Shane Holmberg has spoke a fair bit about the alleged convention, “Shoudaku Con”;
Shoudaku Con's room block & ticket sales are live!
I scooped some info and can confirm:
Lawsplaining panels with real lawyers!
Mean tweets being read panel!No idea what the ticket price on launch will be, but right now weekend passes are only $20. https://t.co/xkJVpA9DkS
— Shane Holmberg (@shane_holmberg) August 15, 2019
No I am calling Vic one.
Guess what else? He is never getting invited to any cons I run, and I will do my best to make sure others don't invite him either. Chris and Sean are always welcomed.
Deal with it. https://t.co/xdbA9ZXSqL
— Shane Holmberg (@shane_holmberg) September 21, 2019
Shoudaku Con Memorial Day 2020. We will kidnap him and throw him in the trunk and drag him out there for autographs.
Or you know, make him the guest of honor.
— Shane Holmberg (@shane_holmberg) October 18, 2019
Apparently Shane had even quit some of his jobs to run his own convention.
I was helping to run many, or running departments for many, but quit them all to do my own.
Right now I have Nomikai Dallas in October, and Shoudaku Con in May. We are probably going to look at spinning up a third, but trying to get through October before planning any more.
— Shane Holmberg (@shane_holmberg) September 21, 2019
Unfortunately, it seems, things just did not quite work out for “Shoudaku Con”.
A recent update on the website reading;
“It is with a heavy heart that we must announce that ShoudakuCon will have to be pushed back. We are striving to make this the best experience possible, focusing on changing the industry and culture.
Our decision is not an easy one. There are many factors that have led to this decision including recognizing that there are many outstanding conventions on our weekend, such as Comicpalooza and A-Kon. We want to avoid splitting the fandoms at all costs.
After conversations with many in the industry, convention owners, and sponsors, we reluctantly came to this decision. Our amazing partners with the Westin are working with us on our dates and to help make this an awesome experience in the short future.
We have amazing plans in the works. Outstanding motivational speakers, online personalities, amazing cosplayers, gamers, and voice actors coming together from around the globe to present a unique and life changing experience.
Our new dates will be announced as soon as possible. We thank everyone for your support from the bottom of our hearts. For those who have already pre-registered, refunds will be issued within the next 48 hours. Vendors will have the option of refunds or reserving their booths for our future date in 2020.
Thank you again. All inquiries and questions may be directed to us at info@shoudakucon.com or through Facebook.”
A very unfortunate turn of events. Many people were excited to see how the convention would go, and likely not to your surprise, they didn’t expect much aside from plenty of laughs.
Especially when you read over their Mission Statement and posts on what they roughly define as “Enthusiastic Consent”.
Shoudaku Con (しょうだく)
A conference intended to promote the exchange of ideas, opinions, and views; with the intent of laying the necessary foundation to construct an archetype convention for the 21st Century.
Welcome to The Era of Enthusiastic Consent.
Shoudaku Con is about more than just consent in in real life spaces, but how consent, sexuality, dating, and interactions are appearing in our online spaces, anime, media, and video games.
Shoudaku Con strives to inform, educate, and evolve perspectives. We aim to improve every branch, offshoot, and affiliate of the convention culture, Anime or otherwise.
Our team is, ambitious maybe, but dedicated to laying the foundation necessary to design the archetype standard that strives to protect attendees from unwanted attention and/or contact while fostering an environment that exemplifies the safest convention space yet.
Shoudaku Con promotes inviolable safe spaces, and emphasizes the necessity of Enthusiastic Consent when interacting with Convention Attendees, Guest, and Staff alike.”
From the above statement they made about Shoudaku Con’s failure, it does seem like they will still try to make the convention a go at some point in 2020.
“Our new dates will be announced as soon as possible. We thank everyone for your support from the bottom of our hearts. For those who have already pre-registered, refunds will be issued within the next 48 hours. Vendors will have the option of refunds or reserving their booths for our future date in 2020.”
Perhaps Shoudaku Con will still “work out”, which would be quite exciting. I can’t imagine this convention going poorly at all. At this point it just seems will just have to wait and see.
( Thank you Muteki Hentai Daishogun for the news tip! )
2 Response Comments
Sounds like a boring preach fest con. Why would I want to go?