Fanime 2008 Feedback thread.

[Sunara Ishi]

I totally forgot about this until now.
This happened sunday if I remember right:
One of the staffers (she might have been a volunteer) was rather mean towards me and another person when we tried to leave the gaming hall.

The gaming hall had no specific entrance or exit throughout the con and on that specific day, there was only one door open.

The staffer refused to let us leave and told us to go use the "exit".
I start walking towards the other side and turn around; almost right after she's letting others out.

I wanted to dismiss it at as a mistake but she gave a rather mean glare at me the first time and also when I left.
If I remember right, the other person and I had been in cosplay. I'm not sure what her bias was.

I just wanted to bring attention to it.

Pro: I loved seeing all the forum members and meeting lots of cool people. I thought over all things were great. I had a blast but sadly i didn't go to enough things. I also played my first yaoi bingo! XD IT WAS FUN
OH AND MAID CAFE WAS AWESOME! ^-^ I really though it improved from last year plus the location was very nice. so well done all

Con: sorry i felt the dealer's room really sucked. I was very disappointed with the selection and ended up just spending money on cosplay stuff for next year. I would have liked to see more unique stuff (and MORE DOUJINSHI!)
Double up... sad to say it was OK... I dunno i prefered the bingo.
also the swapmeet.... again the information wasn't getting passed around as to what the hell was going on or where to line up for it. >< Like last year it was disorganized

Actually, yes. There is a dire lack of a decent doujin culture east of the Pacific, and I, for one, would love to see this changed. I do recognize the primary barrier against it- copyright laws in this country Won't Ignore the doujin market, unfortunately- but... hrm. Fanime wouldn't happen to have a few tame lawyers to work out a loophole, would it?

Maybe we need a doujin room.
So its not being sold as official artwork but more like how artist alley is run.
I don't think we should toss the doujin stuff into artist alley. One or the other may not get enough space.

[Sucrose]

Fanime 2008 rocked pretty well, and most of what I would say has already been repeated many times over. Dealers' Hall was less than thrilling, but the AA was huge and awesome and had great variety. I'm one of those lazy people who never go to the concerts or masquerade or big events, but nevertheless I had a grand old time.

One comment I would like to make: is it just me, or does it seem to anybody else that the partying got a bit out of hand this year? I understand that Fanime is a social event and a lot of people like going to room parties and drinking at night, and that's all well and good if you like that sort of thing, but it seemed like there was an appreciably larger number of noticeably drunk people in the concourse earlier than usual...particularly one fellow who dashed down the hall while my friends and I were chatting, started throwing up into a garbage can, and then moved to a recycling bin to continue vomiting.

[Squeeky_Moonkin]

I just want to say thank you to all the staff of fanime 2008. You guys rocked. you made this such a great experience for me. some of you went out of your way to help and others just so warm and kind. You had a handle on a lot of things which made this con enjoyable. I also like how I dint see or hear too many staff members having to raise their fist of authority. You all rock ^_^

[Akito Starwind]

I thought this year went by nice. I read many post on the Dealers room being Just OK this year. But just to clear up some Info. The Dealers room was the Same size as last year. It only seemed smaller due to excellent booth placement. But number per number we had the same amount of booths. As For Gaia Not having no Booth? You should E-mail and Forum them about it.   From what I saw as a Staff and Fan. Everyone Did a wonderful job. Best Fans I have seen in years. "I only had to yell No Running Once!"

[PyronIkari]

Note: Doujin stuff is technically illegal, even in Japan. But no one bothers to do anything in Japan because it'd be like spitting on the entire fandom. In the US. though it's technically illegal, it doesn't matter since it's international goods. Even though it's illegal, it's more of a grey area. It's really really really complicated (discussing with a lawyer about it right now).

The problem with doujinshi... are that the people that usually sell them in the states don't know much about the doujinshi they sell. They just get a bunch of them and sell them and hope people buy them. This is good, and bad. It's nice that people realize there is a market, but when dealers don't know what they're selling, and don't know what people want... it leads to problems.

Not to really plug my friend or anything, but every year at AX a friend of mine comes from Japan and brings a huge stock of doujinshi. It's awesome when people come and know what they're looking for and ask and what not, but at the same time it's bad because the less knowing people just ravage through stuff.

I won't link it here, but he has a website(that he doesn't update) and if people know what they're looking for he can special get things for them. Just PM me and I can send you a link if you wish.

