Con feedback (Feedback will not effectively reach staff if you do not use form)

[aetherltd]

Registration needs to be automated.  This is Silicon Valley.

Fanime already has iPhone and Android apps. Those could be used to help with registration.

Ideal arrangement: pre-registration involves sending in a selfie and paying on line. A bar code comes back, which can be printed or displayed in the Fanime app. At registration, you show your bar code to a camera or scanner, and your badge is printed with your picture on it.  The person at the badge printer compares your face with the picture and gives you your badge. There is no manual data entry at registration for pre-registered members. That's the Silicon Valley way to do it.

Rent enough badge printers. They can be rented by the day.

Reg staff then deals mostly with problems and with cash customers.

If you need tech volunteers to build the system, get in touch with Hacker Dojo.

[TruePoindexter]

So glad everything was consolidated into a single thread! It's a bit of a jumbled mess right now, because of how many threads there were, but now we can get on with post-con discussion.

I'm just going to copy/paste what I put in the official form:

*sigh* thanks for posting to the form too. Staff will read the forums, but likely sometime in June and July. We will be having intensive meetings these next few weeks to post-mortem the con. That is why the form is important. It will be directed to the appropriate persons in the short timeline that we have to make decisions that will critically affect 2014.

Thanks!

Is there any ETA on a response about the Cosplay Spectacular? I've shared my own personal account of the event here: http://forums.fanime.com/index.php/topic,18572.msg464893.html#msg464893

I know that numerous people have left feedback regarding it and we have not had any response from Fanime Con staff.

[echoshadow]

I know that numerous people have left feedback regarding it and we have not had any response from Fanime Con staff.

I'm pretty sure staff is not going to personally respond to ever single form turned in. They will post a general "thank you, we will work on it" mass statement on the website or email. So don't hold your breath on ever receiving a personal response.

[echoshadow]

I for one do support Fanime in there choice not to mail out badges. For one, I don't trust people in the bay area, I'm 90% sure they would try and make counterfeits or get another free by saying they lost the first one. Anyone who knows about professional printing knows just how cheap the material is. So no on the mail thing.

On your other points I highly agree with you. There seems to be too many volunteers that have no idea what they are doing. that really doesn't lay with the volunteers them self but the management that leads them. You can have the most highly skilled volunteers but that doesn't mean jack if the management doesn't use them. The problem is with the higher ups.

If Fanime is complaining about lack of staff, well hire a third party or temps. Will that increase badge prices? Yes, but I'll gladly pay more or a short wait time on badge pick up, improved scheduling, better guests, and just over all a more organized anime con.

Will Fanime management make changes? I don't really think so. I'm pretty sure will see those same 6-8 booths there for registration again. As my friend that went to Fanime for the first time said, "I can't believe how cheap tickets for a 4 day con is." Then what he said after day 4 "I can't believe how little Fanime has to offer, I guess its true you get what you pay for."

[renalcul]

I for one do support Fanime in there choice not to mail out badges. For one, I don't trust people in the bay area, I'm 90% sure they would try and make counterfeits or get another free by saying they lost the first one. Anyone who knows about professional printing knows just how cheap the material is. So no on the mail thing.

This argument doesn't really hold weight considering how many people trade badges and sneak into things anyway.

Besides, with the amount of people who would be willing to pay up to 1/3rd more of the cost of the badges to simply have it mailed to them and not have to pick it up would more than likely negate however many people decided to counterfeit or claim duplicates.

[SpiritOfKairi]

I for one do support Fanime in there choice not to mail out badges. For one, I don't trust people in the bay area, I'm 90% sure they would try and make counterfeits or get another free by saying they lost the first one. Anyone who knows about professional printing knows just how cheap the material is. So no on the mail thing.

This argument doesn't really hold weight considering how many people trade badges and sneak into things anyway.

Besides, with the amount of people who would be willing to pay up to 1/3rd more of the cost of the badges to simply have it mailed to them and not have to pick it up would more than likely negate however many people decided to counterfeit or claim duplicates.

