FanimeCon 2012 Feedback

Started by M, May 27, 2012, 02:29:53 AM

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Enkai

Quote from: SSHPFan on May 29, 2012, 01:36:38 AM

Cons (dun, dun, dun):

1. Not too many panels interested me. I was hoping for more "advanced" cosplay panels as opposed to basics. That's just my opinion though. ^^

Just out of curiosity, did you check out mine (Fabric Dyeing and Painting).  I'd consider it more intermediate-advanced than a lot of the cosplay panels I've seen at cons, but it'd be nice to see some outside feedback.  I'm thinking of splitting it up into two panels, beginner-intermediate and advanced next year, especially since I'll have an even wider range of experience with my next big project.

Feedback from myself--sadly, I didn't get to attend a lot of the con because I was locking myself in my house working on my masquerade costume, but *OTHER THAN THE LINES* I enjoyed what I saw.  The lines were ridiculous.  I came in around 8 on Friday to pick up my badge and left because the line was out the door.  I was told it should be lighter around 11-noon.  Hah, fat chance, I spent more than two hours in line.  Can we please mail out the badges?

I loved all the wig booths in the dealer's hall; it was very nice to get to see what certain colors actually looked like (because I'm super picky with what I want for my next big project).  I also had a really good time with putting on my first panel.  What little I saw of masquerade was enjoyable, in spite of the fact that I was crazy depressed up and till our actual skit.  I was exhausted, so after our skit I ended up going home.  

Most of this is ranting, and I do acknowledge that I did not behave flawlessly in this situation either:  I had an unfortunate run-in with an extremely rude rover in the civic center when I was extremely stressed out due to my wings that I spent at least 50+ hours on breaking *during* masquerade rehearsal.  I know he didn't know about that, but he could have at least let me be for a minute when I told him I was waiting for my husband so we didn't get separated, which I don't think was at all unreasonable since the door we were leaving from wasn't clearly marked.  We were sticking around until the end of rehearsal period hoping that we could get a run through with some stage ninjas we recruited last minute to handle my wings, thank you very much.  I understand that they're under a lot of stress too, but anything masquerade prep related is one of the most high-stress areas for con attendees (besides possibly waiting in reg line).  A *little* bit of patience would be nice, kthnx?  We're not trying to make your life difficult, we're trying to handle our own emergencies as well.

I guess my overall comment is to try to screen a little better for patience, if you can do that at all, especially when it comes to the staff that are dealing with anything at all masquerade related.

chifunii

Pros...
Welcome back, schedule!

First staff I talked to: a billion kudos.
I walked in Friday morning with a friend around 9AM. Looking for the pre-reg pickup line, I asked a staff member. She told me that the line was "there" (pointing in a general direction), but because the line had snaked around a lot, she would walk me and my friend there. Thank you, kind staffer (rover?) who walked us over--you were a great help! :)

MusicFest GOH policy--YES FOR CONSISTENCY
I've gone to the last couple of MusicFests, and the photo policy was always changing when were waited in line. One minute we were told that cameras and camera phones were okay as long as we kept them in our bags, another minute we were told that cameras and camera phones were straight up forbidden in the civic center. It was a pain in the ass for my friends who had to run back and for to the hotel room to drop stuff up/pick stuff up again and again. I'm really glad that this didn't happen this year--the photog policy was made clear as we entered, and it was also posted on the Chiba MusicFest stand right outside the Civic. Thanks :D

Cons...
You made no sense, schedule!
(MusicFest's time was printed really small in an obscure corner and I couldn't really find it. Because I go every year, I assumed the time wouldn't change, and everything worked out fine. However, my gripe is the autographs. Not only was it not advertised very well, I had to basically stare at the mini-schedule, flipping back and forth, til I realized WHERE it was and WHEN it was. I saw a lot of empty space in the schedule this year, and I'm hoping the space will be used a little more effectively next year. (Ex. the ONLY place in the schedule that told you where the autographs were was on the concourse map with a little obscure arrow that said Fairmont/Regency Ballroom/Autographs. If you're a seasoned Fanime con-goer, you wouldn't even refer to the map in the first place, let alone look for 2012's program information on it.

