Here is a map of J-Popcon 2011:
Here is a map of J-Popcon 2013:
Can you spot the difference?
After J-Popcon 2011, we started thinking about our future con-area together with the people from DGI-byen, our venue. We wanted to solve the issues that had crept up on us in the previous years. From our discussions emerged the changes above. For J-Popcon 2013, we will make use of yet another piece of the DGI-byen complex, CPH Conference: a modern conference center with excellent facilities that we look forward to use. CPH Conference is the area in the lower middle of the above map.
This means, of course, that we will move a lot of things around in 2013 as well. All the changes should benefit J-Popcon and we hope they will improve the overall experience for all guests. Here is a short overview of the planned changes. Remember that this is work in progress. We reserve the right to change any and all of this prior to J-Popcon.
An open lounge area on the first floor of CPH Conference. Photo: DGI-byen
Entrance and reception
The biggest change is that we have moved the entrance and reception area to the ground floor of CPH Conference. This brings several advantages with it: we will have room for a much larger reception with a scalable number of checkin points, we will have room for a lot more people in and around the reception area and the center of J-Popcon will now actually be centrally placed. The new reception area is just for us, so there will no longer be swimmers and other guests of DGI-byen coming through. We are confident that with the additional space and the larger reception, we can avoid a large outdoors queue during the friday afternoon rush.
Artist Alley and Manga-café
Now that we have moved the entrance, the old place for Artist Alley has become somewhat remote. To avoid this Artist Alley will move to the ground floor of CPH Conference as well, along with the Manga-café. Both of them will be in the very heart of J-Popcon 2013.
J-Popcon's two cinemas, here as one large room. Photo: DGI-byen
Event-rooms and cinemas
CPH Conference is perfect for J-Popcon's smaller events and for our cinemas. The event rooms of the previous years were very remote, requiring people to cross the swimming pool area and down a flight of stairs to the area of the DGI-byen hotel. They have been replaced by new rooms in CPH Conference that are both better suited, and much closer to the rest of the convention. The cinemas will move to CPH Conference as well and grow considerably in size and quality of AV equipment.
Øksnehallen and the Maid café
Øksnehallen will once again be the stage of J-Popcon's largest events and shows. In constrast to previous years, Øksnehallen is now much closer to the rest of the convention so going between Øksnehallen and everything else will be a much shorter outside walk. Similarly, the Maid café is much more accessible now so there are no excuses to not stop for a cup of hot something or some cake.
An event room. Foto: DGI-byen
Cloakroom
We listen to your feedback and one of the points of criticism after J-Popcon 2011 was the location of the cloakroom. We get that having a cloakroom you need to go outside to get to is less than perfect, so for J-Popcon 2013 we have moved it back into DGI-byen, to the basement floor - the same level as the dealer room and Forsamlingshuset.
All the changes result in a J-Popcon with more square footage in a smaller space that is more our own than before. It means a shorter distance to everything and even better event rooms and cinemas.
All in all a pretty good deal, we believe.
