I staffed several amateur anime conventions 10-20 years ago, as a volunteer. No one was paid, except when we needed licensed professionals, passion projects obviously. In the early days, we even showed fansubs (illegally of course). During that time, things became more professional, organizers started caring about copyright laws, I witnessed the rise of large, commercial events, and an explosion of small, amateur events followed by their gradual downfall.

I am among the ones responsible for that downfall. Simply, I moved on with my life, I stopped staffing, then I stopped attending, and so did the friends I made there, except for a few of them who somehow turned it into a job. The "new generation" is certainly passionate, but they have less to offer, simply because most of it is mainstream now. They don't have the budget for doing big things like the big commercial players, and they can't ignore copyright because owners actually care. As a result, their events are more like private clubs, for those that still exist.

On the bright side, we now have anime licensed and even produced in the west, we get to see major personalities, coming straight from Japan, and many things that were unthinkable when we started out.