MusicFest...I love you and hate you this year.
All was well and fun, but we couldn't even call for an encore? ;-; Also, it was ONLY at MusicFest where someone mentioned that goods could be bought at the Fairmont. The location was mentioned, but not the time. Everything about MusicFest seemed so obscure this year, I tried asking staff when goods could be sold and they told me that the goods hadn't come in yet (which is total bull because it was late Saturday. Ugh.) Eventually I found a fellow fan and con-goer who had managed to ask probably the only person/staff who knew when and where that was going down.

REGGING FOR NEXT YEAR
In the little schedule booklet it said reg for next year STARTED at noon, but once I was there, the line CLOSED at noon. I wasn't affected because I got there early, but I ran into many, many angry and frustrated people. The staff making announcements in Dealer's and Gaming were still making announcements to go line up past noon. When other people got to the line and tried to ask staff to explain what the heck was going on, they were pointed to another person and said, "go ask him, he's my boss" etc.
Also, there were two lines this year, one for credit and one for cash/check. We were told that there were 5 stations for cash and only 2 for card, so the card line would be significantly slower. Makes sense, so no problem. But I stood near the front of the card line for a good 40 minutes (THE LINE DIDN'T MOVE AT ALL) before I decided to just pay cash.
Once I was led in for the cash line, I looked at the card line and there wasn't a single person there. The nice reg folks were just chillin'. This is because no one was keeping an eye on the card line and leading more people in to register. Looks like this just totally fell apart this year. There may be other reasons why the card line didn't move at all, but if I am standing in line (along with ~50 other people) that doesn't move for over 40 minutes, I'd like to know why. I don't want to be pointed in a general nondescript direction, nor do I want to hear "ask my boss"--If it's within your ability [as a staff] to find me an answer, please find me an answer.

In all, I'm hoping for FanimeCon to be more cohesive next year. I know it's chaotic with a million and one things going on at once, but there has to be some order to the chaos, right? Communication amongst staff needs some work so that staff<>con-goer communication can be less confusing/frustrating/inconsistent as well.
FanimeCon attendee: 2008-

chifunii

Quote from: Kyokun on May 29, 2012, 05:59:54 PM
2)  Schedules coming out the day before the convention was unacceptable.  I'm in charge of planning everything and seeing what there is to do, and having it come out the day before was ridiculous.  I had to stay up extra late researching anime titles and panels and people to see what we wanted to do.  Please make schedules available at least 1 to 2 weeks before the con.

(Lots of information was wrong, too. By lots, I mean the times of 2 of the 5 events I researched and wanted to go to)--
2013 pre-reg:
Schedule says: Starts at noon.
Get there, find out: Closes at noon.

Chiba autographs:
Schedule says: 9-10pm.
Get there, find out: 10-11pm.

Plus, I got asked twice [in the half-hour I was there] at the Fairmont where the B&W ball was. I don't know why this is, but it's a good thing my friend wanted to go so I knew the directions...
FanimeCon attendee: 2008-

Eri Kagami

Quote from: Pyrefly on May 29, 2012, 11:11:37 AM

The staff photographer "in charge" of official cosplay gatherings... was extremely unpleasant to work with. He started off by telling us he was not at all familiar with our series so we should suggest poses, yet then went on to boss us around in a not-very-nice tone in poses and formations that didn't at all match our characters or what we were trying to do. Please let the cosplayers pose themselves unless they specifically ask for help.

I asked this guy to take photos of the Sailor Moon gathering with my camera and he nearly walked away with my camera. Luckily, I was able to find him and get my camera back before he went off. Hopefully, this was a misunderstanding.

Nina Star 9

#84
Quote from: Barnes on May 29, 2012, 06:37:08 PM
Quote3)  People blocking hallways and aisles and stairs to take pictures.  More off limit photography areas would be nice so that we can actually move around. I'm about ready to give up and photobomb everything by cutting through.

That idea was brought up after the Closing Ceremonies: one of the con chairs said something like "we tried that, but people didn't use them."  :( Just pointing that out.
When and where was this implemented in the past? I've been going to Fanime for 10 years now and have cosplayed every year, yet I hadn't heard about there ever being a closed-off photography area until just now. Was it advertised at all?




