Morristown, NJ (November 25, 2016) – DerpyCon 2016 is over, and we’re really sad to see it go. We had a great year, with super guests, awesome events, and wonderful attendees. Growth this year was higher than last, and you all surprised even us with the turnout! Thank you, DerpyCon fans, for making this another great year! As sad as it is to see 2016 go, however, we have some really cool stuff planned for 2017…
For 2016, we ran into some hiccups, like some travel troubles that kept Todd Haberkorn from appearing in person. We were just as disappointed as our fans that he couldn’t make it, but we were thrilled to be able to bring him in through a Skype panel for you (our first!). Todd was really great to be able to do that with us, and has promised to come see us in person next year! We’re really excited about that news, and can’t wait to have him in Morristown for 2017!
We also want to give a huge thank you to Michele Knotz, best known as Jessie from Pokémon, for stepping up and helping to fill those empty panel slots in Todd’s absence. She bought some great content at the last minute, including her “Knotz Your Everyday Dubbing Panel,” and her “Pokémon 3DS Party!” We were lucky that she was able to come and fill in on such short notice!
Naturally, we want to thank our other guests as well: Robert Picardo, Vic Mignogna, Aurelio Voltaire, This Way to the EGRESS, E. L. Fortner, Charles Dunbar, Uncle Yo, Cosplay Burlesque, Antipode, Greggo’s Game Shows, Nerdfit Network, and Children Driving Robots. They gave us so much to present to our fans, including a screening a Vic’s own Star Trek Continues, and we had a great time with all.
We also have to thank Tokyo Attack for bringing in that wonderful selection of video games for our gaming room, Zenkaikon for letting us borrow the Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator for the weekend, AnimeNEXT for lending us their manga library, and T-MODE for running their great set of Japanese Matsuri games. A big shout out goes to Operation Hammond for providing on-site first aid, and taking some really great pictures of cosplays all weekend.
We definitely need to thank our sponsors, too. Crunchyroll and Funimation gave us awesome prizes to offer everyone for the cosplay contest and various raffles through the weekend, from popular DVDs and cool swag (San Diego Comic Con exclusive Gold Frieza!), to 3 month premium Crunchyroll memberships and giving us access to their streaming library to use during the weekend! This gave us the ability to offer you some great current shows to watch, like Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. Additionally, we had coupons to offer for meal savings from Tito’s Burritos and Cluck-U Chicken, as well as really cool retro X-Men game from Morristown Game Vault. We hope you got the chance to go visit the local sponsors during the weekend. They’re all really great people. And don’t forget to check out all the post-con coverage from X-75 Productions’ “The Xperience”, too, as well as the other press groups we had in attendance! There are some awesome interviews with our various guests out there, with more coming in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out!
Thanks, too, to our vendors and artists who brought in loads of stuff for attendees to browse and buy. We hope all of you got the opportunity to check out our Dealer’s Hall and Artist Alley this past weekend, as we’ve been working hard to maximize that space and make it awesome for everyone.
On the subject of our growth, we’re pretty sure everyone noticed how packed we were this year! With our second year of growth and third year of higher than projected numbers, we’re really excited about what we can start looking to offer our fans for the future. This year saw our total attendance break 1800 people throughout the three days. That includes vendors, artists, guests, staff, and all the other awesome people on site. We surpassed 1500 people in attendees alone, and that’s really thrilling news!
We had a lot of winners of various events over the weekend. The big winners this year were our cosplay event winners.
Overall Weekend Winner
Spooky Surgeon & Toasty as Nico Yazawa & Umi Sonoda From Love Live
Friday
- Dawn as Linkle From Hyrule Warriors
- Bianca & Carrie as Honey Lemon & Gogo Tomago from Big Hero 6
- Jonathan Costa as Kokonotsu Shikada & Hotaru Shidarefron Dagashi Kashi
Saturday
- Mae Mae Twin as Leafa from Sword Art Online
- Ekalys Cosplay & Lady Mourning as Mami Tomoe & Homura Akemi From Madoka Magica
- Hikaru Cosplay & Lyra as Stormy Weather & Volpina From Miraculous Lady
Judge’s Awards
- Mei: Lovely Landfill Cosplay as Rose Quarts from Steven Universe
- Kira: Jorden & Alex as Papyrus & Sans from undertale
- Robin: The Ember Within as Moa from Show by Rock
Congrats to all our winners of everything this weekend, raffles, game shows, and contests, and we hope you enjoy your prizes!
We’re going to be sending out feedback surveys over the next month or so to gather any comments and concerns you might have. If we have your email in our system, you’ll be getting one. If we weren’t able to get your email address, or if you don’t get a survey by February of next year, send us a message and we’ll get one out to you as soon as possible. We’ve taken all the suggestions over the years to heart, and are working hard to improve every year. It’s important to us to make the best event possible, and we hope you’ll help us out by participating in the survey.
Looking forward to next year, our dates are set! We are officially contracted to hold our event the weekend of November 17-19, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Morristown in Morristown, NJ, again. The Hyatt has been a very gracious host for us over the years, and we’re looking forward to working with them again next year. Their banquets team comes up with that really cool themed menu for everyone, and we really enjoyed the special Drink Me Potion bottles they gave out this year. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next year for our new theme.
Which brings us to next year’s theme! The staff voted, and the results are in! DerpyCon 2017 will have the theme “Medieval Wild West!” So, get out your cowboy hats and full plate armor, because this one’s going to be fun!
See you in 2017!
ABOUT DERPYCON: Serving as a multi-genre pop culture convention in northern New Jersey, DerpyCon celebrates the culture of animation, fantasy, and gaming. DerpyCon is presented by Vidgle and Jenthony Enterprises, Inc. DerpyCon 2017 will be held November 17-19, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Morristown in Morristown, NJ. For more information and news about DerpyCon 2017, go to https://derpycon.com.
