Suggestions for Fanime 2012

[mdarkpoet]

SCHEDULES - everyone was extremely agitated about the lack of scheduling. I know that things happen, I know that things don't all get done, but the schedules? T_T please have them next year

KARAOKE ROOM - bigger songs lists, Fanime 2010 had a huge list of possibilities for the Open Mic people, only on Sunday night did they have access to extra songs when I took part in the Gong Show (have Gong Show staff in charge of Karaoke room in full? they know what they're doing)

ARTIST'S ALLEY - better designated entrance and exit, I know the Dealer's Hall and Game Hall had them, why not Artist's Alley? It's as easy as separating one half of the door from the other so instead of everyone crowding in or out or both at the same time have it more understandable.

BADGES - please be sure to e-mail EVERYONE before pulling their badges out if they are participating in Swap Meet. A huge number of people had their badges pulled, waited in line for hours, only to find they didn't even really have to.

PANELS - please give the previous panels a 5-minute window of time to exit the panel room, that way the people in the previous panel aren't rudely booted out of the room for accidentally going 3 minutes over the time limit like at the Gaia Feedback Panel where the next panel kicked us out. Panels can sometimes go over the limit, it's an accident, please don't be rude when asking people to leave.



thanks for taking the time to read my suggestions, see you all at Fanime 2012 (unless the world ends, then see you guys, yanno, around XD lol)

[Jimbly]

Schedules: Loved the digital schedule!  Make it interactive? Though I know the printed schedules were missed, and are a necessity for most people, I loved the digital schedule (the "Gridtacular" one).  Previous years I printed out the pocket schedule before the con, and highlighted things I wanted to see, which wasn't too bad, but slightly annoying especially now that I don't have a good printer.  This year I was able to just use the grid schedule, do some trivial HTML editing to highlight the boxes of things I was interested in, and access it from my phone at any time, and it was much more convenient (especially with the links to descriptions of things available at my fingertips).  Adding in functionality so people could toggle the color of individual blocks and hide rows they're not interested in would be a nice addition so the general masses could have a similar thing as what I enjoyed (my schedule ended up looking like this - worked great on a smart phone - http://thesilentb.com/fanime/ ).

[Niya]

Obviously, schedules, as was said above.  This is a big convention, and many of the biggest events are going to have a nice set schedule.  It seems as though this should be really obvious, and I'm really curious why there wasn't a schedule in our bag, or in the program guide itself.

This is rather gripe-y, but seriously, the rules thing has to be addressed, along with the staff/rovers/rule enforcement people.

I don't know exactly how to put it other than there is a great discrepancy between Fanime con and PAX Prime/East in this regard.  I don't understand why, but there are many people who are volunteering to keep the con safe and run in an orderly fashion, but actually deciding that they now have authority and must exercise it.

It can make it very not fun to be there.

And yes, I'm going to bring up the free hugs shirts and military uniforms.  How exactly do either of these things put people in danger?  If someone is going to be invading the US, we've got bigger problems than breaking a con rule.  Likewise, if paramilitary terrorists want to try and take over the SJCC while Fanime is going on, that's a much bigger problem and no rule is going to prevent it.

The "free hugs" thing... seriously?  If the person wearing it doesn't want them, they can just not wear it.  Anime fandom is a "small" niche community and it's nice to have things to share with other members of that community.  A little physical affection isn't going to destroy the world.

But yes. More planning (schedules printed, time between panels, clear flow for entering/leaving large areas) and more focus on ensuring safety and smooth flow of events, less on "We're in charge now, NO ORANGE SNEAKERS!"

[Tsu]

SCHEDULES - everyone was extremely agitated about the lack of scheduling. I know that things happen, I know that things don't all get done, but the schedules? T_T please have them next year

KARAOKE ROOM - bigger songs lists, Fanime 2010 had a huge list of possibilities for the Open Mic people, only on Sunday night did they have access to extra songs when I took part in the Gong Show (have Gong Show staff in charge of Karaoke room in full? they know what they're doing)

ARTIST'S ALLEY - better designated entrance and exit, I know the Dealer's Hall and Game Hall had them, why not Artist's Alley? It's as easy as separating one half of the door from the other so instead of everyone crowding in or out or both at the same time have it more understandable.

