MomoCon

Last time I went to Momo was back in 2012 when it was still held on the holy grounds that house DragonCon. The move to the GWCC was a great move, and has made Momo one of the better cons I’ve been to. My review is going to assume you know a thing or two about conventions, but as a basic primer: it’s a convention with a heavy focus on animé, gaming, and costuming. It’s not quite multi-​genre, and there is not as big a focus on comics/​media guests either. So what can you do at MomoCon?
People watch/​costume watch: Often this is my favorite thing to do at comic cons. I like to see the top level cosplayers bring their latest creation. I want to see what creative or funny takes people can come up with. Overall I was impressed with the quality that I saw. I will add that animé costumes overshadowed all other fandoms. The convention also tries to be family friendly, so you’re not going to get away with some adult-​themed costumes or near nudity. The main demographic is probably late teens to early 20’s. Wikipedia tells me this con draws around 15,000 attendees.
Panels: There was a good bit of programming, usually multiple panels running at once. I attended a few costume-​related panels, such as how to weather props and how to add electronic LEDs to your costume. Very useful info! There was also some with voice actors and gaming industry guests. Kudos for having programming that went well into the night! A lot of cons tend to shut down after 7pm, but Momo is a rare exception.
Arist Alley/​Dealer Hall: Whether you want to support an independent artist, or dig through some collectibles, there’s a huge hall to browse. The merchandise looked pretty standard for a convention, I didn’t see anything that stuck out.
Free to Play Gaming: This was the most impressive part! In a hall just as big as the one above, you have a wide variety of games, most of which are free to play. We’re talking major consoles, PC, old school arcades, DDR, Rock Band, and then a whole section devoted to tabletop/​card/​board games. I think it’s the best gaming section I’ve seen at any convention!
Their volunteer staff was friendly, helpful, and energetic. The layout and usage of the GWCC was well planned. The basement level served as the dealer hall, the middle floor mostly housed panels, and the top floor was for costume watching/​hanging out. Of course, it’s also a walk away from the CNN Center food court. You’re better off going there than the food vendors in the con. Way overpriced!
Bonus points for their well designed program booklet, as well as the smart phone app. Great way to organize your schedule and the events to check out.
For those wanting to go in the future, keep tabs on their website for updates. You can buy a full weekend pass in advance, usually for cheaper than at the door. You can also buy single day passes too at the door. If you want to dip your feet into the animé convention world, Momo is a great way. It’s big, and there’s a lot to do, but it’s not overwhelming. Seriously impressed by it in 2015, and I plan to return in the years to come.

I’m back, another ear and it keeps growing Momocon. New year and new venue being the first time at the Georgia World Congress Center. In addition, this is a first for them going for four days instead of three beginning on Thursday.
The Good — The Venue
Bigger venue, there was so much space compared to the Hilton especially the dealers and game halls. At the old venue the dealers room just kinda shoved in a dark corner below ground. Then it got better last year being in the Marriott with a bit more room but still crowded. This year there was plenty of room putting the dealers room, gaming area, and artist room in exhibition halls B and C. Walking past the windows overlooking the exhibition hall just showed how vast this con has become flashing back to scenes of Animé Expo without being overwhelmed.
Gaming Hall — They truly outdid themselves with the gaming hall. Completely different from last year when the game room, took over the same bottom level where the dealers room was before. On top of that not the whole area but half of floor was for arcade and video games and the tabletop games were in another hotel. Best thing free-​play for the arcade games, yep spend have your con experience in the game room. Lucky there was no long waits being a Thursday, forget it if it was during the weekend. The guys from Southern Fried brought the old school game and there were some unique Japanese games. A new addition was the Indie games, giving a first look trying out new games. I played a bit of Super Mario and tried some of the Japanese games: Taiko no Tatsuigin and Music Gun Gun. I was really bad on both games.
While playing those games I heard a ruckus from behind me at another game. I’m like what the heck, what are they doing? What they were doing was flipping tables. No, no, no there was no brawl people, they were playing Cho Chabudai Gaeshi — Supper Table Flip arcade game. I didn’t play it but it looked fun, great stress reliever. The whole purpose was to beat the little tea table till you build up enough anger/​force than you flip the table to knock your opponents down. Too much.
Artist Hall — I like going to artist hall to see and buy unique gifts. Since this year’s theme was comics there were many local comic artist there. I artist for the comic «Hero Cats» were there and you get a drawing done of your cat (or dog in my case) on a comic book. I had drawings done of my Coco and Clark from both artist, one for myself and one for my mom.
Panels — The panels weren’t as big and not as many compared to last year. I wasn’t much of a panel rat this year and actually spent time in the dealer’s room and gaming area. Some panels felt like nothing more than sale pitches. Others were just not interesting. I really enjoyed the panels on creating cosplays and cosplay shortcuts. I was there taking plenty of notes. There were panels of electronics and modifying items like Nerf guns and cars like the Delorean displayed in the artist hall. Outside of cosplay, I went to the One Piece Panel and K-​pop panel those were good too.
The Bad
My biggest problem I had was how the exhibition hall was set-​up especially with the artist hall. The hall was set-​up where you go down the escalator and either go left to the dealer’s room or right to the game hall. No sign of the artist area which was in the back area behind the dealer’s area. That stinks for the artist because many people, myself included had spent majority of my money in the dealers area. The artist became a second thought. I hated that because I saw a lot of nice work but then I spent majority of money in the dealer’s room.
Suggestions…
Maybe next year they could push the artist alley and dealers area side by side instead of pushed to the back. Use the back are to set up the autograph area.
There’s time for improvement since the GWCC will be MomoCon’s home for a few years. See you next year.

