Messages

The entrance/exit-only doors to the AA and Dealers Hall was kind of annoying, especially if you were coming from one end (e.g. Marriott) and had to walk all the way to the other end (Hilton end) just to get in, but I understand it's to speed up traffic flow. Maybe have one side of the door be entering and one side be leaving since there were two people at each door checking badges? I mean, it's a pretty wide door IMO.

How about opening all the doors when the dealers room is closing and not have a thousand people cramming through the same single door.

Seriously the walk to the fairmont is like nothing. Honestly as pointed out above, you could walk to the fairmont and get to your room faster than waiting for an elevator at the marriott, lol.

Or you just use the stairs. I never had a problem going down at the Marriott (except on Monday when everyone was checking out). Only up, and only between 1000 and 1400 and 1600-1900.

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.

i herd from a staff if was a publications  error is why there was no schedules and such so i hope next year they do not go though company again haha also i was thinking a App for smartphone would be cool i used the 3er party condroyd one this year and it was great even had 15 min reminder it would be cool to make that put on the program info and have paper ones as an option too. 

I've been told that info desk thought they were coming 'soon', programming said they weren't coming at all and con ops had no idea what was going on.

What's next? Just arrived home after 22ish hours traveling. Back at work in 18 hours.

Cards like that are cheap. Even cheaper in bulk. Fanime no doubt just got several thousand magnetic swipe cards printed when they got the pre reg and staff badges printed, then handed the blank cards out to the hotels Fanime had contracts with.

[really not]

"Is it possible to just mail out badges?  Fanime grows in attendance each year, and at this rate 5 staffers handing out badges to thousands of people may not cut it.  Is there a reason that badges aren't mailed out?  I understand that IDs are checked when badges are picked up, but only if you're a group leader or group of one.  I think that charging $5-$10 to have badges mailed out would be a great way to make profit, since postage for a single badge isn't going to cost $5.  I would be more than happy to pay that much (or more) if it saves me from 3 hours of standing in line.

If this isn't possible, maybe have more than 5 booths open during pre-reg pickup.  If there's difficulty obtaining bodies, then provide incentives for volunteering, such as picking up your badge without having to wait in line.  Do they still provide double hours on Thursday?"

Mailing out badges is really not a good idea. It creates far too many problems (they will get lost/forgotten/stolen and provide a chance for people to create fakes - just to name a few)

Yes, they need more booths open on the Thursday. Make use of the entire reg area on the Thursday, not just half of it. Staffing pre reg pick up should not be an issue. By Thursday afternoon, the rest of the con has been getting set up since Thursday morning (possibly Wednesday). There should be staff available in other departments to go help reg.

If that is the case, then they should make half of San Jose get badges as well. The amount of people who weren't at the convention, but just passing by the area taking photos...

Two big problems with Fanime (and most cons when they reach a certian size) seems to be the upper leadership is out of touch, and the ability to communicate between divisions/departments.

I've noticed. It generally isn't the 'upper leadership', it only takes one person in the upper levels to bring everything down. It is extremely annoying when (for example) the events team sends info to the promo team to get promoted and the promo team doesn't do it, or even acknowledge that the message was received, then the events team ends up doing their own promo because the people who are meant to be doing it aren't.

Its also almost imposable to pull or shift extra human resources from one. department to another on the fly.

This is exactly was they need to learn to do. Many of the problems I've seen could easily be mitigated if staff from one department went to help another department. eg, the reg problem on Thursday could have been much improved if one or two staffers each from Panels, programming and traders came down to help. By the time reg opened on Thursday, most, if not all, the work needed in some areas should have been completed and a few people from each department should have been able to be spared.

Except for maybe the rovers who seem to be the "Goto Guys/Gals"

I noticed a lot of rovers who either didn't know what they were doing or were 'drunk' on 'power'. I think better training and/or screening of rovers would be a good idea.

Maybe Fanime is just getting too big for the staffers to handle?

Given the state of reg, information, schedule etc, that is quick clear.

I know a former Fanime staffer back home. He helped start Fanime. I don't think he'll be very impressed when I tell him about this weekend.

So... who just pulled the fire alarm in the Marriott?

Yeah. I think these conventions they over charge for badges. Shud be around 10 to 20 bucks for daily passes.

Do you have any idea how much it costs to hire venues like a convention center and event areas of 3 hotels?
Conventions like this cost in the 6-7 figure sum range.

such a comment is only there to show that I have a large amount of experience in these matters. It is in no way a statement of "con X does this, so Fanime should too."

Oops, I did mean "Badges not having the name does more harm than good."

How so? I'm fairly sure that any reason you can come up for this can be quickly ripped apart.

had issues with Reg, so that certain issues, (if fixable) can be addressed.

There is one quick simple fix can can solve or improve many of the problems I have observed of the Fanime reg process.

Get rid of named badges.
You need a badge. You don't need a name on that badge.

I have been to conventions across 3 counties on 2 continents. I am high level staff at 2 conventions (eg, department head level) and have assisted in many areas (including reg) at a number of others. The conventions that have had names on their general attendance badges have had far more problems then the conventions that don't have names.

No sane convention will ever have a dealers room open for more then 8-9 hours at a time.
Once you've worked at a convention dealers booth, come back and say you think it should be open longer. ::)

First photos online from 2011 fanime

anyone see themseleves there?  :)

fanime 2011 photos

They aren't the first photos online. There were Fanime 2011 photos up on ACP on Friday afternoon.

There's been protesters?

So..... Where is this "official Print schedule"??? >:(

It is quite hard to meet up with people if you don't have any offline contact details for them. @_@. And the one person I do have a phone number for won't respond. :(

Did anyone else have badge pickup issues?

Yes. They tried to refuse giving me my badge until I made them actually read the note that was under my entry in the database. I have some other issues, but that is more the fault of my boss and not Fanime.