Suggestions for the next convention

[animekitty82]

Sooo.....the convention is over and I think its time to go over some things that they can work on to make it even better next year. First off, the convention was awesome, the staff was extremely nice and I had a great time. A few things I saw that can be worked on for next time are as follows:
*A bigger venue. I think the attendence of this convention was sorely underestimated. Anime is a big thing now and to have to turn away paying customers because the venue is too small sucks for the fans and the staff. I think the Convention center would be a perfect match, or at least a bigger hotel.
*Security, hands off. I volunteered and I noticed some of the security staff who were just fellow volunteers try to muscle around some convention goers. To place your hands on someone else, even if they are in the wrong is a huge liability. A sharp word is much cheaper than a assault charge.
*MORE VOLUNTEERS! C'mon guys, the convention can't happen without the help of fellow fans. Even if its for a few hours, watching the video rooms or making sure the dealers aren't getting ripped off its not that big of a job.
Right now I can't think of anything more. If you guys can, please post so the organizers can get some good ideas for things to work on. No bashing, flaming etc. Just constructive comments. Thanks

[Negima]

I can understand some of the reasoning for this like it being the first big Con in Portland and KumoriCon's second year, but I would suggest getting a larger variety of dealers.  I bought a lot of stuff, I'll admit that, but I think I would have bought more if there was a larger selection.

[zenix]

i think the dealer thing is pretty much out of there control probly would help if it was spaced out from ax a bit more

[psyence]

I was also kind of suprised at the lack of variety in the dealers room.  At at some of the names just in Portland who I would've expected to have spots.  

I hated the venue, honestly, and that's my biggest issue.  Especially the 3rd floor and the elevators. :/  The cielings and lighting made things really claustrophobic and areas of the con were really hot, and I didn't even cosplay.  Saturday especially when there was another event going on in the same area it was really uncomfortable.

In the future it would also be nice for major events to not overlap.  We had huge chunks of time where there was nothing to do and no space really to hang out and then other times when we were having to make hard decisions on which major events to go to.

[zenix]

very little gundam in the dealer room i forgot to say that

[princessfrodo]

About the size issue of the Con: we had no idea that many people would attend.  1251+, to be accurate.  We didn't want to break 1000, and didn't think we would break 800, so we planned for that accordingly. (That means KC grew to be three times as large in one year.  Not expected.)

Next year, if it's held in the same place, we will have the ENTIRE venue, not just part of it.  The cap will still be in place though, unfortunatly.  Even big Cons have caps for safety reasons.

About the elevators: yeah, that pretty much pissed everyone off, especially staff.  But we can't exactly rebuild the hotel and add stairs in convenient places, so I guess we'll all be waiting for entirely too long in the lobby again. ^.^;

[SailorNaboo]

One of the things that would have helped with the elevator is that far too many people were holding them open so "one more person could get in."  When this happens on 5+ floors (I was on fllor 14) it really slowed the whole process down.  

If everyone agreed not to reopen the door once they started to shut, they would have been far more efficient!

[zenix]

but then u would be the elavator a hole its a lose lose situation

it was nice to put faces to forums names

[Radien]

Can I suggest something to all of you who have comments regarding vendors?

If you con-goers want to influence what is sold in the dealer room, and which vendors come to Kumori Con 2005, the very best way you can help us accomplish this is to seek out the vendors that were in the dealer room this year and tell them what you wished they'd brought.... or, find vendors you wish would come to the next con, and tell them yourself!

Vendors aren't nearly as interested in what we staff are looking for, as they are for what their customers want.  If the vendor you want to talk to isn't local, try Google-ing them and shooting them a feedback email. If a bunch of you would do this, and within the next few months, I can tell you that whoever runs the 2005 dealer room will be ecstatic.

If everyone agreed not to reopen the door once they started to shut, they would have been far more efficient!

While this is quite an admirable idea, I think it's pretty unrealistic that we'd be able to get word of mouth to spread that well amongst 1000+ people.

We may be able to affect people's elevator behavior if we print it conspicuously in the program booklet and post big signs by the major elevator traffic areas, much like Sakura Con's "8 people max" marker boards. But I'm not sure how many people would pay heed.

Personally, I just hope we get a different hotel next year, but we won't know how the others compare until the other options are investigated...

[Sushi_Glomper]

Some random front desk guy tore down soem signs that staffers put by the elevators, talkign about the # limit...the jerk :-(

[SailorNaboo]

i think the dealer thing is pretty much out of there control probly would help if it was spaced out from ax a bit more

Also, when we were trying to get get dealers to attend, we were able to tell them that we had 400 people attend last year, and only 200 pre-reg at the time.  We had to tell them the 100% truth about how many people we were expecting to be there.  When we went from 200 to 400 pre-reg the week before pre-reg closed, we could then pass that information around, but even then we thought we'd get about the same number of people that pre-regged showing up (800 total).

The dealers have to pay for the travel, pay to bring their stuff here, pay for a table... (but YAY no tax in Oregon!).  That's a lot of expenses for a contention that might not even have 800 people there.

Now NEXT YEAR....we have this year's Portland data to provide to the dealers!  Now that they know that they'll have plenty of people looking and buying their stuff, I can't imagine not having double/triple/or even more dealers!