As for the cosplay gatherings locations, I even asked at the cosplay gatherings table where the gathering I was attending was taking place...and the staffer working the booth couldn't even read the code. I figured out what it meant before she did. Even after that, I wandered around a bit in the area it was (former fountain area) because I couldn't figure out which seemingly random cluster of people was the gathering (it was the old school gathering, so there was a rather mixed crowd of series and I didn't know all of them to know that they were all following the theme). I had to ask random people outside. When I did figure out where it was, the photographer asked me in an accusatory tone if I was old school. Thankfully, everyone at the gathering seemed to know who I was cosplaying and replied with a resounding "YES" before I could say anything. I agree with the previous posters that the posing he wanted was rather...strange, to say the least. He didn't seem to want individual shots of anyone, just bizzare fighting poses with another random cosplayer, whether they were related or not. I don't even know what character I was pretending to fight against, or why I would need a pose like that.




Quote from: Maskenlav on May 29, 2012, 09:03:16 AM
Quote from: Nina Star 9 on May 28, 2012, 11:46:22 PM
Also, not really something that Fanime itself can help, and it could just be that I haven't noticed it in my 9 Fanimes prior to this one, but I ran into a lot more drunk congoers than usual. I usually encounter some, but not quite as many as I did this year. It could be because the con is getting so large that there are more in number but the same in proportion, it could be that I just noticed it more, I don't know, but I certainly noticed more overt drunkeness this year for whatever reason. I have no problem with people drinking in moderation, but obviously drunk people at the con can pose an issue. It didn't really even put a dent in my con experience, let alone ruin it, not by a longshot, just an observation.

I'm guessing it's because the checkpoint to the dance was pushed up to the first double doors rather than inside the hallway so the ravers couldn't sneak in alcohol to get buzzed for the rave which led them to be wasted outside or drink beforehand at their rooms. They did a thorough search through each bag or purse also.
That makes sense, actually. I guess that's good for people who don't want a bunk of intoxicated people at the dance, but I don't go to the dance, so they were all out harassing me instead (and my friends...and it seems arcadiapandora had a similar issue...).





I only had an issue with one staffer, which was a fairly minor complaint, actually. It was in the pre-reg line of doom on Friday afternoon (around 2PM), close to the Marriott bar area. He would give really vague directions and then rudely yell at everyone for not following his really vague directions. Turns out, he wanted us to keep the doors clear, which is perfectly fine, but he should have just said that instead of telling us to take a step forward or back and not telling us why or where we were going, then getting rude when we were still blocking the doors that we didn't realize we were blocking nor that we shouldn't have been blocking them. Most of the staffers for the line were perfectly fine, and there were even some having fun with it, even high-fiving people in cool costumes or who had figured out by that point not to block the doors, it was just that one that I had issue with.



Since the schedule and times have come up in the past couple of replies, I have to say that I had packed my pocket guide on Monday and only had a program guide that I found on a table (so I don't know if it was in the pocket guide or not), but the program guide seemed to have some times and not others? I was trying to figure out what time the dealer's hall and artist's alley closed, but couldn't find that info. Others must have had the same problem, since I overheard many people asking on Monday when those things closed, and no one seemed to know.

kookiekween99

Just a random suggestion for how to handle Reg:

When pre-registering, the attendee would be presented with the option to have it mailed to them or pick it up at the convention. Choosing the mail option would increase the price of their badge by, say, $10. The badges for those wanting them to be mailed out would be sent about two weeks prior to con, just after early reg closes. That way, half the pre-reg people would pick it up, cutting the line in half, and Reg staff would only have to mail out half the badges.

I know the idea needs to be tweaked a little, but at least it's a starting point.
ASAHiCon Registration Head - '10-'12
ASAHiCon Web Head - '11-'13
FanimeCon Attendee - '10-Forever
FanimeCon Info Desk Minion - '14

angeljibrille

Quote from: Barnes on May 29, 2012, 06:37:08 PM
Swap meet on Thursday: A friend of mine got screwed over when a staffer said that he couldn't register for a spot at the meet itself. Ouch. Another dude I walked up to said that he pre-regged for his spot, but still had his given away to someone else. What the ****?

