FanimeCon 2012 Feedback

[SOawesomeness]

Perhaps starting the recruiting process early (like now) would ensure that there isn't a shortage of staff members come May 2013.  Fanime organizers have an entire year to put this convention together.  Similarly, many Fanime attendees plan their entire year around attending Fanime.  My point is yes, we are all busy, but a year is plenty of time gather enough people to help.

Also, when I volunteered for fanime registration, volunteers were not allowed to man computers.  Is this still the case?  Perhaps reverting to manual registration should be another option, especially if there are not enough computers.

We try. Currently we are one of /the/ most staffed departments in Fanime but we could always use more people (hint hint hintttt). And although we have a lot of staff, we really do rely on responsible, reliable people as well-- much like Rovers. It wouldn't matter how many staff we had if we didn't have reliable staff. We will see what we can do to better this. We have a lot of ideas but the more ideas we can get, the better. Definitely having creative thoughts will help us in the long run. I thank all of you for your patience and willingness to help us out. (:

Yes, it is still the case. I hope you can understand why... x.x We do, however, allow vols to help out with basically any other area of Reg except payment. Usually the payment booths are fully staffed though.

[InsaneChan]

Pros:

-Water available in many locations
-Artist Alley looked great this year, but that's thanks to the great artists who came!
-Pocket guides! Thanks goodness those are back. They are amazing.

cons:

-Guests of Honor...Fanime seemed to really fall short on guests this year. Not to offend guests who were invited, but with such a good track record, Fanime really let me down this year big time. Also, the extremely late confirming of all the guests. It seemed that the GoH team was very unorganized and waited too long to try and get guests to come at all.  

-I know I don't need to say it, but registration. This is the first year this has ever been a problem, but I hope it doesn't happen again next year.

-No music playing throughout the concourse this year

---

I don't have much else to point out, but this year really let me down. I'm sorry Fanime, I still had fun, but I really hope you step up your game and win us back over next year. Otherwise, I'm going to keep my money and start going down to AX instead.

[xxxplizit (pogi1kenobi)]

To anyone talking about the doors in gaming, We are very well aware of this.  This is already in the discussion list and a future response will be mentioned for 2013.  =)

2) I was extremely disappointed with eGaming's inconsistent policy implementation leading to dumb things.

I'm just going to say eGaming was so cancerous I'm very much discouraged from returning to Fanime ever again, you can thank them for that.

I'm sorry to hear your disappoint, but what exactly happened?  Please mention in detail so we can figure out the best solution to this.

• Gaming room was tons of fun! I'm glad that they had more tables out (at least I think they had more tables than last year). I really liked the computer area, please bring a few more computers! Also, I am very pleased with the staff in the game room because they were very nice and responsive (probably because a few were friends outside con). But they did help us fast when problems did occur. (which I will say in the con list)

Digital Storm was very happy with the outcome of PC Gaming.  I'll send them this note.  Feel free to contact them about your FanimeCon experience with them.  =)

[Nyanko]

Honestly my only complaint is..........DAY 0 LINE *ooooo shock lol*
ya, waiting around for ooooo 5 hours to then get to the front, have a power outage and then be told that no you cant register with your reg. email on your smart phone SUCKED, big time, and to then have to berate a rover to then speak to a manager just added to the stress level. Now let me be clear about this, i am SO SO appreciative to ALL the staff of Fanime, and i despise having to get mean and ugly with them, i know you guys are tired but so are we and i hated having to do that but i refused to have stood in line for that long to then be told "well the powers out so no you can't use your smart phone, so you can just sit here if you like but you won't get in, just come back and wait in line tomorrow"..........seriously? My badge name matches my id, my address matches my id...just...ugh.
-I know this has been mentioned quite a few times and i agree, every single person i talked to at the con and all my friends who came all agree too: give the option to mail out badges. I would be MORE than willing to pay extra to get my badge in the mail. Because that line, the wait, ick ick ick. Please Fanime staff, please please please consider doing this, lots of other cons do it and Fanime is getting bigger every year and it's only going to be bigger next year.

