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[derivan]

This one is only my opinion but-
Stage Zero. It's not hard to bypass stage zero. There is a bottom floor you can use if you don't want to get caught up in the crowd. There are two sets of stairs around stage zero you can use to avoid the crowd as well. Come on guys, you guys are complaining about something that you can avoid with... an extra 30seconds of walking. Just in case you guys don't know what I mean... The stairs on the South side of the wall that goes down into registration and then back up right where artist's alley entrance is. Or on the N side the two sets of huge steps that lead around stage zero that go to the front of the CC. Both of which are never blocked can easily be used to get around. 90% of the time, I took the first floor when I needed to get to the other side of the CC. There was NEVER a crowd and usually it was pretty empty outside of the line for reg, which was no where near the walk way anyways.

It sounds like you guys are complaining because "there are people there getting in the way of you being able to check out stage zero while walking by". Or in other words "WHY IS THERE AN AUDIENCE AT THIS EVENT THAT I WANT TO SEE WHEN I'M WALKING BY?!?!?!? There should be no audience, so I can check it out on my own leisure, and if I'm not interested, continue to get where I want with no one in any way blocking me".

Just wanted to point out that we (in Registration) tried to keep people from taking the stairs down and back up through Registration.  This is why the stanchions were put up while the escalators were turned on.  The main reason we do this is because in previous conventions, people would use the Registration area to go from one area to another then would eventually "settle" in the area since it was open.  We have limited space in that area and when people start congregating, it can lead to fire hazards (and we do tend to receive many visits from our friendly neighborhood fire marshal).  The other problem we have is that people think it's okay to use the Registration area as an exit and so will head down the stairs and cross-traffic with members who are trying to register.  Sure, one or two here and there isn't a problem but at some point the Registration area gets crowded (as more and more people think it's okay to exit) and we end up needing to grab our already limited number of staff to try to usher people out.  Our general rule of thumb is that when Registration is open, we try to keep people going one way into the con; even during slow times as we want to make sure we are consistent with our rules.

The badge thing... is incredibly good. I actually brought this up with staff members and they are going to discuss this in the future.

I'm just quoting you because you also mentioned it (otherwise I would have created a separate post ).  I do agree that this year, the Fan Name was hard (almost impossible) to read but there is a security reason for having the real name easily discernible from a distance.  I will see about making the Fan Name larger for next year but one thing I can be sure of is that the Real Name will most definitely remain discernible from a distance.

I'm sorry to say but generally speaking, at least from a Registration perspective, things that some people may find "annoying" or "troublesome" have all risen from situations involving those few "rotten apples" that happen year after year at the convention.

[derivan]

I had a problem with the con not handing out lanyards this year compared to last year. I know that Nvidia sponsored last year's lanyards, but could there at least had been a plain black lanyard? I got lucky to bring mine, that way I didn't have to use the clip which I thought equaled a higher probability of losing my badge.

That is indeed a hope for Fanime 2010.  Nvidia sponsored the 2008 lanyards but the cost of the lanyard isn't from the imaging, the cost is the lanyard itself.  I'll be fighting for a bigger budget to hopefully be able to bring you and everyone else lanyards!  If you happen to know of a place that'll give us a good deal on lanyards, I would most definitely love to hear it (registration at fanime dot com).

[Dagger-6]

I do agree that this year, the Fan Name was hard (almost impossible) to read but there is a security reason for having the real name easily discernible from a distance.  I will see about making the Fan Name larger for next year but one thing I can be sure of is that the Real Name will most definitely remain discernible from a distance.

I'm sorry to say but generally speaking, at least from a Registration perspective, things that some people may find "annoying" or "troublesome" have all risen from situations involving those few "rotten apples" that happen year after year at the convention.

Hmm...can you elaborate on what kind of security issues there are?

If you don't want to discuss it in public, send me a PM or isn't there usually a staff BBQ or something later on to discuss issues?  We can try and find a compromise then.