Doujinshi are hit or miss, and they are a big risk for a lot of vendors especially if they don't know doujinshi. The ones that just risk it and bring whatever just hope people buy their stuff.

[Xeluu]

I enjoyed this year, but as usual feel the need to point out the pros and cons of this year. I might reiterate a bit on what I mentioned at closing ceremonies.

Pros:
- Water. Good job this year, it was either '06 or '07 where they always seemed empty. I don't think I ever saw one of them completely empty. Good job to the Convention Center staff on that one. ^^
- Photo booth. I know people were asking for this for a good many years, so I was glad to see it finally there.
- Generally friendly staff members, with one exception. I was helping check ID at Yaoi/Hentai when two staffers arrived. I started to ask the first for ID before I saw his badge, but the second one had his turned around. When I asked for ID, all I got was an, "I'm staff." I started to tell him something, don't remember what, but finally got him to turn his ID around before he grumped off to talk with someone behind the barrier. Staff, please don't get grumpy at people trying to help out, especially if it's something like that. D: Maybe he was just having a bad day. Dunno, oh well.
- Lots of food available. I know prices were high, but it was a nice step in the right direction.
- Generally had a good time. Registration seemed much better too. When I stepped up and handed the guy my ID and paper it took him MAYBE 30 seconds to hand me my badge. Excellent.
- Lanyards! People have also been asking for these, I had even brought my own and was ecstatic to see I didn't need them.
- Artist's Alley. I bought more there than ever before. It was nice to see relatively inexpensive things (Head shot cards from SSBB and the like) in addition to generally good quality work. VG cats was a nice surprise.
- Lack of glomping. I think I only got hugged by surprise MAYBE two or three times. And it was a hug, not a glomp, so I didn't have as much issue with it. : D Teh mudkipz was happy to not almost be knocked down this year.

Cons:
- Dealers room. It really wasn't that great this year. I felt like the selection was just lacking. A lot of the same things, and on top of that at outrageous prices. Many of the dealers weren't even willing to knock off a few dollars as a discount on larger purchases, even when they had in previous years. I know it's not Fanime's fault, but maybe the dealers will see everyone mentioning this and do something to improve it next year. I'm also not sure if it was just me, but most of what I saw being sold consisted of DVDs and Manga, at prices the same as if I went to my local store. There were maybe two exceptions to the pricing bit, but it was rather annoying to me. Here's my question: where were some of the previous dealers? Funimation? Gaia? There's one more but it slips my mind at the moment. Those were two of the booths I was looking forward to. Also agree with not enough giveaways. DEALERS! Look at what people are saying and hopefully improve next year! I left with considerably more money than I have in the past. (Like... a few hundred more.)
- Elevator etiquette. This was a big problem at the Marriott this year. This goes to the attendees, not to staff. Let the people who were there first get on, and don't crowd the elevators. If people in the back need to get out, GET OUT OF THE WAY. Step out of the elevator and let them out, then step back in. Don't make them shove their way out. It'll move faster that way, I guarantee it. I can't tell you how many times I had to push to get out of the elevator on my stop, I also can't tell you how many times I had people shove in front of me, forcing me to wait for the next elevator. Just.... be nice. If it would piss you off if someone did it to you, don't do it to others. Play nice people.

Edit: HA! I remembered the two other things I wanted to mention!

Cons:
-Gaming room consoles. I'm not sure if it was just with SSBB, but it really did seem as though only those with their own controllers were playing. I'm not sure it that was really the case, or if they had checked them out, but I only heard that the system was in place at closing ceremonies when someone else brought it up. Could we possibly just zip tie controllers to the systems again? I wanted to play, but never got the chance this year. It was rather frustrating to me. Someone mentioned a sign, but I never saw one? If it's something like that you really need multiple signs, facing all directions and in HUGE letters so people can see them as soon as they approach a console.
- At Con Reg for 2009. I didn't really see anything about when the times would be, and ended up asking about it in the dealer's room on Saturday, and being told that it opened at 4pm on Sunday. Well.... 4PM Sunday I was busy finishing things up. (Gathering or something maybe.... Maybe Charity auction....) And right after went to my room to eat before the concert. When I went to try and reg around Noon on Monday I was told it was closed. This was really disappointing to me. Could someone talk with the Registration head and ask them to considered keeping it open 'til maybe 2 or 3 on Monday? Most people are busy trying to pack and check out of their hotel rooms on Monday morning, myself included. I might be wrong on that account, but that seems to be what I've observed.


