How has the World Trade Center tragedy affected the convention?
The SPJA was horrified to see what happened in New York. In response, all SPJA sites (spja.com, anime-expo.org, ex.org) were all blacked out in respect to the people of New York. All announcements of Anime Expo New York were also delayed to allow New Yorkers time to heal. We hope that by Anime Expo New York, New York will have healed and the spirit of life will once again prevail in the city. We want anime to be part of the process of healing and to prove that New York is still the media capital of the world. Also, in memory of those who died trying to save others in the WTC, Anime Expo will be donating all of the proceeds of BOTH the AX and the AXNY charity auctions to the victims of 9/11. We expect the outpouring of support from Japan to be tremendous. Some items have already begun to come in and can be found at http://www.anime-expo.org/auction.html.
