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Below is the same response I posted to the Pretend FanimeCon FB Group prior to the contention:

*snip*
I'm a part of the Video team and the reasons for this are not what people think they are. Please note that this isn't because of special knowledge on my part, but I understand how Video works at FanimeCon and the complexity regarding the rights holders and showings.

The Video Rooms not happening is due to the combination of video rights holders as well as entry requirements for the convention center itself. A little known fact is that there are no badge checks for any of the video rooms at FanimeCon. This is because the rights holders allow FanimeCon to show videos, but don't allow FanimeCon to charge for them. This has worked in the past because the video rooms have always been located outside of the badging areas. While some rooms may check for ID for 18+ events, badges are not required.

This year, entry into the entire convention center requires a badge. This is for vaccination verification purposes. Since the entire convention center has restricted access, Video cannot show anything due to not having the rights to charge. I hope this helps people understand why this is the case this year.

For my own events, Midnight Madness and Hentai Music Videos are being held through the kindness and patience of the Programming and Panels teams, but those are special exceptions and it took a lot of work to make it happen.
*end snip*

From the Q&A session at the end of the convention, there is a hope and intention to bring back all sleeping departments (including Video) next year.

But how did this work then when in pre-COVID years, badge checks were being done at the entrance of the convention center itself and not the individual rooms? I remember that change happening, as beforehand non-badge holders could just stroll through the con center as long as they did not enter any rooms.

I was unaware that there was a brand behind these. I will see what I can do about controlling this issue in the future.

Yes, Amuse is a Japanese company that produces toys for UFO catchers in Japan. But, the alpaca/alpakasso series is incredibly famous and because of the mass crazy to get them, many companies in China began producing counterfeit/non-Amuse brand alpacas. I don't know how Amuse feels about this, but the Chinese companies have even begun to replicate the "Amuse" tags, so many websites have popped up to tell fans which alpaca's are fake and which are legit.

I appreciate it very much! I will also be more careful with seeing the price breakdown before signing for a payment.

[Hotel Stayed:]

Hotel Stayed: Hilton (first time!)
Nights Stayed: 3; Fri-Mon
Amenities: Mini fridge mini fridge mini fridge
Helpfulness of Staff: VERY!
Roomshares?: 5 of us stayed here (2 on each bed, one camped on the floor). There was plenty of room!
Pros of Hotel: Close to dealer's hall and game room, $25/night deposit, let us check-in at 10am, super nice staff all across the board
Cons of Hotel: Parking is very limited, but we did luck out. Elevators were slow, but they asked at check-in if we preferred a low or high floor, and we requested a low floor. Were put on the 4th floor, so stair access was possible when elevators backed up. Other than that, no real honest complaints!
Would You Stay Again: Absolutely!
Recommendations/Suggestions/Misc: Get there early enough to nab a parking spot!

["Elder Chan."]

I bought two things in the Dealer's Hall that left me a bit irked afterwards.

First off, a doujin dealer with a sizeable amount of doujin who was on the right side of the hall, about half way down. I pulled out two doujin, which were both wrapped in plastic and marked with clearly printed price stickers. The doujin I chose were priced at $19.95 and $24.95. After tax, the amount was around $48. I paid with a card, and the receipt was emailed to me. Yesterday when I got home and checked my receipt with the price breakdown, I noticed that the dealer had charged me $45 + tax. I know this is my fault for not being more careful, and is rather nitpicky, but I absolutely do not appreciate that the dealer rounded up the price from $44.90 to a flat $45. To me, this is a sneaky tactic to skim some extra off the top, and after numerous transactions, could result in a small additional profit. The receipt listed the shop as "Elder Chan."  I don't know what I'm looking for by posting this, but I'd like it to at least be known that this happened in the dealer's hall, and while the amount is so incredibly insignificant, I do find it very dishonest and sneaky.

There was also a dealer who was selling lots of real arpakasso Amuse merchandise. I jumped on a legit small macaron alpaca, and the seller emphasized that their merchandise was real, and not fake. However, my friend bought me a large alpaca from them, and it did not have the Amuse tag that mine had on it. Rather, it has a tag that even I don't recognize. Does anyone know D.E?  It's very cute and the rare pistachio color I was looking for, but I'm not happy that she specifically told us both were real, when only one maybe is.

Did anyone have a similar experience?

It's quite complex, and the terrain has changed since I started in cons ~10 years ago.