-There seemed to be a serious level of miscommunication with rovers, now i expect that with the volunteers cuz they don't have the fancy head-sets but rovers? You guys/girls have direct lines to like..everyone! So it got very tiring to have to ask a rover, who then gave an answer that made no sense to which i questioned to which they called another rover who gave a different answer who then argued with rover #1 who then called over another rover in which they proceeded to argue, to which i then just said "nevermind" walked away, asked a con-attendee who perfectly answered my question. I know there were alot of attendees this year so it must of been stressful but, chill out (and on a second note, not a single rover i talked to was nice, NOT ONE, which was just, well, poopy) and if you don't know the answer just say you don't, it's cool, im going to be all "RRAAWWRRRR!", honestly if a rover replied with that i would of said "oh ok, well could you call someone who would know please?". Simple, you don't know or arn't 100% sure you ask someone who does, no big deal, better to have the right answer than a 'uuhhhh' kind of answer.

-OH yes, another CON i had. Black and White ball attire consistencies...So naturally i got checked for my shoes and the checker-in person "hm well let me look at your shoe *grabs my foot and inspects it* ya, i guess thats ok"......ok, violating, but w/e i brushed it off, i made sure to buy proper shoes this year. Get in to ball, then proceed to see at least 20+ other girls with 5inch stilettos...wait i thought those wernt ok? How did they get in? If those kinds of shoes then i wouldn't have needed to spend extra money getting 'proper' shoes, and then why did i have to be so inspected when it was clear i had the proper stuff on. LOVED the venue btw. But cmon now, lets be consistent.

[le_momo]

-OH yes, another CON i had. Black and White ball attire consistencies...So naturally i got checked for my shoes and the checker-in person "hm well let me look at your shoe *grabs my foot and inspects it* ya, i guess thats ok"......ok, violating, but w/e i brushed it off, i made sure to buy proper shoes this year. Get in to ball, then proceed to see at least 20+ other girls with 5inch stilettos...wait i thought those wernt ok? How did they get in? If those kinds of shoes then i wouldn't have needed to spend extra money getting 'proper' shoes, and then why did i have to be so inspected when it was clear i had the proper stuff on. LOVED the venue btw. But cmon now, lets be consistent.

I apologize that you were treated in such a way. There was some breakdown in communication as to what was allowed and what was not between the staff and the rovers. We're working on ideas as to how to solve this issue early on so it won't be happening next year. I'm glad you liked the venue, though! You're definitely not the only one. :P

Thank you for the feedback!
- Rebecca

[Nyanko]

-OH yes, another CON i had. Black and White ball attire consistencies...So naturally i got checked for my shoes and the checker-in person "hm well let me look at your shoe *grabs my foot and inspects it* ya, i guess thats ok"......ok, violating, but w/e i brushed it off, i made sure to buy proper shoes this year. Get in to ball, then proceed to see at least 20+ other girls with 5inch stilettos...wait i thought those wernt ok? How did they get in? If those kinds of shoes then i wouldn't have needed to spend extra money getting 'proper' shoes, and then why did i have to be so inspected when it was clear i had the proper stuff on. LOVED the venue btw. But cmon now, lets be consistent.

I apologize that you were treated in such a way. There was some breakdown in communication as to what was allowed and what was not between the staff and the rovers. We're working on ideas as to how to solve this issue early on so it won't be happening next year. I'm glad you liked the venue, though! You're definitely not the only one. :P

Thank you for the feedback!
- Rebecca

I figured thats what happened, but i know you peeps will work on that and i really really wanted to commend you guys on the venue choice, it was so nice to have room to stretch my dancing legs, i love love loved it, and all my friends did too!

[Maskenlav]

I think fanime should have a complete Rover revamp. They should recruit complete fresh faces for 2013 cause having the same Rovers over and over will seriously add frustration to many attendees eventually. Try to accept more new applicants than favoring returnees? :D

[Eurobeat King]

Did the power-outage on Thursday affect anywhere else besides the Convention Center?  My friend who's staff, texted me and asked if the Fairmont had lost power or not.  By that time I was already setting-up my spot in the Swap Meet, and didn't know there was a power-outage happening.

If one good thing came from the power outage, it was allowing the Swap Meet to remain open until 1:00am, instead of 11:00pm.  :)

On Friday, I packed-up all my stuff from the Swap Meet around 10:00pm, since I sold almost everything that was going to sell.  Did the Swap Meet close at 11:00pm as stated, or did the hours also get extended on Friday night?

