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*tosses hearts at the staff*

Request for next year! Mamamoo - Ahh Oop!

:D I hope to stop by and visit a lesson this weekend. I hope none of y'all (bwball staff) have forgotten my face! :-P

Since Tony has been sharing, I wanted to add/chime in about MusicFest that was brought up in a different thread regarding why MusicFest has seating whereas other cons/concerts have open flooring.

1) It costs time and money to take away all the chairs and then put them back the next day for Masquerade. Time (for Union to take those chairs and put them back) and money (to pay Union to do that because the Civic is a union house, meaning all the work is done by the Union and you have to pay them to do that work) that is spent on more fun things like instruments for the band to play on.

2) The one time we decided to have an open floorplan in the Civic was for An Cafe in 2008. When the doors opened, everyone rushed in to try to get to the front of the stage. There were people milling about while waiting for MusicFest to start and it made the Civic look about half full. There were some attendees who didn't want to get squished and sat in the upper sections. When An Cafe took the stage, everyone rushed to the front and packed in so tightly that we (staff) were worried for the attendees who were potentially super squished. We ended up rescuing a few people that night and they were able to breathe.

After the concert, the band and their management were super apologetic about not being able to bring more attendees in because to them, the Civic only looked a third full (in full squish mode). The MusicFest staff apologized back and tried to reassure them many, many times over that it is not their fault and that was the most successful MusicFest to date.

As a side note, the Japanese do not have the same fire code regarding crowd capacity as we do here in the United States. I've been to a few concerts in Japan and they like to squish together but not to the point of being unable to breathe. Whereas the crowd for An Cafe was dangerously tight and we had Rovers constantly looking for people who were super squished and making sure they were okay.

When Con was over, Val (along with her staff) and I agreed that having seats would be the better option since it would make it so the Civic looked fuller, people had a place to put their stuff (and not poke other attendees's faces with their peacebonded weapons), and people can breathe without being squished.

This is my first time coming to Fanime from my current residence (Berkeley), so I'm not sure either how traffic usually is the Friday morning of con, or how the public transit closures will impact traffic further (they do not directly impact my travel, but people being rerouted may impact my travel). If I want to leave Friday morning and get to a photoshoot at 10:30AM, what time should I leave? According to both google maps and 511 traffic, it usually takes around an hour (in traffic) to get to downtown San Jose from south Berkeley, so I was thinking of leaving an hour and a half before my shoot to give me plenty of time, but is this enough, or should I leave even earlier?

My personal suggestion is to leave about 2 hours earlier. That way, if traffic goes smoothly down 880S and you get to Con relatively quickly, then you have some time to find parking, prepare for your photoshoot or get some breakfast. 

Safe travels and have a lot of fun at Con!  ;D

Ahhhh 2008 was a crazy year! And the tickets. Oh man. I still have it somewhere. >.> I think.

I am looking forward to this year's Fanime with my family. I am looking forward to a more coherent conversation with my daughter (as she is still ankle-biter status) as we look at all the amazing things in Artist Alley (and maybe buy her something cute!) and see really neat costumes.

I'm also looking forward to seeing great friends and maybe steal a few minutes for a hug/chat. :D

[will]

Moving past the registration woes - Eric do you think you can shed some light as to what's at least being discussed regarding the Cosplay Spectacular? The ill-will after the event is being left to fester with no response past "we're reading your feedback." I know the staff have jobs and other responsibilities to attend to first but it would help if there was at least an acknowledgement of what happened.

I have been in contact with the current Div Head and she is working hard to make sure that what happened with the Cosplay Spectacular this year will not happen again next year.  She is aware of the disappointment and the anger of all those who participated and watched. There will be changes for next year to make next year's Cosplay Spectacular run smoothly.

Thank you for giving her all your constructive feedback as it will aid in her decision-making process.

