Okay, so the central Ohio anime convention, Ohayocon, is now held at Columbus’ convention center and at the attached hotel, the Hyatt Regency. However, it’s not big enough to actually take over the place for the weekend. So the genius folks in charge of booking the place decided that what they really needed was to book a few more events in there for the weekend. Fine, fine. That can work. There was an entire Hindu wedding at the same time as Marcon, and the worst thing that happened was a lot of envious costumers drooling and taking pictures of Indian ladies’ saris from a discreet distance.
But in the case of Ohayocon this year, we have a situation where physical separation of the conventions was not achieved. Nobody ever likes this. It’s fine if everybody is staying in the same hotel, but you want all your events to be on the same floor or in the same general area, and so do they. Preferably, you want each group to have its own access to the outside. This did not happen. Everybody had to traipse through everybody else’s convention areas to get to their own, creating a good deal of disruption and confusion.
And to make matters worse, the other events were a cheerleading convention and a Christian youth group convention. I mean, not necessarily antagonistic if physically separated… but apparently the Witchblade cosplayers kept walking into the youth group talks, and that’s just not going to end well; and kids from the other conventions kept sneaking into the anime convention events, which is more than a bit worrisome for the con committee (concom).
But the concept is pretty funny. Especially since I wasn’t there, and it wasn’t my problem. 🙂
Aliens in This World 
Don’t forget the year they had the Ohio Morticians Convention up against Marcon…
In ’96, they had the MST3K ConventioCon booked alongside a J.C. Penney’s retirees convention. Many a funny look was exchanged.
I’ve heard about a year that Anthrocon was scheduled alongside a regimental reunion. Which left a friend of mine trying to explain furry fandom to a very drunk major. Who apparently decided he was a tiger. 🙂
Convention hall sharing is always hilarious. AWA was sharing the venue with a baby convention last year (and I think the year before). I can just imagine that all the mothers present were furiously hoping that their children didn’t end up crazy like us. Thankfully, AWA’s grown big enough to take over the entire damn hotel and convention center this year. c: