Messages

Fanime can have whatever policies/procedures they want, that is their decision.  However they should NOT make one rule for one person and then another rule for another person.  That is where the staff is being horrendously unfair this year.  Yes someone will always dislike a rule here and there, you can't please everyone.  But at least the staff could say that they were fair and upheld the same standards for everyone.

I think the easy way for Fanime to handle this situation is simple....just sell the exhibit space, just like every other convention.  After all the artist is liable for something that is copyrighted or bootlegged, not Fanime.  A lot of artist alleys and dealer's halls are really starting to get in the individual's business about what they sell and such.  I do not think anyone should be able to tell any artist wether or not what they sell (custom buttons, plushes, keychains, etc.) unless they are the license holder, or have direct proof that what the artist is selling is a bootleg or replica/licensed item.  I have several friends who sell buttons and plushes, totally their own patterns and designs, but based on licensed characters, that because they are fanart, are not permitted to sell in the AA.  Why doesn't Fanime just sell the tables as exhibit spaces (which is what they are selling to artists after all), and just make very straight forward clear cut rules about what can and can not be sold? Attendees love buying fanart in artist alleys too.

2) lack of tables:  obviously the first round of tables this year were sold out in I believe under 2 days.  There are a lot of tables at Fanime that should be open to other artists.  I think limiting one table maximum for an artist is good, as it allows other artists an opportunity to participate.  Most other cons only allow up to 1 full table per artist.

No, no, no. The two table limit was just fine, considering I didn't see very many people using up two tables for one artist at all. The people taking up multiple booths usually have multiple people under one company name, or approximately one assload of merch. I realize this is an old post and we're gearing up for round 2012, but you may not realize the importance of table space to the latter. I'm sure there's cases of some people "just being greedy" or simply not knowing how to organize themselves onto one table, but I make a dealers hall volume of merchandise for Fanime that does NOT fit on and under just one table. It's the one con that can (Could. Apparently the one table limit has been enforced) afford me double table space, and the one con I can actually sell that much at. Being able to display everything is absolutely crucial to making as many sales on the spot as possible -- all the more when your financial state depends on how well you do at fanime. Any other con, I have to leave most of my products at home -- unfortunately it's not as simple as "just leaving some stuff in the hotel room". Besides; every year I've gone, there has always been a handful of completely vacant tables. No-shows that never even get filled with waitlisters. There's no point in limiting everyone to one. Two is fine.

Just had to complain about that. :p

Well looks like they did make a limit to one table per artist registration anyways, so that was a good call!  Taking that artist alley sold out in about 15 minutes this year only proves that there is a high demand for artists at Fanime, and limiting to one table helps everyone get a chance to get in, so that was fairly done!

Bottom line is if you have so much merchandise that you can not fit on a table, it means you have enough merchandise to justify making good money, meaning if you require that much extra space you probably belong in dealers hall anyway.  That way it makes more room for the small artist who is trying to make money for a living or school or something, and not pulling in several grand with multiples tables spaces full of merchandise.  So dealers hall would prolly be a better fit for higher volume artists anyways.  Even so, you can still keep a lot of your artwork stored under or behind your table, if you file and organize properly there are many ways to keep a lot of product not on physical display, but still advertise them.  I have a lot of products too, and I keep them in binders and pull them from under my table storage when someone wants to buy.  I have also seen other artists have a laptop with a slideshow catalogue of their work that they do not have room for display, makin it cool and easy to see other various works.  So there are a lot more solutions to consider.

On that note, this thread is pretty much used for its original purpose, so I would recomment it being closed.  Thank you Fanime artist alley staff for actually considering your artists' opinions and making changes for the better this year!  Registration was easy and awesome! ^_^

Yep, I say switch em!  If you can even get just a few more tables for artists it is worth it.  There is a demand, and there will always be artists that want to get in that don't make it and will be upset, but if you can even help a few more artists get in it will be worth it.  Game room would not suffer from losing that little amount of space.  Plus if you look at the poll on the fanime.com website, it says that after cosplay, the rest of the people (that have voted on the poll at least) come to the convention for the artist alley, so we know what the peoples want!  ;)

Well hopefully because this thread is here, artist alley staff will notice that there were issues that artists had and will hope to fix them next year.  I run my own artist alley at a different convention, and I know that whenever I get any negative feedback whatsoever I do whatever I can to make sure that those complaints AT THE VERY LEAST get addressed if not fixed for the next year.  That's kinda staff's job after all is to help run a successful event for the fans and attendees to enjoy (at least I hope thats what it's about! XD)

Regarding the mailing list/communication problem, the easiest wayt o keep things updated is always to update the website first with the new info.  Then you write out a generic announcement that "the artist alley registration date has ben released" or "new rules added to the artist alley page", copy and paste the exact same thing onto twitter, facebook, email list, etc.  This way, all the announcements are the same and will avoid confusion.

The main communication problem this year was lack of info on the website...when last year it was that the registration info was given on the forums and not on the website.  ALL of the main info should always be on the main site, so that artists know that that info is what is the final say on it, no ifs ands or butts.  The mailing list should not be to give artists info, but moreso to announce that the website has been updated with either registration/rules/other info.  Mailing lists are important to keep your artists informed, as stated previously we can not tell when a website has new or old information.  Plus it is just a nice guesture to your artists because they will know that the staff has their back and is keeping them well informed!

