Comments, compliments, concerns for NDK 2009

[Terra]

Totally backing up Rodger on the eclectic thing. If you like seeing more off the wall things...BUY THEM to encourage more. I'm in AA not the Dealer's room, but we get comment all the time about "Why don't you have this or that..." and then we make it and it sits there never getting sold, which tells us it's better to make 10 new Naruto things, which will sell, then spend time and money making...Paradise Kiss things that won't.

(And also, just to point out...the Artist Alley if you didn't check it has some AMAZINGLY unique stuff. I know someone had hand made stuffed dragons, we were sandwiched between two very different and well made tail and ear people, there's the awesome plastic hair clip booth, unique hand made charms, wands, originals comics and art, foam wings, etc etc etc)

[Sprobby]

This goes with almost everyone in agreement: The staff keeps getting more and more corrupt as time progresses. I remember the staff and volunteers being courteous and polite before, it can't be hard for them to get back at it.

[GimmeAnime]

This goes with almost everyone in agreement: The staff keeps getting more and more corrupt as time progresses. I remember the staff and volunteers being courteous and polite before, it can't be hard for them to get back at it.

I guess I'm in the "almost" catagory, because I don't agree. That's a truism in line with "The attendees are acting more and more like spoiled brats as time progresses". I don't agree with that either, but you can see where such blanket statements leads.

[Skrae]

As the main prop check go to man, I would like to say a couple things regarding subzeroscientist's complaint.

As far as I know we have not had an issue regarding missing props.  As long as I was on duty, you didn't get your prop back unless you had the ticket, could accurately describe it down to detail, I remembered you, or you snuck up and grabbed it before anyone saw you (please do not do this, we are here to ensure you prop/bag/etc is safe).  I obviously cannot account for others while I was not on duty, but I would like to believe at least one of these reasons is why, preferably not the last, though it has happened.  I do hope this gives you some peace of mind.

[Plushbot27]

how about opening pre-reg thursday nite?

I like this idea  =3

[lanji]

Hi folks, as one of the main events logistics staff members, I want to mention one thing that the main events logistics staff talked about alot this weekend: The folks in the AMV, Rock Band and Cosplay (watching) lines where the best we've ever worked with.  Thank you so much for making the lives of the staff and volunteers so much easier by being attentive, receptive to requests, calm and patient.

With that said, I would like to comment on a few specific issues that have come up in this thread.

* Staff / Volunteers not knowing where the line was going:  My apologies for this (I would say our, but I don't believe I should talk on behalf of my Area Head or the Directors).  The lines were forming faster then they have in the past, so we were a little startled when the Cosplay line was already started and past the hotel ran lunch table before we could get it organized.  I know that the Logistics staff in general have discussed ideas about how to improve the communications between ourselves and the extra staff and volunteers that come over to help, but we know that some folks were not on the same page when it came to line management.

* Fabreeze:  Its already on the log to purchase a case or two for the smaller panel rooms.

* The Chris Patton panel, and others where we cleared the room:  Once again my apologies (without talking out of turn for my Area Head or the Directors) for not being consistent with clearing panel rooms or communicating enough in advance.  My understanding for the Chris Patton panel was the room was cleared due to major overcrowding (beyond fire code crowding) before his panel that could only be corrected through clearing the room and starting from scratch. 

* Yelling Line Control Staff/Volunteers:  Its a well known informal decision among Logistics staff to try and never raise your voice.  Its preferable to repeat yourself then try yelling at participants to get the point across.  Unfortunately not all of the staff and fewer of the Volunteers are aware of this informal decision until a Logistics staff member lets them know and gives them the reasoning.  It goes back to the Directors' opening rules comment to try and be calm and make the convention a safe and inviting place for everyone, participant, volunteer and staff members alike. 

(I would like it if jswalker or another Director would like to correct me if I'm wrong on any point here.)

[animetart]

Another issue that can be tolerated more but is still a problem is noise in the video rooms. Of course this is quite a culture fest, fun time with friends, and a rare opportunity loaded with excitement. Now, noise outside of the room is okay. The mind can generally just ignore that as common ambiance. I had no problem with the fact that Battle Karaoke was held right next to a video room. But you need to establish some sort of policy within the rooms that people should treat it as though it were a theater. All the same logic applies. On a basic level there is the silencing of cell phones, but chatting is the big issue.

I was watching the premiere of Ichi (which was quite a fortunate event) and there was an obvious loud group of friends there. They were laughing unusually often, even in dead serous scenes, and even provided commentary on some scenes. Every time the comic relief guy showed up on screen, they'd laugh, and he didn't even have to do anything. And it's hard to get into the serious scenes with death and major plot development when there's laughing then too. I don't know what is a fair solution to this, but those rooms should really be treated as a theater, not some living room movie party.

