Messages

"All that rotating staff means is that your con chair is a rookie every three years or so. It's a great way to ensure that nobody gets good at their job."

Reality is that the past several Chair's for FanimeCon have been very educated on how a convention operates and what needs to be done.  They have all held Division slots for several years (which means that had to have held department slots for several years before they were moved up to Divisional slots) before they were offered the opportunity to be interviewed for the Chair position.  All of them were interviewed by a panel of their peers, the candidates had to be reviewed by Senior Management and their past convention work experiences were discussed.  It's not a simple process and while the Chair Team can bring in their own team members, like vice chairs or special advisers, the vast majority of the staff remain in place.  I know personally, because I've gone through it.

As for the staff, there is always going to be staff rotations every year, no matter who is in charge.  That's just a fact of convention operations life and if you had any experience with it, you would have known that small piece of information.  You have people who burn out on the job, people who transfer between departments or division and people who just want to take a year or two off, because of college, family life or personal life changes.

If you own a black and white ghillie suit and want to go to the Black and White Ball... Okay, but it's a little wierd...

I'm an old fart, who has been around conventions for four decades and I'll tell you what was told to me all those years ago...

Spanx is a priviliage, not a right!

If you are willing to wear it in public and the local codes don't make it illegal, than it's a personal problem that you have and why would you punish the rest of us.  Booth babes are just a fact of life, just like people who don't get Anime.

Look up this guy's rules for costuming, they still apply to CosPlaying too...

Rostsler's Rules

C.

[Hotel]

Hotel: St. Claire

Would you stay there next year: Yes

PROs: Quiet, centerally located to the Fairmont, the Marriott and the Convention Center, easy access, old world charm, very friendly staff, frig's (if you ask) and a lobby area with a fireplace...

CONS: Nothing that stands out for me...

Special Notes to Share: Be prepared to see what a hotel rooms was like before modern box rooms became the norm.  I like the painted cielings and oversized showers.

The Marriott hotel finished construction shortly after the 2002 WorldCon in San Jose...

Sorry to see the fountains go, I always thought they were a waste of space, never worked right and tended to spray on people when the wind was blowing...

Just my opinion...

C.

Not to start a panic, but when it does open, whatever date that is, I'm personally going to wait a few days and watch the forums.  Once the word gets out, the rush to pay will probably be massive. Image a few thousand people trying to register at once...   :-\

Than there are those rushing to get hotel rooms...  :D

I have two adult memberships I need to buy and frankly, there are ten thousands other people just waiting for the green signal flare to go up and once it does, the stampede over the net will be ugly...   :o

Of course I have afford to wait until the next tier to pay, but I'm not everyone...   ;D

Hello, my name is Jacy and I am with CMR. The deposit that you are asking about is basically to guarantee that you have enough available funds on your credit card to pay the hotel. The hotel will take an authorization on your credit card for the amount of the room plus tax and an additional $50-$100 per night of your stay to account for any possible incidental charges that you may incur (hotel restaurant, Starbucks, room service, etc.). If you use a debit card, the funds will actually be temporarily withdrawn or held in limbo so that they are inaccessible. If you would like to avoid this hold/deposit when you stay at a hotel, you can give them cash (equal to the amount of the room plus deposit) then pay at the end with a credit card and get the cash refunded to you. You can just pay in cash as well and not use a credit or debit card. This process is used by hotels so that they can guarantee payment from their guests. I hope that this helps! 

Jacy, it's Craige.  If the attendee elects to pass on use the phone or having the mini-bar removed from the room and pays for the all the nights in advace, why would they elect to give the hotel and additional $150?  It's not a demand payment, right? 

C.

You know, those stats are Fanime proprietory info that I dont even have ready access to, but becasue Fanime started as and is targeted at anime clubs, our attendace seems focused around HS and College age. But in the end, a large portion of our attendees do not have full time jobs and thus less affected by the downturn.

Actually the demographics for FanimeCon are well known for those who lurk in the right shadows.

The core is from 13-27 years old, with the medium age at 19.1 years old.

Ratio wise, it's almost a 50/50 split for gender.

The vast majority are from the San Jose area, followed by Santa Clara and San Francisco areas.  We have more people come from California, followed by Arizona and than Oregon.

What impact will economy have on FanimeCon?  There are way too many factors that could affect the number of attendee's, including the price of gasoline, tax breaks for big business (like the hotels, airlines and city of San Jose), how the global economy is weathering the slump too, it effects the type of people FanimeCon can get from Japan, there are the effects of businesses closing their doors for good, like production houses that make the anime's we enjoy, the voice actors out of business, the bands that play for MusicFest, and so on, and so on...

Basically, we are a cheaper entertainment than going to Disneyland for four days and unless you want to play World of War Crack for four days non-stop, it would harder to find a better time to spend with your friends.

C.

I explained the concept in another post and it goes something like this:

Let's assume that Fanime gets 1,000 new attendees every year.

In the early years, like five plus years ago, that might have been true; however the numbers are twice to five times that amount each year.  In 2002 the total attendance was about 4,500 (give or take a few hundred) and in 2008 it was just short of 15,000.