Sorry for the long post guys, but hopefully someone will take note and things might be changed for '09. ^^

[Shinsengumi]

I had great time this year, I was able to see some friends that I haven't seen for about a year, and also other friends that I haven't seen in months I was able to hang out with them. I had great time spending time with my girlfriend (K&K4ever) and along with my sister. I already pre-reg so see you all in 2009.

[K&K4ever]

This was an Awesome con and I can barely wait for next year, see you guys then ;D

[Tenba]

A shame they didn't include the GAINAX Room, but I presume that's because it was a last-minute addition.

Yes.  We printed the extra GAINAX Room schedules at the last second, as soon as we had reasonably any information solid enough to print.  They should've been stuffed in your registration bags.

-Not easy to find information about meet & greet / autograph sessions. I ended up not finding Sadamoto-san, though I really wanted to meet him especially.

I believe that information wasn't available to any of the Info Desks, ConOps, or Publications until Friday evening-ish.  The information didn't get passed around internally, and I apologize for that.  I really should've known whom to ask, and I just failed to put two and two together.

Also, the last time I heard (which was before we got enough information to make the GAINAX room schedule, so the information might be outdated), Sadamoto-san was not going to hold any official autograph sessions this year, so there may not have been any autograph session specific to Sadamoto-san for you to find.  He may have given out some casual autographs during panels and such, but I don't think it was formally planned.

-Information booths had 2007's maps instead of 2008's, for most of Friday (lol).

I know, and I'm sorry.  In spite of researching things all year, I still managed to royally mess up signs this year.  I'd like to thank Finance for approving an extra huge chunk of money on top of my budget to take care of it, all of the pre-reg attendees for putting Finance in a good mood, and Eugene (who used to work for Kinko's) for arranging all the remaining details necessary to get the signs done.  But I think I'm now equipped to do better next year.

- Seconding the camera nazis at the concert.  I understand that they don't want us to take pictures and video- and I wasn't planning to- but if they don't want any cameras at all, then tell us BEFORE we get to the end of the friggin line.

I completely agree with that.  Many staff (including me and even my An Cafe writer/reporter) did not know about the "camera nazi" at An Cafe either, and we got turned away at the door too.  I wish I could've known in time to have my newsletter crew write something about it at least.  What we had here was a failure to communicate, even internally.

There are ways to deal with the food issue, and make them cheaper. Not the convention food, obviously, but I do advocate that Fanime include a price guide to the local area's establishments. Or get fast food sponsors like In-N-Out that does the occasional remote operation (I've known a few schools that've done this- it has been full of win, overall). The Convention's already paid for the space- it is not, in fact, indebted to the Center to the point that it has to try and sell its food as well.

I was part of the reason why there's more information about convention center food than outside food.  I made a conscious decision to cut the San Jose food map out of the program guide because we ran out of space and because the convention center itself was willing to provide the San Jose Downtown Food Maps to the Info Desks.  Let me say that again: the San Jose Convention Center itself provided all the Downtown Food Maps at the Info Desks.  They're very nice about working with Fanime to get what FanimeCon attendees want.  I believe that the convention center has been willing to be as helpful as it is because it noticed that listening to Fanime's suggestions brings in more business.  So, when they extended food hours and brought in lower-priced items the way Fanime suggested, I wanted to do my best to let people know about it so attendees can provide feedback with their dollars about whether it works for them or not.  The convention center couldn't lower the price of their $9 nachos, but they did try to find cheaper items.  For example, I believe I saw more sandwiches and bagels and such this year, providing cheaper alternatives to the expensive hot dishes.

Also, it's been noted that the average age of the convention attendees has been dropping, and I'm a bit worried about sending younger attendees outside the convention center for food.  Because of that, I'd like to see more of the demand stay inside the convention center, so Fanime management has more to work with when trying to fix convention center food options.

From what little I know about the food terms and policies, I don't think bringing in In-N-Out will help prices much.  I believe the convention center has rules and fees on outside vendors, so I imagine In-N-Out would have to raise its prices if it tried to sell food inside the convention center.  The business might be worth it, and rumors have claimed that Tengu Sushi and Lollicup have been happy with their business in spite of the convention center terms, but the products the outside vendors bring are not cheap.  That said, I'd love to have In-N-Out inside the convention center, and I think it's a neat suggestion.

In any case, while it's true that there are a lot of limitations on what can be done about food prices, it might be useful, or at least interesting, to keep the suggestions coming anyways.