I agree 100%. I was in the primrose room Sunday and most of the room was completely out of control during the "Lupin III" movie. Granted, some parts were silly, but I was still trying to watch it. MST3K style commentary should be confined to that type of specific event - not regular viewing rooms.

Thank God they shut up when "Evangelion 1.0" came on, or fists would have started flying! (j/k...kinda ^_^)

[Lunara]

2. I saw people simply pointing to things, saying 'that's mine', and having it given to them, without having their claim ticket checked. This is unacceptable, particularly when it comes to props that we've spent a lot of time on. I've had people threaten to steal my prop before; this is the first time I've actually been worried about that happening.

I need to make sure that I reply to this because...yah...

I was stationed at prop check for the majority of the time the Dealer's Room was open and I want to make sure you know that you may have been perceiving this incorrectly.

While yes, we asked people to point out their weapons, this was only because we can't remember everyone's prop. Remember, most of con, there are A LOT of props on our cramped table. At which point, we compared tickets to ensure we were returning props correctly.

As far as I know, NO ONE came to our prop desk and reported a missing prop. Not a single one.

I do remember helping you several times SubZero. You were one of the few I remembered because of your activity on the boards and by your avatar. I never even had to look at your ticket because I KNEW what belonged to you. (I think I was actually a little crusty to you while trying to wake up on Saturday morning, which I wanted to give you an apology for. So, sorry about that, honey.)



In general, and this is not directed toward anyone in particular, I'm rather disappointed that so many attendees are so angry about some things, yet they put forth no effort to resolve the issue WHILE AT CON.
There's not a whole lot that we can do about it now, other than prepare for next year. Meanwhile, you sit at your keyboards behind a veil of anonymity, angry about your year. I'm so sorry that some of our attendees walked away with stories that slight your opinion of NDK, but we can only do so much before you tell us what we're doing wrong.

That being said, I miss you guys already.

[Himeno]

Many of the dealers have been on the ‘road’ for the past 7 weeks. By NDK, most of the stock that they had had already been sold. If they weren’t able to get new stock in, well...


You can’t just spray people with deodorant, air freshener or whatever. It can, and does, make people sick. People with asthma or are just plain allergic will not be very impressed when they get sick because someone decided to spray something near them.

When you ask for badge names? Please print those badge names on our badges, NOT our legal names (which I assumed were just for organisation and billing purposes). We give you badge names because we want a level of separation between our 'normal' life and what goes on at conventions; this could be for work purposes, because we have an internet identity to maintain, any of a number of reasons.

That, and personally, I hate my so called ‘legal’ name. It makes me depressed (for the same reason that seeing myself in photos/reflections does). If it wasn’t going to cost me over $400 to fill in all the paperwork and get everything changed, I would change it today, but I can’t afford that, so it has to wait until my passport expires.

[Daft Punk]

possibly finding a way to make reporting a problem not seem too "scary" I had 5 people they got harassed and fallowed by drunk people on Saturday night, but they didn't want to say anything to anyone because they thought they may get in trouble.

[Plushbot27]

You can’t just spray people with deodorant, air freshener or whatever. It can, and does, make people sick. People with asthma or are just plain allergic will not be very impressed when they get sick because someone decided to spray something near them.

I second this.   Spraying someone with a chemical/substance/perfume is a bad idea -- you've NO idea if they're allergic.
I don't like being offered free snacks/food either -- having a TON of food allergies sucks.  Dx

[Daft Punk]

I second this.   Spraying someone with a chemical/substance/perfume is a bad idea -- you've NO idea if they're allergic.
I don't like being offered free snacks/food either -- having a TON of food allergies sucks.  Dx

I got sprayed 4 times O.O...by water though...

[Terra]

It also sucks to suddenly end up near ill from the BO of someone who hasn't showered in 3 days (And it was really bad this year.  Normally con funk is a joke that I don't actually run into...not so much this time). It seems like, if you have allergies, the easiest solution would be to make sure you don't reek.

Do you have a better solution?

[Kylwell]

Man, the things I miss hanging out in the model room.

Parking, 'nuf said. I've been told the people heading Starfest contract with the office building separately to use their parking lot.

Crowding... Starfest says they have some 13000 people in the same venue. Having attended SF for several years I'd love to know where they all are. SF feels empty in comparison to NDK.

Just as a note, to those complaining about high costs for food @ the hotel, there are a number of excellent restaurants & FF joints nearby. Head east a block and try Delitech, awesome eatery.

[Plushbot27]

Do you have a better solution?