Just curious as a rover staff member if there's anything we can do to reduce the need for a large official name.

[Kender]

- Drunks wandering in the con at 3am with no badges. Where was staff? o_o

Did you report them?  If you see someone violating the rules, please don't just stand by, watch, and wonder why no one is doing anything about it.  Report them to the nearest Rover.  If you cannot find a Rover, find a staff member and they will find you a Rover.

And sans the drunk part, as long as they were not trying to enter any of the halls or rooms that required badges (ie, gaming room, video rooms, etc), then they technically didn't have to have their badges on.

[ewu]

- Drunks wandering in the con at 3am with no badges. Where was staff? o_o

Did you report them?  If you see someone violating the rules, please don't just stand by, watch, and wonder why no one is doing anything about it.  Report them to the nearest Rover.  If you cannot find a Rover, find a staff member and they will find you a Rover.

And sans the drunk part, as long as they were not trying to enter any of the halls or rooms that required badges (ie, gaming room, video rooms, etc), then they technically didn't have to have their badges on.

Also look around. Rovers and staff tend to stalk a target and wait for a less public area to speak to them.

Sat night, I saw 4 rovers, 2 ranking rovers, 2 division heads, SJCC facilities and 2 cops following a drunk guy at a distance. It was awesome

[ch0c0pies]

This year was my first yeaaar at Fanime, and I thought it was really fun.

A lot of the stuff was expensive, but I guess that's just inflation.

Overrall I had a great time 

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

The badge thing... is incredibly good. I actually brought this up with staff members and they are going to discuss this in the future.

I'm just quoting you because you also mentioned it (otherwise I would have created a separate post ).  I do agree that this year, the Fan Name was hard (almost impossible) to read but there is a security reason for having the real name easily discernible from a distance.  I will see about making the Fan Name larger for next year but one thing I can be sure of is that the Real Name will most definitely remain discernible from a distance.

I'm sorry to say but generally speaking, at least from a Registration perspective, things that some people may find "annoying" or "troublesome" have all risen from situations involving those few "rotten apples" that happen year after year at the convention.

Well that may be true, and you may have to keep it larger...but why is it that for pre-register badges we got TINY Fan names, while people who paid for a Weekend badge got it their Fan Name the SAME SIZE as their REAL NAME? T_T

[ewu]

we'll take that in account and see if we can design appropriately.

do you want the fan name to be more predominant than your real name?

[Ayanami Rei First Child]

we'll take that in account and see if we can design appropriately.

do you want the fan name to be more predominant than your real name?

I would LOVE for my fan name to be as large, or larger, then my real name. A lot of people on here like myself go more by our fan names then our real names ^^;

I appreciate you all looking into this.

[FanFicGuru]

we'll take that in account and see if we can design appropriately.

do you want the fan name to be more predominant than your real name?

I second Rei's opinion: at least the same size if not larger.

Fan Name

Real name

Something like that.

[jinnai_animexcalibur]

- Drunks wandering in the con at 3am with no badges. Where was staff? o_o

Did you report them?  If you see someone violating the rules, please don't just stand by, watch, and wonder why no one is doing anything about it.  Report them to the nearest Rover.  If you cannot find a Rover, find a staff member and they will find you a Rover.

And sans the drunk part, as long as they were not trying to enter any of the halls or rooms that required badges (ie, gaming room, video rooms, etc), then they technically didn't have to have their badges on.

Also look around. Rovers and staff tend to stalk a target and wait for a less public area to speak to them.

Sat night, I saw 4 rovers, 2 ranking rovers, 2 division heads, SJCC facilities and 2 cops following a drunk guy at a distance. It was awesome

1: it was 3am. As freaking tired as I was, I couldn't tell if they were attendees or just drunk clubbers from some club.

2: They were in the gaming room, messing around and heckling. They were smoking and drinking tons of beer. It was amazing that they actually got past whoever was supposed to be watching the door.

