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I see. While I'm sure you're doing everything in your power to try and tweak things, I think I'm going to give Fanimecon a miss, then. A wait of less than an hour would be nice, but realistically from what I've seen I'd have to be out the door at 6am to drive down there and get that far ahead in line, and that's not going to happen. Thanks for your reply, though. I appreciate it.

Pretty sure I've asked this before, and I keep hoping something will change, buuut...

Have there been any definite plans to improve the waiting times for at-con registration? I've gone the past two-three years, and endured the 2-3 hour wait, but I'm just not feelin' it, this year. I really enjoy the convention, but a solid 2 hours wasted, at a minimum, standing in line is just not going to fly again. I understand how much is volunteer-driven, really I do, but c'mon. Are there any solid plans to eliminate this unfortunate circumstance this year? Eliminating the half-dozen laptop policy in favor of something paper-driven would speed things up SO much. I love technology, really! Yet in this case, it's painfully clear that the situation just leads to aggravation for everybody. The con-goers get aggravated, the volunteers get aggravated, and by extension, you get aggravated by people such as me repeatedly asking these questions. I'd love to say nothing but good things about Fanimecon. I really would. But the wait time...   that's a dealbreaker, at this point. I've never seen anything like it. I'd really love to get some good news on this subject, and again, please please please, don't assume
I'm just attacking the staff/volunteers/everyone over one issue. There's just... really...  really better ways of handling this, than requiring registration on a few con-provided laptops. Thanks.

I very nearly decided against attending this year, owing to the idea that standing in line for several hours for the pleasure of shelling out forty dollars is somehow a good thing. I was talked into going by my wife and my children, whose first exposure to Fanimecon was a wait time Saturday morning of 3 hours, 22 minutes(noted by the lady behind me). I have to say we overall enjoyed the convention, once we finished the registration process and left to obtain lunch someplace with moderately reasonable prices. Sorry, but the in-con food prices are just obscene. The Sailor Moon marathon was a huge hit with my girls, and the Patlabor screenings opened me to a new anime to look up. Most of the volunteers and staff were reasonably helpful and/or polite... most. I can understand the stresses of working a major event(been there, done that), so ok, no big deal. Finding out exact times for the panels, and anything else, really, before getting hold of a pocket calendar at the convention would have been rather useful, but ok, again, no big deal. This brings me, however, to the registration process.

I've worked at, and run events with registration, both at the door and pre-reg, and I honestly have to say this is one of the poorest examples of organization I've ever seen. I can't blame the poor souls standing behind the few laptops used to process the umpteen thousands of people wanting to attend this event; they didn't organize the registration, and I can't even blame the rather large oriental lady who appeared to be a supervisor with the rather severe attitude problem and fascination with exerting her authority over EVERYTHING, no. Allow me to break down the process into steps, to detail my exact concerns:

1) Stand in line to process registration.

Ok, no big thing, everyone's gotta do it, makes sense, not really any way around this. However, given that somebody in charge knows, from past experience, that a LOT of people are going to be standing in this relatively small area for a LONG time, wouldn't it be practical to make arrangements with the building engineers to focus the a/c in this particular area? These people are paying to fund the convention. There are a LOT of people standing in this line waiting to hand over their money, and because of the reg process as a whole, they're going to be standing in line a LONG time. A five minute meeting, an email reminder or some notes would have helped this immensely.

2) Type out name & address into a pre-selected laptop that may or may not be working, to receive a registration number.

Three laptops. That's how many were working a good part of Saturday morning. Five hundred people, with more coming every second, are supposed to process their registration through three laptops, sometime on Saturday. Words fail me at this point. The purpose of the electronic registration, apparently, is to issue each person an individual number, F followed by some sequential number system. With three laptops, to process the thousands of people showing up. Not surprising to me at all that the laptops weren't working properly; I would've done the same, were I them. Here's an idea. Instead of the cost of renting out or buying(and maintaining) these laptops, why not print the registration sheets with the sequential numbers already on them, have each attendee present i.d. at the booth to register, and then go inside to pay? All the volunteers would need to do is verify i.d., make sure the form is filled out, and keep one of the sheets for records. Less stress on the volunteers, no chance of technical issues, and the line would proceed at an acceptable rate. Carving our names on rocks would be faster than the present system. You guys are trying to put on a huge, multi-day extravaganza, we get it. It's complicated and there's no end of issues and problems to deal with, we get that too. This is a perfect opportunity to eliminate one of the biggest issues we as attendees have to face, regardless of whether we pre-register or show up the day of. There's just no need to tie up manpower and resources in this way. It builds frustration on the volunteers and the people footing the bill for the show.

