{"id":1694,"date":"2016-11-04T22:33:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T22:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/long-beach-perfectly-situated-to-host-inaugural-complexcon-say-organizers\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T22:33:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T22:33:37","slug":"long-beach-perfectly-situated-to-host-inaugural-complexcon-say-organizers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/long-beach-perfectly-situated-to-host-inaugural-complexcon-say-organizers","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Perfectly Situated to Host Inaugural ComplexCon, Say Organizers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"IMG<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

ComplexCon is set to be the Agenda Show for consumers\u2014a feast for the eyes, ears and mouths of the 15,000 streetwear and pop culture fans and aficionados expected to overtake the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center this weekend.<\/p>\n

Attendees can expect to experience never-before-seen brand collaborations and products exclusive to the convention, from major companies like A Bathing Ape, Nike and Modernica, site-specific installations by major artists like Patrick Martinez, James Jean and Dabs Myla and compelling panels such as The Future of Activism: Mobilize and Make a Difference featuring panelists Ilana Glazer of Broad City and #blacklivesmatter activist DeRay Mckesson, among other discussions.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Snoop Dogg, whose Sunday-slated performance<\/a> following Kanye West\u2019s cancellation was described as a \u201chappy accident\u201d by organizers, and will mark the first time the Long Beach native and gangsta rap icon has performed (in an official, large-scale capacity) within city boundaries in over 20 years.<\/p>\n

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RELATED<\/small> <\/p>\n

ComplexCon Performance Marks a Long-Overdue Homecoming for Snoop Dogg<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Everything seems to be falling into place perfectly and it\u2019s with great anticipation that the Post<\/em> was able to chat with ComplexCon Event Director Neil Wright and Complex Chief Content Officer Noah Callahan-Bever. Through our chats, the Post<\/em> got the scoop on just why Long Beach was chosen as the one-of-a-kind convention\u2019s first home, what goes into creating a successful, completely immersive two-day event and also the future, after the fans have returned to their homes and hotel rooms inspired and maybe with a few new unique items to covet.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of @powwowlongbeach<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aaron Levant, founder of the Long Beach-based leading streetwear convention, Agenda Show, and Marc Ecko, fashion designer and founder of Complex magazine, first discussed the idea a little over a year ago, to create a convention for consumers instead of retailers, and to bring the online streetwear, pop culture and media empire of Complex into real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally bringing all these things that people sit on Complex and read about all day, pulling the curtain back and letting the fans really engage with it,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time that I would go, it would be this mini-adventure with a bunch of really cool, other creators and I alway found that that was way cooler than going to an event that was in say, Miami or New York[…],\u201d he said, describing one of his and Ecko\u2019s first discussions of what makes a convention successful. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the hustle and bustle of the city that many people in the industry live in, they kind of end up drifting in and out of the convention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had the most fun at the conventions that were somewhat remote and removed you from the day to day action of your normal life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ComplexCon is designed to be its own ecosystem, he said. He described Long Beach as the perfect city for the event because of its t proximity to Los Angeles, proving convenient for the fans who live there, and its own street cred, as a city where the \u201creal hard core fans\u201d can make a rewarding weekend out of the festival. It\u2019s truly Long Beach\u2019s appeal as a stand-alone city, separate from LA, but not too far away, that made it appealing to organizers\u2014 in addition to ComplexCon\u2019s parent company, Reed Exhibitions, already having a great relationship with the city through the well-established Agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cA third point that we talked about internally is if we want this to be the SXSW of California or something even bigger, we think that Long Beach lends itself similar to the way Austin does,\u201d said Wright, who grew up in Long Beach. \u201c[…] It\u2019s not LA, it\u2019s not Orange County, [it has its] own identity and we actually think it aligns with what we\u2019re trying to do really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of @complexcon<\/a>\u00a0of <\/em>Complex Oct\/Nov 2016 Issue.<\/em><\/p>\n

ComplexCon may be built for passionate fans and consumers, but it also serves as an opportunity for larger brands to make a connection on a more personal level. Wright mentioned Adidas as an example of a brand that about five years ago was struggling to find relevance in the market, and in a major effort to revamp, decided to \u201clisten to the streets\u201d by realigning their message \u201cat a grassroots level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[…]Some brands got a little more on the corporate side and went a little bit bigger[…],\u201d he said. \u201cI think you\u2019ll see a lot of that at our event where these large corporate brands are really coming and wanting to engage one-on-one with the consumer again and kind of a mend their relationship, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one thing to be a very popular brand on the Internet, it is another thing to actually interact with people in their real lives,\u201d said Callahan-Bever.<\/p>\n

Callahan-Bever, who has been working closely with Ecko and Levant, said that the focus has not only been on ComplexCon itself, but Complex content as a whole. Ecko made sure that the convention stood as an opportunity for \u201ccontent capture,\u201d as Callahan-Bever called it, meaning the art installations, the performances, the layout, you name it, are designed to catch your eye and your smartphone\u2019s camera to be digitally displayed.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy of @mikecarter777<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The team behind ComplexCon has been emboldened by their experience bringing the immersive culture festival to fruition, and already has plans to further pursue such real-life activations in the future, said Callahan-Bever. However, nothing in the works can be announced to the public quite yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously knock on wood that everything goes smoothly and everyone has a great time, [but] we will be leaving this weekend looking for other opportunities to expand our brand into real life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For more information about ComplexCon, visit the website here<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ComplexCon is set to be the Agenda Show for consumers\u2014a feast for the eyes, ears and mouths of the 15,000 streetwear and pop culture fans and aficionados expected to overtake the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center this weekend.\u00a0Everything seems to be falling into place perfectly and it\u2019s with great anticipation that the\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0was able to chat with ComplexCon Event Director Neil Wright and Complex Chief Content Officer Noah Callahan-Bever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":67084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[839,357],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-business-profile","tag-complexcon","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}