Message from the President & Con Chair
April 27, 2020
https://www.otakon.com/
We are very sad to announce that we must join the countless other events around the world and announce the cancelation of Otakon 2020. While we had been clinging to the last bits of hope that our later dates would allow us the potential to hold an event, on April 17th it was announced that our venue, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, would be converted into an Alternate Care Facility. After discussing the timelines with the Convention Center staff and Destination DC, even in the most optimistic scenario that the facility is not needed to be used they would still be in the move-out/clean up process by the dates of our event.
We know this is not the news you wanted to hear. For those of you who may not know, Otakon, is run, planned, staffed, and organized by an ALL volunteer organization. As our staff have been trying to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, we have also continued planning, and holding out hope that Otakon 2020 would still happen. All of the best things that make up our community are needed more than ever right now. We need fandom, we need inclusion, we need acceptance, we need family and friendship, we need creativity and escape; we need FUN! We held out hope as long as we could that we could be all of that this year. Please know that this decision breaks our hearts as much as it does yours.
So, we are at least happy that we can announce our dates for next year:
Otakon will return to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, August 6-8, 2021
All registrations for 2020 will automatically be registered for 2021. No additional action will be needed.
If you are unable to attend in 2021, or need to request a refund for other reasons, we are making an exception to our standard no-refunds policy for this year. Please fill out the Refund Request form on our website before May 31st.
Dealers and Artists will have the option to transfer their registrations to next year, or request a refund.
Hotel reservations made through Experient (our official housing provider) will automatically be cancelled. According to our records, no deposits for any rooms booked inside our room block have been taken. If you booked outside our housing portal you will need to contact your hotel directly.
We'd like to say thank you to our partners at Destination DC, Events DC, Experient, Hargrove, DSL, Simmons Security, and more. Thank you to all of our industry partners and guests, both foreign and domestic, and thank you to all of our artists and dealers.
To our members, thank you for your support and encouragement through this crisis. Our motto has always been "for fans, by fans". This is truly a labor of love for us, and we will need your continuing support more than ever in the weeks and months to come.
Finally, we want to publicly thank all the volunteers who work behind the scenes to bring you Otakon and are working so right now to readjust things for 2021. Our volunteers are more than just a group of people who work to put on a convention each year; we're very much a family. We'll just need to wait till next year for our big reunion.
Stay safe, and we'll see you in 2021!
Nick Avgerinos, President
Andrew Zerrlaut, Convention Chair