3: I did let a staffer know. He didn't do anything.

[jAded]

I think all the big rooms (gaming, Artist alley, etc) need to have one exit door and one entrance door.
For some reason, only the Dealer's Room did that.

I actually would have preferred the dealer's room to have more than one entry. As an artist in the alley, I did like the fact that there were two entrances to the AA. (:

What I think the AA can improve on are several things:
You don't need one person to check in artists, one person to tell them where to sit, and one person to put a sticker on their badge. This makes the process of checking in way too inefficient and is why the check in line for AA took really long and by the time we got to the tables, the alley was pretty much almost opened up the the public with very little time for setting up (despite the two hours exclusive for checking in artists).

Another thing. People who don't have their paperwork, go make copies, and get back in line so that people who are prepared can check and and the process can be streamlined.  It's stated specifically what you need to bring/have with you when you check in. That's why you sign a contract, to ensure that you have read, know and agree to the terms of being allowed into the alley.

Can we open the alley at 9 and close at 6? By the time we clean up and get out to the restaurants, half of them are closing/have closed. ;o;  

I thought there was a limit to how many tables you can have at the alley, but I see the same person every year with at least four tables, selling prints at two different locations. (I don't know how this is legal).

There are just some inefficiencies in the alley that I think can be better addressed. I would volunteer and help (because that's the usual response i've gotten) but living more than two hours away makes that not very plausible.

My only problem during Fanime was the horrible lines of several people soliciting 'Hug Me' or 'Glomp' or other random signs and yelling they have. There was even one night that my friends (they stayed up late to finish their commissions) told me that there were people asking for their paper so that they can make signs and there's no way my friends will let them used their art paper for something that is going to used and tossed away. Even bad when I had to avoid a nice canal of those people to get through Artist Alley or Gaming Room.

I hope not to see this next year. It was utterly ridiculous and quite annoying.

Uh. yeah. that hug/glomp line along the hallway to the dealer's room makes me very uncomfortable. Some actually get kinda of aggressive. I'm sorry if I'm not a fan of sweaty/weird/random strangers, least of all having them touch/hug me.

Other than that, I love Fanime. I really come for the fans and to hang out with friends. The alley is a way for me to make some spending money and I really like that you are within walking distance of whatever you may feel like eating. To avoid crowds, walk a little bit farther. 8D; go subway! I thought the con ran pretty smoothly. Picking up my bad on day 0 wasn't too bad at all. (Although I must say, people, please shower sometimes? 8D;; - that's not something fanime can control XD )

edit:

I would've appreciated an announcement on when preregistration for 2010 will end, especially in the artist alley. I cant exactly leave my table whenever I want to... And by the time I could, it was too late.

Ditto.

[deonchan]

- Drunks wandering in the con at 3am with no badges. Where was staff? o_o

Did you report them?  If you see someone violating the rules, please don't just stand by, watch, and wonder why no one is doing anything about it.  Report them to the nearest Rover.  If you cannot find a Rover, find a staff member and they will find you a Rover.

And sans the drunk part, as long as they were not trying to enter any of the halls or rooms that required badges (ie, gaming room, video rooms, etc), then they technically didn't have to have their badges on.

Also look around. Rovers and staff tend to stalk a target and wait for a less public area to speak to them.

Sat night, I saw 4 rovers, 2 ranking rovers, 2 division heads, SJCC facilities and 2 cops following a drunk guy at a distance. It was awesome

1: it was 3am. As freaking tired as I was, I couldn't tell if they were attendees or just drunk clubbers from some club.

2: They were in the gaming room, messing around and heckling. They were smoking and drinking tons of beer. It was amazing that they actually got past whoever was supposed to be watching the door.

3: I did let a staffer know. He didn't do anything.

What night was this? Was it a staffer or a Vol?

