Get Registration (hotel/attendee/everything) up sooner!

Started by M, January 18, 2013, 08:57:19 PM

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M

(Yes, I'm making a suggestion on these forums.)

(Yes, it is a serious suggestion.)

I just wanted to get this post up so that everyone can see it. We are truly sorry for the delays that have happened with the FanimeCon attendee and hotel registration. As always, there is a plan of action in place to prevent this from happening, but things tend to not go as planned. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to improve the process and meet our end goal of opening up SOONER and have MORE hotel rooms and MORE programming for everyone!

Keep in mind that if you leave any message for us via @FanimeCon (Twitter) or on our Facebook wall (or even a message to us), we read each and every one.
FanimeCon Head of Marketing & Director of Communications (2008-Current)
(Former Fan Services Director, Registration Staff, & Volunteer)
Have questions (about almost anything)? Message me!

kookiekween99

ASAHiCon Registration Head - '10-'12
ASAHiCon Web Head - '11-'13
FanimeCon Attendee - '10-Forever
FanimeCon Info Desk Minion - '14

Lucifargundam

I keep forgetting that the Fanime staff have real jobs and lives to attend to- not just work on comparatively menial(but time-consuming) tasks such as updating a webpage or do paperwork for an event they probably wont get to spend too much time enjoying themselves...

I did get to see the founder last year though at teh front of the con :]


if that the master a 'prentice have,
Entirely then that he him tell,
That he the craft ably may know,
Wheresoever he go under the sun.

M

Quote from: Lucifargundam on January 20, 2013, 12:37:01 AM
I keep forgetting that the Fanime staff have real jobs and lives to attend to- not just work on comparatively menial(but time-consuming) tasks such as updating a webpage or do paperwork for an event they probably wont get to spend too much time enjoying themselves...

I did get to see the founder last year though at teh front of the con :]

Random Fun Fact: Marketing was thinking about having a scavenger hunt to find the division heads and convention chairs one year. The idea failed when (during the planning phase) we realized that this would make getting to any emergencies a bit more difficult when one/some/all of us were stopped every second to mark a scavenger page. :P
FanimeCon Head of Marketing & Director of Communications (2008-Current)
(Former Fan Services Director, Registration Staff, & Volunteer)
Have questions (about almost anything)? Message me!

ewu

maybe if the goal was to get a picture of said chairman/director with a "non-emergency" hat on:) This may be a ploy for me to get a hat with my title on it....
Eric Wu
FanimeCon Chairman
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ericATfanimeDOTcom

Sen

I think a number of us wouldn't mind being part of the scavenger hunt as long as people can understand when we need to get somewhere fast.
Claudia

Chair Radio '15
Fan Services Division メンバーサービス共同本部長
   Member '15
   Director '10-'13
   Assistant Director '08-'09
Registration Staff '05-'07

MissToken42

I like this suggestion for earlier registration. If that doesn't work though, having the info on pricing is more important to me at least. Also, not having registration on a weekday. Lots of people have school and are forced to either skip classes or miss out on a hotel room.
Fanime 2013 Cosplays: Princess Serenity (Salior Moon), Toph (Avatar), Crona (Soul Eater), Harley Quinn (Batman: Arkham City), Shimei (Ao No Exorcist), Marceline (Adventure Time)

M

Quote from: MissToken42 on January 23, 2013, 02:47:09 AM
I like this suggestion for earlier registration. If that doesn't work though, having the info on pricing is more important to me at least. Also, not having registration on a weekday. Lots of people have school and are forced to either skip classes or miss out on a hotel room.
Completely understand that having it on a weekday isn't ideal, but we do this because this is the best time we can get support from everyone. Keep in mind that an external company (CMR) handles our hotel housing and it's important that they (along with each hotel) is able to provide support when you are trying to book a hotel room. When we were less popular, we opened hotel registration on Friday and support wasn't able to provide enough support for everyone until Monday (which caused more frustration among everyone). This isn't to say that this is any one person/group's fault, but it's always going to be difficult to find a medium that works best for everyone. We will keep trying though. :)
FanimeCon Head of Marketing & Director of Communications (2008-Current)
(Former Fan Services Director, Registration Staff, & Volunteer)
Have questions (about almost anything)? Message me!

Hachimitsu

I think the back door method (twitter / facebook ) was an alright alternative but I kinda felt sorry for the other users who are  still continued to reload the main page site (which send hundreds of users going to the wrong site).  Always in mind that there are still a lot of people who are not fond with twitter / faceboork / Tout!

Now that this is said.... I wonder how artist alley and swapmeet is going to react since this mistake is likely to happen again in the near future!

yojambo

So what DID exactly happen, that the website took so long to be updated? Yes, we are all busy with our own lives and random crap does fall on us, but I am still curious.

