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2020 News

Announcements and updates specifically from the 2020 convention year.

December 2020

Holiday Sale

We are offering a holiday discount on registration for Kumoricon 2021! From December 23 to January 1, get $10 off our regular adult price for the next Kumoricon!

Welcoming Directors for 2021

We would like to welcome and congratulate the Directors elected by the membership for the 2021 convention year:

  • Chair/President: Brian Mathews
  • Director of Infrastructure: Ash “Bunny” Butler
  • Director of Membership: Jessica Ulibarri
  • Director of Operations: Yaz Wigfall
  • Director of Programming: Devin Hunter
  • Director of Publicity: Samantha Rushford
  • Director of Relations: Heather Holland

Thank you to all candidates, and to our staff for your participation in elections!

November 2020

Black Friday Sale

We are offering a special discount on registration for Kumoricon 2021! From November 26 to 30, get $10 off our regular adult price for the next Kumoricon!

Annual Meeting of the Membership and 2021 Elections

We will be holding the Annual Meeting of the Membership online on Saturday, December 5, 2020, at 11:00am, with elections for member-elected board positions. The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Your staff status: As a reminder, if you were signed up as Kumoricon 2020 staff, you automatically became Kumoricon 2021 staff when we announced the decision to postpone Kumoricon. The one exception is that positions on our Board of Directors are always one-year terms. For this reason, we are holding annual elections during our usual time frame. Elections: At this meeting, elections will be held for the following positions:

  • Chair/President
  • Director of Infrastructure
  • Director of Membership
  • Director of Operations
  • Director of Programming
  • Director of Publicity
  • Director of Relations

Additional business: There will also be two amendments to our bylaws and articles of incorporation put to a vote of the membership. The first vote will be on both an amendment to our bylaws and our articles of incorporation, together. They make changes to our state corporation type, our statement of purpose, and our dissolution statement in preparation for applying for 501(c)(3) exempt status. The second vote is on another amendment to our articles of incorporation. Some portions of our articles of incorporation had fallen out of consistency with our bylaws, and this amendment brings the articles of incorporation up to date. All amendments have been approved by the board of directors and will take effect if and when approved by the membership.

How to participate: We will be performing our elections online using a new process. The board of directors has authorized, under ORS 65.205, member participation by remote communication for this meeting. As voting members (staff) of Kumoricon (including DigiKumo), you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting for quorum and voting, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page as well as in an updated version of our formal elections process document (staff login required). We will also for the first time be using a third-party election platform, ElectionBuddy, to ensure secret ballots for elections. You don’t need to sign up for ElectionBuddy in advance. Instead, those in attendance at the meeting will receive ballots by email during the meeting. Before the meeting, please make sure your Discord tag or Twitch username are up-to-date and listed in your staffing details.

Please be aware that official participation is limited to those officially registered as Kumoricon 2021 staff. If you were staff for Kumoricon 2019 but are not yet official for 2021, you are still very welcome to watch the elections on our Twitch stream, but you won’t be a voting member.

Nominations and Q&A: As with previous years, we are holding online nominations and Q&A prior to elections. Most of our online elections activity will be on our staff Discord server in the #elections-nominations channel. We will shortly be posting detailed information about the nominations, question-and-comment, and elections process. We have also created channels for questions and comments for each position. We encourage staff to join our Discord if you have not already. To join, please read our introductory page. If you need assistance, please email staff-discord@kumoricon.org. We will also be creating a forum thread to allow people who are not staff or do not have a Discord account to make nominations.

We hope to see you there, and would like to thank staff for participating!

Art Poster Contest

We’re super excited to launch an Art Poster Contest sponsored by XP-PEN and ArtRage! The contest is to a create a poster with a new Ghost Neko design. Are you a current or aspiring artist? We’d love to see what Kumoricon means to you!

DigiKumo Survey

If you attended DigiKumo, we want to hear your thoughts. Loved it? Let us know. Thought some things could be better? Definitely let us know! Feedback from our community is how we can continue to improve and put on better and better events. Take our survey (requires DigiKumo login but feedback is anonymous).