One of the biggest factors is essentially out of our control: the industry is not what it was 10-15 years ago. The novelty of exporting culture has worn off on the Japanese side, and the dollars aren't flowing like they used to, either. On top of that, digital is decimating entertainment as an industry world-wide. This factor alone makes it unreasonable for Japanese guests to come to the U.S.; I don't know how many times I've heard from a guest that they're losing opportunities by doing conventions at all.

An aside: My favorite counterpoint to this, though, is GAINAX. There is no reason for Yamaga-san to come every year, but he does. And occasionally, like this year, he can bring along some friends. It's not for money, or exposure - that's for sure. As far as I can tell, he just loves Fanime and the attendees. For him, that's enough. And that's why we announce him every year, even though it's expected: that kind of dedication deserves a little attention.

This would be a decent excuse, except that there are other conventions who seem to be having no troubles at all booking Japanese guests. Fanime needs to stop blaming it on everything else, and own up to its shortcomings, instead of pointing the finger everywhere else. It's getting old.

*Yawn* I'm sorry, but if this is the best Fanime can do still, I'm really glad I'm quitting Fanime in favor of AX after this year. I know I've been posting without a filter lately, but it's seriously bothering me at how such a large and experienced convention such as Fanime can be so terribly boring and sub-par, after many wonderful years in the past. Heck, this is honestly a Sac-anime level GOH list this year.

[attendee's]

We really appreciate the suggestions, however the process is more like the GoH picking us as opposed to us picking the GoH. While there are many nuances involved, basically your suggestions drive us to contact the GoHs. However, it may be that our contacts do not have established relationships with your suggestions and so we need to develop that relationship from fresh. While money does play a role, if the GoH is already booked or simply not interested for any reason, we will not be able to get them regardless of how much green we throw at them. We will keep on trying and please keep on suggesting, or we will end up getting the GoHs WE like (while our interested may overlap)...it will be more like FanimeStaffCon as opposed to FanimeCon:)

This is possibly one of the rudest responded I've ever heard from a staffer. You guys have TONS of wonderful suggestions, more than you could possibly know what to do with, and yet you still continue to blame your attendee's for the lack of exciting guests. I've said it before and I'll say it again--other conventions, smaller conventions, manage to book amazing guests. If you're saying that you don't have good contacts, then you'll just have to broaden your horizons. No, not "consider" doing so. Do it. Your lack of professionalism and caring continues to show.

Ironic because the real joke is that it is officially April and there's still no website.

This is sadly not unexpected.

Two years ago, they dropped the ball on registration. (I'm not giving them a pass for the lights going out anymore.)

Last year, they added the Cosplay Masquerade and B&W Ball to that.

This year, they've already added Artist Alley and the website/information in general to that, and the con hasn't even started yet.

Furthermore, they've relayed to us absolutely nothing whatsoever about what they're doing to fix the previous years problems. Or if they're even doing anything at all.

I really wanted to give them a chance to improve, but I can no longer when their first official comment on registration came 8 months after the con and was "expect to wait a very long time Thursday, Friday, and Saturday."

Either they don't care about fixing it, or don't have the resources to. Both of which are big problems.

This leaves The Dealer's Hall, Game Room, Viewing Rooms, and MusicFest as the only parts of Fanime that might still be intact. But none of these are worth waiting in line 6 hours for.

I've been a loyal attendee in the past but the probability that this year is not going to be a complete mess is very, very low.  I live within walking distance of the convention center and unless something miraculous happens I'm sitting this year out.

People have brought up the fact that Fanime's manager/chair position is held for 3 years, and then is passed on to someone else. This is the current manager's third year. This has lead people to believe that the recent year's atrocities were due to a bad manager. No one really knows for sure, but I believe this is at least a comforting fact for many of the attendee's, who are hopeful that after this year things will improve. Still, that doesn't change the fact that this year has been the worst yet, and has already caused a lot of people to throw in the towel altogether.

On a side note, I'm still worried about MusicFest this year. It's by far my favorite part of Fanime, but considering the fact that there has been no announcement of guests so far, I'm worried that it will even still be happening.

Yeah, there were a few posts this afternoon where someone said the site was finally up, one person fell for it and was confused as to why they were still seeing the splash page, and a few others chimed in that it was just an April Fool's joke.

I thought it was actually pretty funny, but apparently Fanime thought otherwise...(I mean, obviously it was just a joke??)