BADGES - please be sure to e-mail EVERYONE before pulling their badges out if they are participating in Swap Meet. A huge number of people had their badges pulled, waited in line for hours, only to find they didn't even really have to.

PANELS - please give the previous panels a 5-minute window of time to exit the panel room, that way the people in the previous panel aren't rudely booted out of the room for accidentally going 3 minutes over the time limit like at the Gaia Feedback Panel where the next panel kicked us out. Panels can sometimes go over the limit, it's an accident, please don't be rude when asking people to leave.



thanks for taking the time to read my suggestions, see you all at Fanime 2012 (unless the world ends, then see you guys, yanno, around XD lol)

That sucks about the swap meet badges. The LEAST they could've done was alerted the rovers/line monitors to shout it at the line periodically like they were doing with telling us it was pre/early reg only.

[Rhornez]

I have a huge suggestion, have specific sections for the masquerade like
ALL walk ons first
ALL dances first
ALL ACTUAL skits first
etc.

I was disappointed with the con this year about so many things but the masquerade had no originality in my opinion i saw too many dances and yaoi too much for my taste.

[Alexie828]

There needs to be recycle bins in the Artist Alley. I had to walk all the way outside just to look for a recycle can to dump paper scraps, paper bags, and plastic items. I think Artist Alley is a pretty good place to put recycling bins. I like how there are some in the main hall, but putting more in the other rooms would be good too, especially since some artists tend to trash a lot while cleaning up.

[meradragon]

I apologize if this is long...

first of all, I'm an artist, so this will be almost entirely devoted to Artist Alley, which I didn't leave except for possibly an hour, total.  I also deal at other cons and have friends who make their living using cons, and this is my overall experience:

Overall:
Pro: I had a good time.  Sales were about 2/3 smaller than what I'm used to at other cons, but I can base this on wares (I do mostly children's book style art, and didn't have time to prepare any specific fanart, or recognizable characters), but overall, sales were ok, and the artists I spoke to are planning on returning next year. people were friendly and other than one or two annoying people (who, if asked kindly to respect that we were working, did such), no complaints!  The people were lovely, and I found myself speaking more than usual.
Con: SO DISORGANIZED!
I understand it's a much bigger con, but compared to all of the other cons I've attended and sold art at, Fanime felt like it could have been run a little tighter.  This was my first anime con in ten years to be fair, but there were a number of things that went on that annoyed me and a number of my artist friends (some whom make their living via cons) that would be relatively easy to fix. I recognize that Fanime is HUGE, but I feel that the staff just needs to keep pushing themselves :)!

Pre-Reg:
I had the most issues with pre-reg.  I feel it should have been easy (Sign up for AA table, receive a confirmation of sign up letter,  receive confirmation in a fair amount of time, pay table, good, write to staff with any issues.)  and yet... it wasn't.  As I understand, there is a HUGE amount of people, so I understand SOME delay time, but I didn't receive any word of whether or not I was accepted/declined/on a waiting list for weeks after I signed up.  A friend of mine received an email that her table was declined for no reason we could fathom, and once asked about, the decision was reversed and the table given to her.  I should mention she's guest of Honor at a con next weekend, and has been working cons for years, so she's no rookie.

Email communication:  Again, understand the con is huge but PLEASE incorporate a system that sends automated emails that your stuff has been received.  I was writing very important emails for weeks that remained unanswered.  While it may not be a big deal for people who don't do art professionally to lose a table and just enjoy the con, I only attend cons to sell.  I don't have the money to spend on travel, hotel fares, gas, food, etc without an income in return as this literally IS my (and some other's) source of income.  It's rather terrifying to be told that if you don't OK issues with staff that you'll lose your table, and then staff not return emails in a prompt manner.

