The biggest gathering for all fans of pop culture, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, TV, film, games, and animation of the summer went on to draw a great crowd as NexCon Day 2 went full steam at Function Room 5 of the SMX Convention Center at SM Mall of Asia. Now on its third year, NexCon, NexCon, organized by cosplay.ph, has striven to be an event unlike any other, always innovative and always a step ahead, and has become the Geek Event of the Summer. arkadymac.com is an official media partner for NexCon 3, and we are glad to be able to cover and share the highlights of this event. For our coverage of Day 1, click here.
Of the hundred or so events and conventions our website gets to cover every year, nothing truly treats geeks the respect and enjoyment they deserve like NexCon does. NexCon 3 is the ultimate celebration of science fiction and fantasy fandom in the Philippines, and thousands of experts, panelists, exhibitors, cosplayers, fanatics and enthusiasts got to gather under one roof to celebrate the fun, varied things they have been passionate about.
Cosplay.ph and Stompworks Media Studios got to present one of the biggest gathering for all fans of pop culture, sci-fi, fantasy, comics, TV, film, games, and animation. While other events cater to anime, cosplay, or toys, NexCon brings fans and creators together under one roof, fostering a highly engaging atmosphere of creativity, fun, and excitement.
NexCon 3 was top-billed by international guest actor Casper Van Dien, best remembered by fans for his role as Johnny Rico of the science fiction movie Starship Troopers, one of the most talked-about films of 1997 with one of the biggest cult followings in film history. With him was actress and cosplayer Jennifer Wenger, and his daughter, Grace Van Dien, actress from San Andreas Quake, Sleeping Beauty and Army Dog. They had special Meet and Greet sessions throughout the day as well as appearing on stage to address their fans.
Opening up the program was the Yoshinoya Gyudon Eating Contest, with participants trying to outdo each other in being the first to finish their meal. There were a male and female rounds, and the winners got to go home with great gift certificates from Yoshinoya.
Filipino scientists Ron Cruz, a biologist and Uzziel Perez, an experimental particle physicist, and science journalist TJ Dimacali discussed the science behind our favorite moments in science fiction during the “Robots, Rockets, and Ray Guns: The Science of Science Fiction” Moderated by Pecier Deciderio, physicist and The Mind Museum Mind Mover, they had an engaging discussion with the audience about the many possibilities that are being made into reality with technology and the many fascinating prospects in the future.
Next up was the panel discussion “Epilogue: A Sulyap Reunion”, presented by Komikon. Komikon launched its first independent comic anthology Sulyap back in 2010, featuring the works of eight comic book writer-artists. Moderated by Sherry Baet Zamar, they got to share their accomplishments in their chosen niche and discussed the many exciting prospects of the Filipino comic book industry in the future.
Next was the culmination of Hack-A-Superpower, a three-day hackathon organized by IBM in collaboration with DevCon, where college students got the chance to build a “super app” for social good: an opportunity to be a superhero using their coding skills. It featured a unique sci-fi theme that tackles disaster preparedness, response, and recovery during a possible alien spaceship crash. College students were expected to build an app that would address the scenario with the aim of saving lives. To further enhance the hackathon experience, participants used Bluemix, IBM’s open-standards, cloud-based platform for building, managing, and running apps of all types, such as web, mobile, big data, and smart devices. Bluemix boasts access to Watson services or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
Student participants, composed of 10 teams, underwent a workshop on March 30 to learn how to use Bluemix and Watson services. They were given until April 2 to develop a disaster response app or around 72 hours to complete a working prototype. On the morning of April 3, each team presented their app to a panel of judges composed of representatives from IBM, Cyberpress, DevCon, and NexCon. Judges were Bryan Bibat, President, Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon); Adrian Arcega, co-organizer of NexCon; TJ Dimacali, Science & Technology Editor, GMA News Online and President, Cyberpress (IT Journalists Association of the Philippines); Dr. Jay Sabido, R&D Executive, IBM Philippines, and Lope Doromal, Chief Technologist, IBM Philippines. The top three teams got to do their presentations in front of the NexCon audience.
Students from Asia Pacific College (APC) bagged the grand prize with their disaster collaboration and chat app called “Flash Tap”. It provides chat interface accessible to the public and responding agencies to efficiently communicate for disaster coordination. First runner up winners were from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines – Taguig. Known as “Team Overknights”, the students created the “GeoData” app which maps events during a disaster and provides SMS notification to relevant individuals and groups. Second runner up winners were from the University of Santo Tomas (UST). Known as “Team Tomas”, they created an app called “Helplinator” which features prevention and rescue functions using the natural langue processing of Watson. We personally think that this was a great undertaking by IBM and Devcon as it is a great way to develop our studentry’s tech skills and capabilities as well as lay the groundwork for companies reaching out to the academe and public sector.
Up next was one of the highlights of the day, Cosplay Rumble, a Western-format cosplay contest that featured characters from comic books, movies, TV series, and video games. The competition was judged by outstanding cosplayers Jin Joson, Miguel Mercado, and Guy Singzon. The cosplay contest was so stringent that they had a pre-judging of the competitors throughout the day, where the judges got to see the contestants up close and got to ask them about the details of their costume.
Come afternoon, everyone was ready to go as competitors showed off their best performances to the delight of the audience.
Presented by GMA Network,“Silipin ang Mundo ng Encantadia” was a special discussion of the upcoming Encantadia “requel.” Director Mark Reyes and lead artist Noel Flores took the audience on a tour of what to expect in the new show, unveiling never-before-seen concept art, character designs, exploring the lore of the world of Encantadia.
Lip Sync Kombat got to amuse the audience to no end as pre-auditioned cosplaying contestants battled it out on stage in showmanship, song selection, and general badassery, trying to outdo each other for audience support as they would be the ones to judge the winner.
The there was the awarding for the Droid Hunt by members of the Philippine Garrison of the 501st Legion, who roamed around NexCon looking for droid badges. Surrendering badges to the Empire would have them receive a raffle coupon for a chance to win great prizes. Lord Vader was there to personally hand out rewards.
SM Cyberzone got to give away a brand new Lenovo tablet to a lucky attendee who registered at their booth. SM Cyberzone has been partners with cosplay.ph in presenting Cosplay Craze, a series of cosplay events that have brought cosplay closer to communities.
It was then time for the awarding of the various contests held throughout the event. First was the announcement of winners for the Take Cover Cosplay Photo Contest, where the best entries got to win great prizes, as well as a tie for the People’s Choice Award.
Then the winners for the different categories of Cosplay Rumble were announced and great prizes given away, with the judges, Casper Van Dien, Jennifer Wenger, and Grace Van Dien helping call out the names and handing out the prizes. Winning the overall championship was the 40K Warhammer Group. Their representative will be going to compete at Cosplay Mania Cup at Cosplay Mania in October.
And that got to end a spectacular weekend for fandoms at NexCom 3, and lots of attendees got to admit that it has been one of the more engaging and more enjoyable conventions of the year. We at arkadymac.com are glad to have covered this event from start to finish, as NExCon 3 truly has set itself apart from any other convention this year. We leave you with some of the great cosplayers got to meet throughout the day.
Thank you for dropping by, and do visit us again for more features here at arkadymac.com.
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