[mDuo13]

The Good
* Staff and rovers were courteous and helpful the vast majority of the time
* GAINAX panel was awesome as usual
* Lots of chairs and more tables in the gaming area, put to good use
* Mai Aizawa was a surprisingly good singer!
* New location for Swap Meet worked out well. Sort of out of the way, but the carpet was nice and there was a decent amount of space available. I liked it better in the game room, but it was getting way too crowded for that at Fanime's current rate of growth.
* Yokota Mamoru continued to be a great guest (sketches, Artist Alley; and probably the night panel if it was anything like last year's)
* Video rooms seemed well organized and mostly running on-time. (I didn't spend much time confirming this though)
* The new(?) anti-alcohol rules seemed to help deter some of the most brazen drunkenness.
* Pocket schedules and program guides ready and provided in the pre-reg baggies!

The Bad
* Excessively strict rules on cosplay props, egaming BYOC, dance DJs
* Boring selection in Dealer's Room again. Apparently high prices of booths (or dealer badges) are deterring some potential sellers who might make for more variety
* Yokota Mamoru's Sunday autograph session became a big mess after a while. It was nice of him to stay and sign everything, but the way they reorganized the line (eventually jumping people from the back of the line to the front based on having the same character) was frustrating. I'd encourage people who want full sketches of particular characters to commission him in Artist Alley, and limit the (free) autograph session to a quick pre-decided sketch that's basically the same for everyone. Yokota-san's daytime panel also still sucked (his answers were short and unenthusiastic and several questions seemed to get lost in translation).
* Igaguri Chiba was a disappointing guest; nobody at his panel seemed to know anything about him, and his performance lacked the punch of a real headliner. It was more of a gag than a real concert.
* Mai Aizawa only sung two songs! Between that and Chiba-san, it was a really short and disappointing music fest. Showing us the video of a Vocaloid concert (which by its nature was sort of a video anyway) felt more like an insult than a treat.
* In general, it seems that Fanime got its stuff together much later than usual this year -- pre-reg, hotels, guests of honor, and so on. I hope next year everything isn't so last-minute. I think it can't be an accident that so many notable would-be guests sent us their condolences in videos at MusicFest, when equally big-name guests made it to smaller cons held around the same time.
* Elevators at both Marriott and Hilton sucked, as usual.
* I never went to Clockwork Alchemy at all, and most people I know didn't spend much time there. It seemed like more of a distraction and a diversion of Fanime's time and money than a worthwhile contribution.

The Ugly
Registration. 'nuff said.

[nanashirt]

The Good

* The new(?) anti-alcohol rules seemed to help deter some of the most brazen drunkenness.

Um... believe it or not FanimeCon has always been a dry convention. We just get random drunk people stumbling onto the concourse... Never fails. xD

[Enkai]

Did the power-outage on Thursday affect anywhere else besides the Convention Center?  My friend who's staff, texted me and asked if the Fairmont had lost power or not.  By that time I was already setting-up my spot in the Swap Meet, and didn't know there was a power-outage happening.

I don't know about other places, but I live in a neighborhood just across the 87 from the convention center, and we didn't lose power at all.  That's part of why I didn't even bother with Day 0 lines and chose to just work on my costume at home.

[Makoto]

Pros

*Dealer's hall was pretty nice this year.
*Although personally the Swap Meet was a bit disappointing for me, I am amazed at the space given.
*Had a pocket schedule.
*The gaming area was great as well.


Cons

*Horrible, horrible registration process. This happened last year as well, with the giant line. Please give more thought into it next time.
*GoH. It may just be myself, but they were extremely disappointing this year. Aizawa was okay, but the rest felt rushed and unwanted.
*Although we had a pocket schedule this year, it wasn't exactly helpful. Not organized enough and had me going back and forth.
*Pointless flyers scattered across tables. Why?
*Although this isn't exactly a problem for Fanime, I want to point out that it'd be better if the dealers in Dealer's hall would start selling merchandise from this year's anime seasons? I'm a little sick of seeing the same old things over and over again.

That's probably it.
I am a bit saddened that Fanime is less about anime and Japanese culture and more about the fanbase of MLP, Homestuck, and Steampunk.

[Luca Cantellano]

I really loved this year, but it went by alot faster than the previous years. Looking back, I tried to figure out why... Then I remembered.

