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I hosted my panel at the Fairmont last year.  I loved the room, it was HUGE (and I filled almost the entire space)!  However, is Panel Ops still at the Marriott?  That was the big hassle for me; my boyfriend and I stayed at the Fairmont (called while on the stairs up to Ops to check in, dratted stairwells and no reception), so I had to scurry over to the Marriott to check in, then scurry back to the Fairmont to set up and get ready.  I was still able to make it with time to spare, but it was a colossal hassle.  =\

Thank you kindly. Could you clarify if we can sign up now? I've been told that March 29th is a date to look for, but what does that date mean? Do sign ups go up on that date?

Princess Squib Cosplay
-A.K.A. Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon Burlesque Group

This is one of my questions as well.  So far, nothing up on the main site, will we get prior warning when signups officially go live?

Thanks for the heads-up.  Much appreciated.

One clarification: Will you only be looking at Masquerade entries starting the 29th?  What's to stop things from filling up prior to then (especially since you put up the info one would need to e-mail) and there being no slots left for folks registering the 29th?

I have 'USER7' instead of my fan name as well.  I really hope it's just a bug.

Also, my name is squished, no space between my first and last names.  Is that just a preview error?

Thank you for the link, ewu.  I went ahead and submitted as well.  I hope that, even though I'm way down in southern California and I need some flexibility in scheduling, I can still help out.

Someone just suggested I do older Amy Pond from 'The Girl Who Waited'.  Can I sign up as well?

So let me see. What exactly was good about all of that? I would even argue that no, they didn't lack manpower. They lacked brains. Why were multiple people just walking around the ballroom - unable to assist people with questions, not keeping line jumpers in check (yes, that happened in that room too) - just being absolutely, 100% worthless.

LOL it must be SO hard to follow registration check-in procedures. Sorry to break it to you, it probably wouldn't have helped. If it takes upwards of ten minutes to print out crappy black and white *labels* - they either needed
a) more printers
b) pre-printed badges
c) more brains - oh sorry, this was a given
d) better planning - oops, there I go again

Flawed logic my right gluteus maximus. Probably could have put a thousand monkeys in a room and registration would have been faster and less painless- albeit with more Ebola virus.

points and arguments.

other conventions invest and have the money to invest in better systems. most outsourcing their registration system. run by volunteers at the con, yes.. but the system is still outsourced and maintained as such.. outsource = money.

signage: yes, there wasn't enough. no argument. no time nor money to get them done on time. make-shift signs were made for the most part to help. didn't help that much. people had trouble locating registration when it was clearly announced it was going to be at the Fairmont (there were plenty lost people wandering around SJCC looking for it)

volunteers not being able to give answers/help/info/etc: back to training. not everyone knew what was going on. lots of people to manage, and lack of communication. that covers a big block of your points. not knowing how long the wait was? same thing. not being able to answer questions? not lack of brains.. lack of that information given to them. they have a job to do, told to do something.. and they do it.

rude volunteer/staff: take down their name or badge number. report it and send feedback. it'll be handled appropriately.

more printers: more money or have the appropriate allocation of their budget for them. (yes, they needed more printers and i won't argue there)
pre-printed badges: it was done in the past.. but why not this year? because Fanime wanted the capability for people to choose where they can pick up their badge. (yes, people could have gone to Clockwork Alchemy)
more brains/better planning: well duh.. but it's a bit difficult to plan when more than half the volunteers bail out on you. did i mention lack of manpower? blah blah.. it's because we're run by volunteers.. blah blah.. yes.. that's not an excuse.. blah blah.

you argue that there weren't enough brains, but insist on having a ton of monkeys as manpower.

I'm sorry, but all of that just reads to me as a load of excuses.  Excuses on top of excuses that are being thrown out to try and placate people and downplay the MASSIVE incompetence that was displayed at this year's Fanime.  For the record, it didn't directly affect me (I skipped the Night Zero line and got my badge first thing the next morning), but seeing people waiting in line for 6-8 hours easily?  Hearing about people fainting nad/or needing to be taken away by ambulances while waiting in line?  Totally, utterly unacceptable.  And yet all you can do is throw up your hands and say 'We're doing the best we can, stop complaining!'.

Sorry, but no.  No, you are not doing everything you can.  You're doing the minimum that you're contracted to do (getting people in, getting their badge, getting them out), and when people call you out on your outdated way of doing things, you fall back on the tired old 'We're a volunteer organization' excuse.  Your attendees deserve a million times better than what they're getting, yet these excuses are blowing off their concerns and making them not want to come back to Fanime.  If that right there isn't poor customer service, I don't know what is.

