Phyllis Douglas

Dear FanimeCon Community,

On behalf of the FanimeCon staff, I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during this unprecedented time. 

We are reaching out to you today to announce that FanimeCon will be deferred to May 28-31st, 2021. We thank you for your patience while we worked to establish a healthy and safe solution for the convention in the midst of a pandemic. Until recently, we did not have a viable solution, but with the hard work of our partner management team, we were able to come to this resolution.

Those that have pre-registered for FanimeCon will have their tickets automatically deferred to 2021. A confirmation for FanimeCon 2021 will be sent out prior to the launch date, in Fall of 2020. FanimeCon is operated by the non-profit Foundation for Anime and Niche Sub-cultures (FANS) and all revenue goes back into our events’ operational costs. By deferring your ticket to 2021, you help us remain financially stable and cover expenses we have already incurred this year.

Hotel rooms reserved through the FanimeCon block will be automatically cancelled without penalty. Hotel room selection windows for FanimeCon 2021 will remain the same and will be based on your FanimeCon 2020 registration time. Reservations made directly through a hotel or a third party vendor must be cancelled directly with that hotel or vendor.

Exhibitors in our 2020 Dealer’s Hall and Artist Alley should expect communication from those departments in the coming days.

Programming participants, such as Panels, Cosplay Gatherings, and other events, should expect communication from those departments in the coming weeks.

We are working to inform the community as soon as possible. Please bear with us as we continue to organize the logistics and disseminate information concerning the impact to the many who make this convention possible.

Thank you to our hosts at Team San Jose, the City of San Jose, and our partner hotels for diligently working with us to offer this resolution to our attendees. We would also like to thank our attendees, staff, volunteers, Guests of Honor, vendors, partners, artists, dealers, and panelists for all the passion, effort, and faith you put into this community. There are innumerable elements that come together to make a convention possible. Even during the “normal” times, it takes immense effort to have these elements to align, let alone during these uncertain times.

Anyone would be hard pressed to find someone in this world not touched by this pandemic. We hope that you remain safe and healthy (physically and mentally) in the coming weeks and months of this crisis. We hope that come May 28-31, 2021, our world will be in a more stable place and that we may once again celebrate with this wonderful community that you have helped us create in and around FanimeCon.

Until then, please continue to monitor updates from the CDC, the World Health Organization, and your local government for news and guidance on the pandemic. If you have any questions, please see our FAQ page, or if you have feedback, please let us know at feedback@fanime.com or https://feedback.fanime.com. Your questions and comments would be best served through this avenue compared to calling the phone numbers listed at our registration partner. Please do not call the phone numbers listed on the web page of our registration partner, CMR.

Thank you,

Eric Wu
FanimeCon Chairman,
on behalf of the FanimeCon Staff

To the FanimeCon Community,

On behalf of the FanimeCon staff, I hope you and your loved ones are safe during this tumultuous time and are able to address the challenges that lie ahead. The FanimeCon staff is made up of volunteer staff primarily located in the Bay Area, so our focus has currently been on the well-being of all of our families and ourselves. However, we also recognize that we serve a very important role to the larger FanimeCon Community.

During this unprecedented COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, FanimeCon is taking all precautionary measures, with guidance from the CDC, WHO, local health officials, and other appropriate government and health organizations, to protect our Fans, staff, and community. It is our role and responsibility during this time to prioritize the health and well-being of the FanimeCon community, while also playing a constructive role in supporting local health officials and government leaders as they work to contain the virus.

We are working with our partners to monitor the potential impact that COVID-19 may have on FanimeCon 2020. In the inevitable aftermath of this unusual period of social isolation, we hope to host the convention as a place for our community to heal and come together once again. We are taking the optimistic view that the situation will improve by Memorial Day so we can offer a safe and fun event to continue to serve the FanimeCon Fans. Please understand that there may be some changes to programming in order to maintain a healthy environment and accommodate changes in scope. We will continue to make decisions informed by the latest fact-based information, and we will adhere to any and all policies set forth by the Santa Clara Public Health Department.

We ask you to join us in continuing to monitor updates from the CDC, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Santa Clara Public Health Department for their assessments on the outbreak. We will keep you in the loop on any updates or changes. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know here: feedback@fanime.com and https://feedback.fanime.com.

Thank you,

Eric Wu
FanimeCon Chairman,
on behalf of the FanimeCon Staff.