Providence Anime Conference Guest of Honor FAQ

1. How are guests selected?
2. Can I be a guest?
3. Will you be getting a Japanese guest?
4. Why do you get so many North American guests?
5. I heard a rumor that [INSERT NAME] would be a guest. Is that true?
6. Can you get Miyazaki as a guest for me please?
7. I'm friends with someone you may want as a guest. Should I invite them for you?
8. I'm close friends with someone you have as a guest. Can I meet up with them at the conference?
9. Why don't you say who you're considering as guests?
10. Where do you announce guests?
11. What days will the guests be there?
12. When can I get autographs?
13. What can I have guests sign?
14. Can I give the guests presents?
15. What is the Providence Anime Conference Autograph Policy?

1. How are guests selected?
   Providence Anime Conference takes guest suggestions from the public in the Guest Suggestions for Providence Anime Conference 2008 forum thread. These suggestions (as well as suggestions from staff members) are reviewed by the members of the Guest Selection Committee. The committee narrows the list down to the most likely candidates. Once that is done, the Director of Guest Relations begins to track down the potential guests on the list and offer invitations.
   Soon after a guest accepts our offer, they are announced and added to the Guests pages of the web site. Until a guest is announced, Providence Anime Conference can neither confirm nor deny if someone has been invited as a guest.
2. Can I be a guest?
   If you're someone who has done something of note in the anime or manga industry, drop us a line! Unfortunately, we receive many more people asking to be guests than we could possibly afford to have at the conference. We need to draw the line somewhere. Please don't be offended if we turn you down...even if you offer to come for free. We hope you understand that our Guest Relations staff is limited and they can only handle so much work. However, you are still welcome to attend the conference and can apply to host a panel if you wish.
   The decision to invite guests to attend Providence Anime Conference can only be made by the majority of the Guest Selection Committee. No single staff member (including the executive committee and the chairman) has the authority to invite a guest unless approved by a majority of the Guest Selection Committee.
3. Will you be getting a Japanese guest?
   Maybe. Refer to our Guests page to see who has been announced.
4. Why do you get so many North American guests?
   There are a handful of reasons why conventions tend to get more North American guests than Japanese guests:
   1. they're often very popular,
   2. they're usually fun people to be around
   3. they speak English and so do we,
   4. they don't always need staff to escort them if they go out into the city,
   5. they're a lot cheaper than flying in guests from Japan.
5. I heard a rumor that [INSERT NAME] would be a guest. Is that true?
   It is our policy that Providence Anime Conference staff cannot discuss specific guests until they have been formally announced. From time to time, someone may ask if a specific person or group will be a guest when there has been no formal announcement about that person or group. In these cases, the answer will always be "We can neither confirm nor deny."*
   We have to say that because we can't confirm if we do have that unannounced guest. If we deny everyone except for the unannounced guests, it would be pretty easy to figure out who we have by questioning us repeatedly. ...so the answer is always that we can't say if someone is or isn't a guest.
   It's best not to ask about unannounced guests and just wait patiently. Even if that guest has us listed on their own web site, we won't say anything until a press release or other formal announcement is issued.
   * Thanks to ADV's David Williams for the use of his trademark phrase.
6. Can you get Miyazaki as a guest for me please?
   You clearly have unrealistic expectations of us.
7. I'm friends with someone you may want as a guest. Should I invite them for you?
   Please do not invite guests on behalf of Providence Anime Conference! You're perfectly welcome to send their contact information to Guest Relations, but we strongly urge people not to invite guests on their own.
   Why? Let's say, for example, that a regular fan tells a voice actor named John Smith that "lots of people at Providence Anime Conference want you as a guest! You should come!" John interprets that as an invitation and is naturally excited by the idea. Time passes. As the conference draws close, John contacts Providence Anime Conference asking about his guest status. Naturally, the conference staff is bewildered since our Guest Selection Committee never sent him an invitation. This now puts the conference in an awkward position of possibly offending a potential future guest by informing her that she can't come afterall...or going over budget in the guest expenses by adding another name to the roster.
