Neo Anime Oasis:02 is the last Neo Anime Oasis
WHY?
This has to do with a changing environment in the Boise event market. Prices and demand have increased to the point of hotels having other interests and business opportunities.
2023 is the final year that Neo Anime Oasis has a contracted venue and has been unable to find a hotel venue that meets our needs and is available/interested in the convention due to other business opportunities or business direction.
The entire point of Neo Anime Oasis is to provide the type of hotel based anime convention that has been often replaced with the convention center style convention.
As chairman of Neo Anime Oasis, I have made it clear that I have returned from the COVID era to continue into the future on the best terms... Mainly, a hotel based convention. We've reached a point where there is no way forward and that's just life sometimes.
Could Neo Anime Oasis continue at a convention center style venue? It could, but is that really Anime Oasis/Neo Anime Oasis? It isn't. There isn't a discussion or debate here. Someone else can do that, but not AO/NAO.
You may or may not be aware that I've been running Anime Oasis/Neo Anime Oasis since before Day 1. From filling the paper work to get started, signing the first hotel contract (remember the Best Western Vista Inn?) to the covid years... it's been all on me.
I was 23 back when things got started... I'll be 45 when NAO:02 takes place. 45 isn't too old to run a convention, but 2 decades of con fatigue does take its toll a on person. No vacations or trips within a few months before con... Always responsible for being the person that runs the con...
I don't remember each Anime Oasis/Neo Anime Oasis as individual events... I don't remember every guest we've had (that I booked personally)...
This point, the point where the con will end, has been on my mind since before the first Anime Oasis. It was always there. A small, niche event in a small market like Boise... any given day could have brought news that the next con wasn't going to happen or the next con would be the last.
I look forward to doing this one more time. Let us have the best experience here at the end of everything. We might/might not ever meet again after this point... and that's part of the experience of life.
Jeremy Lopett
Neo Anime Oasis Chairman