I have to agree that the whole counterfeiting argument doesn't hold much weight at all.  With how the badge checkers verify your membership by simply glancing to make sure you have a pass for the current year on, it is very easy to give your badge to a friend so they can get in for a few hours.  I know several people who have loaned their badges to others for a few hours, and it worked flawlessly.  All they had to do was go somewhere out of sight of staff and rovers to make the exchange, which wasn't difficult.

Also, you can't get replacements for free, so that whole argument is invalid.  Even if you DO lose it, you have to pay half of what you originally did for the first replacement, and then full price for additional ones.

To me, if Fanime still doesn't allow the mailing option for 2014, they would be doing themselves a disservice.  Given how many people are willing to pay $10-15 extra for that convenience, it would more than make up for their end of the costs, and again, that whole counterfeiting argument doesn't really work.

[ewu]

Re: counterfeits and mailing out badges. We are not presenting arguments, we are presenting reasons. They are not arguments because an argument would require us to explain the entire situation and divulge certain information that we have deemed inappropriate for public dissemination. Counterfeiting is the main reason but not the only reason. While I would like to explain it all, it would be impractical and inappropriate for me to do so.

I do not ask for your trust at this time, but soon, we hope to have a properly explored and vetted plan that we can share with you. At that time, I hope that you will see that we have given the situation thought and contemplation to present to you our best solution. Where we have not chosen to take action, I ask that you will trust that we have made critical decisions and have good logical reasoning to back up the decision, even if we are unable to share with you all the details. Reg is an immensely difficult system that involves more than half of the senior staff, so it will take time to figure it out. However I know that we are currently mustering our resources in manpower and already have multiple plans to move ahead that will be evaluated and refined in the next few weeks. So I ask for your patience while we develop a plan that is a culmination of your feedback, and the lessons that we have learned from this year as we likewise learn from each year.

As for hiring staff, we are considering it. But because it is a weekend and a holiday weekend, we may need to pay not just overtime - time and a half pay, but possibly double time. It may become a decision of staffing reg and giving up programming - for example and totally pulled out of my.... is if we need to choose between having two more staffers versus losing a panels room or cutting a video room.

[Tsu]

As for hiring staff, we are considering it. But because it is a weekend and a holiday weekend, we may need to pay not just overtime - time and a half pay, but possibly double time. It may become a decision of staffing reg and giving up programming - for example and totally pulled out of my.... is if we need to choose between having two more staffers versus losing a panels room or cutting a video room.

I hope this is noted because sending in a 3rd feedback form would seem excessive, but have you all considered Kickstarter or something else of a crowd-funded nature? If I knew that the money was actually going to go towards hiring staff to help improve the con, or to preserve the panels/video rooms in light of paid-staff hiring, I would totally pitch in some $ and I'm sure others would too, since folks have said that they're willing to produce extra money just to get their badges mailed to them. Little perks could be offered of little-to-no monetary value, like high amounts getting a ticket to the Yamaga party or getting a special little "I donated!" sticker on your badge or something like that.

Alternatively, what about different tiers of "membership" like other cons and the AMV.org have? The higher you pay, the more perks you get and the more you support the con. Higher-tier supporters would have special badges indicating this, maybe some kind of VIP privilege, that sort of thing. Though I realize VIP privileges at most other cons indicates that you're guaranteed to get in to see guests and such which isn't usually a problem at Fanime, but other VIP privileges could be created. Like guaranteed seating for the masquerade, or a fenced off seating section or something for the very highest tier. Kind of like how it used to be done for the AMV editors back in the day.

...maybe I will submit this in a feedback form after all.... >_>

[ewu]

...maybe I will submit this in a feedback form after all.... >_>

Heh, kickstarter was mentioned, not sure how this will go with our finance and PR peeps:P But yah the form is the best place.

[Yuu- pon]

Re: counterfeits and mailing out badges. We are not presenting arguments, we are presenting reasons. 

What I hear is " We don't need to explain anything to you people because were in charge"

In the past, I can see this being a valid argument. At this point a few counterfeit  badges would be about equivalent to reimbursing those who lost an entire day at con and still had to pay full weekend prices.