I would say diet - but nobody likes to believe that what they eat affects their body odor.  But it does, what you eat gets absorbed by the bloodstream and it'll come out of your pores if/when you sweat.  
Garlic, Salt, Spicy food and too much red meat = bad.  (Ok, so I'm bored enough to read health junk, but also bored enough to experiment this & see if it was true).  =P
Fruits, Veggies, Chicken & fish = better.   And drink more water - not so much soda & junk drinks.

*shrugs*  meh, it works for me & my brother.  You're welcome to pass me off as looney, but as long as I've never been told that I smell bad, I'm going to stick with that diet theory.  =P

[Katie]

Yeah, that was there. I'm just thinking some comprehensive listing (basically, 'stuff you should know for organising your photoshoot'), so that everything moves smoothly, there's no trespassing or blocking exits/populated areas... That way there's one resource for everything, rather than looking through long threads for one little bit of info. Or, even just link to the various threads in a sticky. That way it stays at the top year after year, rather than being stuck in an obsolete thread.

Being a cosplayer, I know that we can create issues for non-cosplayers in small spaces (which I have also attended conventions as), and I definitely don't want our fun to be a problem for other people. It's not all about us, after all, so the more frictionless we can make thing, the better. (Far be it from me to want to keep anyone from their coffee. )

And that bites, but it's understandable that there's not really anything you can do, if the parking lot is under someone else's control. Hopefully everything gets worked out for next year!

I'll be sure to include this sort of information with the listing next year and that if people can take photoshoots outside they should. All the ones I organized I suggested the patio as its outside and usually has very few people. I also noticed a lot more of them were held outside this year than last year. I'll have to make a trip to the hotel to see if there are any other good spots I can recommend. I'm not really sure there is a great place within the hotel to have a photoshoot if the weather is icky, especially if it has a lot of cosplayers but I'll poke around and see.

[MagRowan]

Crowding... Starfest says they have some 13000 people in the same venue. Having attended SF for several years I'd love to know where they all are. SF feels empty in comparison to NDK.

Just to let you know, it was stated before in the thread, Starfest is actually along the order of 4,000 to 5,000 individual registrations.  The 13,000 count is counting each person for each day (so a 3 day pass would be counted 3 times in that number).

NDK counts only their individual registrations, so when you see the number 7,500, that's each person counted once.  If NDK were to count like Starfest, and other cons, they would count upwards of about 20,000+.

Please keep that in mind, and realize that NDK really is no longer a small con.

[Lx]

I'm not sure i have anything to complain about. I want to thank the programming staff for providing the necessary equipment and even providing an easel last minute. I heard about overcrowding for certain events but panels ran by SHOE had a proctor so i assume other panels had them as well. They kept track of how many people came in and didn't allow the room to go past their limits. It was a very good idea for feedback and to generally know popularity of panels. Ops was also very helpful with storing a few larger items for our panels. ^_^

One thing i saw as a problem were people dancing in the halls. I just kindly asked them to move it somewhere else. I know people complained about lack of things to do for the older crowd at night. SHOE has some older members and will be volunteering to create a late show of some kind for next year.

Thanks to all the staff from SHOE (Super Happy Otaku Entertainment). Here are a few ideas i had personally.

+ Registering at meetups before the con
+ An official photoshoot area

[Himeno]

Just to let you know, it was stated before in the thread, Starfest is actually along the order of 4,000 to 5,000 individual registrations.  The 13,000 count is counting each person for each day (so a 3 day pass would be counted 3 times in that number).

NDK counts only their individual registrations, so when you see the number 7,500, that's each person counted once.  If NDK were to count like Starfest, and other cons, they would count upwards of about 20,000+.

Please keep that in mind, and realize that NDK really is no longer a small con.

There are many ways to count people at an event. The two most common ways are attendees and attendance. Unless it is a one day event, (such as a football game), ‘attendance’ will be higher then ‘attendees’. Both numbers are valid and are used for different things.

Attendees are how many people are at the event. This helps to measure event growth etc
Attendance is how many people there are through the duration of the event. This helps to plan for things such as supplying food etc.

Sample numbers from Manifest (august 21-23, Melbourne Australia) as I have both figures on hand:
Attendees: 6,700
Attendance: 13,300

[MagRowan]

There are many ways to count people at an event. The two most common ways are attendees and attendance. Unless it is a one day event, (such as a football game), ‘attendance’ will be higher then ‘attendees’. Both numbers are valid and are used for different things.

Attendees are how many people are at the event. This helps to measure event growth etc
Attendance is how many people there are through the duration of the event. This helps to plan for things such as supplying food etc.

Sample numbers from Manifest (august 21-23, Melbourne Australia) as I have both figures on hand:
Attendees: 6,700
Attendance: 13,300

Thank you for the clarification.  I was just pointing out the same fact to previous posters who belive that Starfest is a larger con, when in fact it is a smaller con.  There has been some confusion as to the size of NDK relative to local conventions and other conventions at large.