Ironic because the real joke is that it is officially April and there's still no website.

FYI it is Aprils fools day. Must be the reason why it got deleted.

The irony is hilarious.

Haha holy crap, were the last few comments actually deleted by a mod or is there some "technical issue" happening?

Took another 5 whole minutes to organize it a bit better by adding some simple borders.



But yeah, I think the point's been made. This was just a theme I snatched up real quick through google and added the info to. As with most tumblr blogs, there's also the option for additional pages and custom links.

Anyways, I hope Fanime's site, which apparently was originally ready to launch "at the end of February" goes up soon.

[30 minutes]

To make a point, I made a dummy site for a made-up convention:

http://fanmade-anime-con.tumblr.com/



A theme, links, and posts all on one page, and I did it in under 30 minutes. Now, I'd like to point out that this is by no means the most optimal theme type for a convention page, and obviously a much more professional page could be made. My point was to create a page to display how necessary and important information could be easily added to a simple layout in an extremely minimal amount of time. Now, how Fanime can't manage the same thing is beyond me.

[kind]

Ah, I guess I should've been more specific. What I was meaning was, which kind of guests have been booked and have yet to be booked. Such as music fest guests, industry guests, etc. I wasn't asking for the specifics. I know Fanime can't tell us anything until they've been officially booked. I've been going since 2010, actually.

That would still be out of the question. Bottom line, until the contracts have been completed, we don't get to learn anything, which is completely understandable. But since the mod has stated guests "are being booked," we're curious who those guests are who have been officially booked. Or, knowing what kind of guests have been booked would be nice too at this point.

I agree. My only questions are basically what guests will we be having and which ones have been booked, and which are still not booked yet? And as far as events go, are there any special events planned, with it being the 20th anniversary?

Also I agree, I don't really care how the website looks, as long as it has the information that we need about the con. Heck, I kinda prefer basic-looking websites over overly fancy ones, but that's just me.

Fanime can't give information on guests who have not been officially booked, but knowing which guests have already been confirmed (aka, contracts and agreements all completed) would be nice at this point.

But yeah, I'm curious if there will be anything special for the anniversary as well. Not anxious about it, but certainly curious.

[four weeks later?]

I find it crazy that the website was supposedly ready a month ago, but technical/compatibility issues could not have been solved now four weeks later? We don't want a fancy website, we want a functioning site with information. If it's basic as basic gets, we don't care, we just want something. Heck, there are tumblr themes that could have done the trick.

In terms of information that I'm interested in, I am also anxious to hear who the "confirmed" guests are so far. But if that is out of the question, then I am equally anxious to know if music fest is happening?

Thank you for posting and giving us an update. I've already mentioned this in the other thread, but I think an important suggestion to reiterate is that if there isn't an answer to a question that attendee's are asking, you do not continue to ignore them. That is absolutely the best way to cause unnecessary anxiety. It also caused the frustration and anger that you saw in the thread, which in turn cemented many people's decision (including mine) to stop attending Fanime completely. Such a thing could have been avoided with simple communication. When there is no direct answer, you at least acknowledge a person's worries and let them know you have heard their concerns. Again, this lead people to believing that Fanime doesn't care about us, doesn't care that they don't care, and there was nothing we could do about it.

I'm going to be blunt, and say that despite "technical issues," being this late with the website is still absolutely unacceptable. I hope the problem is taken care of swiftly, and the launch is soon, but my plans for next year have already been decided by the lack of professionalism so far this year.

[Fanime, just talk to us. COMMUNICATE. Is that so much to ask?]

If you check the facebook, most comments are people wondering about the website. I wouldn't really count the recent fb updates as anything really important, so you can tell they're doing it as a means to appease us. Obviously, that's not happening. At this point, it is definitely a concern that this con is even happening.

Fanime, just talk to us. COMMUNICATE. Is that so much to ask?

On a side note, I hope that if there are guests of honor being spoken to, they're receiving better communication and are less frustrated than we are. If they have a bad experience, they won't return to other cons to meet fans and that would be extremely unfair.

I am so done with Fanime. Unless they have an amazing guest list,  I am just attending for the dealer's hall at this point. 8 weeks until the con and no site, and 2 weeks since they promised us the site would be up "soon". I wish I could file an official complaint in this type of situation, because people are angry and people are demanding answers that they're not getting, while Fanime is holding onto their hard-earned money. 

Fanime, shame on you. This will be my final year. Good riddance.