And, to put this into perspective, I had another potentially big issue with the con I'm dealing at next weekend, and I wrote an email to the man who runs that con as well as 12 others (or 16.  It was a high number), and not only did he respond within two hours with an answer, but I've received a phone call in the past when I had a major issue.  I understand I hit them up at a good time, I'm sure, but I've always received a response within a couple business days, while it was taking weeks to just OK the information of someone to watch over my table when it should have taken less than a week.

Tables NOT INCLUDING A BADGE:  This seems really silly to me.  Why don't tables include a badge?  I mean, if I have a table, I'm selling, right?  I would MUCH RATHER pay $100+ up front that includes my badge than wait for the table, wait for the badge, blah blah blah.  Again, see above that I do this professionally.  I literally CAN NOT go to cons that I do not sell at.  This is the same for many artists I know, and I heard many people complaining about this.  Again, every other con I go to includes the badge price with the table.  If this is not happening due to multiple people running tables, just have it written clearly that a table comes with ONE badge.  That's how all over cons I attend word it.  If you have additional members, you receive one assistant tag automatically, and then have to request more, and these do not count as badges, but instead work as the sticker did in allowing secondary members into the dealer room.  This also made registration far more efficient for artists, as you would receive your badge at the same time you registered the table/dropped off the temp. seller's permit.  

Artist Ally:
Overall, the ally itself was set up well.  It was easy getting around and the tables appeared set up well.  I was too busy to get to the dealer's hall, so I'll guess it was run in a similar fashion.
However, again, I had issues with sign in.
Signs: oh goodness me SIGNS SIGNS SIGNS!  Why were there no signs!?  I was at my university graduation on Friday so had to come in Saturday (arranged a friend to cover the table Friday).  Anyway, I get into the con, have to ask a janitor where registration is, seeing no signs (to be fair, I came in through a back door, but registration is important enough there should be signs pointing to it).  I finally found the registration line, but it was COMPLETELY UNMARKED!  It's not even like Fanime has to invest in signs.  Just print off 100 or so 8.5x11 photocopies of "REGISTRATION" "PRE-REGISTRATION" or arrows or something, and put them in strategic locations throughout the con.  I had no idea if I was in the right line, where the right line was, etc, and apparently lots of others had the same problem, because thirty minutes later when a staffer announced that pre-reg had to move elsewhere tons of people groaned as they ran out of the line, having waited for long periods of time in the wrong place.

There should have also been more printed signs and maps of the different locations the con offers.  I almost never had any idea where I was walking, or how to get to some location.

from here:
STAFF INFORMATION:  Most of my questions were about Artist's Ally.  How to get there, where it was, where to check in at the ally, and where the art panel show/silent auction was.  Thing was that NO ONE KNEW THE ANSWERS!  I would walk from staff member to staff member, asking them questions, and they'd spend some time trying to figure it out, get confused, express they don't know, ask a fellow staff member, express that person also didn't know, and send me somewhere else where no one knew.  One time I was told I should ask an artist by a staff member.
I do think they were very friendly, and I have no qualms with them trying to help me, but the fact that no one knew how to answer any of these questions was rather annoying.  There should have either been signage, or else the staffers needed to learn the layout of the con better.

stickers: The stickers are nice, but um... almost impossible to see?  I feel like this significantly hinders the ability of the bouncers (Ha, I don't know the proper term here) to prevent non stickered people from entering the con in set up and take down hours.  This IS an issue, as there are expensive products all about.  I didn't have a reason to distrust anyone, but upon realizing that my friend's boyfriend who helped her the whole con was let in early for all set up and allowed to remain for all closing hours never received a sticker or applied as an assistant is disconcerting.
Other cons I go to have a specific unique badge for all dealers (again, realize I'm at an Artist Ally here, so didn't see how dealers were treated), that is colored differently from the other tags, and each artist was given one clip on assistant tag they could give to a helper.  From here the ushers were VERY strict on "NO TAG, GET OUT" and it made me feel all kinds more safe with my stuff.
If Fanime wants to keep costs low, this is again a simple solution.... make the paper for artist ally badges red rather than yellow.  and then you can still do the tiny stickers for the assistants, but just check them more strictly.

also on stickers:  It was SUPER awkwardly set up.  I had to wait in line on Saturday with the artists to get in, and then once in, there were no signs telling me where to go to get my sticker.  This was veerrry annoying, considering I was maybe tenth in line, and then got into a line that's only purpose seemed to be looking up my table number which I had memorized (as I should), and then telling me to move into the line next to me which had by then accumulated another 10 people.  There should have been very specific signs just taped to the tables for this.

