DoKomi is a by-fans-for-fans anime and Japan convention held every June at Messe Düsseldorf, organised largely by volunteers and packed with cosplay, gaming, artist alley, concerts, and J-culture food.

Experience ¶

I met Andi, co-founder of AkibaDreams and one of the people behind DoKomi, at a party in 2012. His energy was infectious, and he pulled me straight into his friend-circle. He was already certain I’d click with Paul. He was spot-on. Paul had just started sketching out a Retro Arcade area for DoKomi 2013. He needed networking code and management software. And I needed a new side-quest. Together we hacked up a client-server stack for the cabinets, which dragged me deep into reverse-engineering.

I went there first time in 2013, showing of what we build. Back then the con drew roughly 11 k people to the Congress Center Düsseldorf, already making headlines as Germany’s fastest-growing otaku (nerd of japanese culture) expo.

Support was needed on information points and i jumped in (2016). Soaring attendance forced us to split entrances (2020), I moved over to run the VIP, Special-Guest and Staff gate. Might sound dull, but with DoKomi passing 155k visitors in 2023 and 180k in 2024, smooth ingress matters. Also, it gave me deep insides to understand the problems and to support the team to build a better DoKomi next year.

I started pivoted food logistics lead (2025). I coordinate with our internal organization to improve and support our Volunteers better. Healthy, well-fed volunteers are happy volunteers. New KPI unlocked.

Why I stay ¶

I’m myself not an otaku but the Team spirit is awesome. Which keeps volunteers like me grinding happily through 14h+ shifts. DoKomi has grown from 12k guests in 2013 to 215k in 2025, yet it still feels like the same friendly environment where Andi brought me into 13 years ago. No year is the same, it’s always different.