While you have the jest of the idea of how attendees come to stay at Fanimecon, the numbers need to be larger, much, much larger. 

The problem is downtown area only has only a certain number of available rooms each night, like 1,700 room of them to sell, this number is counting the Marriott, Hilton, Crowne, St. Claire and Fairmont Hotels.  There are smaller properties, such as the Montgomery and Ramada hotels, but they don't really off set the count enough to make it worth counting at this point.

Right now about 700+ of those rooms have been taken up and we still have 16 plus weeks to the start of the convention.  I would guess by the middle of April the Fairmont will be sold out, which means the next group of hotels will be the ones going down the light rail line.  The Hyatt and Doubletree properties and when that occurs it will open up a new Pandora's Box of issues.

If you are smart, you would book now.  Otherwise you might find yourself having to take the light rail just to get to the convention center.

C.

well according to this site, we had 13,000, making us #9 of the big ten cons of the US of A.

http://www.animecons.com/news/article.shtml/800

Lady Hoshi,

I might be able to provide you with some insight as to the numbers...

Registration, meaning Pre-Reg, Early-Reg and all the At-Con Reg's came to 13,685.  If you count Press, Staff, Industry, Guests, Dealers and Comps, the final number is 14,926 or just short of 15,000.  The URL that you quote hasn't been given these numbers and frankly I don't know why they haven't, but they should get them from someone official at FanimeCon.

Craige...

Gah! I can't stress enough about this!

I'm going to Fanime Con '09 on bad conditions, and I'd like some tips on how I can still have a blast Dx.

-Going alone [ UGH! DX]
- Limited money

So, what should I do? ;.;
I'm not the most social ever. I tried talking to a few people at the con, but they just sorta looked at me weird and walked away e.e
Should I try being social again?
Oh yeah.. another horrible thing..
My parents won't let me go alone Dx so they're coming with me.
We're gonna stay at the hotels though, the whole con weekend.
So, yeah.

Any tips for still having fun?

Hi, welcome to the wonderful world of FanimeCon and yes, PyronIkari I sure meant well, but as usual for him, has his foot in his mouth again.  It's not necessary to be social to attend FanimeCon; it is quite possible that you have other interests that don't require you to interact with other people around you.  It's the same in the real world too.  However, if you choice to interact with others and you are wondering how to get it started, there are several different methods to do it, one way to meet people is at the registration lines when you are literally surrounded by others that have your same interest, anime.

If you would really like to meet people at FanimeCon, can I suggest volunteering at any one of number of different departments, such as volunteers, or registration or Rovers?  It would allow you to see what it is like behind the scenes and you will get to meet the staff, who would be more than glad to introduce you to their friends. 

While I'm sure that having your parents in tow isn't what you would call the highlight of attending FanimeCon, it does allow you to expose them to what should be considered a fan friendly environment and if it would help, I would be more than glad to have lunch with them on Saturday and talk to them.  There are probably younger than me, yes that means I'm older than they are and yes, I'm a parent too, so maybe I can talk to their concerns and fears.

Again, welcome...

One important thing I learned about the hotels is, even if you pay for staying at the hotel x amounts of nights, the price is not set so therefore you should have a couple hundred dollars extra just in case. There was a deposit for each room we booked, we took a couple of things from the fridge, and there was the movies charge. You should not watch movies that the hotel provides. It's actually a lot cheaper to go to Blockbusters to rent movies and watch them on your laptop.

Actually the price is set and can not be changed by the hotel, unless the number of bodies in the room increased from two to three or four bodies.  If the hotel rate is $100.00 per and includes all the taxes and when the bill comes and its more than that, you need to contact the CMR REP immediately. 

C.

Really? Even if the people in the room incur additional charges by using the phone, ordering room service, etc.? Also, the deposit thing has been constant and is always stacked on top of the initial charge, it's just that they refund it a couple business days after the con's over.

But please, if they shouldn't be charging us deposit fees let us know, because for the last 4 years or so I've been paying my room fee +150 dollars for deposit ($50/night).

Base room rate, not the add on things, but however, how many of the attendees are willing to assume the charges for the phone, at about a buck a minute to use it, when the vast majority of the attendees have cell phones, making room services charges (paying the higher end pricing, 18% for delivery plus taxes, plus, plus plus), when they have enough issues paying for base food and as for other charges, it depends.

You shouldn't be charged a deposit, because you need to tell the hotel that you wouldn't be using the phone nor having room service or using any other service and they can't charge you.  It's really that simple.  However if on the other hand, if you planning on using those services, yeah, you will need to pay a deposit or use your AMEX card and it wouldn't matter.

C.

One important thing I learned about the hotels is, even if you pay for staying at the hotel x amounts of nights, the price is not set so therefore you should have a couple hundred dollars extra just in case. There was a deposit for each room we booked, we took a couple of things from the fridge, and there was the movies charge. You should not watch movies that the hotel provides. It's actually a lot cheaper to go to Blockbusters to rent movies and watch them on your laptop.

Actually the price is set and can not be changed by the hotel, unless the number of bodies in the room increased from two to three or four bodies.  If the hotel rate is $100.00 per and includes all the taxes and when the bill comes and its more than that, you need to contact the CMR REP immediately. 