Just one bit that bugged me was that the Fanime '08 booklet was a little harsh on the eyes because it was a sans-serif font. Sans-serif is awesome for computers and electronically displayed text, but serif looks MUCH better and is a lot easier to read on paper. No biggie though xD

That is good feedback, and I'll pass that on to the designers.

Thank you all for the feedback!

[Kaura117]

Tenba, the hotel might give information about what restaurants out there, but except for common knowledge like "Jack in the Box is cheaper than Paragon," there's no info about the relative price ranges. Which, btw, would be enormously helpful.

It means we can save more money for the dealer's room, see.  ;D

In all seriousness, though, I'm happy that the convention center's willing to help out, but there's still that last step to take in order to have that help really be of any use to congoers.

[Tenba]

Tenba, the hotel might give information about what restaurants out there, but except for common knowledge like "Jack in the Box is cheaper than Paragon," there's no info about the relative price ranges. Which, btw, would be enormously helpful.

Hm...  You're right; the information doesn't seem to be readily available.  I thought I saw it online before somewhere.  I'll see if I can get a reporter to go collect it, but I can't make any promises.

[RoverRoy009]

After taking a Sick day from work, and catching up on Paperwork, and I still am losing my voice... Here I go:

*** DISCLAIMER: these views & comments are only from me and NO ONE ELSE from Fanime (Executive) staff. if you wish to flame me please do it via PM only. Thanks ***

Complaints about the Guy in Glasses Rover-
Please PM deonchan in regards to this ASAP. This Rover (who I first thought was me at first, til I realized how many complaints we had this year about his poor reasons for pulling badges...) we will address him and his issues and it is likely we will declined him to be on Rover Staff next year. I work in HR and sometimes people who claim to be a fit just arent, and this is what we call trial and error. --- My sincere apologies go out to anyone and everyone that had a bad experienced because of him. He will be counseled and advise because of HIS actions his Fanime privaleges may be revoked. If he thinks he had the right to pull peoples badges (and abused his power he did) he should expect us to have the right to pull his badge as well.

Complaints about An Cafe lines/Autograph/Q&A panel-
This is a classic misdirection tactic known as the "Nut and Shell" game. For safety and security reasons for the An Cafe Band, sometimes management may need an option to allow for last minute changes of the safety or location was at risk. Even being on line control staff I was out of the loop until I was asked to control the line. The staff before me did the best they could to control the line, but broke it off in akward places causing my An Cafe fans to be put farther back in line or confused where the front was. It's unavoidable confusion and I'm again sorry for any mistakes on MY PART but I can't always fix the mistakes if they were made before I got there to begin with.

Complaints about general prices-
Unfortunately Fanime does not have control over ANY prices - minus Registration prices. I know the Economy is tough, but as much as we'd like to lower prices its just not within ARG's ability to do so. It's best that the individual to figure out their budget with as many factors as possible: Hotel, Travel, friends bumming money (you know this happens), Dealers, Arcade, and basically anything else that uses $$$. Simply, we dont control prices. Sorry.

Conflicting Events/Dates/Times-
Keep in mind that different Departments work on these events and as a Fan/Con Goer you will have to make the difficult decision of one or the other or try your best to attend both. You have to believe us when we say we're not trying to make things difficult for you... But think about it this way- Yes its a 4 day event, but theres ONLY 2 nights where super special events can take place: (SAT/SUN Only) Thursday is only an pre-reg badge pick up night. Friday/Monday would be TOO early/late and thus grossly understaffed. Hence if Fanime say had 6 uber Fantastic events to plan on 2 nights only. Yes, your going to have some tough choices to make. You just have to deal with it and plan accordingly.

"Ghost" Staff Members & proper info & training-
I cant speak for all departments, but I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt that since we constantly say "By Fans for Fans" that the golden rule applies. Staff is asked to work X amount of hours in order to get staff badge. I will admit that some staff works more/harder than others and some of those not so nice people there pick up a staff badge and never lift a finger to help. That is a shame, but I do believe in Kharma... Moving Forward I'm glad to see that more Fans are interested in helping Volunteer/Staff for 2009. As our convention Grows so will our staff. Fanime HR I hope will continue proper training and informative meetings to keep everyone on the same page.

I am Rover Roy- I know some of you have seen, heard or possibly now hate me. So I'll have to deal with it... but keep this im mind because I do care more about YOUR Con experience more than my own. I take pride in the fact that I do this as a service to my anime/J-pop community. I am open to constructive critisims, just please do it via PM and NOT by out on the forums. Thanks.