[macaulayman]

This was my first year at Fanime ( I had LOTS of fun)  and having been to many cons over the years I'd like to throw in my 2 cents;
Over all I thought the con was great.
As for pros....
Lots of anime to watch
Stage zero was fun
The Asian cinema was good too.
 he con personel tried very hard to keep things running smoothly.
And the cons...
The pocket guide is only good if you know about it and it falls to the bottom of the bag. Why not staple it to the front cover of the larger guide?
For those of us that are newer ( to anime), how about more info about the anime that's playing? Some plot background would be very helpful.
And I vote for a giant robot room next year. Or maybe some old school live action like Ultraman?
And the peace bonding... Always a good idea but maybe you should call it weapons registration for those people that might not think they need it since thier weapon is soft/ultralight( AKA not very weapon like)/no moving parts etc?
I do like the idea of having the characters name large ( and maybe the anime it's from) on the badges. I might even pay extra for it. And how about a chioce of lanyard or clip to hold it ( I prefered the clips).
And yes the hugging was a little wierd for a first timer like me at the con.
High food prices? Deregur at a con. I stepped out to one of the many resturants and had a great cheap meal.
And the panelist louge needs a couch, TV and coke. Chips would be nice too
Thanks and I hope to see you next year.

[mDuo13]

And how about a chioce of lanyard or clip to hold it ( I prefered the clips).

I second this. I know a lot of people are big fans of lanyards, but this year I was actually glad that we were back to clips. At the very least, it'd be better if the lanyard weren't required as part of the "authenticity" like last year. As long as you continue with the hologram-things like this year, that shouldn't be a problem, right?

[kyorami]

Fanime was a great experience again as it always is.

One suggestion I have is about the cosplay chess. While I understand that it's a time to mingle with other cosplayers, I feel like the game kind of dragged on longer than it needed to. I was thinking that maybe the chess board could be labeled with the chess tile names (I'm thinking like in Harry Potter) and the moderator could just call out which piece goes to which square instead of having to weave all around the board and telling that person where to go after the players make their move on the actual chess board. This way, the games might go faster and maybe more than one game can be played.

[jinnai_animexcalibur]

- Drunks wandering in the con at 3am with no badges. Where was staff? o_o

Did you report them?  If you see someone violating the rules, please don't just stand by, watch, and wonder why no one is doing anything about it.  Report them to the nearest Rover.  If you cannot find a Rover, find a staff member and they will find you a Rover.

And sans the drunk part, as long as they were not trying to enter any of the halls or rooms that required badges (ie, gaming room, video rooms, etc), then they technically didn't have to have their badges on.

Also look around. Rovers and staff tend to stalk a target and wait for a less public area to speak to them.

Sat night, I saw 4 rovers, 2 ranking rovers, 2 division heads, SJCC facilities and 2 cops following a drunk guy at a distance. It was awesome

1: it was 3am. As freaking tired as I was, I couldn't tell if they were attendees or just drunk clubbers from some club.

2: They were in the gaming room, messing around and heckling. They were smoking and drinking tons of beer. It was amazing that they actually got past whoever was supposed to be watching the door.

3: I did let a staffer know. He didn't do anything.

What night was this? Was it a staffer or a Vol?

EARLY Monday morning. It was a staffer. That's all I remember.

[KitsuneOniko]

I REALLY dislike how our names are in bright white, large and on the top of the passes. Then our fan names were tiny and blue at the bottom? Does everyone really need to know your name? A bit of privacy would have been nice...