DigiKumo Autographs and New Pins

Ready to see more awesome guests at DigiKumo this weekend? Autographs are up and available to purchase!

And, we’ve got so much new merch available including a special ACME x Kumoricon collaboration, and a set of brand new pin designs! Check it out at our new online merchandise store.

DigiKumo Schedule Is Released

The DigiKumo schedule is released! Events run for three days and start at 6pm Pacific Time on Friday, November 6.

The schedule is on the same page as our attendee login and video player, at the end. You can view the schedule by event category or by date and time.

You can register online if you haven’t yet. DigiKumo is “pay what you want” with an optional suggested donation of $5.

DigiKumo Features 22 Guests of Honor

Our first all-digital convention is shaping up to be an exciting event! If you missed our individual announcements over the past few days, visit our DigiKumo guests of honor page to see who will be making an appearance, including voice actors, cosplay guests, and musical guests.

Announcing Kamui Cosplay as DigiKumo Guest of Honor

We are extremely excited to welcome Kamui Cosplay to DigiKumo! Hopefully you’re familiar with her cosplays already, but if not, Kamui makes some truly spectacular fantasy and sci-fi props and costumes. She’ll also be helping out with our cosplay contest, so get ready to impress.

Watch Kamui Cosplay DigiKumo announcement video

Announcing Steve Blum as DigiKumo Guest of Honor

The man behind many of your favorite characters, Steve Blum, is joining us for DigiKumo this weekend! Steve will be joining a few different panels throughout DigiKumo, so you’ll have quite a few chances to ask him your burning questions.

Announcing Kari Wahlgren as DigiKumo Guest of Honor

A riddle for you: what do Lucia from Promare, Luka from Voltron, Haruko from FLCL, and Jessica from Rick and Morty have in common? Answer: They’re all voiced by Kari Wahlgren! You can see the incredibly prolific Kari at DigiKumo on November 6-8.

DigiKumo Registration Is Open

DigiKumo is fast approaching! We’ll be rapid firing announcements over the next week, so if anything catches your eye, be sure to register to see it all live. Registration is “pay what you want”, but there is a minimum $1 charge as an additional age verification measure to attend age 18+ events. We hope to see you all soon!

October 2020

Announcing ACME as DigiKumo Guests of Honor

What’s this? One of our special guests, ACME, has a special announcement for DigiKumo.

After we had to postpone Kumoricon, we were a little scared that we wouldn’t be able to present ACME to our fans, but we’re so excited it worked out. The amazing J-rock band ACME will be performing a concert just for DigiKumo attendees! Get hyped for ACME!

Watch ACME DigiKumo announcement video

October 25 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Sunday, October 25, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online. The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

Craft Kits and Cat Ears at Our Online Store

Just because we’re digital this year doesn’t mean you have to miss out on crafts! Check out our store for some fun new DIY projects with our new craft kits. We’re really missing everyone right now, so we’d love for you to tag us on social media in any pictures of your finished products!

October 10 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Saturday, October 10, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online. The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

DigiKumo Fan Fiction Contest Is Open

We want to read all your best AUs and headcanons for DigiKumo! Our Fan Fiction Contest is now open for entries. We accept a variety of formats, so no matter what you like to write we encourage you to enter.

Check here for full details.

September 2020

DigiKumo Fan Art Contest Is Open

Have you been looking for motivation to make some art? Our Fan Art Contest for DigiKumo is now open for entries! We accept a variety of mediums and there are several potential categories, so we want to see your art no matter your style.

Check here for full details and to enter.

DigiKumo Karaoke Contest Is Open

All your practicing in the shower has led up to this! DigiKumo Idol, our Karaoke Contest, is now open for entries. Spots are first-come, first-served, so be sure to enter soon.

Visit here for full details and submissions.

DigiKumo Panel Applications Deadline Extended

Due to the Oregon wildfires making life difficult, we’re re-opening DigiKumo panel applications through October 4! If you’ve got a great idea for a panel but just couldn’t get your application in the first time around, we still want to hear from you. Visit our applications page for more information and to apply.