The problem is, Fanime's attendees are outstripping its current registration budget.  It's like trying to force ants through a drinking straw, it's an unnecessary choke point.  And from what I can tell, this isn't the first year you've had issues like this (though this is so far the worst year).  Instead of falling back on the tired old 'We're doing our best', how about putting your money where your mouth is?

~Whoever heads registration needs to take it up with Fanime's higher-ups that this system isn't viable, it has to be fixed budget, equipment, and capacity-wise.  Don't have the money to invest? Cut some of the dead weight out of the org so you'll have the budget for the important things.  Also, Fanime isn't PMX, or Conji, or other smaller events.  Budget for the event as it is NOW, not how it was years ago.  Where is there the greatest need for budget allocation?  Where can things be trimmed?  And so on.
~Volunteers and staff don't know things and/or are rude?  The onus falls on reg to train people, full stop.  They are the face of the con, and they need to learn to act it.

TL;DR: The excuses aren't fooling anyone.  Knock it off and actually take steps to improve things, instead of playing lip service.

Just as a quickie from me, I sent Jack a PM through the forums to see how he's doing and if he can pop in and talk to folks.  I know from my own observations that he felt absolutely terrible about how CS went this year.  I spoke with him backstage during judging, and the guy was in tears, he felt so bad.  I'm hoping that the radio silence from him has been due to real life and other post-mortem con commitments, and that he's not too intimidated to come on and talk to folks.

would of been nice to know what level i was judged at, also I was sad they lost my audio for my walk on so I didn't get any cool theme music as I walked on hence why I did that *wait what's going on* kinda pose part way in because I thought my music would play, but If it didn't I didn't want to stall the walk-ons when they announced my name. Hope the staff volunteers learned what to do better for next year, because if it's possible for me to upgrade my suit and still bring it to masquerade next year ill return and hopefully in motorized, musical glory! xD

Early on, there were several audio glitches like this.  That's why I was stuck on-stage waiting for my music to start; they misplaced it in the playlist, but the lights remained on so I couldn't just walk off stage (I've been trained to never do that, wait for the lights to be cut).  So I also hope next year runs more smoothly, and that Jack and the rest of the staff get any assistance they might need to minimize errors.

Feedback I've submitted (via two forms, since I just thought of more feedback recently):

~'Fire Support' staff for Cosplay Spectacular - This year's CS staff worked very hard, but the majority of them were very green.  (Some literally did not even know stage directions.)  Any further assistance that can be provided to them to minimize CS errors would be awesome.

~Satellite Panel Check-in for Fairmont panels - I was both staying at the Fairmont and hosting a panel in the Gold room there.  However, I had to walk over to the Panels lounge in the Marriott to check in for my panel, then walk all the way back to the Fairmont for my panel.  That felt really inefficient to me, any chance of having a 'satellite' check-in at the Fairmont ONLY for panels hosted there?

~Additional Registration staff - I would love to staff Registration during Night Zero and (possibly part of) Day One.  However, due to distance and other potential event conflicts I'm unsure I could fully join as Reg staff.  I do have registration experience at events, if there was a way I could assist even just for the first couple days I would gladly do so (and I'm sure others would as well).  My suggestion included a slight reduction in badge cost (maybe $10-$20 or so) or a Starbucks card or similar to reimburse peoples' time.

On the topic of staffing, I would love to help out with Registration.  I've done similar work for seminars my dad has attended in the past.  While they drew nowhere near the crowd Fanime draws, they were still a respectable size that needed to be moved quickly.

BUT!!!  I have two conflicts with Staffing.  First, as is the case with others, I live super far from San Jose and don't have a vehicle.  My boyfriend is Staff, so I *could* arrange to travel with him if I needed to attend certain Staff meetings.  But that leads me to my second issue...

My second issue with Staffing would be Cosplay Spectacular.  Obviously, I do want to participate; however, I do know staff members generally are not permitted to do so.  If there was a way around that (ie, only staff for Night Zero, be regular attendee the rest of the con) I would be more than happy to do so if it meant I could do the CS.  Any advice here?

I agree with a lot of the sentiments being posted in this thread.  I'm incredibly leery of con staff who shut down discussion threads and direct everyone to a 'Feedback Form' that may or may not even be shared with attendees.  It seems more like an attempt to stifle online critiques of the various issues Fanime had this year, and not a constructive attempt at remedying them.  Very poor form, it really only encourages complaints elsewhere online.  I understand you're trying to consolidate feedback, but you'll end up making it tougher for yourselves by making people spread out to share it elsewhere.