I got harassed a bit much (especially by this one really drunk guy) and I'd hate to think that anyone got away with my name...:/

i agree with the fan/real name on the badge thing. i mean, WHY even put a fan name if no one will notice it?? if you compare between the early and pre registration people, the fan name is more noticable on the early registration.

swap meet was good. although i would like to suggest someone to "enforce" spots. there was a big empty spot behind me so it would be easy just for someone to bring stuff, set it down, and start selling without letting fanimecon staff know.

not really a big deal but i think there should be more people "guarding" the artist alley. i left my artist alley booth early and left most of my stuff under the table. when i came back to get them there were 3 girls sitting at my table. i wasn't even at the end of the row and artist alley was still open. i really didn't mind them sitting there and if they stole something (they didn't, btw) i would of course blame myself for leaving it there. but it kind of showed me that the "only artists and/or their peers are allowed behind the table" policy isn't enforced.

at the stage zero today i thought one of the hosts wasn't really a "good" host. i'm sorry if you read this but this is what i think (feel free to bash me). i won't specifically say who but she kind of took things to the center and didn't really seem considerate about the people playing "jan ken pon". she wanted to use the players to demonstrate an example when they clearly didnt know how to play. when the other host said "no we should demonstrate it for them" she simply said "but it's funnier this way" or something like that. this is just one of the examples.

music selection at fanime ball. i already stated it in another post

i LOVE that there were so many kids and families this year. so many cute kid cosplays! (and no i'm not a pedo. haha)

so in general there were cons but they were for more "specific" things. i thought this fanimecon was a success

My apologies about that... this year @ Stage Zero, us original four hosts from the last 4-5 years were doin our best lol... we had A LOT of new on stage personalities being tried out this year. It's not their fault as they're new and were tryin out the ropes so to speak ^^; A lot of them aren't used to bein on stage  yet but hopefully they learned a lot and continue to grow with experience in with interacting with us original hosts/crew and the audience better

[BrightHeart76]

On the subject of lanyards.  Last year (2008) we were told that we HAD to wear the lanyard, without the lanyard the badge was invalid.  That made cosplay really difficult. I had to take my badge off and hide it in my pose every time someone wanted a picture. If you bring the lanyards back please make them optional. 

[idontknow]

I REALLY dislike how our names are in bright white, large and on the top of the passes. Then our fan names were tiny and blue at the bottom? Does everyone really need to know your name? A bit of privacy would have been nice...

I got harassed a bit much (especially by this one really drunk guy) and I'd hate to think that anyone got away with my name...:/

i agree with the fan/real name on the badge thing. i mean, WHY even put a fan name if no one will notice it?? if you compare between the early and pre registration people, the fan name is more noticable on the early registration.

swap meet was good. although i would like to suggest someone to "enforce" spots. there was a big empty spot behind me so it would be easy just for someone to bring stuff, set it down, and start selling without letting fanimecon staff know.

not really a big deal but i think there should be more people "guarding" the artist alley. i left my artist alley booth early and left most of my stuff under the table. when i came back to get them there were 3 girls sitting at my table. i wasn't even at the end of the row and artist alley was still open. i really didn't mind them sitting there and if they stole something (they didn't, btw) i would of course blame myself for leaving it there. but it kind of showed me that the "only artists and/or their peers are allowed behind the table" policy isn't enforced.

at the stage zero today i thought one of the hosts wasn't really a "good" host. i'm sorry if you read this but this is what i think (feel free to bash me). i won't specifically say who but she kind of took things to the center and didn't really seem considerate about the people playing "jan ken pon". she wanted to use the players to demonstrate an example when they clearly didnt know how to play. when the other host said "no we should demonstrate it for them" she simply said "but it's funnier this way" or something like that. this is just one of the examples.

music selection at fanime ball. i already stated it in another post

i LOVE that there were so many kids and families this year. so many cute kid cosplays! (and no i'm not a pedo. haha)

so in general there were cons but they were for more "specific" things. i thought this fanimecon was a success

My apologies about that... this year @ Stage Zero, us original four hosts from the last 4-5 years were doin our best lol... we had A LOT of new on stage personalities being tried out this year. It's not their fault as they're new and were tryin out the ropes so to speak ^^; A lot of them aren't used to bein on stage  yet but hopefully they learned a lot and continue to grow with experience in with interacting with us original hosts/crew and the audience better

that's fine, hopefully her and any hosts auditioning for stage zero next year will improve i believe in you guys!! haha