Katsucon - History

History

Katsucon started in 1995 at the Holiday Inn Executive Center, and moved to locations around the Washington metro area after its third year due to growth. In 2002 the convention had a membership cap of 7,000 people, unsuccessfully attempted to move to the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, and in 2003 returned to the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. The convention ran for extra days in 2003 due to hundreds of attendees being trapped by road closures during a snowstorm. Guests and staff ran panels and opened video rooms. Due to growth, the convention in 2005 moved to the Marriott Crystal Gateway and Sheraton Crystal City from the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. The hotels were unconnected and one had construction ongoing, which caused problems including the first two floors of the hotel having no heat, long dealers room lines, and panels being held in larger hotel rooms. The convention from 2006-2008 was located at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, but in 2007 suffered crowd control and logistics problems. For 2009 the convention returned to the Hyatt Regency Crystal City and suffered from overcrowding, even with an attendance cap of 6000.

The convention for several years had been experiencing problems with convention space, and in 2006 began discussions about moving to the Gaylord. In 2010 the convention moved to the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center and a snowstorm occurred. Attendees traveling to the convention encountered icy conditions and congested traffic, with the weather preventing delivery of the cons badges on Thursday, delaying registration until Friday. The convention in 2011 released a revised Fan Art policy due to controversy over its wording. Due to an incident where a sex offender made contact with an minor at Katsucon 2010, the convention announced that it would attempt to check it's pre-registration lists against sex offender databases, and deny attendance to possible threats. In 2012, the convention hosted the United States preliminary round for the World Cosplay Summit. The winner from the Twenty-two teams entered was Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay. The masquerade began seating late and was an hour late to start. Due to the conventions attendance growth they ran out of badges in 2012 and will be returning to the Gaylord in 2013.