   This sort of thing has happened to other anime conventions in the past. Please help us avoid it and do not contact guests on our behalf! If you want to do us a favor and help, just forward the guest's contact info to Guest Relations...but do not invite the guest yourself!
   Thank you.
8. I'm friends with someone you have as a guest. Can I meet up with them at the conference?
   Everyone is welcome to attend the guest panels. You can say hello there.
9. Why don't you say who you're considering as guests?
   There are actually several reasons why we don't share the list of people we're inviting as guests:
   1. We want to avoid rumors that guests may attend Providence Anime Conference...because rumors tend to be read as facts on the Internet. We don't want people showing up to Providence Anime Conference expecting to see someone who was only rumored to be attending.
   2. If it turns out a guest can't come for some reason, it could potentially upset fans who either blame the conference (for not trying hard enough, not being willing to pay excessive expenses, etc.) or the guests (for not being able to make time for the conference, choosing to attend a different convention, etc.).
   3. We prefer to discuss our conference with potential guests ourselves, especially given the unique nature of Providence Anime Conference. If everyone else knew who we were talking with, they might get approached by non-staff which could lead to confusion as to who is doing the actual inviting. (See the FAQ question #7 for the reasons why this could be bad.)
   4. It irritates us when people post on the forums or blogs claiming to know who we're inviting. If they're right, they've ruined the surprise and annoyed us for doing so. If they're wrong, well, see our earlier comment about rumors. If, for some reason, you know who a guest is that we haven't announced, do us a favor and keep it quiet until we're ready to announce! These threads on our forums will be deleted without warning...even if the rumor is false.
   5. We like surprises.
   Often, we may have guests confirmed but are waiting for something before making a formal announcement. We may be working out details, waiting for a bio, waiting for a similar guest so that they can be announced in the same press release, waiting for a publicity photo, etc. There are always valid reasons why we don't announce guests right away. Once everything is worked out and we have everything we're waiting for, we then make a formal guest announcement.
10. Where do you announce guests?
    Guest announcements are posted on our home page, our guests page, our forums, and AnimeCons.com in addition to being sent out to anime news web sites and other appropriate places.
11. What days will the guests be there?
    Unless we say otherwise, all of our guests will be at the conference for all three days. Guests will have various panels and autograph signings scheduled throughout the weekend. There is no one day when you can attend all the guest panels and get all their autographs. (There aren't enough hours in the day for us to do that even if we tried.)
12. When can I get autographs?
    When the autograph schedules have been set, they will be announced. Scheduled autograph signings will be scheduled throughout the weekend. Be sure to check the schedule at the conference since many autograph sessions are not on the same day as the guest's Q&A panel. Contrary to popular belief, Q&A panels are not intended for autograph signing. Autograph seekers will get turned away...even if you're only at the conference for that one day or you missed an earlier autograph session.
13. What can I have guests sign?
    To be fair to everyone that would like an autograph, there is a limit of two autograph items per person.
    Good autograph items:
    • DVD cover of a show a person was involved with
    • The inside cover of a book an artist or writer's work appears in
    • Providence Anime Conference program guide
    • An autograph book
    • Blank paper
    Bad autograph items:
    • Bootlegged or unlicensed items
    • Items from shows the person was not in
    • Items from shows you suspect the person was in and credited under an alias
    • Body parts
    • T-shirts (they're difficult to write on)
    • Convention badges (they're very small and guests like to write big)
    • Food (including jars of pickles)
14. Can I give the guests presents?
    Yes, but...
    ...do it when it's your turn at the autograph session.
    ...don't give them food. They probably won't eat food from strangers and may have food alergies.
    ...don't ask them to put on a shirt right away. Some guests are modest.
    ...don't expect anything special in return.
15. What is the Providence Anime Conference Autograph Policy?
    You can find our Autograph Policy in our Policies section.