BunofGovt

Quote from: MPLe on January 23, 2013, 11:05:14 AM
Quote from: MissToken42 on January 23, 2013, 02:47:09 AM
I like this suggestion for earlier registration. If that doesn't work though, having the info on pricing is more important to me at least. Also, not having registration on a weekday. Lots of people have school and are forced to either skip classes or miss out on a hotel room.
Completely understand that having it on a weekday isn't ideal, but we do this because this is the best time we can get support from everyone. Keep in mind that an external company (CMR) handles our hotel housing and it's important that they (along with each hotel) is able to provide support when you are trying to book a hotel room. When we were less popular, we opened hotel registration on Friday and support wasn't able to provide enough support for everyone until Monday (which caused more frustration among everyone). This isn't to say that this is any one person/group's fault, but it's always going to be difficult to find a medium that works best for everyone. We will keep trying though. :)

Any consideration to opening registration on one day and hotel registration on another?  Just checking if that's feasible for next year.
Life is too important to take seriously.  Seriously.

GokuMew2

Quote from: BunofGovt on January 24, 2013, 09:19:05 PMAny consideration to opening registration on one day and hotel registration on another?  Just checking if that's feasible for next year.

Con badges won't sell out like hotel rooms so personally I don't feel a need to put the registrations up on separate days.
< Mew >
FanimeCon Guest Relations (2009 - Present)
Person who gets Japanese guests

Hachimitsu

Quote from: BunofGovt on January 24, 2013, 09:19:05 PM
Quote from: MPLe on January 23, 2013, 11:05:14 AM
Any consideration to opening registration on one day and hotel registration on another?  Just checking if that's feasible for next year.

OKAY THAT I Like.. Have one day registration and the other on a week end for Hotel reservations!...

MissToken42

Okay, then maybe putting the website up before registration opens. That way if there's a bad link it can be checked in advance.
Fanime 2013 Cosplays: Princess Serenity (Salior Moon), Toph (Avatar), Crona (Soul Eater), Harley Quinn (Batman: Arkham City), Shimei (Ao No Exorcist), Marceline (Adventure Time)

M

Quote from: MissToken42 on January 25, 2013, 12:58:00 AM
Okay, then maybe putting the website up before registration opens. That way if there's a bad link it can be checked in advance.
The hotel website is on a completely separate link from the FanimeCon websites. There was the main button on our website that had the wrong link, which was fixed fairly quickly. However, the cache on our website was so good that it kept the link even after it was changed. :(

One idea was just to do a soft opening of the Registration website in the future, since it doesn't matter who actually registers first. :P
FanimeCon Head of Marketing & Director of Communications (2008-Current)
(Former Fan Services Director, Registration Staff, & Volunteer)
Have questions (about almost anything)? Message me!

Usaku

Proof that we're really sorry and we absolutely do not want this to happen again – we've already started brainstorming solutions for next year, while we're still working on 2013 stuff. When I had some down time at work today I did some concept sketches for [supah sekrit solution] and next year's main website design.
FanimeCon Creative Co-Director
Staff Since 2003
http://missleliel.deviantart.com

Hachimitsu

Quote from: Usaku on January 25, 2013, 06:36:55 PM
Proof that we're really sorry and we absolutely do not want this to happen again – we've already started brainstorming solutions for next year, while we're still working on 2013 stuff. When I had some down time at work today I did some concept sketches for [supah sekrit solution] and next year's main website design.

really really hoping this doesn't happen during the Artist alley / swap meet sign ups
but thank you for helping out and trying.... for once i really had no choice but to re-signup twitter again v_v!

TravelingPumpkins

Quote from: MissToken42 on January 23, 2013, 02:47:09 AM
I like this suggestion for earlier registration. If that doesn't work though, having the info on pricing is more important to me at least. Also, not having registration on a weekday. Lots of people have school and are forced to either skip classes or miss out on a hotel room.

Second this!  Personally, I did not enjoy having to decide between refreshing the website and possibly getting written up for surfing the web during work hours.  Please have hotel registration on a Saturday next year!

Another idea I liked was having the Fanime website up and running before registration starts.  That way you can work out the bugs instead of dealing with them while thousands of fans are trying to access the site.

A correct website would be nice too, but mistakes happen.  Comic-Con similarly posted a wrong link during badge registration last year, which resulted in non-Facebook/Twitter users to completely miss out on a badge because they sold out.  You can only imagine the amount of flaming that occurred afterwards...

Xeluu

As someone who attends school and works weekends, please, PLEASE don't change it to a weekend. At least if I had to, being in college, I could step out of class for a few minutes to register for a hotel room, there's exactly a 0% possibility of being able to do this if I'm at work.
Additionally, with the talk of CMR housing being an outside company, are they even available to help on weekends? If anything, I'd say perhaps instead of opening hotel registration in the afternoon, try opening it in the late afternoon or early evening. (But again that begs the issue of whether or not CMR customer service will be able to help at those hours.)
Just my own two cents. I know that no matter when you have hotel registration, someone will be unhappy. I mean, it's not like everyone has a life or something. We all just sit around and watch anime and play video games all day, right?

Right?

Guys?
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M

I'm not sure that there is any specific time for a hotel reservation opening that would satisfy everyone. With as many attendees wanting/needing a hotel room, I'm not sure there is any time that people would happy about.

Also keep in mind that our convention website and hotel registration websites are on different servers, but launching the convention website would probably be best done ahead of time for several other reasons. ;)
FanimeCon Head of Marketing & Director of Communications (2008-Current)
(Former Fan Services Director, Registration Staff, & Volunteer)
Have questions (about almost anything)? Message me!