-register after Monday, you will not receive your badge until August (or at the Convention if you opt for Will Call).

We’ve just passed 400 preregistrations. With so many registrations at Sakura-Con, Sakura Fest, and online in the past few weeks, we can see increased excitement this year over last.

So register today! Let’s shoot to get 600 registrations by Monday, 11:59 pm!

Update: The day of week was previously incorrectly stated as Sunday. The last day of the tier is actually Monday, April 30. We apologize for the error.

Announcing the first issue of the KumoriContent newsletter for 2007! Intended for current and future attendees and staff, the newsletter keeps up interest in the con throughout the year and highlights special aspects of Kumoricon. Our dedicated staff and volunteers have written several articles with a special emphasis on the fan-centered activities of the con.

As a special surprise, two new guests of honor are announced in the newsletter. We’ll post their info in the guests area of the web site shortly, but until then, the newsletter is the only place to find out the new guests we have planned for Kumoricon!

The newsletter is primarily distributed online. Here is the direct download/viewing link [PDF].

We’ll have sample printed copies on display at our booth at the Uwajimaya Sakura Festival on Saturday, April 21. Stop by to take a look! (Due to printing costs, we can’t hand out copies, but you can read it at our table.) Along with the articles, the newsletter features important details about Kumoricon including the dates, registration details, location, and a general meeting schedules, so those browsing at the festival can quickly learn the important info.

Kumoricon will have a booth at the Uwajimaya Sakura Festival at the Beaverton location on Saturday, April 21. We will be selling memberships at our table with your badge printed on the spot.

This is a great volunteer opportunity to help out Kumoricon. Earn volunteer hours by manning the table, helping with registrations, and answering questions. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact volunteers@kumoricon.org.

The festival runs from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, April 21. If you are volunteering, setup starts a bit earlier. For the address and directions, please see the event in the calendar.

That’s right folks! This weekend, our big sister up north is celebrating 10 fan-tastic years of anime conventions. This year promises to be the best, with exciting new guests, over 1000 hours of programming, and all the old standards we’ve come to love.

Kumoricon will be in attendance, with at-con registration. Those who register for Kumoricon at Sakura-Con will have their badges printed on the spot! Be sure to stop by, as the $30 tier will end April 30th.

We wish great attendance, round-the-clock fun, and all the best to Sakura-con. Special thanks as well for their cooperation in our April Fool’s fun. The color may be in jest, but the con is no joke! Follow the link in our sidebar for more information.

Update, April 2: If you missed it, see our gallery for screen shots.

Our first musical guests for 2007, Kumoricon welcomes The Slants to come and perform! Head on over to the Guests page for more information!

The Kumoricon convention policies have been posted. These are subject to change until the con, but will likely remain much the same. You can read them and ask questions at the March general meeting on Sunday.

The staff area of the web site has now launched. Officially registered staff members have each received an email message containing a username and password to access the area. You can log in by clicking the “Staff” button on the left sidebar.

If you have not received this email, it might be because of one of the following reasons:

• Your email address has changed since you submitted your registration form.
• Your email address was written incorrectly, or we transcribed it incorrectly.
• There is a problem with your mail system receiving the message. (The message will be sent from wordpress@kumoricon.org.)
• You have not actually registered as staff. (You are not considered official staff until submitting the form signed by your director.)
• Forms submitted after the February meeting might not have been entered yet. We will create accounts for these shortly after the March meeting.

If you have not received the message about your staff account but are registered staff, please email webmaster@kumoricon.org and include your name and the email address that you want to use with the staff account (if you don’t specify, we’ll assume it’s the email address from which you sent the message). If you know that your email address has changed, please include the old address also. Thank you!