Everyone on Thursday got a spot, until the room was full. If you showed up hours late after all the spaces were given out, we couldn't make room because the room has a fire code that we have to follow.

I'm sorry that a few people got "bumped" because they were in registration, we tried to assist as many people as we could who were late, but once we were full... that's all we could do. Sorry :(

angeljibrille

Quote from: rhettwhitehill on May 29, 2012, 06:41:53 PM
-Let in late

Sorry about this; the ushers didn't show up when expected and we had to wait until they were in place to open the doors because of our union contract :(

Quote
-Absolutely NO FOOD OR DRINKS walking in.... okay no problem...
-Absolutely NO FOOD OR DRINKS sold in premise! What happened!? Last year there were refreshments. We wait in line 3+ hours and told not to leave the line without express permission, okay get it, but now expected to sit through a four hour masquerade without any refreshments?! Very bad results....

Actually the entire staff was expecting there to be refreshments; this was a decision (as far as I know) made by the Civic itself. I'm not sure why they decided not to sell it this year. That's not something I'm looped in on.

Quote
-One judge had the nerve to walk up on stage displaying his wine glass filled with gatorade. I thought there was NO FOOD OR DRINKS ALLOWED IN PREMISE?! Who is sending the bad message here? And who is policing the rules? The judge came up a SECOND time at the rewards ceremony, still drinking from the same glass. What is this supposed to tell the couple thousand attendees who are banned from any liquids?

We provided our judges with drinks hours earlier, they did all their judging over there during the day. We were not made aware of the "no drinks" rule, and in fact had water and other drinks backstage provided by the Civic. So... yeah. I apologize but I don't have an explanation for the dichotomy!

Quote
-No flash photography. Period. Okay no problem. However....
-Flash photography announced OKAY by the fanime staff over loudspeaker during awards ceremony. Okay! Great! However...
-Completely hounded and threatened by the Civic Auditorium security that NO FLASH photography except by "Press" during awards ceremony. Mixed messages? Not cool to be threatened to be kicked out/camera taken after fanime staff clearly mentioned cameras with flash okay. Very confusing.

This was all the usher staff of the Civic; they probably didn't all get the message. Sorry!

Quote
-Awards ceremony almost giving away $500 prize to the wrong group. Any rehearsal or anything?

At that point, the judges had been working for about 18 hours straight; they were all extremely tired, and it was a very small mishap.

Thanks for your feedback,
Marisa

angeljibrille

Quote from: kookiekween99 on May 29, 2012, 06:44:05 PM

- Swap Meet I didn't get to go. For Thursday, I understand that you guys couldn't control the power outage and stuff. But you could have let the people in line know that you made the rest of Fanime unbadged for the night. I waited until 10 PM to get my group's badges because I thought they were counting on me because they couldn't get into Swap Meet without my continued dedication to that line. When I finally did get our badges (5 hours in line!), we all rejoiced and headed for the Swap Meet... Only to find out that they closed early because of lack of attendance. Um... Yeah, there was a lack of attendance. Everybody was still in line! I was really disappointed, as Thursday Swap Meet was one of the main reasons I made the effort to come Thursday and not Friday. Anyways, I went back on Friday... and there was a hella long line to get into Swap Meet. At that point, I was like "I am so freakin' done with these stupid long lines!" and went back to Fanime.

We did have it posted in the forums, but it was not visible enough. It was technically supposed to be badged, but we opened it up to everyone after we were told about the Registration disaster due to the power outage. They made an announcement at Reg, but it was difficult for them to make everyone in the massive line aware of it.

As far as "closed early because of lack of attendance"...? We actually stayed open 2 hours later than planned on Thursday (also due to the power outage), and an hour later on Friday. You may have just missed the room? We actually intentionally stayed open on Thursday and had a full and booming Swap Meet the entire time; it was very well attended on both nights. There was no "lack of attendance". I'm sorry you missed it, but we were running full swing both nights!