To me this says that you aren't willing to pay the consequences for your own short-comings. It says that you would prefer to make the loyal attendees, who payed to stand in line all day pay for them.

I love Fanime, I want to want to continue to support it. But  why should I support anyone who leaves me holding the bag full of their mistakes?

[renalcul]

...maybe I will submit this in a feedback form after all.... >_>

Heh, kickstarter was mentioned, not sure how this will go with our finance and PR peeps:P But yah the form is the best place.

Bro-Tip:

Sell hats!

and by that i mean custom badges. Charge like 5-10$ more for a custom badge (subject to aproval) make dollars, hire more staff.

[SquallLHeart]

hire more staff.

you mean hire staff? you can't "hire more staff" if you never hired staff in the first place..  :o

lol.. there's Fanime merch.. hmm.. custom badges... i dunno.. but that gives me another idea though... goes along the lines of a vip/premier badging system.. *shrug*..

[renalcul]

hire more staff.

you mean hire staff? you can't "hire more staff" if you never hired staff in the first place..  :o

lol.. there's Fanime merch.. hmm.. custom badges... i dunno.. but that gives me another idea though... goes along the lines of a vip/premier badging system.. *shrug*..

>0 = more

[Fi-Fi]

I have submitted my feedback, but here its again.

So, here it is, what I submitted to Fanime... a critique of 3 things: registration, Cosplay Spectacular, and Artist Alley



---------------------------------

To start off, I was part of the 8 hour Pre-Reg line on Thursday Night. I was also subjected to the line last year, but at least I was inside and I realize that with power outages things happen. But this year I was in fact in line LONGER than I was last year. After the mess of lines in different halls and rooms, I finally made it to the final line (or so I assumed) and got to the booth, I was rudely told I was in the wrong line. Now, when we entered the room every single person was funneled into the same line. No one asked "Are you Pre-Reg? Early Reg? Group Reg?" I still have no idea who that first line was even for because I was blown off so quickly it was as if I wasn't the first person to have the problem. Seeing as the booth I was shooed away from clearly said "Pre-Reg" I was mighty angry.

When I was finally in what I assumed was the correct line, before I was able to talk to the person at the other booth (labeled Early-Reg) I was again told that because I was group reg, I needed to go to another table. What that person did not do was ask me my name or print the labels to put on my badges. So, after once again being shooed into a line while other people just walked up to the table and where being helped before me, I was told we had to GET BACK IN THE OTHER LINE. I told the lady, NO, and to her credit, agreed with me after I explained that another staff member had ordered us into the line we were now in. The staff or Volunteer who was in the bright green jacket to her credit was working her ass off to try and stem the tide of madness that was the group registration pick up. She was concerned that my badges weren't already printed, and that is when she informed me that no one had printed them, and she rushed around to get them printed. It was 2am at this point.



To offer solutions for your registration failure, I have the following suggestions:

1) Pre-print your badges. I don't care that people get upset that they don't get a spiffy badge if the register at the con.

2) Or, have a label printer at every single station along with a computer that the registration volunteer can quickly find a person and send their name to be printed.

3) Have lines CLEARLY marked. If you are going to do Early Reg and Pre Reg on Thursday, then you need to have each line clearly marked and a person stationed to direct people to the correct line.

4) Group registration needs to have its own booth. This was my first year doing it and I realized just how popular it is. My understanding was that group registration was to help lessen the number of people in line, but because of the confusion and lack of organization it was even more of a pain for me to wait in line for 8 hours than it would have been for all 5 of us to wait in line for 6. And yes, it was an extra 2 hours of waiting tacked on because I was doing group reg.





My second major grip of this convention was the mess that was the Cosplay Spectacular. It started with the extremely late start, which while I understand that we lost Melissa (and her entire staff as I later found out). I understand staff turnovers are hard, and training and finding good staff is hard, but it starts with a calm and competent leader. And Jack was neither of those. I heard many stories, but this is my personal experience with him. After exchanging some hard to read emails, we arrived at the convention with no knowledge if we needed to check in with anyone, we didn't even know when the show was going to start. I emailed Jack during the convention but never received a reply, and after searching through emails and asking other people who were also in the show, we finally found where judging was going to be taking place and that there wasn't any need to check in... or at least that is what we assumed.

