There are a lot of suggestions and I feel compelled to respond to most of them... And I'm not trying to be argumentative or say why we would or wouldn't accept certain of the suggestions, but rather to explain the "why"s and the "wherefore"s of operating the con, and how they affect decisions like this.
*More musical guests! I know there is one this year, but we haven't seen any in so, so long.
Musical guests tend to come with large entourages. This can get very expensive. And because NDK operates on a limited budget, things have to be prioritized. And given that NDK is primarily an anime con, anime-related guests tend to be preferred.
*More guests in general, or at least new ones. We get to see the same voice actors ever year, and though we love them, it would be awesome to see some new and unfamiliar faces around here. Add some signatures to our growing lists, you know?
A lot of the faces you see year after year are local guests, and their being at NDK isn't taking away other guest slots.
Maybe more Japanese guests.
Again, going back to the first suggestion about the bands, Japanese guests tend to be expensive to bring in. When you factor in travel expenses, entourages (translators, assistants, etc.), and some other incidental costs, it adds up to a lot of money. That said, we
love bringing in Japanese guests and we try to get them as often as possible.
With the price increase of registration only $5 less than Anime Expo, the BIGGEST convention in USA, it would be nice to see what the money is going towards. Expo has an entire extra day, several bands, and imported guests! I think with NDK's fee being so high we need to see some new stuff, or maybe lower the price just a bit? @_@;
This is an effect of the economy of scale: AX has so many attendees feeding their pool of funds that they can afford to do a lot more. If we had as many attendees as AX, we would have a lot more guests every year. Really, it's unfair to compare us (or any other con but maybe Otakon) to AX because it's in a class of its own. A fairer comparison would be to Sakura-con, or other cons like that. Still larger than NDK, but at least in the same category.
Also, for what it's worth, AX charges extra for a lot of stuff like concerts. At NDK, what you pay at the door gets you into everything.
*A wider range of panels! xD I do hear that there is several new panels this year though, and we're also changing ours up, so we're excited. I know you can't just make panels without people to run them, but maybe throw out some ideas for people to pick up?
Throwing out panel ideas and expecting people to pick them up is setting up for a disaster. Panels should *always* be suggested by their hosts. For someone to host a compelling panel, they need to have passion about the topic (and even the particular angle that the panel takes). If they don't have this passion, it's much more likely they'll either fail to follow through or end up hosting an uninteresting panel.
*More love for the panelists. xD; Without them there would practically be NO convention. I know other cons offer things, such as refunds for the weekend if somebody takes the time to be informative and fun out of their day. I know NDK does too, but after three hour or so panels? That's a long day people are missing out on dedicating themselves to making NDK.
I think the requirement of running three panels to get a free pass to the convention is perfectly fair. Did you realize that those of us on the con staff (many of whom run panels) work upwards of 16 hours during the course of the weekend to earn our free passes? (Some of us work MUCH more than that...)
But out of a 52-hour weekend, I don't think a total of three hours for running panels is a large commitment to ask of someone before giving them a free pass. After all, most people run panels because they enjoy it. It's hardly "missing out" when you're sharing something you enjoy and have passion about (after all, isn't that what the con is all about?).
*Easier registration/online reg!!! It says you can pre-register but it's still a mail in form. Mail can get lost, expecially when people are sending in money/cash/checks/money orders/CC info/whatknot.
This is fair enough. We've got an online registration system in the works and it should be ready to go around the time of the convention, so when you're ready to pre-reg for next year, it'll be ready to process your order.
*More stuff on Sunday. XD Or more FUN stuff on Sunday. That day is so dreary that nobody stays for the ending ceremonies.
Given your previous comment about appreciating the panelists, this sounds like something of a backhanded compliment. I've never been at a loss for things to do on Sunday. There's certainly no conscious decision where someone says "that sounds exciting, so we'll schedule it for Saturday" or "this is boring... Sunday it is!" Various factors go into scheduling, including availability of rooms, people, equipment, etc.
But I'd guess that this is more of a psychological issue than anything. It's Sunday. It ends early. People are still recovering from a late Saturday night. People are already exhausted from the weekend. Things seem a little less exciting on Sunday than they might on Friday or Saturday. (This is a pretty common thing in general for weekend stuff.)
*Longer skit times. XD Two minutes is awfully short.
For some performances, two minutes is painfully short. For others, two minutes is painfully long...
*Better karaoke hosts that don't spend the entire time chatting and more selection of asian music! :3!
This has been discussed before (and it is being addressed), and you really don't need to bring it up again.
Musical guests are great for people like us who go for the J-rock, but anime voice actors, even creators are cool too! They're a huge hit.
This is a funny contrast to what Warumono said above. It just goes to show that not everyone thinks that we need more musical guests. (In other words, just because you want it doesn't mean everyone else wants it.)
As for the voice actors, we have a number of those. Not many Japanese ones (for the reasons cited above) but we do try. And as for the creators, we had the director of Fullmetal Alchemist at the convention in '06. Very cool.
Don't get me wrong, Vic is awesome, but i've met/seen him so many times, I think I know his immediate family. He's a great guy, but all of the flash and flair is really gone. ;_;
And there are a lot of people (like me) who have never seen Vic...
I understand that anime conventions cost a lot of money to maintain, and that musical guests aren't always compatible, this that and the other, but really... where is all of this money going? We sold out the hotel. Even with pre-registration, that's like at a minimum of $30 a person, which is a lot.
Hotel space. Guest travel and accommodations. Equipment (i.e. for the video and video gaming rooms). Services (i.e. printing the program books). And so on. There are a lot of "hidden" costs to running the con. No one's lining their pockets with money as a result of NDK. (It's hosted by a non-profit organization.)
Anyway, I second this, I think there should be a feedback panel like Anime Wasabi had. Something for us, the con goers, to talk to all of the people who run it, and personally give our feedback.
That's great for a new con like Wasabi, but for an established con for NDK, it would turn into a <insert naughty word for "complain" here>-fest and it wouldn't be very productive. Instead we welcome suggestions by mail, e-mail, or even forum post. And though not every idea is implemented, every idea is read and considered.