C.

This is Fanime proprietary info, but I predict 300,000,000.....it may be a bit optimistic though....more than 12?

Eric, there are times I could beat you with an ugly stick.... 300,000,000?!?!?  What are you thinking...  It's a curse for anyone on staff to predict the numbers, especially, anyone in a high position within Fanime.  The last person to tried it was me and I predicted 12,000 for last year and we getting closer to 15,000.  Now you're predicting 300M, OMG, what are you thinking... The entire fracking USA and part of Japan and Europe will be coming to visit, that means the hotel rooms will be going to $5,000 a night, a stale sandwich will go for $125.00 and the convention center will only handle about 50,000 bodies, which means there will be 299,950,000 people looking to get in, wandering around downtown, mugging our attendees to get a badge, registration lines will really be days long and no one gets a break...  Even you...  Just because you cursed us...

C.

I was under the impression that it was a new word, being GLOMPED, created by Anime Fans to express or to do something.  Hence the phrase 'To Glomp' someone, but it turns out that a little research it's actually a very old word.

The original word was GLOM.

To glom on to someone - In Jack London's novels, the word "glom" means  "to steal" in the sense of grabbing something and running away with it.  The Scottish original, pronounced the same but spelled GLAM, means "to bolt down a bit of food."  Both uses are a touch different from the 1960's slang phrase "glom on to someone (or something)," which means to attach oneself to that poor person or thing in an obsessive, pesky way.


I guess all old words come back around to be used by a new generation for their own slang.  But you got to love the idea that glomping is an obsessive and pesky way of touching someone else.

C.

If they sign up for a free President's Club membership PRIOR to your arrival, you will get complimentary internet and local calls. 

All you have to do is visit www.fairmont.com/fpc to sign up. 

When they are here, they'll just need to enter their membership number from their room when they are logging on.

Just thought you would guys like to know...

C.

The Fairmont is offering a Single Bedded Room with a Rollaway for $105.00 per night...  Just in case anyone was interested...

Just booked my room at the Marriott! They actually still have rooms available. Way more expensive though. I'm debating on booking it for 3 days instead of 4. Hum.........

Tak23, what rate are you paying for one night and what was your total bill?

Trying to find out if you over paid or were charged the right amount.

C.

If you purchased at a gun show instead of at FanimeCon and you are 18 years old, you could probably walk around with it and show people what you bought

There does happen to be a law that makes it illegal to bring "Any knife with a blade length in excess of four inches" into "any state or local public building", "punishable by imprisonment" "for not more than one year".  That law explicitly "shall not apply to, or affect" "A person who, for the purpose of sale or trade, brings any weapon that may otherwise be lawfully transferred, into a gun show".  Basically, gun shows have explicit legal exemptions, so just because gun shows can allow something doesn't mean that Fanime can.  That said, I don't know if the SJCC counts as a "state or local public building" under this law; I suspect most of it doesn't.

Either way, carrying "live steel" around is against Fanime's weapon policy.  On the other hand, bokken are explicitly allowed to be carried and peace-bonded if you cosplay, so if you want something to carry around, get the bokken too.  ;)

The SJCCF once rented by a group is owned by them for the duration of the contract within certain legal aspects.  If they are engaged in a Gun Show, it would be legal to carry around the sword.  As for FanimeCon, you are right, you wouldn't be allowed to use 'live' steel on the floor and once purchased, it would need to be removed from the floor.

Craige...

You cannot carry it around... as it would be against the rules and break a few laws at the same time.

You get it in a box, and it sits in your room until you get home and open it and do something with it.

That's not quite the truth, but it's close enough...

If you are 18 years old, you can purchase the sword.  That's the law.

If you purchased at a gun show instead of at FanimeCon and you are 18 years old, you could probably walk around with it and show people what you bought, God knows, I've walked around with a gun at a gun show and the funny thing is no one thought it was a bad thing.  The last show I was at a teenager was walking around with not one, but two swords, bare and no one give me a second look.  That's the law too.

However, FanimeCon has stricter rules regarding edged weapons and while we carry liability insurance, as does the dealer who is selling it to you, there are a number of reasons that we would rather have you not pull it out and swing it around.  The most important of them is that you might hit someone with it.  There isn't a law that says you can't have it on you, but in the same breath, FanimeCon says that you will have no edged weapons on the floor of the SJCCF, period.

If you purchase it in the Dealers Room, you will be instructed and asked to remove it from the Dealer's Room, to either go directly up to your room, if you have one or to your car or if you have neither (you could have come by VTA for the day), you can make arrangements with the dealer to pick it up before the room closes, what do you do after that, especially if the VTA you want comes later.  You leave it at a friends room or ask if ConOps or Rovers could help you out.  I'm saying that they will, but it doesn't hurt to ask them.

All in all, while you can legally purchase it and carry it around, FanimeCon isn't going to allow you do it and will insist that you remove your purchase from the SJCCF as quickly as possible.

Personally, I'm going to be adding to my collection from last year and the 40" does look very nice.

C.