Also on that:
Late comer table:
why even make people wait outside the room in a nice line to let it go all over the place once it's let in.  I saw a number of people waiting hopefully for a table to open up, and then once they were let in, were not told where they had to go, and if they weren't fast enough, all the people behind them were able to willy-nilly walk in front of them.  There should have been a completely separate line for late comers that was very specifically marked.

I think that's about it.  Again, from here, things were rather smooth.

Overall staff:
Staff was friendly to me.  I didn't have any issues.
HOWEVER, I heard a lot stories from people at my table about how they were heckled for very small things that the staffers possibly shouldn't have been doing, or else again could have been solved with signs, or seem rather silly to even be in affect any way.

I like rules and respect rules, however some people were apparently getting far too strict.  One person at my table told me how he and his friend were at the Black and White ball waiting in line for a VERY long time.  THey were outside on public property and some of the women took off their high heels while waiting.  Again, this is public property outside of the convention and not yet inside of the ball.  Some of the staffers were walking around telling the women they were NOT ALLOWED TO REMOVE THEIR SHOES!  Yes this is an IN con rule, but the staffers NEED to be told that these rules do not take affect once the people are on public property.  It can be suggested, but not ordered.  Mostly, this annoys me because I'm a woman, and high hells hurt the hell out of me, and I find it perfectly reasonable that some women took their shoes off while in public property in a line.  Besides, there were tons of people running around without shoes IN con who weren't hassled.
On this same story, the person then went to tell me that a staff member hassled them for roughly 5 minutes that the heels needed to be less than 3".  When they informed him they had measured the shoes and they were less than that, the staff member continued to hassle the same question again and again.  To me, I feel the staff member should have just expressed simply "If we have concern that your shoes heel is too high, we can measure it before you enter" and walk away.  The hassling was not necessary.  I understand these helpers are not professionals, however, they should be told the limits of their enforcing. (In a fair story, I was sitting in the wrong area, and a staff member kindly informed me I couldn't sit there, and I moved right away.  He didn't wait for us to move, although he could have, and didn't give us a hard time.)

Mostly, though, I noted that staff was overall very friendly; however they were not always very informed on where things where, or who to direct me to (I once specifically asked someone if they could direct me to information when they couldn't answer my question, and they told me that was unnecessary and directed me to con ops who had NO IDEA how to answer my question, either.)

Overall:
Good con, great atmosphere, and fun.  Lots of points that felt highly disorganized or poorly managed.  I entirely believe in the positive intent of fanime, though, and expect I'll return in subsequent years, and look forward to it getting even better :)!

Thank you!

[otakuya]

I dunno if anyone noticed on the titantron, but the SJ convention center will be expanding in 2013 when the old King Library building will be turned into a convention center expansion. That should help ease flow of people.

Suggestions:
-Expand Fanime! Use meeting rooms at St. Claire, Crowne Plaza, Fairmont, Tech Museum, South Hall, etc... for panels and video rooms. It spreads Fanime events around and does not cause crazy lines and stuff. Utilize your space! (Example: South Hall for Dealers Room, GoH panels at Fairmont, Artist Alley at Parkside Hall, Exhibit Hall 1 for big panels, Exhibit Hall 2 for all gaming, Exhibit Hall 3 for swap meet) Fanime is big enough for expansion, right?

-More hours of stuff. Have swap meet every night at it's own room. Have karaoke have it's own room and open 24 hours.

-More tables and chairs at the CC so that people don't block the walkways.
(and)
-Draw out the "road" (the walkway at Stage Zero) through the entire CC floor.