Also, we did an Ask Me Anything covering some common questions about digital panels. Check out the video reply here.

Upcoming Twitch Streams

Extra Life

We’ve started an Extra Life team! Our goal is to raise $10,000 for OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital by the end of DigiKumo, and we need your help. Donate now or tune in for a future stream to help us help kids. This also means we’ll be streaming more regularly on our Twitch channel, so look out for those announcements!

Factorio

Join some Kumoricon staff this Thursday, September 24, at 7pm PDT for a chill Factorio stream on our Twitch. You’ll get to learn about how all Kumoricon programming staff are graded on how well they’re able to arrange things in Factorio. Some train for months to perfect their layouts in preparation for Kumoricon.

Disclaimer: This is not an actually true, but it is funny, just like this stream will be.

Kumoricon Online Merchandise Store

Kumoricon Merch Booth digivolve to… Kumoricon Online Merch Store! For the first time ever, you can buy our merch online and get it shipped right to you. Check out some brand new items and limited stock of a few classics from past Kumoricon years. Shop here.

AMA – DigiKumo

We’re doing another Ask Me Anything about any and all DigiKumo questions on September 26 at 1:00pm Pacific Time! This one is for anything you’ve been wondering, like how our digital convention is working, how to attend, and what to look forward to. This whole digital convention idea is still pretty new for us all, so there are no bad questions! We’ll be going live on our Twitch, but if you have a question you’re really curious about be sure to submit here.

September 20 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Sunday, September 20, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online. The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

AMA – Running a DigiKumo Panel

Do you have any questions about how a digital panel works? How about what equipment you’ll need? We’re hosting an Ask Me Anything to answer your questions on Saturday, September 5, at 1pm Pacific Time on our Twitch channel. We’ll be taking a look at chat during the AMA, but if you have a question you want to make absolutely sure gets seen, please submit it here.

August 2020

DigiKumo Staff Applications Are Open

We’re looking for help putting on our first ever digital convention! This will mean a lot of firsts for us, so this is a chance to have a big impact. If you’d like to contribute, you can now apply for open positions.

Important note: Holding a Kumoricon 2021 position is a requirement to staff DigiKumo, but you can still apply for DigiKumo now even if you don’t know what you’d like to do for 2021 yet. We’ll work with you to help you decide.

DigiKumo Panel Applications Are Open

We are now accepting DigiKumo panel applications! Applications are due on September 14, 2020. DigiKumo panels will work a little differently than typical Kumoricon panels. Applicants have the option to present either a live panel or a pre-recorded panel. Please refer to our DigiKumo panel page for all info and to submit your application.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

August 23 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Sunday, August 23, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online! The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

July 2020

Announcing DigiKumo

We’re going digital!

Join us November 6-8, 2020, for our 100% online con called DigiKumo! Get ready for:

  • super cool guests
  • panels
  • cosplay
  • contests
  • and even more things we can’t announce yet…

Just because we can’t be together, doesn’t mean we can’t have fun together. Stay tuned for more DigiKumo details and announcements. It’s going to be an entirely new thing for us, but we’re really excited to try it out with all of you. As part of DigiKumo, we’ll be rolling out an official public Kumoricon Discord server very soon. Look out for that and we hope you’ll join us in November!

Visit our DigiKumo page for more info.

Kumoricon Is Being Postponed to 2021

Hello Kumo Fam,

This is the announcement we were hoping we wouldn’t have to make: the big one. We are deeply saddened to announce Kumoricon is postponed to November 5-7, 2021. While we’ve grown a lot in the past few years, Kumoricon has always been about a tight-knit community of volunteers, guests, exhibitors, and fans, and we don’t want to hold an event that would risk the health and safety of our community.