We arrived at judging, we did check in directly with Jack and his staff and I asked if they needed our audio again, or if it needed to be checked. I was told it was all OK, and we went about our way. The next day we stopped by the hall to check in again, asked where we could keep our props, and if they had our audio. I asked Jack, again, if he needed our audio and if he had gotten the email with our intro, he said yes and that we were all set. Around 3:30-4:00 PM we show up in costume and asked about what number we where in the show, only to find out we had been scratched because "we never checked in" Bullshit, not only had we checked in, we had checked in directly with Jack. I proceed to text my friends who were also in the masquerade to double check if they were still in the show because of what we had just been through. (which we found out that 3 groups had been cut for the same reason) After asking why our name was scratched out to be waved away with an "Oh, that is nothing, you are here, I'll fix it... blah blah blah" we, already stressed and unhappy with how this has been going so far, find a seat and sit down. Here is where the rest of Jacks staff really stepped up and worked very hard with what they had. The stage manager (I never got his name) tried very hard to seat us in performance order, we were told we were 16.

So, after the rock concert, which while good, was not appreciated at all by any of the contestants because of nerves and stress levels, we were finally taken out into the hall and given a new number, 12. After more confusion as to who was going next because the list they had was useless, we were finally let back stage. And we waited. And waited. And then the sound guy told me our audio didn't work. Excuse me, I had been told 3 times that our audio was fine, and I didn't have my backup with me. Then I was told "You are Italy's Pizza Conference, right?" NO. "Oh, Automatic Dolls? We don't have your audio." And they didn't have it because Jack decided that he wanted to switch computers (which I heard him ask a staff member for another computer than the little one he was using during the rehearsal) and he did not move the audio files to the new computer. Well, panicking I yelled (the backstage yell) at Jack that he said he had our audio and why didn't he have it now. He had me search his email for my audio. He then put it on a thumb drive and transferred it to the computer the sound guy was using.

Now, while waiting for all of this to take place, I was asked if I was the Madoka group no less than 5 times. I was asked, again, if I was the Italy group. I watched as the Hatsune Miku cosplayer was told to go out suddenly when we were suppose to go and he was not ready. I watched as the Italy group have their audio cut and lights dimmed before the end of their skit and then they were just yelled at to get off stage. When our audio was finally found and added to the play list, it started playing over the Madoka skit! We heard it from backstage, and told the sound guy to shut off our audio, and then he shut off the Madoka audio instead. I watched in horror as the group finished their skit to our music and the group members storm back stage and start screaming (with good reason) at Jack. And Jack let them redo their skit. But if he was going to give in to the screaming he should have let the Italy group go again because that is unfair. So, by this time I didn't want to go on stage. Tell me who would want to go on stage and preform after their audio just ruined another skit?



We did perform, but I'd had it. When Jack finally got our audio he offered us high-fives. It was if he wasn't taking anything he was doing seriously. Because the high-five, after I just went though the panic of being told my audio was bad and then that they didn't have my audio, was lucky to have not turned into a punch.



Most of Jacks staff worked best with what they had, but I feel that things like performance order should have been decided either before the con if there is no mandatory check-in, or at mandatory check-in with an audio check.



So, here are some suggestions for next year.

1) I don't say this lightly, but fire Jack. He did not display any qualities of a good leader, he was unorganized and his lax attitude was completely inappropriate.

2) The online form needs to come back. Email and forum communication for the contest was lacking and confusing.

3) Things need to be on a deadline. If audio submissions were on a deadline, I was completely unaware of it. The same with sign ups.

4) The next person to take over needs to have either more experience or at least have proven organizational skills.

5) The rules need to be applied to everyone. If one group is allowed a do-over, then every skit that had its audio affected by a mistake needs to have the opportunity to re-do their skit. I don't care if one was more popular or better put together. The rules need to apply to everyone equally.