I know about the gripes people had about schedules, costumes, and stuff. Yeah, obviously, it all needs to be improved. I'm not gonna rant, cuz I have nothing to rant or rat about. I, and along with almost 15,000 people (or more, really?) will say that they still had a great time and will be back next year and years to come.

[kookiekween99]

I dunno if anyone noticed on the titantron, but the SJ convention center will be expanding in 2013 when the old King Library building will be turned into a convention center expansion. That should help ease flow of people.

Suggestions:
-Expand Fanime! Use meeting rooms at St. Claire, Crowne Plaza, Fairmont, Tech Museum, South Hall, etc... for panels and video rooms. It spreads Fanime events around and does not cause crazy lines and stuff. Utilize your space! (Example: South Hall for Dealers Room, GoH panels at Fairmont, Artist Alley at Parkside Hall, Exhibit Hall 1 for big panels, Exhibit Hall 2 for all gaming, Exhibit Hall 3 for swap meet) Fanime is big enough for expansion, right?

-More hours of stuff. Have swap meet every night at it's own room. Have karaoke have it's own room and open 24 hours.

-More tables and chairs at the CC so that people don't block the walkways.
(and)
-Draw out the "road" (the walkway at Stage Zero) through the entire CC floor.



I know about the gripes people had about schedules, costumes, and stuff. Yeah, obviously, it all needs to be improved. I'm not gonna rant, cuz I have nothing to rant or rat about. I, and along with almost 15,000 people (or more, really?) will say that they still had a great time and will be back next year and years to come.

I dunno if expanding that huge is such a good idea. I personally love that if I stay in the Hilton or Marriott (I've stayed in the Hilton both years I've gone) I technically never have to go outside except for cosplay gatherings and a few big events like the Masquerade. This is especially helpful at night, because a small, tiny girl like me should not have to go outside alone at night. Plus, that sounds like a lot of walking between events. I don't want to have to walk all over San Jose just to make sure to visit everything.

[.::midnight.maiden::.]

But yes. More planning (schedules printed, time between panels, clear flow for entering/leaving large areas) and more focus on ensuring safety and smooth flow of events, less on "We're in charge now, NO ORANGE SNEAKERS!"

I would like to promote whole schedule situation.
I'd like to cheer on the mini schedule book that was given out last year in the fanime reg bags. That book was AH-MAZING!! It made my planning so much easier because I am more of a scratch out and highlight things on schedules so I can focus on what events I want to go to and not get all dizzy and confused with the grid and all. Not only that, but it had so many good tips in it for those first-years and veterans alike.
I did not like the online schedule at all. Mainly because I don't want to have to go online to see the schedule and because the mobile website wasn't of much help to me either.

I'd like to suggest to Fanime to try making a guide for the Conventionist App, an amazing app which provides information and directions to the convention, as well as a list of vendors(dealers hall/artist alley) and their booth locations. There are also maps of the convention center and the locations of all vendor booths in a hall. Not to mention a very easy to read schedule in which you can "like" events and check off events you would like to attend and add them to your own customized schedule created on the app. There is also a to-do list for the app user, a button that lets users follow a convention's tweets (basically users can read @fanimecon's tweets on it for event updates!), and a key events list (this is where fanime would place event locations and timings for events such as the cosplay spectacular, musicfest, and the black and white ball).
I have this app and I downloaded a few convention guides. Looks like anime cons such as Sakura-Con, Anime LA, and SacAnime have taken advantage of this app :)

My other suggestion is to get a much bigger ballroom for the Black and White Ball! This was my first year going to the ball, so I don't have much experience with how the ball usually goes and all...but I definitely noticed the constant updates on the ballroom having come to full capacity and such. When I left, there was a HUGE line that even went far outside of the Fairmont. I was a bit disappointed with that because so many people had dressed up so nicely for the occasion but they had to stand outside and wait until some person inside the ballroom decided to leave, even only for a bathroom break.

Well, that's all I really wanted to say. Fanime is really special to me, and I find it important for me to give suggestions to Fanime :) Thanks for reading!

P.S: I love the Swap Meet so much that I would love to have it go on every day of the con. But, I am happy with what is given now (two days).
And perhaps have more Open Mic Karaoke time? It's always so late in the day when there are major events going on and/or so late that I have to go home by then.

