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Messages - bmhahne

#1
I have about 90 anime CDs that I'd like to move out of my garage, and my feeling is that Fanimecon swap meet might be a good place to pass them on to a good home. So if you're somebody who is already planning to be at swap meet and would like to make some additional money, I'd be fine to work out something like this:

- You sell the CDs at swap meet for whatever you can.
- You keep half of the funds earned.
- Return the unsold CDs and the other half of the funds earned to me.

I'm based locally (Sunnyvale).

If anybody is interested in doing this, feel free to email me at [email protected]

Thanks!
Bruce
#2

Quote from: SOawesomeness on May 28, 2013, 01:29:07 PM

... I am actively thinking of how to speed up the process as much as we can... Unique and very different ideas that think outside the box are incredibly appreciated.

Thanks!


Fanimecon folks:  The registration problem is a simple matter of queue throughput.  You have Nx1000 people in line, you want to get them registered in 60 minutes, and you should be doing cycle time time estimates well in advance to compute average time per attendee that your on-site process requires.  These 3 pieces of information (estimated queue depth, max 1 hour delay, cycle time per attendee) give you the data you need to compute the number of booths required to handle peak load (hint: more than 8, try 30). Tweaking your process with separate lines for intake and badge distribution, or with stickers vs. preprinted vs. handwritten, doesn't address the fundamental problem of insufficient system throughput.

"Ideas outside of the box" shouldn't be necessary here.  There are dozens of pop culture conventions in the U.S. that have attendance at least as large as Fanimecon.  Get on the phone to the director of registration of 3 or 4 of these conventions and ask them about best practices.  Call up the people at ComicCon, OtaKon, AX, ask them what works, what doesn't.  Do they mail badges?  Do they outsource to a third party that rents and manages onsite badge-printing kiosks?  Do they simply throw people at the problem?  Find out.

Registration staff also needs to do some reading about queueing psychology.  There is a human psychology of waiting, with a known set of activities that both increase and decrease human perception of wait time.  A few sample links:

  http://davidmaister.com/articles/the-psychology-of-waiting-lines/

  http://www.slate.com/articles/business/operations/2012/06/queueing_theory_what_people_hate_most_about_waiting_in_line_.2.html

Fanimecon needs to staff up for registration.  If you don't have sufficient volunteers, you need to pay staff, or (equivalently) move to a kiosk-based approach where the initial intake process is replaced by a machine.  If Fanimecon doesn't have the funds to pay sufficient staffpeople to run registration booths during peaks, then you need to raise your ticket prices so that you have the funds.  Your attendees are willing to PAY MORE to spend less time in line.  Do the budget, hire the people, and give your customers what they want.

Operationally, there were other obvious issues as well:
- Artist Alley registration not opened until April.
- Many Artist Alley registrants waitlisted for an extended period of time.
- Failure to publish any birds-eye-view map that included South Hall in any printed registration material.  So one of the most popular activities changed locations to a venue half a block away, and the convention didn't bother to provide a map to its attendees.
- Clean drinking water not readily available in South Hall.
- "Wind tunnel" problems in South Hall (this will show up in the AA feedback forms).

Competition heads-up: As an Artist Alley participant this year, I was approached by a sales representative from Japan Expo, which is entering the San Francisco Bay Area market this year after (he claimed) 2 years of market research.  This convention had postcards out on the Fanimecon tables this year.  The first Bay Area Japan Expo is Aug. 23-25 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and the sales rep claimed that the sponsor organization SEFA Entertainment is going big, aiming for 17,000 attendees this year, their first.  I'll believe it when I see it, however that's nearly as big as Fanimecon.  Santa Clara Convention Center claims 320K feet of available space, while SJCC has only 223K square feet, and that's only when South Hall is included.  The rep claimed that their leadership team includes multiple senior people with experience at various U.S. east coast conventions. They're publicizing Artist Alley tables + 2 badges for under $200, which is below Fanimecon's 2013 pricing.  If this convention launches big this year and gets a reputation for efficient execution, you can expect to see Fanimecon's attendance base shift over a period 1-2 years to the competing convention.  I'd suggest that Fanimecon should treat this as a warning shot across its bow.  The new kid in town is after your customers, and you're going to have to step up your game to compete.

I wish ARG the best of luck with its efforts to improve Fanimecon customer experience in 2014 and beyond.

Bruce Hahne ("the Anime Angels guy")
Artist Alley 2012, 2013
bruce at maronmedia dot com
#3
Hi everybody.  I'm pleased to announce that we just launched the Kickstarter campaign for Anime Angels, a 66-artist original character 100-page artbook project.  This project has been in the works since Fanimecon 2011, and about half of the participating artists were in the 2011 Artists' Alley.  We also have a lot of international contributors - it's amazing how many people from different countries have participated.

The Kickstarter page is here:  http://kck.st/xxAxVU
or you can look at the book splash page at  http://www.AnimeAngelsBook.com

Thanks!
Bruce
([email protected])