I heard several rumors that several veteran staff members left after 2012, including the masquerade director, and while I never saw these confirmed by Fanime staff themselves it is fairly obvious that the rumors were true. Fanime needs to get someone who can run a proper masquerade. I don't see why this would be a problem in a state that is famous for being home to many accomplished cosplayers and several internationally-known conventions. hire someone from out of state if you have to. the masquerade is too important to not have it run successfully.

I will confirm that the Cosplay Spectacular staff is completely new for 2013. Marisa, our former Cosplay Masquerade Dept Head, stepped down for personal reasons after finishing FanimeCon 2012. Along with her, the majority of her staff took a leave of absence as they have been wonderful to FanimeCon and worked for many years. 

The logistics of the Cosplay Spectacular is fairly intricate and, as a volunteer-only con, we cannot "hire" anyone. If you are interested in helping the Cosplay Spectacular run more smoothly next year, please volunteer.

I am going to a panel that's till after 12 and I am just curious on where the Hilton is connected to the convention.  Thank you to whoever responds!

The Hilton is directly connected to the Convention Center. If you are facing the entrance of the Convention Center, the Hilton will be to your right. You can enter the Hilton on either the first or second floor through the convention center as well as the main street entrance on Almaden Boulevard (Cross street - W. San Carlos St.).

It's been a few years since I went to a concert at Fanime so I had a quick question do they charge admission to the music fest even if you have a badge? Or is it free but once it's full and you didn't line up early you don't get in?

Long time ago concerts were separate from the con and had tickets.

MusicFest is a free event to all those who hold a valid membership (i.e. Full Weekend Badge, Saturday Badge) to FanimeCon. There are no tickets for this event. Once the San Jose Civic reaches capacity for the concert, they will not allow members to enter unless there are people leaving the building.

Also, MusicFest has always been a part of FanimeCon. I believe that the only time MF had tickets was when An Cafe was our musical guest.

@Alejandro Cuba - Just a quick correction on the second map. The building you have labeled as the Montgomery Theatre is actually the San Jose Civic. This is where the Cosplay Spectacular and MusicFest are held at. The Montgomery Theatre is a much smaller venue sandwiched in between the SJ Civic and The Tech Museum on Market Street.

Excuse me for the double post... But it is now August and I still have not received any acknowledgment of this issue? Are there any Masquerade 2012 staff available to be contacted?

Please email [email protected] to reach Marisa about your award.

Just as an FYI, the only major anime convention in the United States that mails out their badges (that I know of) is Anime Central.

Masquerade: Long opening acts were LONG -- and didn't help the Ball-Masquerade time conflict.  I wasn't timing last year, but I seem to remember this year's preshow (band + karaoke winner) running something between 45 minutes to an hour.  As bitchy as it sounds, I come to Masquerade for the cosplay; maybe consider shortening the opening acts and saving the bulk of it for intermission?
And speaking of: had there been a capacity cap reached such that they were turning people away at the doors for the Masq?  It was odd with seeing quite a few empty seats, but I don't know what the building capacity is.  Just curiosity.

The Masquerade usually has opening acts every year. Each year, we allot 45 minutes for the opening acts. This year, we opted for one opening act (Hideo was only a half hour long) and the winner of the Karoake contest. Previous years, we had as many as 3 opening acts + Karaoke winner.

The other thing that could have made it feel longer is that we moved all the presentation/walk-ons to the beginning.

Whoa. Mikey, you aren't one to just make up numbers.
I think I will hold on to my answer until I get some real numbers.

Ahhhh, let's just say that the cost of this is fairly high and leave it at that. :x

[FLOW autographs:]

FLOW autographs: This was less Fanime's fault, but I was extremely disappointed that I didn't get an autograph. I waited in the line for two hours, only to walk away empty-handed. I understand that these things happen, but I was absolutely crushed. I've never cried at a Fanime before, I've only left with some of the best memories of my life. But I started crying in the middle of the hall, cried off-and-on the rest of the day, and was irreversibly, miserably upset for the rest of the con. For such a huge guest, more than one autograph session would have been nice.

I apologize but the 2 hour long session was stipulated by FLOW's management. We would love to have had another session but it wasn't meant to be.