[Niya]

A few years ago I made a comment about the DJs and music selection.  Basically my comment was, hey, this is an anime convention, so maybe we could have more anime themed music?

The response at the time was that there isn't much anime themed music appropriate for a con.  At the time that might have been true.

Now there's Club MOGRA in Japan -- http://club-mogra.jp/  which has long sets of anime and anime culture club music.  Every week.

No offence to the DJs! They were great and the raves were piles of fun. It's just, wouldn't it be more fun if the songs (a much higher % of them) were significant to our subculture?

[PLUMPKIN]

Here's a copy/paste of what I suggested here:  http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,16326.msg422886.html#msg422886

"Is it possible to just mail out badges?  Fanime grows in attendance each year, and at this rate 5 staffers handing out badges to thousands of people may not cut it.  Is there a reason that badges aren't mailed out?  I understand that IDs are checked when badges are picked up, but only if you're a group leader or group of one.  I think that charging $5-$10 to have badges mailed out would be a great way to make profit, since postage for a single badge isn't going to cost $5.  I would be more than happy to pay that much (or more) if it saves me from 3 hours of standing in line.

If this isn't possible, maybe have more than 5 booths open during pre-reg pickup.  If there's difficulty obtaining bodies, then provide incentives for volunteering, such as picking up your badge without having to wait in line.  Do they still provide double hours on Thursday?"

As someone wrote in response to my post, Fanime used to mail out badges.  I think they should do it again.  There's definitely the potential for profit, as people would definitely pay the extra $$$ to avoid waiting in line that long.  As I wrote in a later post, you can provide incentives for helping to stuff envelopes, such as getting started early on those volunteer hours, early badge pickup, cookies, etc.  Heck, I'll help out! :)

[Wabbit98]

My other suggestion is to get a much bigger ballroom for the Black and White Ball! This was my first year going to the ball, so I don't have much experience with how the ball usually goes and all...but I definitely noticed the constant updates on the ballroom having come to full capacity and such. When I left, there was a HUGE line that even went far outside of the Fairmont. I was a bit disappointed with that because so many people had dressed up so nicely for the occasion but they had to stand outside and wait until some person inside the ballroom decided to leave, even only for a bathroom break.

Thank you for your suggestion.  Unfortuneately that was the biggest room we could get at the time.  It was smaller than the room we had last year, but were unable to get this year.  We tried to get as many people as we could into the ball room.  We take all comments, and suggestions, serisouly and under advisement to improve the Black and White Ball. 

Thank you,
Kevin

[otakuya]

A suggestion for the 'theme' for Fanime. I realize that the theme this year was steampunk, but apart from the logo colors and the video screens, there wasn't really anything that stands out as steampunk on the con floor.
Shameless suggestion: I'd like 2012's theme to be 'around the world'. I saw a LOT of flags for cosplay this year, maybe implement that into the theme? btw, what do the flag cosplays represent?

[Alyxiane]

A suggestion for the 'theme' for Fanime. I realize that the theme this year was steampunk, but apart from the logo colors and the video screens, there wasn't really anything that stands out as steampunk on the con floor.
Shameless suggestion: I'd like 2012's theme to be 'around the world'. I saw a LOT of flags for cosplay this year, maybe implement that into the theme? btw, what do the flag cosplays represent?

I sense a LARGE sea of Hetalia cosplayers flooding in next year should that happen. Even more so than this year. And it doesn't suit well for me despite being a Hetalia fan. o___e

What's been the themes for previous years? Somehow a spy/mystery thing came into my minddring the con.

[Rhornez]

A suggestion for the 'theme' for Fanime. I realize that the theme this year was steampunk, but apart from the logo colors and the video screens, there wasn't really anything that stands out as steampunk on the con floor.
Shameless suggestion: I'd like 2012's theme to be 'around the world'. I saw a LOT of flags for cosplay this year, maybe implement that into the theme? btw, what do the flag cosplays represent?