Or, at the very least, provide access to the registration page via the local wi-fi to anyone with a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Would the system get slammed by doing so? Well yeah, obviously. Would providing a separate line for people able to do so speed things up? Yeah, I think it probably would. Again, streamlining the process and minimizing the time people spend in line. Who loses by doing that? Maybe... the janitors? I don't know, it seems like a win for everybody.

3) Pay the fee, and claim a badge.

While standing in line, and listening to the conversations going on around me, I gathered that there was a significant problem with staff giving different answers to the same questions. This happened to me personally, when I asked about the age limit for children, and received three different answers. The problem could be insufficient communication, it could be misunderstood directions, it could be lack of training - I don't know. Personally, though, when this has happened to events I've worked before, we got around it by getting some large sheets of paper, and printing answers for common questions(and solutions for simple problems) and making sure those sheets were easily accessible to all the staff. It elminated the vast majority of issues, and it cost about twenty bucks for the paper, and some markers. A simple, effective solution.


We all come together for this event because of our common interest, there's no other reason so many people trek from across the Bay Area to San Jose on Memorial Day weekend. It's in everyone's best interest for things to run as smoothly as possible. It makes the convention more enjoyable for the fans, and it makes life easier for the staff that's manning the tables and answering questions. The event is enjoyable, nobody can deny that. There are some gaping flaws, though, that are bringing down the quality of the experience as a whole. These flaws aren't all that difficult to sort out, either. It just takes some extra planning and foresight. I'd like to say I plan on attending next year, but, really, there's no excuse for the above problems being allowed to affect the experience as a whole.

Ahh, I see...  in that case, how does one acquire the ssid needed to access the reg process? I'm assuming that the volunteers handling the reg process either won't know or won't be able to give out that info, due to the possibility of miscreants and such...

So, last year it was put forth that wifi access would be available to handle the registration process separately from the two hour plus standing in line 'event' whose goal it was to use one of the eight or so laptops set up. While I quickly found that the opposite of what was mentioned here (http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,12126.0.html) had occured, namely that web browsing was entirely available(and appreciated!), the hoped-for reg info entry site was not. Which was a shame, as there were several individuals in line sadly lacking in deodorant/hygeine...  but I shan't bore you with details. My question is, will the option to complete the required reg process be available this year? Not to put too fine a point on it, but doing so would a)ENORMOUSLY shorten that line for single-day passes, and b)take an ENORMOUS load off of the poor souls valiantly attempting to speed the single-day registration process along. Hopefully, they wouldn't all go off and commit suicide like I'd heard they did after '09...  but I digress. Given the pace and spread of smartphones and the lightening of laptops, it would seem to be an excellent idea to invest time and/or resources into making this happen, sort of a 'ounce of prevention vs. a pound of cure' kinda thing. Otherwise, my cohorts and I might see fit to enter into line with an assortment of delicious, delectable, aromatic cheesesteak subs from that awesome place a few blocks down by the campus, causing rampaging, rioting, and who knows what other sorts of suffering and craziness...

Arigatou!

Most excellent!! While it'd be nice to hit up kol while waiting, I'd much prefer to zip through the reg process and get to the good stuff. This leads to the obvious question(s): will the info to access the ad-hoc network be openly available at the time of, or (preferably) earlier, possibly even here? I don't mind spending some time in line with sweaty teenagers(I guess..  :-\ ), but I would like to hit up as much as possible, and if that means cutting line-time in half or even further, then awesome.

Again, I appreciate your answer, and hopefully by spreading this info we can get everyone inside as quickly as possible. Thanks again!

Last year, while in line waiting to go through the reg process for one-day passes for Saturday, a helpful young woman passed by advertising that anyone with web access would be able to complete the process themselves by visiting a specific link and completing the info. Needless to say, I didn't write down the link, since I didn't have mobile access at the time...     so I'm wondering, will such an option be available this time round? I'd really prefer not to spend two hours in line like last time if at all possible. Granted, it was well worth it, please don't misunderstand! But yeah, two hours in line...   not looking forward to that again, and not able to drive to SJ from SFtwo or three days straight(darn that job!).

Any insights would be most welcome, thanks...    ;D