Stephen (Fluffy) Baker becomes the new Conference Director following staff changes from last year
Image via Ohayocon Ohio's Ohayocon event staff announced Wednesday its new senior leadership team. Stephen (Fluffy) Baker is the new Conference Director. William T. is Vice President of Conferences, Xander S. is Director of Operations and Andrew T. is Director of Social Media, Public Relations and Marketing.
Ohayocon 2025 will feature anime director Shinichi Watanabe, also known as Nabeshin, (Excel Saga, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Puni Puni Poetry, The Wallflower, Tenchi Muyo GXP) and guest American Samantha Inoue-Harte, currently Executive Producer Made at N LITE.
Ohayocon shared a quote from new Conference Director”Fluffy:”
“Having been a member of Ohayocon and worked on events in the past for 15 years, I am excited to take on the role of Conference Director. We've got big changes at work, including a completely new senior leadership team, which will bring a fresh and exciting perspective to the conference along with the change of location. Dayton, will benefit attendees by reducing costs across the board, we are excited to bring a new experience to those who look forward to this conference every year.”
The next event will take place from January 31 to February 2, 2025. The event is moving from Columbus, OH to a new location, the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton, OH.
Ohayocon 2024 took place last January. However, more than 91 individuals, including former senior leaders and year-round volunteers, boycotted the convention last year after Cody Marcum, former Convention Chairman of Ohayoncon, who worked with them, laid off since 2009 and Erin [họ được giữ kín theo yêu cầu]former Director of Marketing.
Discussions between COVEN, a collective formed by former Ohayocon volunteers who sought to address concerns with Ohayocon's governing body, and the CESI Board of Directors (CESI) have starting as soon as March 2023. COVEN's demands include compensation equity, prohibiting CESI board members from “receiving compensation greater than the average compensation value of staff leaders Are not sitting on the board of directors”, the immediate adoption of a code of conduct that everyone must adhere to, greater transparency in budgetary matters, updated labor policies and CESI “buying and Full ownership of Ohayocon's brand materials, including logo and mascot.”
There have been debates regarding topics such as finance. Finally, there was a logo dispute involving the conference's official logo at the time—a red cross in a circle with a white background—in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and the new “sakura” logo—a circular logo. round red, but with a white cherry blossom in the middle—which ultimately led to Marcum's termination. Marcum changed the logo, so there are copyright concerns surrounding Sakura of America's similar logo. According to CESI, he did so without their approval, so they voted him and former Chief Marketing Officer Erin out in October 2023. Although there's more to the full story has been detailed here, but all this ultimately led to the resignation of former members of the convention's senior leadership and a boycott of this year's event.
Source: Email correspondence
