WEB SITE UPDATE 2nd January 2009 –  Happy New Year!

2008 is behind us, a year which had an overall growth of all three events of 10% on 2007, our best year yet. Plans are already well underway for 2009, with some new events, contests and of course guests at all three of our huge NZ expo’s.
We are planning an all new cooler web site to launch mid to late January, when it does, we will also be adding all the information on the Christchurch and Wellington expos and the Dunedin anime day. In the mean time, please visit our forums, for a general discussion on the show and your thoughts.
Thanks for a great year, merry Christmas and a happy new year

It is with great excitement that we announce that the Auckland Labour weekend event will be moving venues in 2009 from our home of the last ten years (Aotea Centre) to the ASB Showground’s in Greenlane Auckland. Located ten minutes out of Auckland city, this venue offers us a substantial increase in space and room for many new events as well as larger space for our existing ones. The Logan Campbell theater (capacity 2000+) will be the main stage, and we will be taking halls One to Four. More details will be discussed in the event forums, and expect announcements in April after the Christchurch and Wellington events have taken place.

Below is the event poster for our Dunedin Anime event, titles ‘The Dunedin Animation experience’ with special guest Christopher Sabat from Dragonball Z, a cosplay parade, AMV, Dubbing panel and animation movie screenings. A precise event schedule will be online soon as well as more details on what to expect in this, our first pure anime event! Rules for the Cosplay event for Dunedin have been posted under the special events page, check it out and register now!

Updates for the March/April Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington events will begin soon, however first of all, here is the event review from the Auckland expo as well as some photo and video links

Officially the Biggest Armageddon event EVER!
33,000 attendees over three days, with more exhibitors than ever before and some exciting new events and activities. The 2008 Auckland Armageddon expo reached new heights of public awareness, breaking into new media shows for the first time in years such as TV3’s Sunrise and TV1’S Close-up.
The gaming aspect of the event was significantly amped up with the both EA’s Rock Band and Total Interactive’s Guitar Hero World Tour doing a virtual battle of the bands, Microsoft’s R18 gaming area, Playstations Sackboy display and the Clearnet gaming area amongst many present. While the quality of the gaming areas is normally high, this year’s seamed exceptionally so, with a greater layout of space and bigger presentations.
The inclusion of the Fifa interactive world cup to the event was a particular highlight, with approximately 800 people watching the final game on the main auditorium’s 8m screen.
Other events that generated considerable interest where the Madman animation screening room, with a consistent 200 people in the room over the event, the Wrestling area with former ECW wrestler ‘The Sandman’ wrestling, Hubba Bubba bubble gum challenge, Game Player Card tournament area (which had record attendance this year, the Wizard demo area and more!
The event main stage once again proved exceptionally popular with record participation in the events Pillow fight and cosplay (the auditorium had to close entry during the cosplay as it was full with 900 attendees). As per previous events the eating contests attracted a wide audience and created the biggest mess yet!
One series of events that has increased in popularity from its introduction last year was the 6pm anime movie screenings in the event main stage area, with 200-300 attendees staying to watch these films after the event had closed.
The events celebrity guests proved as popular as ever (if not more so) with strong lines all three days in all areas. Of particular difference to previous years was the nonstop line for comic guest Jim Lee, whose line exceeded all expectations and previous events for comic guest, officially, becoming the events most popular comic guest ever!
David Hewlett from Stargate Atlantis once again confirmed the huge popularity of the show in NZ with an incredible response, which also was noticeable both in media coverage and audience reaction to the other media guests present at the event.

Overall the 2008 Auckland event was a huge success and drastically increased the public awareness of the event, further entrenching Armageddon into the minds of Kiwis across the country.

Below is the art from the four winners of the events art contest

Visit this blog for some news and pics from the event  http://www.gelatometti2.blogspot.com/

Visit these links below for photos and videos from the event – please email us your links for photo and event reviews and we will add them here, also, check out the event forums, certainly lots of feedback and images going up there this year
Photo links -
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/photo_gallery_popup_skin/armageddon2008_photogallery_group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/680559@N25/pool/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32704127770
http://outpost42.dr-maul.com/cpg147/thumbnails.php?album=189
http://outpost42.dr-maul.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1596&st=0
One of the two event photographers http://www.pixeload.com/
http://www.vampedup.co.nz/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=99999999&catid=19
http://gallery.of.geek.nz/main.php?g2_itemId=32029

Event review and stories -
http://www.vampedup.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1471&Itemid=1
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318241/2227609

If you have made it to the bottom of the page you deserve an extra special video, watch below