Since we are still a few months away from when Kumoricon 2020 was scheduled to take place, this announcement may seem preemptive. However, Governor Kate Brown stated in previous announcements that large gatherings will likely still not be safe even through the end of the year. Because of this and recommendations by experts, we are confident that a gathering of over 10,000 people will still be too big of a risk. Even if things begin to improve within the next few months, we don’t want to risk the safety of our community. We hope making this announcement far in advance will give everyone time to process and adjust or cancel plans.

In light of this announcement, those who have already registered will have four options:

Carrying over your membership to Kumoricon 2021: By default, all memberships for Kumoricon 2020 will be automatically rolled over to the 2021 convention. If you would like to do this, you do not need to take any action. Those who allow their registration to roll over to 2021 will be given a Ghost Neko sticker (design pending) at the 2021 event.

Transferring your Kumoricon 2020 membership: Those who cannot attend the 2021 dates can transfer their registration to another person who is able to attend using our Action Request Form by Sunday, August 16, 2020.

Donating your Kumoricon 2020 membership: Pre-registered attendees who paid for adult badges will also have the option to donate* their current registration. Donating your Kumoricon 2020 membership means you will not be automatically registered for Kumoricon 2021, and you will be supporting us directly. If a qualifying** badge is donated, or an attendee donates at least $45 to Kumoricon, they will receive an exclusive “Heart of Gold” Ghost Neko pin (design pending) at the 2021 convention. If you would like to donate your Kumoricon 2020 membership, indicate this on the Action Request Form by Sunday, August 16, 2020.

A refund of your Kumoricon 2020 membership: Those who cannot attend the 2021 dates and would like a refund can do so by using the same Action Request Form. Be sure you are choosing the correct option when you submit the form. All refund requests must be submitted by Sunday, August 16, 2020.

Kumoricon is run entirely by passionate volunteers, and we are so proud to put it on every year. The decision to cancel this year was not made lightly, and doubly so because of the financial consequences. While all our staff are volunteers, putting on a giant convention is still very expensive. If you are able to, we wholeheartedly appreciate anyone willing to roll their registration over to next year’s Kumoricon or to donate it. If you are not able to do so, we completely understand and we will begin the refund process for those who request one using the form linked above. Refund requests will be initiated within two weeks of form submission.

While we are sad about this turn of events, we have been planning a lot in the last few months to be prepared for multiple outcomes. On the same weekend as Kumoricon 2020 was supposed to be held, we will be hosting a digital event called DigiKumo! Stay tuned for more information as we turn our full focus toward preparing for the online event.

We want to thank the entire Kumoricon community for maintaining the love for Kumoricon even through the uncertainty of not knowing whether we would have an in-person event or not. Each and every one of you has such an important role in what makes Kumoricon what it is, whether you are an attendee, staff, exhibitor, artist, small press, panelist, guest, or anyone else at our con. With your continued support, we will come out of this stronger and better than ever! We could not do it without you.

Everyone already registered for Kumoricon 2020 regardless of badge type will be receiving an email with the above options and instructions for each. Thank you all for being an amazing community, and we look forward to seeing everyone in 2021!

* To donate a registration means that the attendee relinquishes their Kumoricon 2020 registration. It will not automatically transfer, and they do not require a refund. If they wish to attend Kumoricon 2021, they will have to register for the event again when registration is available.

** Must have purchased an adult or VIP membership to qualify. Child memberships can be donated, but they will not qualify to receive the “Heart of Gold” pin and will get a sticker instead.

What does this cancellation mean for roles other than attendee?

Artists/Exhibitors/Small Press

Much like attendee registrations, by default, all exhibitor booths that have been paid for Kumoricon 2020 will be automatically rolled over to the 2021 convention. If you would like to do this, you do not need to take any action. Those who allow their booth to roll over to 2021 will be given a free booth tier upgrade where applicable, by request only and on a first-come, first-served basis. Those who cannot attend the 2021 dates and would like a refund can request one by August 16, 2020, by emailing the KumoriMarket team at exhibits@kumoricon.org. We will still be accepting exhibitor applications. Please see our exhibitors page for details.