And Fanime did have a bunch of issues, from registration LineCon to Cosplay Spectacular issues to various other bits and bobs that didn't really go well.  You really need to keep some kind of feedback thread online in the forums so people have a consolidated thread to talk in about things.

Now that I'm back from my own transportation, I can chime in as well.

This was my second competition, and it was...interesting.  I really felt for Jack, Wendell, and the entire CS Staff.  From speaking with a few of them, they literally had to rebuild CS from the ground up this year, and much of the staff was incredibly green.  It really seemed they weren't prepared for a lot that was going on, and as such weren't able to roll with the punches as easily.

With that said, the audio goofs were rather annoying.  For the record, I was Maou-sama.  The reason I was out on stage for so long?  They couldn't find my music, and the lights weren't cut so I could make my way offstage to help them locate the music file.  (I've been trained that you don't move until the lights go down.)  I also really felt for the other groups who had major audio issues, though I really have to wonder why the Hetalia group wasn't offered a redo the way the Madoka group was.  From talking with their group members, they were rather rudely rushed off stage and not allowed a redo.

Also, how were the awards grouped?  Normally, you have three groups (Novice, Journeyman, Master) and both the craftsmanship and the performance awards are lumped according to that.  It wasn't made clear who won what and in what category they competed.

With all that said, I wanted to thank the other cosplayers.  Those of you whom I spoke with were awesome, and it was fun interacting with everyone.

If any of you guys are interested, I'm hosting my panel in the Fairmont's panel room from 10-11PM Friday night.  (Same time as the meetup).  If you guys are interested, it'd be great to see you!

[ANIME]

So, Fanime has an "Asia Only" rule when it comes to Masquerade.

Thank god. Its comforting knowing there's still a shred of folks in the world dedicated to giving us an anime con.

Fanime, at this point in time, goes far, far beyond "just anime" (and Japanese video games)
We have Marvel/Avengers, TF2, Portal, My Little Pony, Homestuck, Disney princesses, I've seen lots of G.I. Joe cosplayers, South Park, Halo, the list goes on!

People can "cosplay" (if that name even counts for western rubbish) whatever they like. But its up to the convention to tell them otherwise when it comes to their event. Heck, its fANIMEcon for crying out loud. A bunch of folks costumed as figures of western media showing up to an anime convention is already awkward, and then asking them to make it all equal for everyone? What tenacity.
There are some people in this world (most true otaku) who don't want their weekend fully poisoned by the likes of which you speak. We already have Sac Anime and it's diluted western-filled experience.

And you know, I feel some comics and video games could be accepted...but disney?! homestuck!? etc...shoo shoo with all that rubbish. Go to disneyland, sac anime, or E3 lol.

If the new chairman ever sees this for some odd reason, I'd like him to remember that most long-time fanime goers like the con the way it is- its the closest to having a lot of hardcore otaku, and fanime usually reflects that by providing good Japanese guests (usually) and the maids, dealer's items, etc...there's just more of a real Japanese Anime fan experience than other events I've attended. Hoping the big staff change doesn't change much...its very easy for a convention to become overrun with garbage and turn into an "everything"-con. >__<

...Wow.

There are just no words for the sheer wrongness of this entire attitude.  None, whatsoever.

(Also *coughClockworkAlchemycough*)

Thanks, Jack.  I sent an e-mail, but forgot my name and cosplay name.  I'm drafting that message right now.

And thanks for popping on here and letting folks know what to do.  It's been a little frustrating not knowing for the past few weeks.

I just got a reply from Jack.  For Craftsmanship, he just pointed me to the form on the Fanime website.  (I replied asking how we sign up for Craftsmanship judging, since there's nothing on the website for that.)  He also said to e-mail changes to them.  I kinda feel like he didn't even read my e-mail, just skimmed over it and replied in slightly broken English.  (No issue with language spoken, but it seems there might be a communication barrier here somehow.)

*sigh*

As an FYI, I sent them an e-mail asking about craftsmanship and sending them additional/updated information.  I'll let y'all know if/when I get a reply.  :)

All of what you said, luluko.  Very nicely put.

I also want to say, I'm really happy we all seem to have one another's backs on all of this.  We're all watching out for each other on this thread, working to try and figure out answers during a really frustrating time.  As sappy as it may sound, I look forward to meeting everyone in this thread at Masquerade.  :D

and I got a response back saying that I just have to e-mail in my skit information? seems unorganized...

That really does.  Seriously, I'm worried this is turning into one gigantic mess.  =\