MomoCon is an animé, gaming, comics, and costuming fan convention held annually in Atlanta. It was founded by the Georgia Tech animé club in 2005. My first MomoCon was in 2009, back when the convention was free and held at Georgia Tech. As attendance and costs grew over the years, the convention moved to hotels downtown and started charging for admittance in 2012. The convention has really grown since the first time I went and it seems to be getting bigger every year.
A lot of people ask me how MomoCon compares to Dragon*Con. It’s hard to make a comparison because Dragon*Con is so big and epic. It’s almost in a league of its own. MomoCon is newer and smaller. Attendance in 2013 was estimated to be over 12,000 and this year (2014), over 13,000. Dragon*Con attendance is nearing 60,000. MomoCon is more comparable to another local convention, Animé Weekend Atlanta (AWA), which had over 18,000 attend in 2013. Like AWA, MomoCon has a younger demographic with more emphasis on animé and games.
From 2012 to 2014, MomoCon was held at either the downtown Marriott Marquis, the Atlanta Hilton, or both. Next year (2015), the convention is moving to the Georgia World Congress Center. They are adding an additional day of programming (comics), so the event will run from Thursday through Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The convention started off as only a two-​day convention, but will span four days beginning next year, its 11^th year in existence.
I had a lot of fun at this year’s MomoCon. The highlight for me was attending the BioShock Infinite panel on Saturday. IGN’s Greg Miller moderated and Troy Baker (Booker) and Courtnee Draper (Elizabeth) were the special guests. The panel was held at one of the Hilton’s ballrooms and had great attendance. The panel was well organized, entertaining, and funny.
After the panel, I got to meet Courtnee and another actress, Ashley Johnson. Ashley was the voice of Ellie in the video game The Last of Us. She was also in Growing Pains, What Women Want, and The Avengers. She was at MomoCon for The Last of Us panel, another panel Troy (Joel) was a part of. Courtnee and Ashley were really cool. Unlike the special guests and celebrities who show up at Dragon*Con, Courtnee and Ashley did not charge for autographs and photos.
Another good panel I attended was «Cosplay! Crafting a Secret Identity.» This panel was moderated by Jason Mallory of Scene Missing Magazine. It was a live commentary of director Jack Walsh’s documentary of the same name. Jack also put together the Emmy award-​winning «Four Days at Dragon*Con» documentary. Jack was part of the panel as were costume makers, cosplayers, and prop builders such as Catherine Jones of God Save The Queen Fashions and Harrison Krix of Volpin Props. In the costuming community, these guys are some of the best.
Panels can run the gamut from «professionally» done to one person doing a simple presentation or Q&A. The latter was the case for the Morning Musume panel I attended on Friday. Smaller panels can be fun because they allow for more interaction with the presenter or panelist (s).
The lowest floor of the Marriott featured tabletop gaming. The lowest floor of the Hilton featured video gaming. The video game floor was cool, literally. It was an icebox down there, but I guess it had to be because of all the electronics equipment and, well, the con-​goers’ B.O. The video game floor had everything from PC games to GameCube to Xbox One to classic arcade games. Indie game developers were on hand too to show off their new games (e.g. Default Dan).
The awesome thing about the game room was the arcade games were all set to free play. It was brought to MomoCon by the folks at Southern-​Fried Gameroom Expo. Games included the original Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. (not Super Mario Bros, but Mario Bros.), Pac-​Man, Asteroids, Street Fighter II, Shinobi, NFL Blitz, Mortal Kombat 3, Tempest, and some more obscure games like Mr. Do!, Wizard of Wor, and Gyruss.
I haven’t even touched on my favorite part of fan conventions which is the cosplay. The main reason I love going to conventions is to people watch and look at (and take pictures of) all the different costumes. Many of the cosplayers put a lot of time and effort into their costumes and it really shows. Some of the craftsmanship and attention to detail is downright impressive. To get an idea, check out some of the photos I’ve uploaded to this listing. In general, the level of cosplay at MomoCon isn’t on the same level as Dragon*Con, but there are still many excellent costumes to be seen. A lot of up-​and-​coming cosplay stars start at smaller cons like MomoCon.
Like other conventions, MomoCon has a Dealers Room and Artist Alley. Be sure to visit them if you go.
If you want to attend MomoCon, the sooner you buy your membership, the more money you will save. For example, four-​day memberships for next year’s con are only $ 40 through May 31^st. At the event next year, they’re $ 65 at the door.