[Oathkeeper]

Aaaah this year was definitely a mix, and for me it wasn't as fun as 2007...but that's all things considered. I will most likely attend next year if things work out. ^_^

Pros:

~finishing all four costumes in five days, and doing them WELL
~Getting SO MANY pictures taken of me and my boyfriend as Lenne and Shuyin and Rinoa and Squall.
~Learning how to dance...waltz and swing.
~Learning the dance to "Waltz for the Moon", and doing the dance during the song at the Black and White Ball while dressed as Rinoa and Squall in their SeeD Ball attire
~The FFVIII gathering
~Performing our skit at the masquerade. I'm glad to see it was so well received! ^_^ (I am a member of Candy Mountain Cosplay, the KH "I'm too sexy" skit)
~Hanging out with my friends
~finally meeting Crystalike

Cons:

~Overloading myself with four costumes to complete in five days
~having my glue gun stolen while working on last minute cosplay
~having my camera stolen while people were taking pictures of me and my boyfriend
~my boyfriend's prescription glasses were stolen off of the chair in front of him in an anime viewing room. NOT COOL.
~trying to organize, schedule, and perform with an ensemble. NOT A GOOD IDEA. I way overloaded my con time.
~only having time to look in the art and dealer's room once the entire con.
~Getting a parking ticket
~driving down a sidewalk on accident
~losing my Sora gloves
~the Hare Hare Yukai and the Caramelldansen sooo many times. Though I know its not anyone's fault
~even more than that, though: PEOPLE LEAVING THE MASQUERADE BECAUSE OF ALL OF THOSE DANCES. Our group, Candy Mountain Cosplay, was the last to perform, and we only had 1/3 of the crowd that was there to begin with.


Yeah....like i said, it was definitely a mix. Though I will probably be coming back, if not to perform another skit next year. I'll start the writing verrrrry soon. Candy Mountain Cosplay will return!!!

[Kaura117]

Tenba, the hotel might give information about what restaurants out there, but except for common knowledge like "Jack in the Box is cheaper than Paragon," there's no info about the relative price ranges. Which, btw, would be enormously helpful.

Hm...  You're right; the information doesn't seem to be readily available.  I thought I saw it online before somewhere.  I'll see if I can get a reporter to go collect it, but I can't make any promises.

I can do it.

...especially if I get a staff position- coughcoughnudgenudge.  ;) I was actually planning to work on an independent article for FanimeCon this year, but due to having my recorder stolen a few days before the con, AND my cellphone service suspended (not my own error, thankfully, but I might have to get off my parent's service if this proves to be a trend by next year)... well, yeah. Half-assed article; no fun at all. Would love to have another crack at it in 09- this time, with even less sleep~

[Mr Anime]

This was my first time attending Fanime and I have to say that I had a really good time.  :D The Maid Cafe was interesting and fun. One of the maids, Mimi, even drew something for me on a little notepad that I carry around. The masquerade was a lot fun, but watching people constantly walk out was a bit diappointing. The artist in the artist alley had a lot of good stuff. Especially the guy who sold me a bunch of stuff for half price all weekend long. Forgot to ask him his name though. Oops. The best part of the con for me was the An Cafe concert. That was a (insert expletive here) blast! The only thing that disappointed me was the dealer's room. Well, kind of...none of them had any rare items that I wanted or might want. Plus most of them didn't really have any deals on anything. Though I think that can be attributed to high gas prices. I spent $148 getting there and back. Sorry for bringing up the subject.

Will I be back in '09? Yes I am.  :D

[petit ningyou]

Hrrmm... I'm just going to name the cons... Don't get me wrong though, I still loved Fanime :)

Cons:
- THE DANCE. I waited about half an hour in line with my boyfriend and we finally got up in front and they told us, "no bags!" when another staff member had told us we COULD have bags but it wasn't recommended. So we had to go all the way back to my hotel room and drop off his backpack and we waited another 30 minutes in line and we saw people going in with their bags/purses/backpacks and we were so pissed XD;

The music sucked, wasn't loud enough, and it didn't really seem like anyone really got into it. PLAY SOME FREAKING JPOP/JROCK. I enjoyed the dance the most the year that the DJ played some really cool remixes of anime songs (I remember a techno remix of the Oh My Goddess OVA theme and some TWO-MIX songs). Please play more of that, and please have the music louder. I would be very willing to wait in line if that happened.

