Is there any real reason why the Masquerade and the Ball are scheduled at the same time? Is this how the events are going to be scheduled again next year? This is very frustrating and I'm very disappointed, I really hope the planning improves for next year.
Lots of people will be attending the Masquerade until the very end, only to run to their hotel rooms (which takes a little bit of time), quickly change into formal wear and then run(carefully, in order to not face-plant on the cement for some girls) to the Ball just in order to attend for such a short amount of time.
Going to play devil's advocate here.
To be fair, FanimeCon is huge. As in 20,000+. When you have 20,000+ people to entertain, you have to consider one tiny problem: space. Obviously not all 20,000+ people can fit in the Masquerade or in the B+W Ball. By having the events at the same time, you have less attendence at each one, which, in this case, is not neccessarily a bad thing. I'm not saying staff are maliciously planning this. I'm just saying that they're trying to spread people out a little so they're not all in one big, crowded space.
Another point, and this one is probably more likely the main reason: time conflict happens no matter what. If the Masquerade were on Saturday, people would complain that it interferes with MusicFest. If it were on Friday or Monday, people would complain that they couldn't attend on those days. Unfortunately, some events will have to overlap due to the nature of the beast.
I'm not anyone official or anything, but as someone who has put on events before, I know the kind of logistical decsions that have to be made. Yeah, it sucks, but such is life.