Well, nix the parts about their music not being my taste.

I do actually think they're talented. I do.

But honestly, I used to look forward to the variety of guests we'd get. I have to say, for me, having a band be a guest again and again and again is crummy for me. Especially with the merged concerts, where I couldn't figure out accurate info about who was performing when.

Let me put it this way.

I loved AnCafe. It was a fun concert. If AnCafe was back EVERY SINGLE YEAR I'd probably go once or twice, then you know what? I've seen their performance. It's a long line to wait in.

I appreciate FLOW's participation, because I know so many people had a lot of fun. This is just my personal opinion. I don't like seeing the same person headline over and over again, and that would apply to almost everyone. (ALMOST.)

And the only reason I brought it up is because everyone else is saying "Let's do FLOW again, for the third year" and I really do want to go to Musicfest again. =/

Also, something I love about Fanime is seeing who is showing up! I love seeing our regular guests, but with big events like Musicfest... I think it's really exciting when those are announced. My first thought is "YAYYYYY MUSICFEST"

Or maybe if we're doing FLOW again have three acts? That would be kind of epic. Especially if we featured different styles of music or something.

I think that people requesting for certain bands to return for whatever number of times is valid. It's equally valid as those who request huge name musicians who are currently on hiatus/just too big for our budget or musicians who tour the United States constantly.  It's okay to request because MF wants to hear your voice!

I believe that we have been trying our best to vary the styles that MusicFest has showcased over the past few years that I've taken over Extravaganzas.

You've mentioned that you want variety in our musical guests. I think this year MF has done extremely well in giving more variety over the past years with Matsushita Yuya (whose style is smooth R&B/Pop) and FLOW (Pop/Rock). They have two very different styles of music and gave us a fantastic concert this past Saturday.  Last year, we had FLOW and LM.C (Visual Kei). The previous year to that, we had Halko Momoi (Akiba-kei). We also had An Cafe (oshare kei) with Ramen & Rice opening up for them.

So we're definitely trying to break out of the mold of just one specific genre and we've been unsuccessful at bringing a female group. We've had a few who wanted to come but they had to pull out due to scheduling.

As for the bigger, "showy" JPop names, that takes us a lot of time (years!) to build a relationship with their label and a LOT of money. But we're working on it.

We do hear your voice for (or against) them but please understand that MF is doing all they can to make some of your wishes come true.

I'd just like to suggest maybe having the dance lessons somewhere nearer to the convention? Or was it mandatory to have it at the Fairmont because of the hardwood floor? It was super cold and walking over there when I know that I had to leave a busy Registration kinda made me sad. o: The fairmont is farrr. >>;; And when I went, there were only... maybe 20 people who were at the lessons so... that kind of space didn't seem too necessary.

(though maybe it was the distance or lack of schedules that made the attendance kind of sparse...)

Err annnywayssss, maybe just have a staff-only after hours lessons (or if there were some, announce it in an e-mail during a meeting)? I disliked having to leave Reg Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to attend dance lessons. o:

The dance lessons were moved because the General Programming Division Head was working with Dance to utilize the J (where the B&W Ball's dance lessons were previously held) for other programming.  The lack of printed schedules impacted the attendance of the lessons as well as the fact that all the lessons were held in the Fairmont. But I think it's nice to have all that space to practice in without having to bump into people while trying to remember where your foot is supposed to go next.

I've made announcements about the hours for staff lessons for the past 7 staff meetings before the B&W Ball Head opened up the private lessons to the general public. I'll see if I can get our awesome note-taker at the meetings to include it on the emails he sends out in the future.

The Battousai shikishi is absolutely amazing!!!! *_______*

It is also the only one of its kind in the entire world.

i was watching fanime 2011 videos on youtube and came across the acrobat....i'm so bummed I missed this...I was so busy i probably wouldn't have gone..but was this somewhere on the schedule?

We had the Vespertine Circus do a short performance to help us kickstart FanimeCon during Opening Ceremonies.