WhentheAngelscry

Okay I have a bit to say about this, and one tiny suggestion which I'm not sure should go in this thread. As a side note this is my 5th time going to fanime.

PROS:
-Dealers Hall: It was truly amazing this year! Like WOW!!!! who ever decided the organization did a splendid job. every booth led me straight to the next and I kept finding new treasures upon further inspection it was like a anime candyland.
-Seating : I found there was a lot more places to sit this year. Which was great!
-Clockwork alchemy : Really cool idea! I hope it shows up again next year! the shuttle was great. Eventually my friends and I just took my car because we're impatient but it was cool all the same! I wish it had been in a closer hotel like the hyatt or fairmount.
- Pocket Schedule was back!!!! I missed it so much.
-Line rovers : They were upbeat and kind. They really helped make the best of the huge reg line! More on other rovers later...
-The anime selection in the viewing rooms! It was really great this year a mix of classic favorites and new hits! It was quite enjoyable mix of nostalgia and discovery.
-Food on site was very good

Neutral/Other;
-I REALLY wanted popcorn in front of the anime viewing area. My reasoning is it would make a lot of money, and draw people over there. two birds one stone. It might be too messy or there could be another reason that it isn't in place there but I spent two hours watching anime WISHING I had the glorious sustenance known as popcorn.
-Tons more people this year. Not a bad thing but changes need to be made for this new development.

Cons:
-Black and White Ball : It felt like the door checkers hadn't read the list of conditions for letting people in, which was strange because the list was posted RIGHT next to them I feel like they turned away a lot of acceptable outfits and let in others that were WAY to informal even if they were cosplays.
- The rovers around the con : They seemed to have a lot of mixed info and didn't collaborate, I was in line for the My Little Pony fan panel and they were slightly late which meant the panel was canceled but one guy said if the panelists arrived in the next 5 min(they did) the panel would be back on. It was very confusing. This could be because they were one day volunteers. Same with door guards for gaming, dealers, and artists halls. half the time they let people leave and enter through the same door other times directed us elsewhere.
-The lines for panels if they grew past a certain point were hard to figure out.
-Online release dates: I wish everything was released earlier. I remember last year and the year before hotels and everything were available in December and the schedule was available 2 to 3 weeks in advance. I'd prefer that cause it allows for more planning. I hardly saw my friends this year(a number of 30 in total) while last year I managed to spend an hour or two last year with the same number of people. I truly believe it was because of the later release of the schedule

ratcabob

I have been attending FanimeCon for 9 years now (starting in 2002 and only missing one year since) and it is a yearly event I have come to really love. I also expect a certain level of professionalism and organization from one of my favorite conventions, so here is my feedback:

PROS:


  • Easy Hotel Check-in (we checked in Friday around Noon), even with a very full hotel cart of our stuff to be brought into our room for us. Thank you so much Hilton staff!
  • Swift Masquerade processing/Judging. This was my first time performing in the Cosplay Spectacular so I was very pleased to have gotten my sticker and judged so quickly! Absolutely no problems there at all. :)
  • Return of Pocket Schedules were immensely helpful! I am so glad that those were back. :D
  • Swap Meet at the Fairmont was a good decision I feel. It was a nice dedicated space that wasn't overly crowded with non-swap meet goers and there were quite a few more vendors because of this as well I think.
  • Anime Music Video Contest screenings (FMVs) were set up at multiple times in a two day span. This made me very happy because the FMV contest is one of my favorite events that I always make a point to see. Only drawback here that I noticed was that since the other room playing the AMVs was just next door we would sometimes have overlapped noise during more dramatic/quiet videos. Not sure if that can be fixed in future...

