March 20, 2017

Meet Faisal Ahmed of Anime Weekend Atlanta in Cobb County

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Faisal Ahmed.

Faisal, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
AWA was founded in 1995. It was founded as a place for people who love anime (Japanese Cartoons) to get together and be themselves. Last year we had over 28,000 unique attendees gather at the Cobb Galleria Centre. We are an entirely volunteer run organization so all money goes back into the event and the community. We are the largest anime convention in the southeast and the only convention in Georgia that brings Japanese guests such as musicians, bands, voice actors, directors, fashion designers, and pop culture personalities.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As with all volunteer organizations it’s had its up and downs. Everyone is very passionate about what we do, so there are a lot of opinions and emotional investment. As we get larger and become more of a national scale event, we are having to add more professional elements without compromising the fan feel of the show such as professional security and weapon policies.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Anime Weekend Atlanta story. Tell us more about the business.
We are known for being the largest anime convention in the southeast and one of the only volunteer run conventions that is truly for fans and by fans. We have had world premieres of the latest anime shows, first time appearances for guests in North America, and we work very closely with many companies to bring fans in the southeast the latest and greatest.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I have learned that luck plays an immense role as it’s always an adventure on who is available to attend the show. We have been lucky that we get guests such as ZUN (creator of the Touhou games) as well as the world premiere of the newest Gundam anime last year.

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