sorry i have to drag this post so long. :p
for anyone who does not know, GACC stands for Games, Anime, Comic Circle. Our event was held on 18th of March 2006, in Exam hall, MMU Malacca campus. It is the biggest ACG event and the first to be organized in Malaysia too!
GACC - Turning Point of History
Being the president of EMiNA for about a year now, I have always felt that i want to do something great, or anything that is different, exciting, and worthy of being called an achievement. But being the usual blur and undecided self, i can never do anything right on time, let alone realizing such great achievement. I was afraid to step forward, further recoiling at the thought of failure. In my dreams, i would laugh myself off.
But the idea of having a national anime event change it all.
We formed a team with what we have, and march on. EMiNA hicomms, all 18 of us gathered and discuss. We are very excited about this idea, doing something different and out of ordinary for our club, which was alleged a half dead one. A change. But, a difficult one. Being complete rookies, we have much obstacles to overcome and problems more than we could ever imagine to haunt us throughout day and night.
First, it's the decision on our event name, venue and time. We could not proceed without this, the most important decision of all. Time was slowly slipping away as we went into futile argument, with problems on the booking of our venue, indecisive stand of ground, and conflicting oppinions. Time is money- that was the situation that this saying applies most to. the more time we wasted, the slimmer our chance of getting sponsors became. Everyone was stressed and frustrated, blaming each other and holding grudges for our own incompetence.
When our event proposal was finally out, with all the 3 elements all gradually readied, more than 2 months had passed. We delayed everything in our schedule. Frantically, we scour every nook and corner for sponsors. We approach almost everyone, or so we thought. Most of them were doubtful about our event, as the concept was new and we were the first to do such event. We were frustrated. But we stood up, again and again, all for the sake of the club. Phone calls, emails, applications; we tried all of them. It was nerve-breakingly tensed that time.
At the start of our 3rd semester, things started to brighten up. Our toiling efforts had somehow brought back some rewards. Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur, or refered as JFKL, had answered our call of distress. YES! Finally we have a sponsor! We jumped for joy and was in bliss, before another good news came. Kurnia Insurance, thanks to Shin Dee, had decided to sponsor our event too! the capital worth even more than wat JFKL promised! All of us were in euphoria by then, only to be greeting by more challenges and problems ahead. Life was not a bed of roses, and will never be.
Now having gathered most of the capitals we need, another headache came. Publicity. Being the pioneer of such event, we need as much promotion as possible. What's an event without a crowd? A Failure. No one wanted that, after all the effort we had put into it. So? promote lah! With WHAT?? banners? buntings? posters? All these don't drop down from the sky. We need the designs immediately. Yet, things were not going well, if not worse. Design team was in trouble for not coming out with designs, or even a floorplan for our venue. Things got uglier as time passed, with only a few of the comms multitasking all the task which was supposed to be shared equally among all. finally we have to cut the gordian knot by force. Friendship between us tensed up and went dangerously near the verge of breaking.
That was not the only problem we had. Vendors, Doujin sellers, food, transportations for CF ppl, sound system setup, venue floorplan, rental of stage n tables, Decoration. All these problems landed on us without a warning, mainly because of our bad planning and indecisiveness. It was jz a week before event that we got to hang our banners and buntings, finally designed, altered and printed. The process was gruesome, and i swear i don't want any part of it a second time. Publicity done. 1 down, more to go. jz great. My sanity was slipping away, day by day, until the day itself.
With the efforts of all the dedicated hicoms and working comms, the venue was set up perfectly, throughout the night before. It was lovely with white and blue cloth hanging across the ceiling, accompanied with blue ribbons and balloons. The stage deco was decently good, with partition boards stick with painted anime mascots and japanese sliding doors at the sides. Even our event mascot, Elio was dry and painted white. Delighted, but still not letting my guard down, we proceed on preparation on saturday early morning.
Things were messy and we were like cat on hot brick as we forgot to print the registration papers, as well as other necessaries. Things were not looking good as time ticked away, drawing nearer and nearer to the opening of the event. Vendors were late, so were the CF ppl. Preparation and set up were delayed and early crowds got in the hall, having high anticipation, only to be let down. CALM DOWN!! That was the only thing we could do.
We waited and YES! Things finally went back on track and in time, Ms. Kugai and Mr.Shimada, representatives of JFKL came. Thus started my job, to tour them around. we went around the already setup venue, with various merchandises on display, doujins n artworks adorning the otherwise forlorn partition boards n booths. They were amazed and impressed by what we have done, eyeing the setting, the vendors and also the sea of crowds. We were awed ourselves! the previously spacious walkway was now pack filled with posing cosplayers of all kinds, overwhelmed visitors snapping photos, as well as curious school kids and parents. I could choked myself to death with happiness and relief but i had no time for that.
Then came the Opening Ceremony. Khurshid, you were great! That's the best EMCEE skills i've seen since dunno when. All the formality went and thus let our event BEGIN! Me and Hsia-Liang entertained the JFKL representative summore along with Mr Syukor, our VIP of the event. It was all praises and good comments from the representatives, with Mr. Syukor smiling throughout our talk. Then i was finally free to walk around myself xD
During the event i neglected my sisters. *bang wall, shoot self* Really hope they enjoy themselves. You guys grown up di so can go walk around yourselves la *get bricked* Seriously, i felt bad about it T_T we met in the hall several times, walked around together a few moments and went apart. i'm a bad sister. orz
There were alot of Cosplayers, but too bad i could not take photo with them cos i had lent my camera to the photographer team. I was mainly walking around, keeping an eye for trouble or difficulty faced by vendors, cosplayers and working comms. When the competitions kick start, the crowd was overwhelming. Not an inch was spared between you and the crowd. all the seats were taken, ppl standing around the stage and even sat on the floor, cheering for and taking photos of the cosplay contestants. Responds for the PS2 competition as well as drawing competition were good too. Things were better than expected, with this multitude of crowd.
But one or two slight hiccups occur everytime, which were enuf to send our nerve wrecking. Theft caused the whole security division as well as all the hicoms panicked. Besides, Sales team had ran out of small changes, despite the dire need of coins. I rushed back home to get my pouch of coins worth RM30 to settle the sales team's problem. Luckily when i got back, the missing items were found out to be in another fren's hand. Case closed. Phew.
I was feeble and tired after that. The rest of the event went pass like a gust of wind, and ended before i realized it. Prizes were won, Photos taken, and there it went. Months of preparation and the one day event ended in a blast. A few problems arise again after the event, but was settled quickly. I was too tired to do anything else already, so was everyone else. Visitors and Cosplayers went back with a smile on their face, which paid off all our hard work and bloodshed.
I'm grateful that i'm not doing all this alone. Without you guys, i would have suffocated to death, or would have hung myself before that. Loo Mun, Kristine, Shin Dee, and the rest (you know who you are :D) i sincerely thank everyone, hicomms and working comms alike, who helped out in the preparation for GACC, the coolest and biggest event in the history of EMiNA.
Really, I'm proud of having such a big event, and i will never forget all the joy and sorrow that we had went through together. Everyone of us had make the impossible a reality, with aspiring perseverence and selfless sacrifices. Thank you to all the supporters too, who came to our event, especially my sisters. *hug*
I'm so glad that... i finished this post that i'd cry in joy. *get bricked*
jkjk, photos will be up soon :D
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