CONS:


  • Registration was ridiculous this year. Plain and simple. I went with my family and friends to pick up our pre-reg badges on Thursday (day zero). We arrived at around 2:30pm, didn't get our badges until around 9:15pm or so! I understand that the power outage was unforeseen, but honestly manual processing could have started much earlier. Also I feel that with as large as FanimeCon is now, the booths that were empty should have been staffed with more workers to process badge pickup. 4 or 5 stations for people to get processed at just does not cut it for such a large scale attendance level. I did however appreciate the rovers allowing me to get back into line when having to use the restroom and locate my husband (I am pregnant so things become much more urgent for me), and also for supplying us bottles of water during the long wait.
  • Signage for Cosplay Spectacular Participant entrance was very poor. It took us a good 5-10 minutes of walking around the building to find where we were supposed to go, and one of our ninjas couldn't find his way in (even when showing his sticker to staff) for about 20 minutes. There should be a few more signs directing Masquerade participants where to go next year, or at the least a specific staff member at the front ready to escort members where they need to go.
  • Communication (pre-convention) was very poor and I would like to note this as this effected my convention experience this year. I was trying very hard to coordinate a comeback event of Anime Con of the Dead (our Highschool of the Dead themed Undead flashmob performance) with the rest of our team for months, but did not get a decisive response from anyone from FanimeCon staff until roughly a month before convention and by then it was too late to add it in to our tour schedule. We hope to be able to bring ACOTD back to FanimeCon in the future, but I was honestly disappointed with the lack of response this year.

    A side note on this topic, I hear that communication pre-con was rather poor on the side of Artist Alley as well. Though this is only second hand knowledge as I was wait listed this year.
  • Congoers for the most part were very friendly and accommodating, though quite a few times people would stop in the middle of high traffic areas for impromptu picture sessions. I agree with some of the previous posters here that a few designated photo areas throughout the convention halls would be really great so this can be avoided.
  • Smokers were a bit of a problem this year for me and much of the time I was afraid to step outside because of it. I am not sure if there are designated smoking areas, but people were lighting up really close to the convention doors and now that I have a baby to think about I am much more aware of this.
  • Masquerade Staff messed up on our lighting request and part of our performance we planned so hard ended up in darkness. It was supposed to be tinted blue, not completely off, but I still think we did a great job regardless of who saw that part. We were entry number 4.


This is about all I can think of at the moment, and my apologies if it ran a bit long. I really love this convention and hope it will continue to grow, but I really hope that communication and staffing problems get ironed out. FanimeCon needs to be a big and strong convention so it can last for many years to come! :) Thanks for reading. --Ratgirl
Fighting gravity is a losing battle...


Anime-Planet.com - [url=http://www.anime-planet.

otakuya

Attending Fanime for 12 years now and saw it all, mostly. You may already know the criticisms and praises, so I'll just cut straight to the points.

Registration
Nothing you haven't heard before. But you do realize that Day 0 and the AM of Day 1 are the most busy days for pre/early reg. Probably have 100% reg staff help and have all booths open. Which brings me to a suggestion:

Day 0
Day 0 is the new Day 1 of Fanime now, so you may as well structure that Thursday like it; meaning start pre-reg in the early AM and have more activities going on like video rooms, arcade, and a longer swap meet.

Space
It is not Fanime's fault, but when the new convention center expansion opens, use every single part of it. Trying to walk from the convention center entrance to the Fairmont and Cosplay Spectacular line was difficult (and driving through San Carlos Street was even worse). Also, you may try to have more events at different hotels, like some more panels at Fairmont and some video rooms at Hyatt for example, to free up space at the conv center hotels.

Misc
I don't know if any one else noticed, but do you think there were more BO problems this year?

renalcul

Quote from: SweetNiar on May 29, 2012, 05:51:01 PM
I dont know about sending badges out in the mail....it would either get lost in the mail, people would loose them or forget to bring them.  I think that Fanime knew this big crowd was coming for a good while and should have set up more lanes for pick up.  At least that way the line might still be huge, but people would have got threw a lot quicker.
It's one of those things that, while you will always have people where it gets lost in the mail or who try to scam the system. Those would probably be a minority of the attendees. If they did it it would probably cut the line to a third or less of what it was.