For artists waiting to find out if they’ve been accepted into either Artist Alley or Small Press, we will not be accepting any applications we have received for 2020. We understand that stock, skill, and circumstances change over time and we would like to give all our applicants an equal opportunity for admission, so we will be asking that artists reapply in 2021.

All accepted and paid exhibitors will be listed and promoted on our website as part of a digital KumoriMarket. The top 120 Artist Alley and top 20 Small Press applications (from our 2020 juries) will also be listed and promoted similarly. We will contact those accepted applicants via email with further details.

Staff

Kumoricon 2020 staff positions automatically become Kumoricon 2021 positions, and are extended in duration for an additional year so that they end shortly after Kumoricon’s new 2021 dates. This means that your Kumoricon 2021 staff position may last for up to two years. If you registered as Kumoricon 2020 staff, then you are Kumoricon 2021 staff, unless we tell you or you tell us otherwise. Staff applications currently in progress will be treated as applications for 2021 staff.

An exception to this is Kumoricon board positions. Directors and Officers have annual terms and our bylaws call for an election each year, even in the event that the con is postponed. Therefore, we will hold an election around the December timeframe. We expect this election will be held online and are figuring out a fair, transparent, and private way to hold an online vote for our staff.

DigiKumo, our new online event, will have a separate staff sign-up process that is independent of staff positions for Kumoricon 2021. Kumoricon convention staff do not automatically become DigiKumo staff.

Contest Entrants and Panelists

The only contest currently open is our AMV Contest. Entries for the AMV Contest will remain valid, and we will continue to accept entrants up to the September 1, 2020, deadline. This AMV contest will be held at DigiKumo rather than the new 2021 dates. Panel applications for DigiKumo will be opening very soon. Any other contests that are happening will be announced as information is finalized for release.

Additional FAQs

What will happen to my hotel reservation?

All reservations made through the booking link on our website or within our room block at the Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center will be cancelled automatically. For all other reservations you will need to contact the hotel or booking source you reserved with to cancel your reservation.

How will my membership be transferred to 2021?

No action on your part is needed. Unless you indicate otherwise, your membership will be transferred automatically to 2021.

What if I registered for a younger badge type, but I will be at the next age tier for the 2021 dates?

Happy birthday! You will not need to pay the difference. Your badge type will match the age you are as of the new dates.

Why not just postpone the event a few months instead of an entire year?

Postponing a huge event like Kumoricon is very difficult, both logistically and financially. Additionally, there is no guarantee that waiting a few more months will improve the situation around COVID-19 enough to where we could safely hold a convention. Postponing Kumoricon all the way to 2021 is hard, but it is the most safe and straightforward option.

How do I donate $45 to Kumoricon for the exclusive pin if I don’t want to donate my membership?

Stay tuned! We will have an online avenue to do this soon! This step will not be required for those who are donating their membership purchase for the pin.

Have the prices changed for Kumoricon with this postponement?

The prices themselves have not changed, but the dates each price tier change will be different. See the changes below:

  • The $50 tier will be reactivated and run through December 5, 2020.
  • The $55 tier will now run from December 6, 2020, through May 1, 2021.
  • The $60 tier will now run from May 2, 2021, through October 23, 2021.
I purchased my membership at the $55 price after it changed in May 2020, but now the price is $50 again. Will I receive a refund for the difference?

Attendees who pre-registered at the $55 price prior to the postponement announcement will receive an automatic refund of $5. These $5 refunds will be initiated by July 31, 2020.

I have another question not covered here.

Please visit our contact us page for a list of relevant emails you can reach out to.

July 12 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Sunday, July 12, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online! The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

June 2020

Kumoricon Stands with Black Lives Matter

While many of our staff have been vocally in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Kumoricon as a whole has remained silent when it is our duty to speak up in support of our black community. Amidst important conversations about race, we wanted to take the time to ensure our message would be followed by action.

The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, Philandro Castile, and so many others are tragic and utterly unjust. We support all those grieving and demanding justice, and we echo their demands. Our support for reform and justice cannot stop after this week or this month, but must be an ongoing fight for decades and generations to come.

