I have submitted my feedback, but here its again.
So, here it is, what I submitted to Fanime... a critique of 3 things: registration, Cosplay Spectacular, and Artist Alley
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To start off, I was part of the 8 hour Pre-Reg line on Thursday Night. I was also subjected to the line last year, but at least I was inside and I realize that with power outages things happen. But this year I was in fact in line LONGER than I was last year. After the mess of lines in different halls and rooms, I finally made it to the final line (or so I assumed) and got to the booth, I was rudely told I was in the wrong line. Now, when we entered the room every single person was funneled into the same line. No one asked “Are you Pre-Reg? Early Reg? Group Reg?” I still have no idea who that first line was even for because I was blown off so quickly it was as if I wasn’t the first person to have the problem. Seeing as the booth I was shooed away from clearly said “Pre-Reg” I was mighty angry.
When I was finally in what I assumed was the correct line, before I was able to talk to the person at the other booth (labeled Early-Reg) I was again told that because I was group reg, I needed to go to another table. What that person did not do was ask me my name or print the labels to put on my badges. So, after once again being shooed into a line while other people just walked up to the table and where being helped before me, I was told we had to GET BACK IN THE OTHER LINE. I told the lady, NO, and to her credit, agreed with me after I explained that another staff member had ordered us into the line we were now in. The staff or Volunteer who was in the bright green jacket to her credit was working her ass off to try and stem the tide of madness that was the group registration pick up. She was concerned that my badges weren’t already printed, and that is when she informed me that no one had printed them, and she rushed around to get them printed. It was 2am at this point.
To offer solutions for your registration failure, I have the following suggestions:
1) Pre-print your badges. I don’t care that people get upset that they don’t get a spiffy badge if the register at the con.
2) Or, have a label printer at every single station along with a computer that the registration volunteer can quickly find a person and send their name to be printed.
3) Have lines CLEARLY marked. If you are going to do Early Reg and Pre Reg on Thursday, then you need to have each line clearly marked and a person stationed to direct people to the correct line.
4) Group registration needs to have its own booth. This was my first year doing it and I realized just how popular it is. My understanding was that group registration was to help lessen the number of people in line, but because of the confusion and lack of organization it was even more of a pain for me to wait in line for 8 hours than it would have been for all 5 of us to wait in line for 6. And yes, it was an extra 2 hours of waiting tacked on because I was doing group reg.
My second major grip of this convention was the mess that was the Cosplay Spectacular. It started with the extremely late start, which while I understand that we lost Melissa (and her entire staff as I later found out). I understand staff turnovers are hard, and training and finding good staff is hard, but it starts with a calm and competent leader. And Jack was neither of those. I heard many stories, but this is my personal experience with him. After exchanging some hard to read emails, we arrived at the convention with no knowledge if we needed to check in with anyone, we didn’t even know when the show was going to start. I emailed Jack during the convention but never received a reply, and after searching through emails and asking other people who were also in the show, we finally found where judging was going to be taking place and that there wasn’t any need to check in… or at least that is what we assumed.
We arrived at judging, we did check in directly with Jack and his staff and I asked if they needed our audio again, or if it needed to be checked. I was told it was all OK, and we went about our way. The next day we stopped by the hall to check in again, asked where we could keep our props, and if they had our audio. I asked Jack, again, if he needed our audio and if he had gotten the email with our intro, he said yes and that we were all set. Around 3:30-4:00 PM we show up in costume and asked about what number we where in the show, only to find out we had been scratched because “we never checked in” Bullshit, not only had we checked in, we had checked in directly with Jack. I proceed to text my friends who were also in the masquerade to double check if they were still in the show because of what we had just been through. (which we found out that 3 groups had been cut for the same reason) After asking why our name was scratched out to be waved away with an “Oh, that is nothing, you are here, I’ll fix it… blah blah blah” we, already stressed and unhappy with how this has been going so far, find a seat and sit down. Here is where the rest of Jacks staff really stepped up and worked very hard with what they had. The stage manager (I never got his name) tried very hard to seat us in performance order, we were told we were 16.