Aelia

Quote from: WhentheAngelscry on May 29, 2012, 10:11:37 PM.
- The rovers around the con : They seemed to have a lot of mixed info and didn't collaborate, I was in line for the My Little Pony fan panel and they were slightly late which meant the panel was canceled but one guy said if the panelists arrived in the next 5 min(they did) the panel would be back on. It was very confusing. This could be because they were one day volunteers. Same with door guards for gaming, dealers, and artists halls. half the time they let people leave and enter through the same door other times directed us elsewhere.
This sounds like you actually worked with a few different departments, and not all of them are Rovers.  Panels Staff are the ones who would be determining whether a panel is/was happening. People who had a "volunteer" ribbon on their badges are volunteers who walked in during con. People who have badges, radios and armbands that say "Rovers" are Rovers.

Rovers really don't ever guard doors except at Dance.
Director of Operations

kookiekween99

Quote from: angeljibrille on May 29, 2012, 09:39:20 PMWe did have it posted in the forums, but it was not visible enough. It was technically supposed to be badged, but we opened it up to everyone after we were told about the Registration disaster due to the power outage. They made an announcement at Reg, but it was difficult for them to make everyone in the massive line aware of it.

Posts online didn't do much good for those of us in line. There was no wifi available. I checked.

Quote from: angeljibrille on May 29, 2012, 09:39:20 PM
As far as "closed early because of lack of attendance"...? We actually stayed open 2 hours later than planned on Thursday (also due to the power outage), and an hour later on Friday. You may have just missed the room? We actually intentionally stayed open on Thursday and had a full and booming Swap Meet the entire time; it was very well attended on both nights. There was no "lack of attendance". I'm sorry you missed it, but we were running full swing both nights!

Wait, seriously? I sent two of my friends to the Swap Meet while I ran up to my room to grab my wallet, planning to join them as quickly as possible, but when I came downstairs, they told me staff had told them it was already closed. We were getting a lot of mixed messages, as earlier she thought she overheard a staff member saying the Swap Meet would be extended to 1 AM, but then she said that that announcement was for Registration, not Swap Meet. I'm so confused! >_<;
ASAHiCon Registration Head - '10-'12
ASAHiCon Web Head - '11-'13
FanimeCon Attendee - '10-Forever
FanimeCon Info Desk Minion - '14

PLUMPKIN

Quote from: renalcul on May 29, 2012, 11:03:02 PM
Quote from: SweetNiar on May 29, 2012, 05:51:01 PM
I dont know about sending badges out in the mail....it would either get lost in the mail, people would loose them or forget to bring them.  I think that Fanime knew this big crowd was coming for a good while and should have set up more lanes for pick up.  At least that way the line might still be huge, but people would have got threw a lot quicker.
It's one of those things that, while you will always have people where it gets lost in the mail or who try to scam the system. Those would probably be a minority of the attendees. If they did it it would probably cut the line to a third or less of what it was.

I agree.  There will always be people who try to con the system.  No system is foolproof, but you really have to go with one that works the best.  The current registration system with 3-6 hour waits is FAR from ideal, especially when there are good ideas being thrown around on how to expedite the process (i.e. mailing badges).

For those of you who go to other conventions, how does the registration process work?  Are the wait times as long as Fanime?

SOawesomeness

Quote from: Otakuya on May 29, 2012, 10:48:27 PM
Registration
Nothing you haven't heard before. But you do realize that Day 0 and the AM of Day 1 are the most busy days for pre/early reg. Probably have 100% reg staff help and have all booths open.
We're all volunteers, please don't forget! D: And most of us are students in college, travelling to Fanime. Some are full-time employed people as well. Actually, a majority of us are from Davis/Sac/SF area... so Thursday is the day where we really don't have much staff at all (and it is fairly expensive to book a hotel room for Thursday night too). Some even skip school in order to help out (high school and college students alike... some of us senior reg staff are putting you guys before our education (though we highly don't recommend skipping school)). I guess what I'm trying to say is, we try our very best in hopes to keep you guys happy.

If we guaranteed-ly had the people-power to open up earlier on Thursdays, we might consider it. But as it stands, most of us are all students from the quarter system and it is very extremely hard to keep Thursdays staffed fully.