I sense a LARGE sea of Hetalia cosplayers flooding in next year should that happen. Even more so than this year. And it doesn't suit well for me despite being a Hetalia fan. o___e

What's been the themes for previous years? Somehow a spy/mystery thing came into my min
ddring the con.

same here about the hetalia thing D:

[CatToy]

Give the door monitors to the artist's alley and dealer's room hand clicker thingies to allow them to do rough headcounts. You guys have decisions to make. How are you going to make informed decisions in the absence of data?

Can there be a wireless repeater installed inside the artists alley? It's hard getting phone calls in there, my friends had no bars. At least with wifi they could use email...

Install a stop motion camera in spots around the con and put the output on youtube. A day of Fanime in 2 minutes...

[Somebody]

Although I'm not sure of the situation of why the dance lessons were moved to the Fairmont, I will add that I had a difficult time getting over there for dance lessons. Between the waits and the walk I never seemed to be able to get there without being late.

However, this could easily be just me. The ball was lovely this year!

And of course, schedules. But everyone before me talked about that already.

[luckyrainbow]

Hotel Information: Please put each hotels specific Incidentals Charge on the website. The one that was posted was not the right one for the Fairmont. I understand that the site does say that amenities and fees are subject to change without notice, but it would be helpful if the right information was put up originally. My group was not the only one that ran into this either. The person we had at the front desk for check in said that she had already had quite a few people who ran into this issue, luckily she was nice enough to wait patiently for me to call all my friends to see if any of them had enough money on their cards for our room fee. Fortunately one of my friends did and our issue was solved. We also ran into a few other groups that had seemed to have the same problem, one of which actually had to go out and run to a bank to pull out enough money for the entire fee. It wasn't too much of an issue since it got solved quickly for us, but it was a kind of terrifying one to be put through when it's the first time going to fanime without parents running things.

Printed Schedule: So I really enjoyed that there was an online schedule put up before the con actually started. However, not having a printed out schedule in the book made it hard for me to find out/remember when shows were playing, when certain panels were happening, etc. when I was actually at the Convention. I do not have a phone that allows me to get online at the con and I don't have a printer that works so I had to walk to every place to look at the schedules. Being in cosplay during the main part of the day it was a bit hectic for me to have to walk back and forth between rooms/areas to see the scedules. Even out of cosplay because of the amount of people moving around it took a little while to get to places. So having a printed out version would make it much more convenient for those of us that don't want to have to wonder around to find the schedules.

Registration: I was happy with At Con Registration this year. It felt that the line was going quite a lot faster than it has in the past, not sure if it was the time (me and my friend were in line Saturday morning around 9:30), but it was nice.

Site Updates: It felt that this year things were updated quite later than they have been before. It ended up making registration for things (hotels especially) get sold out relatively quickly. I know that people have their own things to do and it can take a while to figure things out when dealing with large companies like hotels and such, especially since it's run basically by volunteers, but it still felt that things fell behind quite a bit.

Even with these very minor issues, it was an absolutely amazing year. I had an amazing amount of fun and everyone I delt with was really super nice. Keep the amazing work up!!!

[Luca Cantellano]

For me, the greatest issue was (as previously mentioned) the schedules. This isn't just a matter of people being too lazy to go to a table to read it or go online. If we are running from one panel to the other side of the con, only to find out that our timing was off by 1 hour, since we didn't have a schedule in front of us... Not only me, but all of my roommates, friends I saw, and people i talked to on the elevator said that the lack of schedules greatly ruined their weekend, because they missed almost everything they wanted to see. When we asked the people at the tables, they said we could wait in line to read the schedules on the tables, or just go online. If you use a smartphone, that uses ALOT of batteries to be on the internet all the time. If you have a laptop, you have to either lug it around fanime, or pay $10 to the hotel to use the internet in your room.

To sum things up, could we have printed schedules next year? If not, can their be an announcement on the front page telling us to PRINT OUR OWN? I didn't bring a printer with me to print it out in my hotel room...

Thank you so much! ♥

EDIT: I don't mean to complain like this, but it really ruined our experience this year... the booklets last year were phenomenal!!! ♥