6) The audio should have been re-named with the performance order, it should have been on a portable HD and a thumb drive, and during rehearsal, every single audio should have been played to assure that they worked and that every file was accounted for.

7) I did like that there were cash prizes, better than the bags-o-paper we have gotten in the past. If you had included a trophy like in years past, it would have made me even happier. But if it came down to the plexiglass trophies or cash, I would prefer cash.

8 ) I hope that if you do remove Jack as the coordinator you will not dally and find a replacement asap because it is going to take time to fix this mess.





The last thing is the artist ally. I understand because of construction it had to be moved. But when all the signs say "South Hall" and there is no South Hall... you shot yourselves in the foot, along with all the vendors in the tent. Your signage was awful, and should have said "Artist Ally One Block That Way" The Fanime AA is one of, if not the best AA around and it is just horrible that you couldn't simply direct people to the right place.




Will I go back next year? I honestly don't know... I fly in from the Midwest so it is a big deal trip to make it all the way to San Jose. I hope that you can implement changes that will make it worth my wild and my money.

Yes, this is long, but I felt Fanime needed to know exactly what was wrong.

[kookiekween99]

The last thing is the artist ally. I understand because of construction it had to be moved. But when all the signs say "South Hall" and there is no South Hall... you shot yourselves in the foot, along with all the vendors in the tent. Your signage was awful, and should have said "Artist Ally One Block That Way" The Fanime AA is one of, if not the best AA around and it is just horrible that you couldn't simply direct people to the right place.

To be fair, the big blue tent is South Hall. Though in your defense, most people who don't A) know San Jose, B) stalk the forums, or C) have friends/family on staff wouldn't know that.

[SOawesomeness]

The staff or Volunteer who was in the bright green jacket

Hi. o:
I wore the jacket so that people could see me/find where I was. At least now I know it's definitely memorable... As noted before, we're working on improving the system. I currently have 3 different proposals to alleviate the long wait and there is definitely more brainstorming in the works. I will try to make the lines much more marked.

I also didn't realize how popular group reg was so I'm also planning on having a few booths dedicated to group pick-up.

Thank you for the feedback. (:

[kookiekween99]

The staff or Volunteer who was in the bright green jacket

Hi. o:
I wore the jacket so that people could see me/find where I was. At least now I know it's definitely memorable... As noted before, we're working on improving the system. I currently have 3 different proposals to alleviate the long wait and there is definitely more brainstorming in the works. I will try to make the lines much more marked.

I also didn't realize how popular group reg was so I'm also planning on having a few booths dedicated to group pick-up.

Thank you for the feedback. (:

Has it not been popular in the past? I ALWAYS do group pickup. I tend to have a group of 5-10 people under me. That way I make the sacrifice of standing in line while they get to go enjoy badgeless Thursday.

[Fi-Fi]

The staff or Volunteer who was in the bright green jacket

Hi. o:
I wore the jacket so that people could see me/find where I was. At least now I know it's definitely memorable... As noted before, we're working on improving the system. I currently have 3 different proposals to alleviate the long wait and there is definitely more brainstorming in the works. I will try to make the lines much more marked.

I also didn't realize how popular group reg was so I'm also planning on having a few booths dedicated to group pick-up.

Thank you for the feedback. (:

Hi! Thank you for working so hard so late into the night, I know I was a bit testy and I am sorry if I snapped at you, but honestly, thank you so much for finding out what happened to my badges and taking care of it. It was really nice to have someone who cared at that point. So, thank you again!

[SOawesomeness]

Has it not been popular in the past? I ALWAYS do group pickup. I tend to have a group of 5-10 people under me. That way I make the sacrifice of standing in line while they get to go enjoy badgeless Thursday.

It was popular, but I didn't realize compared to single-pick up how popular it was. @w@ But now I definitely know.

[djmonolith]

For one, I don't trust people in the bay area,

Totally random comment of the day.  Seriously?  I am trustworthy.  I live here.

Better watch out for us bay area people!!!!