Personally, I came from LA, skipped school and paid extra to get an earlier flight coming to San Jose in hopes of helping out Reg (I also arranged my school schedule so I'd have Fridays off to get to SJ sooner). I know these sound like excuses (and mayhaps I'm an example of the extreme) but I do want to emphasize that we are not much different from you guys. We love our attendees and I hope you continue to love Fanime!
Ellie S.
Head of Registration
FanimeCon - "By Fans, For Fans"
FanmeCon: Twitter | Facebook

hikanteki

Quote from: Mizu on May 28, 2012, 11:07:23 PM
Shopping: I'm not sure this is something that Fanime can do anything about, but it seemed like a lot of vendors had not included sales tax in their prices, and they didn't have any signs up to let shoppers know. Some of them were just rounding up sales tax to 10%, too. Even a $20 grab-bag I bought had hiked up tax on it. I kind of feel like it was an "idiot tax" more than anything. Sales tax in this county is only 8.25% so bumping it up has soured my opinion of some dealers a bit.

I noticed this too, but I don't mind if it's still a good deal after tax.  When in doubt, ask.  Also, I've found many dealers willing to waive tax or round down a few bucks if you buy a large amount (around ~50+ or so) with cash.

I agree that tacking on a flat extra 10% is kind of annoying, though.  I can see it being convenient to round things to the nearest dollar but I've seen some dealers just do it to get every extra penny they can.  For instance, I saw an item for $25.  With tax, it would have been $27.06, pretty close to $27.  But the dealer wanted to say it was $27.50 after tax.  When they do something like this I get all passive aggressive on them and pay with a credit card. ;)

Kyokun

Quote from: PLUMPKIN on May 29, 2012, 11:14:53 PM
For those of you who go to other conventions, how does the registration process work?  Are the wait times as long as Fanime?

The other cons I go to have massive rooms of people handling registration complete with barcodes and scanners and printers.  Not 3 booths staffed with about 5 people.  If Fanime's going to make picking up badges a requirement at con, there really needs to be more people handling it.

PLUMPKIN

Quote from: Chiri Kcrinh on May 29, 2012, 11:18:09 PM
Quote from: Otakuya on May 29, 2012, 10:48:27 PM
Registration
Nothing you haven't heard before. But you do realize that Day 0 and the AM of Day 1 are the most busy days for pre/early reg. Probably have 100% reg staff help and have all booths open.
We're all volunteers, please don't forget! D: And most of us are students in college, travelling to Fanime. Some are full-time employed people as well. Actually, a majority of us are from Davis/Sac/SF area... so Thursday is the day where we really don't have much staff at all (and it is fairly expensive to book a hotel room for Thursday night too). Some even skip school in order to help out (high school and college students alike... some of us senior reg staff are putting you guys before our education (though we highly don't recommend skipping school)). I guess what I'm trying to say is, we try our very best in hopes to keep you guys happy.

If we guaranteed-ly had the people-power to open up earlier on Thursdays, we might consider it. But as it stands, we are all students from the quarter system and it is very extremely hard to keep Thursdays staffed fully.

Personally, I came from LA, skipped school and paid extra to get an earlier flight coming to San Jose in hopes of helping out Reg (I also arranged my school schedule so I'd have Fridays off to get to SJ sooner). I know these sound like excuses (and mayhaps I'm an example of the extreme) but I do want to emphasize that we are not much different from you guys. We love our attendees and I hope you continue to love Fanime!

Perhaps starting the recruiting process early (like now) would ensure that there isn't a shortage of staff members come May 2013.  Fanime organizers have an entire year to put this convention together.  Similarly, many Fanime attendees plan their entire year around attending Fanime.  My point is yes, we are all busy, but a year is plenty of time gather enough people to help.  I suppose the same logic could be applied to getting schedules out sooner, etc...

Also, when I volunteered for fanime registration, volunteers were not allowed to man computers.  Is this still the case?  Perhaps reverting to manual registration should be another option, especially if there are not enough computers.


One more bit of constructive criticism
:  Hotel room registration was done on a weekday early afternoon this year.  This was a huge inconvenience for those of us who work or have classes until late afternoon.  By the time we got home, all the rooms were essentially booked.  Perhaps have hotel room registration on a weekend day next year to make it more fair for us working people.  I'd rather not use a vacation day to book my Fanime room; I'm saving them for Fanime! :D