All posts by Trae Dorn

No Brand Con 2022 Staff and COVID19

So one of the largest challenges to running an event in the current world is instituting effective COVID19 safety policies. To be frank and let you in behind the curtain a little bit, we’re still deciding on what our final policies will be. Our policies for vendors, artists and attendees will likely be affected by the current state of the world along with the available preventative measures.

What we have decided though is that we will be requiring that all onsite staff and volunteers for No Brand Con 2022 are vaccinated. We want to be sure that you feel safe interacting with anyone working our event, and we think this is an important part of that. We know that will exclude some people who can’t be vaccinated from working the event, but frankly we don’t think we could safely operate our event without making this decision. We’re confirming vaccination with staff pre-event, and any volunteers will be asked to provide proof of vaccination to our staff – either by sending appropriate proof ahead of time, or at-con for those volunteering last minute.

We will, of course, continue to provide updates as the event grows closer about the rest of our COVID19 policies. The safety of our attendees is always our highest priority, and we hope you understand that any limitations we enact are there to make sure we can run a fun, inperson event.

Guest Re-Announcement: Leah Clark (Update: Cancelled)

Unfortunately, due to family reasons, Leah Clark has had to cancel her appearance.

Hey guys, we’re super happy to announce our first guest for our current 2022 dates, and we’re excited to say that it’s none other than Leah Clark!

Leah Clark is an American voice actor and Funimation Staff Script writer. Recently she can be heard in My Hero Academia (Himiko Toga); Fairy Tail/Fairy Tail Zero (Mavis); How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift (Tachibana, and script writer); Nichijou-My Ordinary Life (Mio); Dragon Ball Z/Super (Launch, Maron, Ogma); Fairy Tail (Mavis); Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (Kobayashi); HighSchool DXD Hero (Asia); Darling in the Franxx (Ikuno), New Game (Yun); KanColle (Yuudachi), Sakura Quest (Maki); Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA (Aria), and Yuri On Ice (Mari).

Memorable titles and roles include Soul Eater (Blair); How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord (Sylvie); Negima (Nodoka); One Piece (Coby/Miss Doublefinger); Eden Of This East (Saki); Baka and Test (Minami); Deadman Wonderland (Minatsuki/Hummingbird); Dragonball GT (Maron); Assassination Classroom (Kanzaki); Suzuka (Suzuka); Rosario + Vampire (Ruby); Murmur (Future Diary); Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie – Conqueror of Shamballa (Noah); Pokémon the Movie: Black – Victini and Reshiram (Carlita) and Pokémon the Movie: White – Victini and Zekrom (Carlita).

Along with regular voice work at Funimation, her voice can also be heard on industrial commercials and video games such as Smite and Borderlands II.

As a staff ADR script writer at FUNimation; Her most recent projects include Toilet Bound Hanako; Plunderer; How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift; Ensemble Stars; RobiHatchi; How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord; Space Battleship Tiramisu; Chio’s School Road; A Certain Magical Index III, and Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka. Other favorite scripts are Panty and Stocking, Suzuka, Peach Girl, Baka and Test, Sasami: Magical Girl Club, B Gata H Kei – Yamada’s First Time; and Strike Witches.

Leah is the co-creator of a YouTube channel called Laure & Clark Explore with Morgan Laure Garrett showcasing experiences at conventions/travel and anime subculture.

Leah studied music theatre at Circle in the Square in New York. She performs and directs regularly for stage productions in the Dallas-FortWorth Area.

Follow Leah on Twitter and Instagram @leahclarkVA

Watch This Space!

So hey! We know we’ve been silent for a while, but we wanted to know we’ve been working hard at making sure No Brand Con returns in a spectacular fashion! Right now we’re moving full steam ahead towards April 2022, and we have some (finally positive) announcements to make that you’ll see in the upcoming weeks.

In the meanwhile though, we just want to remind you that pre-registration is open right now, and we’re really excited to see what happens next.

We’ve Cancelled Our 2021 Dates, No Brand Con XIX Is Moving to 2022

These are not the kinds of announcements we like to make. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing risks associated with the current pandemic, we’ve had to make the decision to cancel our 2021 event.

This wasn’t an easy decision. This is the third set of dates we’ve had for No Brand Con XIX, and now we’re moving it again. The news section of our website is now a series of cancellations and postponements. But we just don’t have confidence that we’ll be out of this safely come April, and none of us felt comfortable continuing to advertise a weekend we weren’t confident we could safely run a convention on.

No Brand Con XIX will now be held on our 2022 dates — April 22-24, 2022. Is it a long way off? Yes. But we honestly didn’t want to risk moving the con later into 2021 only to postpone yet again.

So, like the last two times this happened, we’re going to run through the list of frequently asked questions you might have about moving the con to 2022:

I’ve already pre-registered, what do I have to do?
All preregistrations have been automatically rolled over to our April 22nd-24th 2022 dates. If that sounds good for you, you’re all set.

If you cannot attend (or just don’t want to) you can request a refund by contacting sales@nobrandcon.org before March 22nd 2022. This goes for both our regular attendee badges as well as our sponsor tier badges. Please keep in mind that we are a 100% volunteer staff though, so it may take our small registration team some time to process all refunds.

I have a hotel room at the Chula Vista – what do I need to do?
You will need to contact the Chula Vista (844-215-4027) to either cancel your reservation or change it to our 2022 dates, unfortunately we can’t do that for you.

What about Vendors or Artists?
Our Vendor Room and Artist Alley teams have already reached out to our vendors and artists regarding the cancellation. All accepted vendors and artists for our 2021 dates will be rolled over to 2022. If you are a vendor or artist and you haven’t heard from our team, please reach out and let us know.