So, after the rock concert, which while good, was not appreciated at all by any of the contestants because of nerves and stress levels, we were finally taken out into the hall and given a new number, 12. After more confusion as to who was going next because the list they had was useless, we were finally let back stage. And we waited. And waited. And then the sound guy told me our audio didn’t work. Excuse me, I had been told 3 times that our audio was fine, and I didn’t have my backup with me. Then I was told “You are Italy’s Pizza Conference, right?” NO. “Oh, Automatic Dolls? We don’t have your audio.” And they didn’t have it because Jack decided that he wanted to switch computers (which I heard him ask a staff member for another computer than the little one he was using during the rehearsal) and he did not move the audio files to the new computer. Well, panicking I yelled (the backstage yell) at Jack that he said he had our audio and why didn’t he have it now. He had me search his email for my audio. He then put it on a thumb drive and transferred it to the computer the sound guy was using.
Now, while waiting for all of this to take place, I was asked if I was the Madoka group no less than 5 times. I was asked, again, if I was the Italy group. I watched as the Hatsune Miku cosplayer was told to go out suddenly when we were suppose to go and he was not ready. I watched as the Italy group have their audio cut and lights dimmed before the end of their skit and then they were just yelled at to get off stage. When our audio was finally found and added to the play list, it started playing over the Madoka skit! We heard it from backstage, and told the sound guy to shut off our audio, and then he shut off the Madoka audio instead. I watched in horror as the group finished their skit to our music and the group members storm back stage and start screaming (with good reason) at Jack. And Jack let them redo their skit. But if he was going to give in to the screaming he should have let the Italy group go again because that is unfair. So, by this time I didn’t want to go on stage. Tell me who would want to go on stage and preform after their audio just ruined another skit?
We did perform, but I’d had it. When Jack finally got our audio he offered us high-fives. It was if he wasn’t taking anything he was doing seriously. Because the high-five, after I just went though the panic of being told my audio was bad and then that they didn’t have my audio, was lucky to have not turned into a punch.
Most of Jacks staff worked best with what they had, but I feel that things like performance order should have been decided either before the con if there is no mandatory check-in, or at mandatory check-in with an audio check.
So, here are some suggestions for next year.
1) I don’t say this lightly, but fire Jack. He did not display any qualities of a good leader, he was unorganized and his lax attitude was completely inappropriate.
2) The online form needs to come back. Email and forum communication for the contest was lacking and confusing.
3) Things need to be on a deadline. If audio submissions were on a deadline, I was completely unaware of it. The same with sign ups.
4) The next person to take over needs to have either more experience or at least have proven organizational skills.
5) The rules need to be applied to everyone. If one group is allowed a do-over, then every skit that had its audio affected by a mistake needs to have the opportunity to re-do their skit. I don’t care if one was more popular or better put together. The rules need to apply to everyone equally.
6) The audio should have been re-named with the performance order, it should have been on a portable HD and a thumb drive, and during rehearsal, every single audio should have been played to assure that they worked and that every file was accounted for.
7) I did like that there were cash prizes, better than the bags-o-paper we have gotten in the past. If you had included a trophy like in years past, it would have made me even happier. But if it came down to the plexiglass trophies or cash, I would prefer cash.
8 ) I hope that if you do remove Jack as the coordinator you will not dally and find a replacement asap because it is going to take time to fix this mess.
The last thing is the artist ally. I understand because of construction it had to be moved. But when all the signs say “South Hall” and there is no South Hall… you shot yourselves in the foot, along with all the vendors in the tent. Your signage was awful, and should have said “Artist Ally One Block That Way” The Fanime AA is one of, if not the best AA around and it is just horrible that you couldn’t simply direct people to the right place.
Will I go back next year? I honestly don’t know… I fly in from the Midwest so it is a big deal trip to make it all the way to San Jose. I hope that you can implement changes that will make it worth my wild and my money.
Yes, this is long, but I felt Fanime needed to know exactly what was wrong.
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Topic: Con feedback (Feedback will not effectively reach staff if you do not use form) (Read 45844 times)