As a convention that centers on anime and manga based in Portland, Oregon, it is no shock that Kumoricon is disproportionately white in comparison to the fandom as a whole. While we have made increased efforts towards inclusivity in recent years, we have not addressed the lack of attention the black community gets at our convention. Our lack of attention is a microcosm of the anime and manga fandom at large who disproportionately ignores and attacks its black members for simply trying to enjoy content in the same ways white members do. All too common occurrences such as suggesting a black person is ever unwelcome or a black cosplayer can only cosplay dark-skinned characters is racist, plain and simple, and it will not be tolerated.

The Venn diagram of anime fans and marginalized people tends to have quite a bit of overlap, yet white privilege is not absent even among marginalized groups. When white fans find a place in this community, whether unconsciously or intentionally, we often try to bar the gates and push other marginalized groups even farther to the fringes, especially black anime fans. Anime conventions are a safe space for many of us to flaunt and share our fandom relatively free of judgment, but we can no longer ignore the fact that black people do not enjoy the same safety and freedom in our spaces.

Kumoricon cannot erase the existing hate that so many black fans have endured, nor do we want to. It is a painful but important reminder of our failure to take action as members of a community and as people. However, it’s not enough to just acknowledge the racism within our fandoms and our own event; it’s time for us to be better. Below are some ways we are taking action:

  • We are donating $5,000 to the Black United Fund of Oregon to support black lives in our community.
  • We are continuing to improve and expand our guest selection process, which is now based on input from our entire executive team as opposed to an individual person or department. This means many more voices and perspectives contributing to our final lineup. One of the key deciding factors in this process is our guest request form. We ask our attendees to submit their ideas, and together we will do our best to create an amazing and diverse guest list.
  • Multiple members of our executive team will be attending a seminar this week that addresses whiteness in the workplace and will go over many ways to mitigate that culture. Our team will also use this information to inform future Kumoricon training. However, our learning will not stop there. We will continue to pursue opportunities to ensure diversity and equity within our organization long beyond this week.
  • We are committing to a review of all of our policies and procedures to look specifically for any discriminatory biases or exclusions that affect the black community.
  • When ordering supplies, merchandise, or contracting services, we are choosing vendors who represent the diversity we support within our community.
  • We are committing to making sure the media highlighted in the marketing of our event reflect the diversity of our guests and attendees.

Kumoricon exists because we love this community, and it is because we love it that we want to lead by example and try to make it better. A strong community is an inclusive one, and we want our community to end up stronger than ever.

As we work to improve, we want to hear from you! If you have feedback or ideas for us at any time, please email chair@kumoricon.org. We want to listen, learn, and grow along with all of you. If you would like to learn with us and continue to support the movement, please visit the following resources:

June 14 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Sunday, June 14, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online! The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

May 2020

AMV Contest Entries Are Open

Calling all editors! We are ready for submissions for the Kumoricon 2020 AMV Contest! Please visit our online rules/submission page.

All of our rules have stayed the same, but this year you can enter up to three videos into separate categories. We are also continuing our 2019 rule of accepting non-Japanese sources, as long as they are anime/manga-styled. Notable examples that are allowed include: Voltron: Legendary Defender, Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, etc.

We are so excited to continue hosting some of the best AMVs and AMV programming in the U.S.—and it’s all because of your support that we can make this possible. Thank you!

April 2020

May 9 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on Saturday, May 9, 2020, at 1:00pm, will occur entirely online! The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

Ask Kumoricon Anything – April 25

This Saturday, April 25, at 7:00pm PDT, we’re hosting an AMA with our Board Chair Brian, and we want your questions! Just fill out this form and get your burning, sizzling, or even tepid questions answered. We can’t promise we’ll be able to get to everything, and there might be some that we can’t answer due to our policies or code of conduct, but we’ll do our best.

Submit your question here.

Join us at Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. We’ll see you Saturday!

March 2020

Artist Alley Applications Closing Early on March 31

Due to the high volume of Artist Alley applications, applications will be closing early, on March 31 at 11:59pm. Please get your application in if you are interested in selling in our Artist Alley!

