Here we pay tribute to JoMoCons gone by. With any con, it's not a complete record, because you had to be there, but as much as possible, we'll try to fill in the details.
This was our first con, conducted digitally because plague beset the land. More details on this con will follow soon, as we encountered many unexpected challenges with poor documentation to match. We also learned, rather tragically for a digital convention, that Twitch VODs get deleted after two weeks. Despite the setbacks, we were able to raise a small donation for Hearts and Hammers, a local charity that does various construction tasks for local home owners of limited means. You can learn more about them in our interview that preceeded the '21 virtual con.
On July 30th, 2022, we held our first in-person JoMoCon. Nearly 500 attendees came to downtown Joplin to enjoy this convention and meet our special guest John Gremillion, whose voice talents can be heard in anime series like My Hero Academia and One Piece. JoMoCon 2022 raised enough money for us to make a donation of $2,671 to support the kids of Ozark Center’s Turn Around Ranch.
Our guests and vendors piled into the Fellowship Hall at Central Christian Center with the exception of Nomad Brew who stood alone in the rain as the only food vendor we were able to book. We're thankful for the items and experiences they contributed to JoMoCon 2022.
2022 Vendors and Partnering Organizations: SRuddickdarr Art, Anime Joplin, Morris Mini Farm Creations, Kandra Creates LLC, Neosho Arts Council, Connect2Culture, Elemental Fusion by Christine, Little House Journals, Show Me Stickers, Apples.exe x Machinedean, Nomad Brew, Izzy B
It takes a lot of financial support to bring a convention to life. JoMoCon 2022 would not have been possible without the generous support of FullBore Studios, Pennington Station, Wheelspaces, and Mercy Hospital.
The con was held in five different buildings, allowing for a unique feel. Unfortunately, the rain showed up to complicate things, but the con pressed on! Matt Fussell and Jason Bright held an opening ceremony from the balcony of the Pennington Stations while con-go-ers checked in below and took advantage of the console lounge and VR stations. The Magic: The Gathering booster draft ended being cancelled because JoMoCon happened to be booked the same day as larger M:TG event nearby. The day was filled with board gaming, anime viewing, live panels, interviews, a cosplay pageant, and a farewell ceremony that we probably should have bumped up to happen after the pageant. We did, however, score a great picture.
We streamed the convention on Twitch, and this time, we downloaded the videos. For being a portable setup in a live environment, it came out pretty well. As the videos get cleaned up, we'll be posting them to YouTube, then embedding them here. Check back to see what's available, or better yet, go hit our YouTube channel and subscribe!