* ) The Musicfest... what happened? Was there a problem getting people?
* ) SO MANY PEOPLE. So, there seemed to be twice as many people this year. Should we expand Fanime?
* ) Thursday? (although the power outage would stop this) Can we have more to do on Thursday?
* ) Badge Pictures - I love the pictures-... but it would be amazing if there was an open way to submit our own artwork for this. Maybe an open competition/vote?
* ) San Jose makes it impossible to give away bags at Dealers hall- but can't we buy them for $0.10? At one point, I forgot to bring a bag- but dealers weren't allowed to help.
* ) Fanime is by fans, for fans. However, you can only help if you work or volunteer for Fanime. What if we had polls on the forum or main website? For smaller desicions that we would like to have our own input in?
* ) -while I stare type- It would be amazing if we updated the forum layout/style. Haha, this plain layout is starting to hurt my eyes... :'D
Being anime fans, many of us are talented in graphic design, digital artwork, etc. However, I haven't seen anything that asks for our input or assistance? Many of us would love to decorate the forum, artwork, etc!  :D

EDIT: I noticed everyone complaining about the line? If there are so many people, what do you expect? I think the only way to improve this would be to have a line on both WEDNESDAY and thursday. With both days open, it would cut time for Day 0.

[Luca Cantellano]

*Pointless flyers scattered across tables. Why?
*Although this isn't exactly a problem for Fanime, I want to point out that it'd be better if the dealers in Dealer's hall would start selling merchandise from this year's anime seasons? I'm a little sick of seeing the same old things over and over again.

I am a bit saddened that Fanime is less about anime and Japanese culture and more about the fanbase of MLP, Homestuck, and Steampunk.

The flyers were open advertisement for people. It would be better if a few people spent 20 mintues each night re-organizing the tables- but that's what it's for.

As far as the Dealer's hall, they will only supply things they think will sell, or have open access to. I'm sure you could suggest something to some of the dealers that come next year, but it might be easier to buy the newest items on the internet. c;

However, I completely agree with this part. There was so much Homestuck, MLP, and Adventure Time... That's fine, but why is it more popular than the anime? It's fANIME, for goodness-sake! The fans are like sheep- what is popular on the internet, they will become obsessed as well. It would be amazing if we brought more attention to fanime- but that is up to the people in artist's alley, as well. If they sell more MLP, the MLP fans will grow stronger.... like a virus! (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻

[Mew]

Chiming in on behalf of Guest Relations.

No one organizes a con with the goal of not meeting con-goer expectations so I am sorry to hear some of the comments that have been posted here.

Please allow me to make one thing clear though-- Late announcements are NOT due to procrastination. I did not know this until I started doing pre-con work for GR, but there is a hell of a lot of stuff to go through to get a guest, and I don't think attendees realize how difficult it is.

We would love to start announcing guests at least a couple months in advance but unfortunately it did not go that way, even though it was our goal. Just because someone says they can/want to go does not mean we can immediately invite them, or add them to our roster and announce them. (Yes, I/we do read the guest suggestions thread.)

So I'm sorry that some things may have not lived up to expectations, but it's certainly not because we don't try or because we start on things last minute. Confirmations and approvals can take a lot of time, especially for those who are actively working and have a tight schedule.

Also I think the staff can do a better job not procrastinating. Having per-registration, hotel registration, guest announcements come extremely late is not the way staff should run a con. I understand that there was a staff change but that's not enough to excuse such a poor job.

cons:

-Guests of Honor...Fanime seemed to really fall short on guests this year. Not to offend guests who were invited, but with such a good track record, Fanime really let me down this year big time. Also, the extremely late confirming of all the guests. It seemed that the GoH team was very unorganized and waited too long to try and get guests to come at all.

[c2chaos]

I think fanime should have a complete Rover revamp. They should recruit complete fresh faces for 2013 cause having the same Rovers over and over will seriously add frustration to many attendees eventually. Try to accept more new applicants than favoring returnees? :D

The problem with having completely all new Rovers every year is that they are inexperienced and cannot identify problems nor handle a problem as well as a veteran would. Although, every Rover is taught a necessary set of skills and guidelines. It's not always that they get them down the first time or before the convention. Those skills and guidelines are like nutrients for a small sapling of a Rover until he/she becomes as strong as a mighty oak that can withstand the harsh winds of discord. We accept new applicants every year, many who already have some experience with us through the Volunteers department, a few through actual frustration at Rovers, and some just because they want to see the works of a convention. Rovers have also begun recruiting for next year already if anyone feels that they can make a change and like helping people, sign up please. :)

[Aelia]

I think fanime should have a complete Rover revamp. They should recruit complete fresh faces for 2013 cause having the same Rovers over and over will seriously add frustration to many attendees eventually. Try to accept more new applicants than favoring returnees? :D