Please note that Small Press applications will continue to be open past that date, and that if you have merchandise that qualifies, you are welcome to apply to both Small Press and Artist Alley.

Pre-Registration Discount Thru April 12

With how current events have been affecting conventions we normally sell memberships at, we were sad not to get a chance to see all of you!

Without being able to offer you our promotional discount at our local outreach events, we wanted to offer that discount to all of you on our website. From March 27 - April 12, we will be offering our in-person discount online. Pre-register online at our our discounted rate starting midnight, March 27.

April 4 General Meeting

Our next general meeting, on April 4, 2020, will occur entirely online! The meeting will be streamed in real time on Kumoricon’s Twitch channel. Staff and members of the public are welcome. Meeting attendees do not need a Twitch account in order to watch the meeting.

The board of directors has authorized member participation by remote communication for this meeting, under ORS 65.205. If you are a voting member (staff) of Kumoricon, you may officially participate in this meeting, including counting toward quorum and the ability to vote, using the procedures listed on our Meetings page.

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to learn about staffing and become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at our Meetings page. This will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

KumoriMarket Applications Are Open

Exhibitor, Artist Alley, and Small Press applications are now open!

Check it out and send us an application if you’re interested in being a part of this exciting hall of merchantry and commerce!

Please be sure to read our updated applications and FAQs. We’re including a pre-registration rate discount for Exhibitors affected by COVID-19 convention cancellations between now and May. Accepted Artists and Small Press may also qualify for a table/booth discount.

If you are applying for Artist Alley, we encourage you to submit an application ASAP, as we may close applications early depending on volume!

Community Love During COVID-19

Hello Kumo Fam~

It’s breaking our hearts watching all the concern and worry that our community is experiencing right now as events that are very near and dear to us are having to cancel or postpone due to the pandemic. As event runners, we know how heartbreaking the decisions being made are for our fellows. Having to delay is hard enough, having to cancel outright is devastating as it can affect future prospects for that event.

We’d like to suggest a couple of things for you to consider to support those most affected if you are able:

  • Checking out the confirmed exhibitors and artists for that event and purchasing something from their online store. Many of these small businesses order or make extra products in order to vend at these events and the cancellation/postponements are making it difficult to recover financially.
  • If that con has merch available online, consider buying it as most merchandise is year specific.
  • If you are financially able, consider your ticket as a donation instead of asking for a refund. The events that we, as an event, choose to support are nonprofits and your purchase is what helps keep the lights on for them.
  • Try to look at the situations with a kind and objective eye. It can seem like the events are being slow to publicly respond as the situation progresses, but in our experience, there is a lot going on in the background as they work through their grief and try to get answers for the community in a timely and complete manner. Delayed responses can be for reasons ranging from setting up a competent process for those requesting refunds, to working with the venue and securing answers on if they need to delay or cancel, and even determining if cancelling might make it their last event. Securing a new date for an event is a complex and uncertain process and can make the difference between whether costs spent planning an event can be recouped or whether they are lost. These are such difficult decisions that none of these event runners had a chance to prepare for.

We were looking forward to seeing everyone at our favorite events this spring, but the health and safety of the community is always our priority. Some folks have started reaching out to us, asking if we’re going to cancel Kumoricon. At this time, no, we are not planning to cancel. We are monitoring the situation closely and working with our venues, but we are still planning for Kumoricon 2020.

As things progress, we’ll update everyone if there’s plans for something more we can do to support those that are affected.

We love you all. Stay healthy ❤️

#TeamKumo

February 2020

March 8 General Meeting

The next general meeting will be held on Sunday, March 8, at 1:00pm, at:

Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center (map)
Room: Columbia 2, Third Floor

375 NE Holladay St
Portland, OR 97232

Meetings are open to the public and are a great way to sign up for staff or become involved with the convention.

The full general meeting schedule for the year is available at Meetings. This page will always show the most up-to-date scheduling information for meetings of the membership.

We hope to see you there!

[Post edited to add room listing.]

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