Tokyo International Anime Festival

Update - just uploaded the HD wallpapers of this whole post over to my Google Plus account.

Was out n about in Akihabara yesterday as I was speaking at the Tokyo International Anime Festival on the subject of the anime market overseas.

Zooming back in time to about 11AM - heading on the Yamanote line towards Akihabara. I love being on the first carriage as I get to look out the window and get a drivers eye view ^^

Arrival at Akihabara. My destination today is the UDX building.

On the overpass. There used to be a huge parking lot here with many folks skateboarding and playing basket ball many many moons ago - check the photos in the History of Akihabara post.

Was preparing my presentation right up until the last minute (as usual) meaning no time for lunch - quickly grabs some Lunch Pack sandwiches - food for folks on the go ^^;

Spectators view.

Setting up the new MacBook Air before the room is filled. Not a lot of seats but they are filled with a load of industry folk - met folks from NEC, Docomo and the General Manager of Tezuka Productions - Shimuzu-san. Many of my new clients are made at conferences like this - even though I'm not paid for many talks that I give, its up to me to make the most of the opportunity and the chance to network with potential clients is priceless.
Thinking long term means you care about the future, thinking short term means you dont give a damn about the future.

The Lady with the bob hat is Ai-chan who helped me take some of these photos - I'll introduce you next time ^^

Vince Shortino is the top man at Crunchylol - going over some business. I learned today that I need a Mirai-chan sticker for the back of my Mac - wasted real estate.

The event was run by the Japanese government who I have been working with since last year. I'm speaking at another conference for them next week and also working with them on this n that while I'm in Singapore for the Anime Festival Asia. My goal is to help them realize how important you are to them.

What has Vince just seen?

The red bars show that the sales from anime media has been decreasing since 2006 with a slight bump in 2010. These stats are for media only and do not include merchandise sales.
How many of you buy anime DVD's or Bluray?

I've got 10 mins to explain what I do and why. Talking about the roots of how I discovered Japanese Culture - but you already know how.

A quick going over my job history.

Describing my company's mission which is to share Japanese culture with the world. Noticed how I look like a wally holding the mic with two hands - wont do it again!

Going over the pillars that support my business.

Currently hiring for a major platform expansion in 2012.

What I love to share - photos of Japan.

Just some of my clients who we also build web solutions for which include Good Smile, Bushiroad, Konami, Kadokawa, King Records and Ascii Media Works.

I'll be increasing the amount of events that I participate in - next is AFA followed by probably Supanova and Hyper Japan.

Mirai Suenaga is an IP that I've decided to devote my life to.

Figma Mirai followed by...

You know, I'm actually supposed to show you this first before I show others ^^;

I'll talk about this later ^^;

Mirai-chan will be teaching the world Japanese in 2012.

The end card which I've been using this year.

Time for Vince to talk about Crunchylol.

Crunchy's business model. Folks think that I get money for views of Culture Japan on Crunchylol - that moolah goes to crunchy and not me!

Crunchy also sell goodies too.
Our Mirai Gaia platform can also handle e-commerce as you have seen from Kid Nemo and I'll be using that feature also in 2012.

Time to take questions from the audience, network and then head back to base. The Tokyo International Anime Festival was actually a replacement for the Tokyo Anime Fair which got cancelled due to the earthquake that his us earlier on this year.
The "festival" however was far from it with only a handfull of booths for business matching - I didn't even bother to take photos.

But before heading back to base - tis a lovely day in Akihabara to take some snaps. This is the deck at the UDX building - lovely to sit on during the day whilst looking down over the Akihabara scenery.

Long queue is long - filled with AKB48 fans saying "take my money!"

Haruko from Maken-ki has nice eyes.

Akihabara is ever changing. On this side of Chuo dori street there used to be the Akibakan PC accessory shop where I used to get all my cheap HDD's but they are now gone.

Walkure Romanze - out now!

Out December 15th - Final Fantasy XIII - 2.

The new Volks store - this is what the old one looked like.

AKB48 decided that they wanted to have a bigger cafe than Gundam. As soon as you get out the Electric Town exit at Akihabara, just turn to your right after you leave the ticket barriers.

Folks who have not been to Akihabara yet may want to dig through some of my previous posts to see whats available - listed up below.

If you cant be bothered to walk around then just hit Yodobashi Akiba which has everything under one roof.

Internets with you everywhere with Softbank's Ultra WiFi.

Back to base in Musashikoyama.

In my local shopping arcade Palm.

Tsukemen is noodles which you dip into a bowl of soup - tis my dindins before heading back to the office to continue editing Culture Japan.