UVA college students host first anime and gaming conference on Grounds

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Four University of Virginia college students got here collectively to create Daigakon, an anime and gaming conference on the Grounds of UVA.

Anime and online game lovers from across the Charlottesville space got here collectively for the primary conference of its type at UVA. Its origins started in 2021, however due to issues just like the COVID-19 pandemic, it saved getting pushed again and delayed. Eventually, in 2025 it was introduced again as much as certainly one of Daigakon’s co-organizers Joe Liang.

“They were like, maybe you guys can do it next year. I’m like, no way, we’re not doing this. It’s like too much work,” Liang mentioned.

The conference’s 4 organizers; Liang, Link Fu, Charlene Huynh and Cathy Le set to work in late 2025. It took two full semesters, with a majority of the preparation going down within the month main as much as the conference.

“A lot of planning, a lot of all-nighters. I think it was a lot of coordination across a lot of parties. I think we did a tally, and in terms of headcount, we have over 150 people involved,” Fu mentioned.

The 4 needed to plan performances, discover a venue, consider arts and crafts and a discover distributors for a vendor corridor.

They obtained round 80 vendor functions, however solely 55 match within the house. That was lots for Charlene Huynh, who was the conference’s vendor lead.

“The process took about two months,” she mentioned. “A very short time span, especially for a convention, because usually it would take a year or at most a year and a half to prepare in advance. So, as one person, that is a lot compared to the scale of the vendor hall we have.”

Another co-organizer Cathy Le went to a student-run conference like this one on the University of Maryland final November. That expertise is what impressed her to create this one.

“The whole energy and vibe is something that I really wanted to recreate at UVA,” Le mentioned. “Since I felt like sometimes I didn’t really get that support, and I want other people to get that support as well.”

Joe Liang added that the conference supplied a chance for followers to attach in Charlottesville.

“Bringing everyone together and having people share their interests and really express it in such a venue in a place like Charlottesville where there’s a lot of people who like pop culture but maybe don’t have a venue to express it. It’s a precious opportunity that we should capitalize on,” he mentioned.

Despite the rain exterior, the actual fact it was Easter Sunday and the first-convention nerves, the 4 had been capable of host the conference and see a major turnout.

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