Well, today was the first day of the Canada Fan Exposition 2007 and my friends and I got there as early as we could. The convention normally starts at 4 p.m., but since I had bought a Premium/VIP Pass, I was able to get in 2 hours earlier and preview the convention. As well as the privilege of early admission, Premium pass holders were given a bag of goodies (while supplies last), however it wasn’t really anything special…just a bunch of random freebies collected from the booths and shoved into a bag. While we entered the convention, my friends had a hard time trying to reach my cell since the Convention had recently moved from the above ground North Building, to the underground South Building, which phone communication difficult.

One of the noticeable changes I saw was that there was a lot larger emphasis on gaming..especially videogaming. Intel is sponsoring the World Series of Video Games 2007, where professional videogame players compete for prizes and money. The first stop of the tour is here at the Fan Expo and is supposedly the largest tournament of its kind in Canada. There was definitely a lot of hype and buzz about the tournament. There were PCs networked together to play games and large screens to televise all the action.

I noticed there were absenses from a couple of local hobby shops and there wasn’t much emphasis on tabletop game demos or tournaments. Another dissappointment was the fact that some of the big celebrities had cancelled last minute, like Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars), Hayden Panettiere (Clare Bennett from Heroes), Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes) and Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings). However, Adam West and Malcolm McDowell were there to make it a little more worthwhile for autograph seekers.

Nathan and his wife Joyce and I walked around the floor looking at the merchandise being sold at the booths and what really caught our eye was the resemblance of Nathan and Ikkaku from Bleach! =) Another interesting thing I saw was that stores were selling a series of Jesus figures, where he is riding a motorcycle, surfing and kicking a soccer ball…lol.

After walking around the entire Convention, my friends and I decided to sit in on one of the panels: Voice Acting 101 with Sean Schemmel (known as the English voice of Son Goku from Dragonball Z). He was a really fast talker but gave A LOT of tips concerning the voice acting business and how he started out. He imparted quite a bit of advice to the audience:

-Voice acting isn’t merely talking, you have the “acting” aspect which is important…you need to become the role in order to be successful
-Voice dubbing of anime is not nearly as well paying as commercial voiceovers
-Though voice acting gigs may pay well, you need to find a lot of roles or gigs in order to make it a viable career
-In order to find an “in” to the industry, try becoming an intern or find other minor jobs so you get noticed and learn more about the business and start networking
-Voice acting isn’t for everyone…sometimes people need an outlet to express their creativity or artform.
-He also advocates, “The Secret” which has been promoted extensively by Oprah Winfrey. It basically states how you can think positively and be able be anything and do anything you want, due to the “Law of Attraction”.

All of us were pretty beat afterwards and headed out of the convention center and had dinner. We decided to part our separate ways and meet bright and early the next day. More to come…

-Stephen