- ANIME HELL. I was in Anime Hell one night... I can't remember which, but I was just like, "wtf is this". They played like really old reruns of skits/commercials from SNL or Mad TV and some other really awkward crap... My boyfriend called me in the middle of it and he asked me where I was and I said, "Anime Hell, literally." which is what it really was... I was surprised to see so many people in there. BUT, (positive) I came to Anime Hell on Friday before the Dealer's Room was opened and it was very very entertaining. It was basically just a bunch of anime parodies, which was cool... but please no more of these old Jimmy Kimmel episodes with people in monster costumes fighting...

- Like everyone said, the Black & White Ball clashing with the An Cafe concert, and actually, quite a few events clashing with each other... kinda sucked </3

- Lastly, I don't really know what this was but... I decided to go to the Comedy Club with my boyfriend and it...wasn't funny...even though a lot of people there seemed to think it was funny. No offense...it was awkward...but if you other con-goers enjoyed it I won't ruin your fun. Just definitely not going to it again. There were a few things that kinda made me go, "heh" but that's about it. Couldn't handle the smell either XD; SHOWER FANBOYS, SHOWER.

Yup and that's it...other than that, I loved Fanime. Just pleaseeeeeeeee get a better DJ or something. I was really looking forward to the dance.

EDIT: Oops, also...

- CONSOLE GAME WHORES. SERIOUSLY. PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO TAKE TURNS. My brother's super shy and he waited forever to play Brawl... even brought his own controller... he just stood there, forever, watching a bunch of n00bs play... we finally got to play when people left but we felt bad because we knew other people were waiting forever so we only did two matches each. And this didn't happen just with Brawl.

- ALSO, I don't understand the limited amount of space in the tournaments... or at least the Brawl tournament. I was really looking forward to entering the SSBB tournament but apparently it was full... normal tournaments don't usually fill up, do they? It was a bit of a disappointment. I say if Fanime has a Brawl tournament again, maybe get a separate area for the tournament, have a entrance fee, and there should be winners from 1st to 3rd place winning...money...or something, and unlimited entry. Please.

[Tenba]

I can do it.

...especially if I get a staff position- coughcoughnudgenudge.  ;)

Sure!  Please send e-mail to [email protected].  Mention your forum nick, and include a resume and writing sample just for fun.  I'm going to reorganize and send out a questionnaire when I'm ready to rehire people on my staff for 2009 (we all get fired and rehired every year), and I'll add you to the list of people I send the questionnaire to.  Thanks for offering!

[Jelly Soup]

I keep looking for a One Piece pirate flag and not finding one.  It makes Zee a sad panda.

You gotta look a little harder. The guy across from Tao Toys had one for sale. It was hanging in the very top left corner of his booth. I remember thinking about buying it.

[short_storiesgl]

oh yes and one more Con: Some Random Gut Coming Up to me and start yelling at me for something i didnt even know was happening... i dont like to yell and he made me....

[Kyokun]

PROS:

Artist Alley rocked this year.
FMV voting format was excellent.  I like being able to have a list of the FMVs so that I can try to find them later (although I'm having terrible luck with that so far)
FMVs were back in the Civic Center.
FMV categories were a decent length (e.g. not 20 action videos, like last year, which was extremely tiresome)
Pre-Reg line went smoothly.

CONS:

Dealer's room was disappointing, although I did like the kimono booth.
Anime schedule was weird.  Absolutely everything interesting was shown in the early morning (like 8 am or earlier).  I realize that's my preference and whatnot, but yeah... that was strange.  We actually ended up watching NO anime (at the con) this year due to weird scheduling.  Watched anime instead in our hotel room.
Press registration closed an hour before regular registration (which is when we told him the deadline was) so my friend couldn't get his badge.  Nobody working knew why it closed early either, which made him extremely angry as he was bounced from four different people.  So basically he couldn't do anything all night.
Bishie bingo attendees don't know wtf a chair is for, i.e.: you SIT in it so that people BEHIND YOU can SEE.  If you're a 6' guy, why the fuck do you need to stand on a chair?  Also they created a fire hazard by rushing the center aisle.  Everyone was standing on a chair, which made seeing the front impossible.  Ended up yanking a chair off the end and dragging it to the side aisle because I couldn't see a damn thing.  It would help if the strippers had a stage to stand on.  They did this one year; I'm not sure why they stopped.