I told 'Weeb Nation' Ozine Events is Dead*

I’m stepping on lots of eggshells with this post.

I have received an invitation to be on the O’Taco Bites show Weeb Nation, and we talked about the Ozine Fiasco (starting with the cancellation of their Idol Fest event supposed to be held at Gateway Mall 2 in Cubao), with Zim Shahid leading the discussion. Joining me in the conversation (and subsequently representing NewsDrop) was Kuhaku Media Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Duldulao.

Even though I was hesitant (because hello, I’ve been out of touch from the weeb events scene at all—and I’m still stuck in a rut on the VTuber side of things), I still had my two cents on the current state of the country’s pop culture events.

I was still getting a feel in the first few minutes of the conversation. Over time I drilled some talking points, but I’ll share here the important ones:

• 15:58: My POV—Events Management is underappreciated, yet it’s the one industry that’s giving great experiences and creates memories among stakeholders (basically, the audience).

• 16:14: The lack of communication and dishing out of last-minute surprises that we saw on Ozine’s side has chipped away more of the audience’s trust towards them over time. The scariest thing in events is when you make major changes at the last minute, such as sudden event postponements and/or event cancellations, because people have already prepared for such events.

• 18:24: Do I think Ozine Events has a chance to make up for all of this and bounce back? Honestly, I don’t think so.

  • “Personally (speaking), at this point, the people are just livid, damage control won’t do any better; and at this point where we don’t see any further updates from Ozine Events and even their general manager, I will make the call that the community will never tolerate something like this (anymore)… this is not the first time this happened, so why we tolerate this (again)? The best thing Ozine can do is to die a slow, painful death.”
  • Over the past 2-3 years, we’ve seen several events had major issues—where do I start, ConQuest 2023? Pokeverse? GaLitFest ¹? NijiPop Culture Festival? Animefest in Iloilo? Patrons of the Arts? …Pixel Loot Fair ²? Then Ozine, which has survived several issues but not this one.
  • I said 30% of what I remember about Ozine are about their issues in handling guests (remember Otaku Expo’s collab with TokuSpirits?)

• 23:44: From an events organizer’s POV, what should fellow event orgs learn from all of this?

  • (1) We’re seeing a trend of fans going away from visiting major events who are happy and content with attending smaller niche events with fellows who share the same interest as them. My opinion is that the (next) biggest challenge of major event orgs today is not to compete with other events, it’s retaining fan loyalty. Look at the K-pop fandom’s influence to others as groups set up their cafe cup sleeve events³, then look at Kuhaku’s calendar which are filled with lots of art fairs and ACG events.
  • (2) Do not be discouraged by the case studies of collapse among major events like Ozine, ConQuest and Patrons of the Arts, as events management is an art—there’s no same feeling with managing events every year, there’s always something new to experience whether you like it or not.

Before I cap off this post, I want to also mention the things Ozine did for the community through the years, all of which will be overshadowed by what I assume now is a nail-in-the-coffin bankruptcy of sorts:

• Reinvigorating the events circuit by hosting several events outside convention venues. Three years ago, I was so happy to hear Ozine Fest’s Summer event being held in 3 Ayala Malls.
• Them proposing the idea for a Ozine Hub & Cafe at Ayala Malls Feliz in Pasig City ⁴.
• Let’s not forget they started as an anime magazine first published around late 2005. They became part of my childhood, one way or another.

As with anything in this world. nothing is permanent. Carrying a brand into the next generations of audiences is no small feat; but for the 2-decade old Ozine, I think it’s just time for them to retire, knowing their reputation is severely tarnished.