Otaku Crave

ICv2 to Host Industry Conference before NY Anime Fest

The ICv2 industry news source has announced that it will hold a one-day conference that will assemble the senior executives of many anime and manga companies at New York City’s Javitz Center on December 6, the day before the New York Anime Festival. The “Inside the Otaku Generation” conference will focus on the fans that drive the anime, manga, videogame, and other related fields of popular culture — specifically, on how companies can reach this audience.

The panelists will include the following:

• Lillian Diaz-Przybyl (Senior Editor for Original Global Manga Development, Tokyopop)
• Larissa Faw (Editor, Youth Markets Alert)
• Gen Fukunaga (President and CEO, FUNimation)
• Kurt Hassler(Co-Publisher, Yen Press; former buyer, Borders Group)
• Al Kahn (Chairman and CEO, 4Kids Entertainment)
• James Killen (Graphic Novel Buyer, Barnes and Noble)
• Christopher Macdonald (Editor in Chief, Anime News Network Editor; Publisher, Protoculture Addicts)
• Daniel Marks (Sr. VP of Strategy and Business Development, Viz Media)
• Kevin McFeeley (VP Affiliate Sales and New Media, Anime Network)
• Dallas Middaugh (Associate Publisher, Del Rey Manga)
• Lawrence Neves (Editorial Director, Pokémon USA)
• Jeremy Ross (Director of New Product Development, Tokyopop)
• Jill Snider (Senior Brand Manager, FUNimation)

The four conference sessions discuss the overall trends in the anime and manga industries, the ways to market to otaku, the female half of the otaku audience, and the effects of technology on future markets. The conference’s registration costs US$199 and is separate from the registration for December 7-9’s New York Anime Festival at the same location