Opening Ceremonies Last Year
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[music playing] [Anthony:] Hello, welcome to DerpyCon Online 2020. I'm Anthony Zaragoza, Convention Chair of DerpyCon. I'm here in front of the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, which would've been our new home this year [yells] If it wasn't for the Coronavirus! [music playing] So, because we're not able to be all here this weekend, We're going to bring you a bunch of our programming and content online to you, for free, throughout this entire weekend. We're going to have guests, panels, workshops, maybe a DJ--maybe. I'm so looking forward for this weekend, of what we have to offer on DerpyCon Online for this year. [music playing] You know, this entire year I've been thinking It's been almost 3 years that we decided to move to Hyatt Regency New Brunswick. This is going back to 2017. Back in DerpyCon 2016 and 2017, we heard that, we need more space; we need more hotel rooms; we need more restaurants nearby; we need this, we need that. And, it got us thinking, saying, we should try to move, but not too far away. And this is where Hyatt Regency New Brunswick got involved. It took us 6 months to find a new home that we can move into starting in our 2020 event. You know, there was a lot of places to choose from; from the lower Westchester area of New York, all the way down to South Jersey-- --and I know it's south Jersey, and, I'm coming from Long Island. So anyway, you know, I know we needed a new home. But the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick allowed us to move in, taking up the entire hotel, using up three times more space than we had in Morristown. And you know what? 2020 I was really looking forward to since 2017. [sighs] And it got me thinking, that with this cancellation, it really, kind of made me a little upset. Because this was something we've been working on since 2017. And to be honest with you, this was the most, best kept secret Ithat 've ever done in my life. There was a whole year that I knew that we were going to be here, and I didn't say a word. And I heard everyone at DerpyCon 2018 when we announced that we were going to be moving. And this was--staff didn't even know. And...the staff where shocked of how we presented it, [chuckles] which they thought we were stopping. And it turned out that everyone was all hyped up because yes, we are moving; we're moving just 30 miles down the road to New Brunswick from Morristown. And, you know, everyone walked in like, 'Wow, we have three times the space, we have the entire hotel.' And, you know...I'm really looking forward to it since 2017. And I knew everybody was going to be excited about it. When the Coronavirus struck earlier in the year, I hoped that...we would have been at a stance that we could have run using the extra precaution. But... When it came by May, I knew that we weren't going to happen. And, I really got upset, because I've been looking forward to 2020. Because we have a new home; we have three times more space; we could be doing things that we couldn't do before, including wearing masks everywhere which seems now we have to do everywhere right now. And... [music playing] We're going to have to wait for another year. But yet at the same time, if we wait for another year, We can definitely bring you a better DerpyCon at our new home in New Brunswick, New Jersey. So many of you this weekend probably would have taken fabulous photos with your cosplay at kind of like these rocks behind me. But, it's not just these rocks that bring more excitement to this venue. It's in fact the size--we're talking about three times the size of our previous years. So for example, Main Events. Okay, we can only hold 100something people? In our new Main Events we can triple that amount. As of before Coronavirus. Dealers Hall, yes, very small in terms of amount of different quality of vendors. But don't worry, because our new Dealer's Hall its going to be twice the size as well as our Artist Alley being about two to three times the size. And our Video Gaming Room was definitely going to be larger than it was. Including our panel rooms--so those Panel 4 rooms, Panel 4 is no longer existent here in New Brunswick. Each panel room will hold at least 50 people--that's right, 50 people. This was something that we really looking forward to, because this was going to mark a new chapter of DerpyCon. And you know what? This online event just brings us to show that we as a community can stay together during these hard times. so let's sit back, relax, and enjoy DerpyCon Online. [music playing] So, here we are--the atrium here at the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, which is basically the center of DerpyCon. By the windows will be our Video Game Room on the lower level. We have doors here for what would have been on Main Events. Our Dealer's Hall, and our Artist Alley. And then, to the left of the camera, would have been the panel rooms. Of course, to your right would have been a video room and workshop rooms. When we announced back in 2018 that we're moving to New Brunswick we had that worked in the making a year beforehand in terms of layout where everything should need to be, so that we can avoid moving rooms around after a venue change because we would like to keep everything the same as much as possible. And now that we have no event this year, kind of make us a little upset that that vision that I had of everyone being here it's just not going to happen just yet. But soon it will come. Ugh, look at me, Just, rattling on about DerpyCon 2020 that would have been here and it's not. You know, I'm putting everyone's hopes down and so on, and ugh, I don't want to do that. But anyway, let's get the weekend started right with DerpyCon Online. Let's send it over to Candice right now in our DerpyCon studios. Candice--take it away! [Candice:] Thanks Anthony for leaving me here with DerpyCone, who was the host of Opening Ceremonies last year. But since he's not speaking that much--he's fired, and I'll be your hostess this year. I'm Candice, and I'll be hosting DerpyCon Online 2020. And I have to say I've missed you all the last 2 years. I was your Head of Programming for the first 4 years, but then this happened, so I had to get my life in order. And one thing I vaguely remember or, mostly remember I should say is this-- remember this? Remember this sign? Yeah, remember that? Kiss it goodbye for this year! Ha, ha! Victory is mine! All right. So let's get DerpyCon Online 2020 Opening Ceremonies started. [music playing] Streaming New Jersey's anime and gaming, sci-fi and comic convention; this is DerpyCon Online. [music playing] [Candice:] Now if you haven't figured out how to watch us just yet, but I'm assuming if you're watching us now, you figured it out. But, here are some of your options-- We have Twitch.tv/DerpyCon if you want to Twitch stream us. You can also check us out on the channel store on your Roku; search DerpyCon. You can also search for us on your Amazon Fire TV. And of course, once in a blue moon, we'll be live on Facebook, YouTube, maybe Twitter, maybe Instagram. Who knows--you'll just have to keep an eye out to find us. So, Guest Q&As For Guest Q&As this year, please use the chat feature on Twitch. From there our team of moderators will then forward your questions to the Guest. So if you're watching from your Roku or Fire TV, you're going to have to switch to Twitch to ask the Guests the questions. Got it? Twitch to ask questions. Or, just go Roku and Fire TV to watch. To those that are in need of captions of our programming, DerpyCon is offering transcripts of all of our programming. You may find a copy of the transcripts on our website at DerpyCon.com Please allow some time for our live panels to appear on the website. Be sure to check out round-the-clock schedule at DerpyCon.com We are live straight through the end of Sunday with endless programming and content, and I'm going to need a big pot of coffee for this! Also please, please be aware that all times are in Eastern Standard time. So if you're not watching us from the East Coast, if you're from Central Time Zone. Midwest, Pacific. or internationally Think like you're on the East Coast when it comes to times, please. We have a 2020 Program Guide available for you to download. Again, check out our website at DerpyCon.com to download your copy. It's going to be awesome.