What about the guest list?
We know a lot of you registered specifically for our announced guest list, so like when we first changed the dates for No Brand Con XIX we are attempting to retain our guest list for the 2022 dates. We are in communication with our guests and their representation, and will let you know if anything changes.

We know this isn’t the outcome any of us wanted, but we’d rather take another year off rather than risk the health and lives of our attendees and staff. Thank you for your patience, and for sticking with us.

No Brand Con 2020 Has Been Cancelled

This post is no longer accurate. We have cancelled our 2021 dates and moved No Brand Con XIX to 2022. You can see the details in this post.

When we first postponed the event until August we had hoped that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic would have abated more at this point, but looking at the rising number of cases we do not feel that we could run a safe event even in August. Because of this, it’s with a lot of regret that we have to announce we are cancelling our 2020 dates and postponing No Brand Con XIX to April 16-18th 2021.

I’ve already pre-registered, what do I have to do?
All preregistrations have been automatically rolled over to our April 16th-18th 2021 dates. If that sounds good for you, you’re all set.

If you cannot attend (or just don’t want to) you can request a refund by contacting sales@nobrandcon.org before March 16th 2021. This goes for both our regular attendee badges as well as our sponsor tier badges.

I have a hotel room at the Chula Vista – what do I need to do?
You will need to contact the Chula Vista (844-215-4027) to either cancel your reservation or change it to our 2021 dates, unfortunately we can’t do that for you. The Chula Vista has assured us that they will be waiving their normal cancellation fees.

What about Vendors or Artists?
Our Vendor Room and Artist Alley teams have already reached out to our vendors and artists regarding the cancellation. All accepted vendors and artists for our 2020 dates will be rolled over to 2021. If you are a vendor or artist and you haven’t heard from our team, please reach out and let us know.

What about the guest list?
We know a lot of you registered specifically for our announced guest list, so like when we first changed the dates for No Brand Con XIX we are attempting to retain our guest list for the 2021 dates. We are in communication with our guests and their representation, and will let you know if anything changes.

Honestly we know this is a stressful time, and a lot of you were looking forward to attending the convention this year. We hope you’ll stick with us, and appreciate your ongoing support.

No Brand Con 2020 is Moving to August 21st-23rd! (Update: 2020 Has Been Cancelled)

Since this post was made, we have decided as an organization to cancel our August 2020 dates as well. More information can be found here. The original post continues below.

Hey everyone – due to the advancing coronavirus situation in Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers announced yesterday a restriction on all gatherings of over fifty people. As we do not believe this situation will be resolved by April 17th, as an organization it was obvious we could not run an event for our initially scheduled dates. Thankfully we were able work with our venue to find a solution that won’t force 2020 to be without Wisconsin’s longest running anime con: We’re moving to August 21st-23rd instead!

That’s right! Thankfully the Chula Vista Resort had an open weekend in their calendar, and we’ve been able to reschedule the convention. So yes, No Brand Con 2020 is still happening and we’re really excited that we still get to see all of you this year.

What do I need to do as an attendee?
If you’ve already preregistered for No Brand Con 2020… you’re still preregistered for No Brand Con 2020! It’s just in August now!

If you’re not able to make our new dates for whatever reasons, we can either transfer your registration to No Brand Con 2021 or you can request a refund up until July 21st. Obviously if you haven’t preregistered yet, it’s back open! What are you waiting for?

I have a hotel room, what do I need to do?
If you have a hotel room, you will need to inform the Chula Vista you are changing the date of your reservation to our new weekend. We don’t have the ability to do that for you unfortunately.

I’m a vendor or artist, what do I need to do?
Our artist alley and vendor heads should be reaching out to you, but there shouldn’t be any changes for you. Obviously if this date change causes any conflicts for you, please let our respective heads know.

What about the guest list?
We’re still communicating with our guests, and we’re trying to make sure that we can still bring you the same line up (just delayed). That said, if a conflict arises we will make sure you have more than enough time to know of any changes.

Will the con still be super fun?
You bet your sweet bippy it will be! Just keep yourself safe in the meanwhile!

Don’t Forget to Preregister For No Brand Con 2020!

No Brand Con 2020 is coming up fast, and the preregistration window is almost closed! In fact, there’s less than a week left before your chance to get the best deal on the No Brand Con experience closes on March 17th!

Remember, when you preregister for only $30, you’re getting a full weekend badge for the cost of a Saturday day pass. There’s no better deal out there as far as we’re concerned.

Preregistering is also the only way to purchase our VIP Sponsor Badges as well, which — while costing $85 — give you some great No Brand Con swag, early access to the vendor room, priority seating for main events, and access to an exclusive meet and greet with the guests!

So what are you waiting for! Go and preregister for No Brand Con 2020!

Are You Ready For No Brand Con’s Lip Sync Battle?

Do you have a strong desire to get on stage and rock out, but you just can’t carry a tune? Love to perform but don’t really want to cosplay in order to be on stage? Do you have dance moves that no one knows about?

Well, our annual Lip Sync Battle is your chance to show America (well at least the audience at No Brand Con) what you can do! Battles have no limit to how many members on your team, and you can do any song you want as long as it’s family friendly.

Our Lip Sync Battle will be held on the Sunday of No Brand Con (as always), and we hope to see you there!

Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society Come to No Brand Con 2020!

Greetings all you dice rollers out there in No Brand Land! We’re happy to announce that Mark Mastej is bringing Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society to No Brand Con 2020. No dues, experience, nor materials required. All a would be Society member needs is a yearning and passion for adventure. Whether your eyes spy gold in distant keeps or stare ever onward into the endless stars, there’s an adventure for you!

Games will be available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if you find yourself with a burning passion for excitement. Linked here you can find the complete schedule, and we look forward to seeing you all in the Tabletop Game Room at No Brand Con this April!