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[Nina Star 9]

I'll pin it, but per tradition, Nina Star 9 should start it.  :D

It's been over four years and I'm still here, a castaway among ruins. Only now did I notice the terrible typo I made so long ago.

[ewu]

Please enlighten us. This is the thread to "Discuss" about the event, no?

The truth is that there is a massive conspiracy. A conspiracy to organize the feedback into a single, measurable workflow so that it can be properly dispersed and analyzed, and later used to evaluate performance and eventually improve the event in a systematic way. ;)

That's not to say that the forum is inappropriate for feedback, and I can't speak for ewu, but I do figure it was meant for constructive purposes. The thread is still around, on the first page, so it's not a matter of hiding things.

Now I'm curious. I hadn't even heard o this event. Can anyone elaborate? ( Without the complaints)

The staff running Cosplay Spectacular (aka the Masquerade) this year were new, and there were problems. The thread is still around so you can see the full details there.

For staff, it's a fantastic mix of exhaustion, work, and depression. The only fix is hanging out with fellow staff and recounting stories. My favorite memories are from Monday night, hanging out with staff in hundreds of thousands of empty square footage.

Now if you want something weird, ask what Fanime is like on Tuesday, or Wednesday pre-con. :P

PM sent!

Where's the step where I just want to sleep for a year? :)

That would go under the depression stage.  Join the club!

Ah - but you see, staff undergo an entirely different kind of psychosis after FanimeCon. It's less "PCD", more "PCPTSD". Symptoms include confusion, desperate eating, and calling ConOps upon waking.

For example: last night, I woke up trying to figure out how we could schedule an additional panel for Asamiya-san.

[MPLe's]

In reference to this thread: http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,17230.0.html

I'm extremely confused about who we booked for MusicFest.

As director of Guest Relations for FanimeCon 2012 and a balloon enthusiast, my understanding was that my staff booked employees from a bankrupt shipping company to discuss logistics and finances in modern-day Japan. I have now heard rumors that this is not the case, and that the keynote speaker, Chiba, is in fact a musical artist who may be related to a Japanese vocalist - and/or MPLe's cousin.

As this convention's motto is "By Fans, something something", I'm hoping one of you Fans can do my work for me and explain who Chiba is. Frankly this confusion has been devastating to our guest acquisition process, truly stressful and irritating. I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but maybe a nightmare's younger brother, or something.

I was hoping someone from Guest Relations or someone who actually knows could clear this up.

Hi. =D

That story is incorrect. We do reach out to domestic guests. We talked to quite a few this year, including Vic. He could not attend due to scheduling, unfortunately. (It was pretty surreal to see him show up at the final staff meeting, though. I hope he enjoyed the cookies.)

That's about as much as I will say, though. The Hows and Whys of guest relations are very sensitive and very complicated.

The next week was filled with yearbooks, meetings, long drives to Berkeley, waking up at 5:30 every morning to work on aforementioned papers and projects even though they were due Tuesday...

Congrats on Cal. I suggest you hit up Amanda's, Yogurt Park, Cheeseboard, the original Peet's, and Love at First Bite. The dollar ice cream place is good if the BHS kids aren't around, too. If you see Mr. Poitras on Telegraph, say hi.</former Berkeley resident>

For Tony, his regular non anime related paying job is his vacation, and Fanime is the soul crushing labor.

This is true for the senior staff. ;D Maybe this is PCD, but life is quite slow and serene outside of con.

I don't know if it's been considered before, but if each stand were in charge of their own alpha group (A-D, E-H, etc by last name), then the people in charge of filtering through thousands of badges would only have a certain group of cards to look through? It's something we use at school to a fairly high efficiency, I just don't know if it would work out well at Fanime...Just an idea to consider...

I'm not totally familiar with registration anymore, but we used to do things by last name years ago. More recently, I believe registration started storing and picking badges by their numeric ID. That way, you're just looking for a simple set of numbers, instead of all those crazy letters.

Also, there's confusion with names like Tony De Guzman... is that under D or G? And there's always a ton of people under N for Nguyen. Numbers are pretty simple, comparatively.

As for anti-counterfeiting measures, this is a very interesting topic - but of course, don't expect us to talk much about what methods we choose...

Just a thought, but would it be a plausible idea to find a guy who would be willing to pull this off like the last person?

Yes, definitely, now that we have time. I might do it, if no one else will. It was difficult given the timeline we had to replace him, though. He was truly a rockstar with the pocket guide, and it's not easy to fill those shoes in a few weeks time.

[I am totally guessing here]

Also have to ask: Why was there so much confusion about the photography rules? The staff probably changed their positions at least 4 times! I'm glad in the end it was allowed, but to be honest I was expecting photography to be allowed in the first place since it's a panel. Was there a miscommunication or what...?

There was a bunch of factors that led to confusion, including past policies and how Yoshiki was feeling day-of. Generally speaking, musicians in Japan (or their management) are very picky about photos and appearances. Unfortunately I don't have much insight.

I am totally guessing here, but I think we simply asked Yoshiki what he preferred when he arrived, and he gave the go-ahead.

Just to give you guys a tidbit, we did know that the pocket schedule was unlikely to happen. A very talented staffer had managed that from end-to-end in previous years, but he could not join staff this year. We had a strategy to mitigate this, but due to some miscommunication, that strategy wasn't followed.

We should have more information later. Unfortunately I can't turn back the clock and fix the major pain in the ass we gave to our attendees, but we'll certainly address it for next year.

Not officially speaking, but there are a number of factors which make us decide to host or not host next year's pre-registration at the convention. It's partly why we don't announce it.

[Himeno's]

If anyone's looking at this for next year, picking up on Thursday is pretty much a nightmare. There's nothing like starting off the first real day of the convention with sore feet due to standing in line for 2.5 hours! I really regretted that ... Just go early Friday morning. (Though I guess if everyone does that, then it'll be just like Thursday. sigh. I love Fanime, but I do wish some things were done differently.)

There is one reason that the lines have been such a nightmare on Thursdays this year and last: letting Early Reg pick up the same night as pre reg. I'm hoping that Registration might re-consider this policy after having two years of pretty intense Thursday night lines.

The only reason the lines were a 'nightmare' on Thursday is due to ineffective management of human resources, further complicated by the design of the badges.

Would you like to explain your observations?

Bait taken. I would also like to hear Himeno's insight. ;D

What are you doing in your post-con days?

Post-con...? Such a thing doesn't exist! We've already started on next year. Welcome to the FanimeCon 2012 pre-con season! ;D

I was told that the company...

Sorry, that's incorrect. Just want to jump in and stop that rumor there. :)

We should get a clearer picture of everything by next week. We are very sorry for the situation and are working to fix it for next year and beyond!

Ok, my filter is a bit off tonight. ;D Too many meetings!

[Everyone.]

  Btw while on the subject, who else was extremely irked at that line -_-

Everyone. We will be addressing the room issue.

It's really rough - some of our staff got emotional about it all as well.

You're right, though - we'll just have to convince him to come back, and really show him some Fanime awesomeness. I think he responds the most to the fans - maybe we can organize something from all of us.

For now, though, time to recuperate. I wonder if Yoshiki got me sick, haha...