The problem with having completely all new Rovers every year is that they are inexperienced and cannot identify problems nor handle a problem as well as a veteran would. Although, every Rover is taught a necessary set of skills and guidelines. It's not always that they get them down the first time. Those skills and guidelines are like to nutrients for a small sapling of a Rover until he/she becomes as strong as a mighty oak that can withstand the harsh winds of discord. Rovers have also begun recruiting for next year already if anyone feels that they can make a change and like helping people, sign up please. :)

For this specific issue, this ^^^

To address Rovers Complaints (in General):

Rovers had approximately 150 applicants, of which approximately 130 were accepted -- the 20 who were dropped were either not accepted due to being unqualified, unavailable for a full 24 hours, or due to past issues -- 80% of accepted Rovers were new. During the 48 hours immediately before Con our number dropped to 115 Rovers... to help approximately 20,000 attendees. There is no way we can turn people away without having good reason, because there are not enough of us to go around without me kicking 20% of my incredibly hard-working team out of my department.

That said, Rovers is taking note of complaints, and when we can verify that it was, in fact, a Rover, we use it as training exercises to help avoid the same issues in the future. (And when we can identify the specific Rover we either have a long conversation about appropriate/acceptable behavior, or we inform them they are no longer welcome on our staff.)

Quite a few of the complaints about "Rovers" are actually... not Rovers. We will be working to raise our visibility in the future so when it is a Rover, you can immediately recognize them, but just because they have a staff badge and a radio does not mean they are Rovers.

The gripe which keeps coming up is about "rudeness" and "lack of communication."

For the "rudeness" we try to resolve that annually by striving to bring Rovers toward customer service. Rovers who do not work with us toward our goal of being Customer Service representatives are not invited back.

As for the "lack of communication," there is a complicated tech thing involving the location of our radio repeater and President Obama being in the Fairmont on Thursday preventing us from getting our repeater up there, so we actually could not hear ourselves about half the time.  The repeater shouldn't be an issue next year.

I know this is not going to resolve every complaint, but we are paying attention and taking note of what we can work on in the future.

If you want to help Rovers move in a positive direction, join our number. We are recruiting.

~ On a more positive note, to those of you who had a good experience with Rovers, I am glad to hear that.

[Shi_Musouka]

Shoot, if these posts had a "Like" button, I would have liked 90% of all these comments by now.

I had a slightly different experience because I was mostly awake at night(FYI - The views expressed here are mine and not reflective of staff)

Pros
Tabletop Gaming - Good bonding time. Could have been a bit more organized with the sign out process, but overall I learned more about new board games and met new congoers from the board games. Gaming halls didn't smell as bad as I was expecting so that was good.

LittleKuriboh - What kookiekween99 said...

Panels - I pretty much loved all of the ones I went to. I can't really put it into words, but I gained a lot of valuable career insight in the art/voice-acting/gaming industries.

Cons
There were a lot of really really RUDE people out there. I remember taking the elevator down and this guy was talking down on this girl who took the elevator on the 5th floor on the Fairmont to go to the 4th floor. Plus, one my friends had her cell phone stolen by congoers from the Marriott. They threatened to flush her phone if she kept calling it and they left it under the piano of the Fairmont instead of returning it to her in person at the Marriott. I know it's not within the con's control, but that was a really big turnoff in my con experience.

Registration - I found out my friend was stuck in line for 6.5 hours waiting for his badge and didn't get it until 12:30. Not fun. I think everyone else summed it up well with the whole registration situation. The con isn't getting any smaller, lines aren't obviously getting any smaller, and I feel as though Registration has done their best to make the process as concise as humanly possible. I would have to support allowing for preregistration of day passes or mailing of all passes and pretty much just treat the preregistration booth as a Will Call for people who decided to save money on shipping.

[Teca]

Pro's:
- The Masq department is amazing. Everyone working there is nothing short of wonderful people who try to be understanding and supportive as possible. I heard a rumor that this is Marissa's last year and I hope that the department manages to stay together instead of falling apart like the rest of the con seems to have done. You guys were the one shining light of this terrible year.

