Messages

San Jose Marriott
Thursday-Monday

Disclaimer: I wasn't able to secure the room I wanted through the Fanime housing, so I booked through the Marriott directly.

Pros:

• With the mobile check-in/out app I was able to confirm my arrival time the day before the convention and my room keys were ready and waiting for me when I arrived.
• Rewards members get free wifi! :)
• Refrigerators and lock boxes are complimentary in each room (lock box is particularly helpful for those of us vending in AA, Swap Meet, etc.)
• The elevator situation wasn't so terrifying this year! I don't think I ever had more than a 5 minute wait at the busiest times.
• The staff very helpful, polite, and quick to communicate any issues.
• Speaking of staff, they were very accommodating of payment at check-out. I had everything listed to a card for check-in but wanted to pay in cash for a lot of the fee from AA profits and put the rest of the fee on the card. They were able to help me out with no issues.
• THE LOUD PARTIES WERE GONE. I normally bring ear plugs to cons these days, but I was SO relieved to learn I didn't need them this time!
• Remodeled rooms!
• In and out privileges with the valet. LOVE this.

Cons:

• The air conditioning in my room was pretty weak. I'm assuming it's because I was on one of the top floors, but we had to keep it set at the lowest allowed temperature to keep the room comfortable.
• Seconding the question for the weird climbing metal men. They ended up being a great place to hang my badge up without losing it! lol

I don't think it's open yet. You can read more on the official Swap Meet Info thread here: http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,20552.0.html

I'm gonna pipe in with thanking the Artist Alley and web staff with getting the applications open and final acceptance announcements before the end of January! There are obviously still kinks in the system but it REALLY REALLY HELPS when we can have some peace of mind knowing what's going on and whether or not we have a spot to begin preparations.

23 days to go - is there any chance of getting up update as to when we can actually pay for our tables and/or begin the table selection process? Most of us are half expecting to show up at con with our payment in hand.  :-\

You can usually just go to whoever issued your card and ask them to raise the cap. If you've had your account open for a while and in good standing there usually aren't any issues. Simply let them know you need it raised and by how much.

If that isn't an option, yes you can pay in cash. You must pay the entire fee up front when you arrive/check-in. They may still ask for a card (credit or debit) for incidentals on the room (fees due to damages, room service, parking if it wasn't taken care of at check-in, internet fees, etc.). These will either ultimately be charged to your card or you'll have to pay cash to resolve your balance at checkout.

I understand that your anxious for word (lord knows I get the same way waiting on AA), but I don't think the forums are so busy that bumping the thread every day is necessary. I'm sure as soon as it's ready/allowed to be posted you'll see it. :)

Aahhhhh - I'm glad to see it's at least moving SOME! I was getting anxious it wasn't going to move at all given the setup this year. I'm still not holding out much hope my waitlist will push through though. I didn't get to register till the 3:00PM block on the 25th and there are already lots in front of me. xD

I am not a staffer, but my roommate is.  Everytime I read these forum posts of trolls and complaints and think about how much time he invested and put into FanimeCon it makes me mad.

Blanket statements like the one "you want to see change - join staff!" are the ones that make me mad. Nevermind that I'm a paying contributor to one of the exhibits advertised on the con's page and one of the largest draws to the convention itself in Artist Alley, but I've TRIED to join staff. And guess what, it ended up the same way.

I wanted to see real change in the department I'm passionate about, so I wrote in. I applied. I even began lengthy talks and phone call interviews with the department head and everything was seeming to work out great. But then suddenly everything stopped. No word. No email. I couldn't get more than half a second of conversation out of them. So yeah, I gave up after I got dead air responses for months. And what do you know, AA communication just took a tank when they decided to close the official FB group for the artists.

Should more people join staff or volunteer? Probably. But when then convention itself seems uninterested in acquiring said help? Adds another layer to the complaint, don't you think?

From Artist Alley, I'm hoping to find:

...
- Steampunk stuff!
...
- Miraculous Ladybug prints, stickers etc

I hope to see some of these things available in artist alley! What are you guys hoping to find? Add it to the thread so artists reading the forums can know and might take the advice!

FYI, there's also a "Bazaar" or an artist alley of sorts over at Clockwork - so if you're looking for a great selection of Steampunk specific stuff you'll likely have better luck over there!

As for Miraculous Ladybug, staff have specifically asked artists not to sell merchandise of their property. So while it's entirely possible you may still find it in the AA, chances might not be good as artists tend to try and respect explicitly stated requests like this one. (Similar to policies on Homestuck, the old policy on Undertale, etc.)

Kyra has a really good point. We have to remember that Fanime is run by fans, and they have other jobs and other priorities out there. And while some of us are complaining and annoyed by the lack of communication, what do you think the staff members and the Chair people are doing?? They aren't just sitting around thinking that everything's gonna magically be complete by the time con rolls around. No, they are most likely either tending to their families, at their other job that isn't Fanime-related, the list goes on. But they do what they can to make this convention still happen. Has there ever been a time where Fanime had to be cancelled? No. Then why are we complaining??

