Overview
A daytime anime convention built for New York's East Asian fandom community in DUMBO — an immersive, NPC-driven event built from zero in two months, netting $1K profit on a $1.1K budget.
Daytime+Anime Convention
Community Brief
NYC's young anime fandom had online communities but no dedicated offline space to meet, cosplay, compete, and recognize each other in person. A passive "come and watch" convention model wasn't enough. The audience wanted to perform their identity and be seen by others who shared it.
Wanted a venue to wear their costumes, interact with NPCs, and be photographed in a dedicated environment.
Wanted social entry points: game stations, interactive NPCs, and shared activities that made meeting strangers natural.
Needed the right audience: anime and cosplay buyers in a curated, fandom-adjacent market context.
Performers who inhabited characters and ran game stations. Needed briefing, scheduling, and on-site coordination.
New to conventions. Needed clear wayfinding, a stage program, and enough activity density to stay engaged.
Shift the event from passive entertainment to an immersive, participatory community system with multiple simultaneous activity layers.
Event Design
I designed and programmed the full event layout across five distinct zones running in parallel, ensuring there was always something to do regardless of what stage the program was at.
Visual Identity & Content
I designed the event visual system spanning promotional posters, NPC character cards, and social content, all anchored to a consistent brand identity that communicated fandom culture without relying on official IP.
Campaign Rollout
The 2-month production timeline ran promotion, recruitment, and logistics in parallel. Social content functioned as both audience building and operational communication.
Event concept defined. Venue scouted and secured: 4,000+ sq ft elementary school in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Date and format finalized.
11 NPC performers recruited and assigned characters. Each given character brief, station mechanic, and costume reference.
6 vendors confirmed through direct outreach. Floor map designed and booth assignments communicated ahead of setup day.
RedNote and Instagram content rollout: NPC reveals, vendor spotlights, event posters, location announcement, and logistics posts.
10-person team briefed on roles, zone coverage, escalation, and timing. Venue dressed and zones set up day-of.
Simultaneous management of NPC rotations, stage program, vendor floor, cosplay area, and attendee flow across 4,000+ sq ft.
Impact & Reflection
AllKnight NYC demonstrated that a niche fandom audience, with the right spatial programming, social logic, and visual identity, could fill a 4,000+ sq ft venue with 150+ attendees and sustain engagement across multiple simultaneous activity zones for a full day.
Building from zero meant every system, from vendor curation and NPC briefing to stage flow, social content, and wayfinding, had to be designed and coordinated simultaneously. The main lesson: immersive events work when the spatial design, the social rituals, and the brand identity all reinforce the same idea of who belongs there.
