Messages

At least the lounge will be near by, but I'm still not looking forward to walking back and forth so much this year.

Let me ask you all a question: is the days of "by fans, for fans" dead?

Lately, there has just been a lot of issues with the staff and no one really knows what, but this tardiness is an indication of a serious problem. It's very frustrating.

One aspect of the con that never ceases to amaze me though is the game room. I don't know who's in charge of it, but they really do think of everything in there! 

I'm in total agreement, and this just makes me sad. If the con is supposed to be by fans for fans, then fans would know enough to not put other fans through this hell. Guests should be set, the website should be set, so many other things should already be set up but they're just stagnating. AFAIK we don't even have a Guest of Honor set up yet for 2014. Meanwhile, I'm looking at Saboten, which is only in it's second year of operations, and they've already got a full guest list 5 months before the con even starts.

Pisses me off especially to hear rumors that some of the staffers are only 'staffing' because they're able to attend for free.

This is Fanime. This is one of the biggest cons on the West Coast. It should be setting an example for other cons, but instead it looks like a flat-out embarrassment to be loyal here. This is the 20th anniversary for the con - the last few years better not indicative of this year or I'm with you. This might be the last year I attend Fanime and stick closer to home with AX.

I'm not surprised that's the case, and to be honest it doesn't bother me too much, as long as they do a decent job. But if not, then they don't deserve their positions, and Fanime's chair and department heads needs to step-in. Although, that's a completely different issue completely.

This whole situation is just a joke, honestly. I feel like I can't vent enough about how let-down I feel over this whole thing! Fanime has failed so far this year, and the only thing I can hope for is a decent con in two months (since they already have my entire group's reg money). But, next year, I'm already excited over all the extra money I'll have for AX instead. We'll see though.

Hopefully once the web site goes up then can start working on the schedule. Maybe this time we can have more than 3 days notice before the start of the con.

I don't really mind the schedule being last minute, as long as it's ready at least before Thursday of the con. Also, as long as they print paper schedules, I'll be good to go. Usually I spend Thursday night planning which panels/events/etc to attend anyways.

But now it's been over a week since the declaration that the site launch would be "soon." After 8 days, "soon" is becoming less relative. 9 weeks until the con and still no website? If it isn't up in the next 3 days, I'm officially calling it quits. I'm done. This is ridiculous. This is unfair to us. This is unfair to the guests of honor. No one giving the con as much money as I do (and have for the past 10 years), as everyone does, deserves this. AX has a site, they have guests announced, they don't make up lame excuses, they don't blame their lack of quality guests on the FANS, they have everything going for them. I'm attending AX from now on.

I am a person who likes to plan, and I hate the anxiety Fanime has inflicted upon everyone waiting for info for AA, the site, everything.

[(seriously, we had to complain on the forums for even a tiny bit of information??)]

At least Dealer's are content with their communication....now it's just the attendee's who are suffering. We're a week away from the two-month mark for Fanime, and still nothing except a possibly empty promise of "soon." I know web design is a pain, I know it's tedious, and stuff happens. The head of the web team said that the website, when it is launched, will have a "ton" of information. Still, I don't see how they couldn't just launch the base of the site first, and add information as it becomes available, instead of doing everything all at once and having something like this happen.

I'm so frustrated with Fanime this year, and their absolute lack of professionalism, that it's seriously effecting my plans for next year. AX has their stuff together, I'm ditching Fanime for them next year if this fiasco continues any longer. Not only is Fanime not communicating a thing (seriously, we had to complain on the forums for even a tiny bit of information??), but they obviously don't even care. No courtesy messages on fb such as, "We are sorry for the delay, we're working our hardest to get the site/information up as soon as possible, thank you for your patience," or anything related at all. People making fb comments asking for information as well aren't even being responded to. AA people especially are anxious about whether or not they should start working on product, because they don't know if they'll have a table!



People are literally begging for any little bit of information. But they'll just have to remain anxious and worried because of Fanime's refusal to communicate. (FYI Fanime, as someone who works in communication, responding to people's worries doesn't mean you have to have the information they're looking for. If the information isn't ready yet, you at least respond to them, let them know as much, and attempt to put them at ease. You do not straight up ignore them).

They did have it one year, although I don't remember it seeing it again after that. I would like for them to be there again though :D it was definitely a nice refreshing drink to walk around the concourse with!

Apparently people booked 5 different rooms because they can sell it to other convention goers. So here I am looking for a room to buy from you. Preferably the hilton that can room 6 people. Friday through Monday is what I'm looking for.

Just post it here and I'll get back to you.