Because some of the very people they're not communicating with are the ones who are technically part of the convention. Artists have had nothing but silence since judging results came out and our supposed "pay or forfeit" date was supposed to be 3/31. There's NO information whatsoever on Artist Gallery. From my understanding the dealers are still waiting on packet information. We're less than 60 days out, and where's the professional registration? Or Press? No additional word on Swap Meet (and they do have a fairly regular presence here in the forums - kudos, seriously!!), the list continues.

"For Fans, By Fans" will only get you so far and there's only so much quarter we can afford them before it starts to have seriously negative repercussions.

Nobody has any new information. I believe the most recent word anyone has received was from a fellow AA participant on the unofficial Facebook group: "I just got a response to an email stating table payment, badge pickup and sellers permit submission processes are not yet available and they'll notify us by email when it goes live."

Unfortunately, AA staff isn't always the best with communication - most of us artists depend on eachother to get our information. If you'd like something a little more responsive, try joining our FB group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/524602201051505/ FYI: It's not moderated by any Fanime staff, and  not endorsed by the convention in any way. When the Official FB group was dismantled for this year/going forward we decided we'd make our own hub. Nobody else wants to keep us informed, so we take care of our own. ;)

Fanime Staff have confirmed on the Facebook page that there is a separate block of hotel rooms set aside for Professional Registration.

https://www.facebook.com/FanimeCon/posts/738962006136027?comment_id=738965396135688&reply_comment_id=738969526135275&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D

And everything for Thursday/Friday-Monday within walking distance of the convention center is officially gone. At least with first come first serve I knew what I was getting. This new system has done nothing to help me or any other artist showcasing at this convention.

All the 2 bed rooms for the hotels closer to the con (i.e. not airport) are gone now, and there are barely any king rooms left even. Artists couldn't buy tickets till they were accepted in to the alley, and that puts our registration blocks at 3pm today, so fanime is making us shuttle or uber with our items  :-\ this is the opposite of better. Last year i found out about registration late and i still got a 2 bed at marriot, this time there's no chance.

What makes me even more upset about this particular situation is that whoever is running the official Fanime FB page has disclosed that there is a special room block set aside for professional registration. Uhhh, really? Would that have been so hard to do for the artists alley as well? You don't even have to set aside a random number. There's a finite number of tables available in the AA, just hold back that many rooms and let us decide first. Anything not taken can get released back to the general public.

Oh, but wait. There I go again asking for artists to be treated as more than an afterthought. Did we get a much better application run this time? Sure did! And thanks for that! But lugging my wares up and down the street to a decent hotel (or heaven forbid on a tiny bus) is sure gonna ruin the mood.

https://www.facebook.com/FanimeCon/posts/738962006136027?comment_id=738965396135688&reply_comment_id=738969526135275&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D

The phone number and email address are supposed to be where you can be reached since it's YOUR business. If you have Fanime's contact information listed all the communication that would be essential to you and your business (i.e. tax information, filing instructions, etc.) would go to them. And the staff's not going to sift through it all to forward it on.

As for the NAICS, I usually go with NAICS Code: 711510 Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers

Hope that helps! :)

I have 1-16-16 on my calendar as hotel reg open date, from Facebook.

There hasn't been any formal announcement from what I've seen - do you have a link to the source for that?

Artist Alley had a Facebook group until just recently. Unfortunately when they announced that applications were opening they simultaneously closed the FB group - much to the disappointment of many. Staff in this department has a history of being difficult to reach and that isn't helping. There's no Fanime AA specific twitter I'm aware of, just the standard Fanime one.

As a way to try and keep others informed, a bunch of artists have started an Unofficial Fanime AA Facebook group, you can find it here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/524602201051505/

Not that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure you just request to join and wait for approval (it doesn't usually take very long).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/353623101458005/

This was posted to the AA Facebook group just a few minutes ago:

Hello! We are done with reviews. Our tech gurus are finalizing the system details, and decisions will be showing up in your emails once the switch is flipped. Keep an eye on your inboxes! Also, we currently have a soft April 15th payment deadline which should be reflected on our Artist Alley info page soon. We will push this back if necessary.
Best of luck everyone!

It depends on what kind of taxes you're talking about:

• If you mean sales tax reporting, you only include sales that were made to and in California.  So that would include everything sold in person at a California Convention and any online sales you delivered to a California address.
• If you're talking about your personal tax return ALL of it must be claimed as income. If you kept good records of your receipts and mileage during the year you can itemize you expenses and get deductions. But all income from any sales outlet must be included.

If you're that confused, I do recommend calling the BOE. They're certainly the most friendly and willing to help of any government body I've worked with. And they can help you with most if not all of your taxes on the Sales side. In either case you should probably consult a CPA for detailed questions. Cover all your bases. :)