- I had a run in with an absolutely wonderful Rover. There were several of us in costumes with prop weapons who had gotten stopped in the convention center for photos. When there was a lull, a Rover came over, politely asked if we'd had our props peace bonded and when we said no, but we know it's on the 2nd floor Marriott side and we're on our way there, she said thank you, told us to enjoy our con and walked away. I was so happy to be treated like the well-behaved adult I was and not the wildly flailing child that security always fears every cosplayer to be that I would have asked her for her name so that I could recommend her to train others if we hadn't gotten stuck for more pictures as she was leaving. As soon as it calmed down, we all made our way over and got our props taken care of. Again, thank you for treating me like an adult.


Cons:

- Female Con Staffer working the farthest Pre-Reg kiosk to the right on Friday at 10:32 am : This girl single-handedly nearly started a riot in the line. Yes, we all are aware that the power going out was not Fanime's fault, that the computers being fried made a bad situation worse and it was general chaos of Thursday. The staff were stressed, the attendees were tired and grumpy from the 5+ hours already spent in line but we were all just trying to work through it together. However, I lose all forms of understanding when one of the staff suddenly jumps up from her position checking people in, yelling, "A Doctor Who cosplayer!" and runs from the station to go take a picture, without the other staff members behind her even bothering to stop her or take her position to continue checking people in. The ONLY reason I can't give you her name is because another staffer would not let me go through the door she bolted out of and she had not returned by the time I & my other friends in line had (FINALLY) gotten our badges. It was, quite frankly, insulting and set an extremely poor tone that the con simply never was able to recover from.

- Guests : Please, PLEASE tell me that some major parties fell through because that is the only way I can somehow justify how terrible the guests this year were. The music guests were extraordinarily disappointing; little known artists who did not have many songs released even in Japan. I was also disappointed that the other guests were mostly people who had already been to Fanime multiple times. The real frustration was how LATE everything was announced. I understand that the staff can't very well be like, "Everyone we wanted couldn't/wouldn't come so we're trying to get anyone we can" but if this WAS the planned Guest List, then I will probably not be returning to Fanime. Guests aren't everything but they certainly are SOMETHING and with the other problems the con is having, poor Guests just don't balance out the plane and hotel costs.

- The Male Staffer Running (?) Photoshoots on Sunday Morning : At the Hetalia photo shoot, there was some confusion about when it was supposed to start; some people thought 11, some people thought 11:30 but the result was that there was a huge unorganized crowd around 11:15 trying to figure out what was going on. A staff member, understandably, asked the group to move back against the wall so that we'd be out of the way as much as possible. Then the photographers started taking pictures because we were all grouping together to get out of the way, so a few of us tried to at least get people to kneel if they were in front. A Gathering Staff member came bolting through the photos to corner two of us who were asking a few people to kneel to demand if we were in charge. When we said no, he then demanded, and I do mean DEMANDED, why the photoshoot was starting early since it was supposed to be at 11:30. We said we had no idea, we weren't in charge, but we can tell people to stop taking photos if that's what he wants us to do. He then mumbled something about having to check with con staff and disappeared. Maybe I didn't read the gathering rules close enough, but if it's really THAT big of a deal if photographers start taking photos early, I think then that staff needs to have an official policy about it. I don't appreciate being confronted about an issue that the said staff member doesn't even know how to handle in the first place.

[Mew]

- Guests : Please, PLEASE tell me that some major parties fell through because that is the only way I can somehow justify how terrible the guests this year were. The music guests were extraordinarily disappointing; little known artists who did not have many songs released even in Japan. I was also disappointed that the other guests were mostly people who had already been to Fanime multiple times. The real frustration was how LATE everything was announced. I understand that the staff can't very well be like, "Everyone we wanted couldn't/wouldn't come so we're trying to get anyone we can" but if this WAS the planned Guest List, then I will probably not be returning to Fanime. Guests aren't everything but they certainly are SOMETHING and with the other problems the con is having, poor Guests just don't balance out the plane and hotel costs.

Please see my post above.

Please don't think we don't try to get some big names. Heck, there are a lot of big names even I would like to get. However there are several factors that affect both sides and things will not work out for both of us most of the time. But hey, we try again the next year. Keep in mind the timing of FanimeCon as well. The end of May is when the industry is either wrapping up spring series or working on upcoming summer series. That means many people are busy and can't add the con into their schedule. (Some of our guests this year had to bring their work with them!)

Sorry if it seems like we let you down, but we do the best we can with what we have to work with and it's hard to satisfy everyone. If you think you can help out, GR's an open department like all others. ;D

Please also keep in mind that every con operates differently and has different resources. Oh, and I work with international guests so what I write doesn't always apply to domestic guests.