I discourage giving scalpers your business. I have no respect for greedy people who feel the need to book extra hotels only to sell them later. Is there any way Fanime can regulate this next year? So many people are on waiting lists without a room, meanwhile you have scalpers squirreling away 5 rooms like vultures. It just isn't right.

THIS SO MUCH! I mentioned it somewhere else as well, but this is a serious issue that absolutely needs to be resolved next year. There needs to be a maximum amount of rooms per person/card (maybe 2?). I don't see how this can not be arranged. If you need more than the maximum, you'll just have to have someone else in your group book in their name instead. This is the only way to make it possible for everyone to have a fair chance at getting a room.

So in other words, selecting which con you're attending in online registration determines which con gets the money from us? That actually makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Also, I'm glad that we got a response from high-level staff from both cons.

Has it always been that way though? I don't remember 'choosing a con' being there until this year o_0

Oh! I'm so happy there will be other Kagerou fans at Fanime :'D I'll be cosplaying as Headphone Actor version Ene/Takane. I was planning it for Sunday too so that works for me ^^

Also, because the anime premiers before Fanime, I was actually thinking about applying for a Kagerou panel. I was just unsure how popular it would be, since it's hard to say if the anime will be well-known to the general public by then. But if there's interest, I'd really like to give it a shot!

[Kanon Wakeshima]

One Ok Rock(amazing stuff o_o)
Kyary
Kanon Wakeshima
Tricot
Maxium the Hormone
Flow
Jasmine

Oh, seconding Kanon Wakeshima! I've been a big fan since her debut with "Still Doll." She's produced by Mana (of Malice Mizer fame), and has modeled/collabed with Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Volks :D she also collabs with the bassist from An Cafe (who was at Fanime in 2008), also named Kanon.

Locking this post so I can reply. I'll unlock it after I'm done replying.

[Edit: Unlocking now. For real this time.]

Going to make comments on random things here and there on dfens post. I'm hoping that these will squish some of the rumors going around and each and every one of you is free to always send me a PM.

- dfens post is largely incorrect. FanimeCon and Clockwork Alchemy each have their own budgeting and Clockwork Alchemy doesn't "take" any money from FanimeCon's budget. This wouldn't be a smart move as an ever growing convention such as FanimeCon usually needs more money, not less.
- The guests being "lame" is a separate issue that has been covered many times. There is simply no way of getting the "perfect" guests for each of our attendees, which is why we constantly make posts and reach out to attendees to see what type of guests they would like. Our GR team then uses that + market trends to get guests that we hope would be amazing enough for you guys to enjoy them. Keep in mind that although it happens, it's less common for people to comment when a guest is good than bad.
- No one on staff has ever denied that the registration issues were bad. I, myself, have commented many times that they were bad and that our registration staff has been spending this entire planning year on working on them. The current goal right now is to post a "what's new" on Registration so people can be familiar with the new space that it's moving into (as well as how the line flow will work).
- The comment about the FanimeCon convention chair wanting to put that "he ran 2 cons at the same time" is laughable as Clockwork Alchemy has their own set of convention staffers (including chair) and most of us don't work in industries where our convention experience is relevant enough to put on our resumes (although in all fairness, it's always a bit of a cool thing to bring up ;)).
- FanimeCon and Clockwork Alchemy do share the same registration backend. The Clockwork Alchemy registration was more of a soft test to see if it would work. If we had 25% of the people at the Fairmont over there and something massive happened, we would have been screwed. We know now what ended up happening at the Fairmont after the fact.

- The website launch is super late this year. I know it, the webteam knows, it, you know it, everyone else knows it. We're really close to launching with a *ton* of information. There's no real excuse for ever being late and it being under my division, I take blame.

Thank you for coming to address these concerns directly and regaining Fanime some face!

To address the issue with "lame" guests, I was most excited in the last three years for Flow, Yuya Matsushita, and 7!!Oops. However, before then, Fanime had even more fantastic guests for all people. Still, while I understand it's not possible to please everyone, I think Fanime needs to look to Sakuracon and AX for examples. Sakura-con has just confirmed a large number of guests from the Attack on Titan anime. I don't think they necessarily waited for people to tell them this, it was just common sense. Knowing the current trends is part of booking guests. AX does the same thing. They've had guests from Crypton Media (Hatsune Miku) and other popular industries/anime/bands because they know these guests would please the fans, without having to ask the fans. I know this sounds crazy, but it works!

About the website not being up-there really does just in general need to be more communication about these sorts of things. It really is unacceptable to keep fans who are putting down so much money in the dark, and causes unnecessary anxiety. The fact that Fanime has not communicated to the fans at all about it until just now is extremely unprofessional, and such a thing is largely damaging Fanime's credibility. A convention as large and seasoned as Fanime should know better.