Regarding the badge issues, it is kind of silly that Fanime will not refund badges for artists who missed the cutoff, and can not afford to attend the convention.  Easy way to fix this is to make badges like exhibitor spaces in the dealers hall, where each table gets a certain amount of exhibitor badges per space.  In artist alley cases you can gie one badge per half space, 2 badges for full table space, and if any additional badges are needed those could be requested seperately for an additional fee.

"I would like to see the con pre-registration combined with the cost of the AA table. I'm coming to Fanime to work Artist Alley. Having the con reg be non-refundable, non-transferable is understandable; however, if I don't get an AA table, then I do not get my money back for the con reg. Other conventions where I've done Artist Alleys and/or Small Press, the badge is included with the cost of the table. It would cut down on the uncertainty of folks waiting to see if they get an AA table or not, especially because right now artists have to register for the con separately and then wait for AA table reg. I'm local, so last minute plans to get a table isn't a big concern as compared to someone who is trying to make travel arrangements from out of state."

I definitely agree with this idea!  Fanime requires that a badge be purchased in order to have an artist alley table (no press badges, program participant badges, etc).  So it might just be easier to combine the two.  Obviously the only reason that I can think of it being an issue is that the convention registration system probably operates seperately, since the artist alley registration account had us manually put in our badge numbers.  But maybe there is a way to combine them in the future so that their registration for the badge database gets updated as well!  (whew, lots of technical mumbo jumbo, sorries!)

Hey all!  Artist Alley was really fun this year and I think that it was overall successful!  I am not Fanime artist alley staff, I was just an artist that participated at the convention.  I did however notice a few things that I think are not in the artist's best interests, and wanted to make a thread for the artists who participated to post their thoughts and opinions of the alley here, since there was no feedback or survey given at the con itself.  Hopefully this will help everyone who participated get their two cents out to the con so they can make changes if they want to for next year!

PLEASE NOTE, this should not be a flaming thread, please keep any complaints given in a constuctive fashion.  if you had a problem with something, maybe suggest a solution to the staff that they might like instead of just complain about it!

Here are the only complaints that I had, as well as some ideas how I think they might be fixed in future AAs:

1) lottery system?:  Tables ran out fast, and a lot of artists were put into a lottery system to get in.  I personally do not liek the lottery system at all, and think that no matter what it should always be first come first served.  This is the most fair way to register any and all who are trying to, as opposed to only having the first half of people wanting to get in using a first come first served basis, and then having a different group of registrants have a lottery system.

2) lack of tables:  obviously the first round of tables this year were sold out in I believe under 2 days.  There are a lot of tables at Fanime that should be open to other artists.  I think limiting one table maximum for an artist is good, as it allows other artists an opportunity to participate.  Most other cons only allow up to 1 full table per artist.

3)  registration:  The registration system was nice!  everything was straight forward, and the steps made it easy for people who did not have things like their sellers permit handy.  I did not have any problems with the registration system, except for the fact that the link to the artist alley account login page was not easy to find on the website, and I had to email the dude in charge to get the link to log into my account.  Otherwise nice job on the account section itself though!

4)  checkin for the table:  I can understand liability and not being able to put your stuff down before checkin, but it still takes way too long to get all the artists checked in.  most of the artists waiting for checkin were waiting in front of the hall well before 9am.  Obviously we know people love their sleep and need time to setup and such, but it might be nice if you can have some earlier checkin hours for those who are there early.  Also having a few more staffers just for the initial checkin proccess would help checkin go much faster the morning of.

5)  announcement for no future mailing list:  This was probably the most upsetting thing for me about the AA tis year.  We were told when we were leaving on Monday that AA staff would no longer be sending out emails for a mailing list next year, and that we would just have to check back on the site for info all the time.  There was no explanation for as to why they are doing this, which does not make much sense.  it kinda sounds like a bad idea, because the Fanime website was not clear this year regarding artist alley updates, and when registration would go live, etc.  All it said for the longest time until AA registration actually opened was that "AA Registration is not open, check back again" or something generally along those lines.  People have to plan for things like this, get plane tickets, book hotel rooms, etc.  But without some dependability and assisstance form the Fanime staff and resources, we as artists can not depend of if we MAYBE get into the artist alley.  Of course a lot of artists want to get in and it is competitive, but there is no reason (least not that I can think of) that the staff should not have a simple mailing list to inform artists on it when the registration will be opening up.

Overall the con and the artist alley was fun, but these were things that I felt needed to be addressed, and I knew of a few of my other friends in the artist alley who felt the same way on some of these matters.

Again, I post these points as constructive criticisms, and I relally hope they do not come off as harsh or bitter!  I love Fanime and I love artist alleys, and I would love to see it grow and improve in favor of the artists, and believe that everyone should voice their opinon (again in a constructive manner! XD)  Thanks!  

any info on getting those table assignments?

nope you're right, theres no way to get that status from what I can see...so how are we supposed to get that info on the Fanime website?  When are we going to be emailed seating arrangements?  Why is it taking so long to get responses form AA staff via email, it seems like a lot of people on this thread email [email protected] and get no reply.  ????

I am very upset.  I went to artits alley last year and got in no problems.  I have been sending emails to the artist alley email this eyar almost once a week and have gotten no replies, only to find out that I am now only on a waitlist.  Can someone please let us know why we have been waitlisted?  even last year there were still empty tables all weekend, so there should be plenty of room.  any answers?  I am out of state and need to make plans for this con, and I can not go if I am not in the artist alley. 

So...when is the Press Registration going up?  The website is lookin kinda bare bones right now and I can not even find a Press Contact email on there.  Any idea when this might be going up?