Now this is just my own curiosity, and I know it's not the norm for a con to release such information, but I really am curious about how Clockwork receives their money to operate then? If they're not taking money from Fanime registration, how can they afford to run their convention? Even with table fee's accounted for, it still seems a bit unnerving.

Hey, so I'm trying to submit my panel but every time I click "Submit Idea" I get this message:

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /home/secret_fanime/apps.fanime.com/2014/fanimelib/phpmailer/class.phpmailer.php on line 599

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/secret_fanime/apps.fanime.com/2014/fanimelib/phpmailer/class.phpmailer.php:599) in /home/secret_fanime/apps.fanime.com/2014/panelform/process_form.php on line 69

Can you help me?

I got that page too, but also still received the email confirmation that they received my panel. Check your email. It seems to be just the page not displaying, but the submission still goes through.

Last year there were a FEW panels in the Fairmont (one of them I was co-hosting) and it was kind of weird and out of the way.
The rooms were nice but the experience was definitely different from hosting one in the Marriott.

What surprises me is that they're holding panels away from the convention center even with the increase of space from last year, but hopefully that means the space will be used for hella exciting things!
I doubt they'll let close-proximity spaces go to waste, to be honest.

Yeah, one of the reasons I dislike staying at the Fairmont is that it's a hassle to go back and forth between the convention center and there all weekend. But it seems it doesn't really matter now. I'm staying at the Hilton, which makes me even further away now x-x

That's the main thing I was thinking of as well....a big new con center, but apparently no room for panels? It seems very strange. But, as you said, I'm hoping that means they have some exciting ulterior motive! [Although, knowing this Fanime staff...=_= that seems like a bit of a stretch]

...has the badge discount always been a thing?

It has actually. But you only get it if you register at-con.

The Fanime splash page has just been updated with a link to panel information. Apparently panels will be held in the Fairmont this year. Personally, this seems like a huge hassle, but being optimistic I hope it will work out. I wonder what the rooms in the Marriott will be used for now though? Or will they not be used at all?

[Communicate.]

This is so ridiculous. It's not even that the website isn't up yet, but the fact that there has been no communication! If there's a delay, don't keep us guessing. Communicate.

One more let down, and I'm just giving up on Fanime. 11 years of attendance, and I'm dropping it in favor of AX. I've given them enough chances to clean up their act.

Guess you where not there at the feedback panel at the end of Fanime. The board of directors answered the same exact questions.

It may not be word for word but the gist is this.
What they said, Clockwork Alchemy has it's own staff, finances, etc. What Fanime does share is it's web support and it's promotion.

So there you have it. That is at lest what they told the people at the room.

I sort of have a difficult time believing that what they said is %100 true. So if they have their own finances, those finances come from table renting. I'm curious if that is enough to cover an entire con/web support/etc.

While we're on the topic, I'd just like to chime in that I actually personally find mailing out badges way too problematic. There are so many things that could go wrong (badges not arriving on time, badges not arriving at all, post office issues, etc etc). Furthermore, people may show up and claim their badges never arrived, get a new one, only to have lied and give their now free extra badge to a friend (or worse, scalp it at a discounted rate and make a profit). This could potentially just lose way too much money for the con.

I personally think that they just need a better system for distributing badges at-con. Last year was indeed a nightmare, and when my group and I finally made it to a window, the girl was very nice, but very chatty; stopping her work to talk to us about something completely random and therefor my badge took at least five minutes to distribute. The majority of this was her just standing there and making small talk. I remember thinking, "Geez, no wonder we were in line for five hours!"

I don't have an immediate solution to offer, but I believe Fanime has the resources to create a more efficient system.

I think that with everything brought up, it can be agreed that the main issue is the combined registration. You have Fanime attendees paying about as much as usual (maybe a bit more), and then the Clockwork attendees who don't care about Fanime spending $50-$60 for a smaller con. To be honest, I just don't find this very logical. I know Fanime considers this an investment opportunity, but I still don't see why they just can't have separate registration?

I think this would be fun! As a fan I would attend for sure. I haven't been to a lot of panels but they can really vary in format, where you thinking maybe a mulitmedia piece, such as powerpoint and videos?

I was thinking a mixture would be good. I want to include some discussion/info (Perhaps talking about the series' impact in Japan and overseas, special event info from Japan, trivia, etc), as well as videos, music, and such. I think too much of either tends to be a little boring, but having both evens out the experience :) I'd also love to do games or a quiz with prizes, but we'll see!