[rarnom]

I would like to see a GO room again like at the first con.  Maybe some sessions on how to play and just an open room where people could play GO or even SHOGI.  I mean those rpg rooms seemed pretty vacant and that would have been a great place for some GO games.

[BigGuy]

Some random front desk guy tore down soem signs that staffers put by the elevators, talkign about the # limit...the jerk :-(

  Ah man I was all over the place hanging those signs, and I even asked the front desk if it was okay.

[rarnom]

I also think it would be awesome to just have an all live-action video room.  I know there were some live action stuff like the Sailor Moon and GTO drama, but I would love to see a room dedicated to some HK cinema.  I am a big fan of the genre and I am sure there are others who would love to see some martial arts/swordplay/heroic bloodshed films.  
I would be glad to lend some films for the room if it became a reality.  I have LOTS and LOTS of them on VCD (offical releases...)

[BeeSideBeauty]

First of all I'd like to say KumoriCon was my first con ever. That said I had an awesome time! However I was dissapointed to be turned down at the door when I arrived. A bigger venue would be much appriciated.

Luckily they let in 30 more people on Saturday (I was #20), but I feel bad for the #31+. Someone mentioned the Convention Center in Portland and I agree, that would definately be a venue I'd look into. Another idea is to talk to the local colleges like Reed College. A college campus is large enough for 1000+ people, you can sell (most likely) cheaper rooms, and you can always arrange food units through the college (and I know for a fact that Reed has great food).

...So yeah...That's my two cents...

[SailorNaboo]

Cosplayers tend to only like conventions with attached hotels so they can change outfits many times a day.  I can't imagine going to a con where I don't have quick access to a new outfit.

But, the suggestion of Reed is a really good idea.  The only problem is with Anime Evolution right before school starts again (it's at a college), we'd have to go for June or so to put some space between the cons (this also only gives us 9 months to plan again).  This would mean Sakura in April, us in early summer and then AE in late summer.  There is the thought that perhaps Reed or one of the Portland colleges would have something over winter break, but that's really close to Christmas (even though dealer's room things make great presents)...

It's still something worth investigating, but Sakura, Kumori and AE need to work together for what's best for our region in terms of scheduling.

[modab]

I know we're competing with AE, but honestly, Labor Day is a sweet weekend to hold a con, I think... I also like how about half a year separates us from Sakura Con, so we're not treading on their toes at all.

[rarnom]

I agree totally.  Labor Day weekend if anything was perfect because meter parking right next to the con was FREE from 6 pm Saturday until the con was over.  I spent $5 on parking for the whole weekend and I was parked RIGHT NEXT to the con.

[SailorNaboo]

Labor Day means we'll never have "A Fans View" there (race car stuff always happens over labor day).  There are also quite a few North American based voice actors in Canada that will be loyal to their home country and not be able to attend both cons.  Labor day also means we will never get U of O and OSU students because they aren't back in school until later in September.

But that's all stuff to talk about at our meetings and I do agree that labor day has some great advantages.  (Maybe we can get AE to move earlier in the summer? --- mostly kidding...love you guys at A.E.!)

[modab]

I'm definitely willing to consider October, but I think summer is too close to both Expo and Sakura.
Labor Day for me seems great because we can draw random people who are looking for a Labor Day Family Event. That's something that media is going to be willing to go along with too. Potentially really good PR.

[KevinMcKeever]

Labor Day is the best time...There are very few cons for you to compete with and you are far away enough from Sakura Con, Anime Expo, Fanime-con, San Diego Comic Con et al...

Also the Labor Family Event angle is a good one since your demograpihcs skew young. (How many kids needed to bring thier parents or sign a parental conset form)

One other weekend would be columbus day in october. But there is a weather issue and hotel availbility.

[modab]

Is Columbus Day a real holiday in the Northwest? I need to look it up, but I thought they traded MLK Day for Columbus Day in a lot of places.

[MistressLegato]

I'm a cosplay whore, so I would totally prefer a place where costumes could be changed quickly like a Hotel.  It sucked the first day when I had to ride the train all the way back to my friends dorm to change out of the most uncomfortable shoes of all time.  Never makin' that mistake again . . .

Gosh, maybe just a BIGGER hotel!  How exciting though, that instead of being like "Damn, nobody showed up!  There's only 50 people here!"  It was "Sorry, we're all sold out!"

Hooray!  This was my first con and I'm hooked for LIFE!

[animekitty82]

I saw the guy who was tearing down the signs. I felt bad but he worked for the hotel and said the limit on the elevators was not 8 people. I understood what he was trying to do but I remember people at the info booth working hard on those signs.

[spindrift76]

Okay I just have to say Kumoricon was the most fun I had all year and I expect that it will remain the highlight of 2004 for me.

Things that worked for me:
 Laborday  weekend!
 Cost of the con was good ~ I feel like I got my moneys worth
 helpful and supportive Staff ~thank you all
 Taking over the Meadowlark Video Room and becoming a democracy :-)
 Poky of a thousand flavors & Naru (sp?) the drink of violent beginnings
 New friends
 Kind people
 amazing costumes
 Helping out when I could
 Feeling normal amoung fellow Otaku
 Mr. Smith of the Hotel Staff

Things that didn't work for me:
 No bus went by the hotel
 The cost and size of the hotel was disappointing to say the least
 Lack of venders
 Seemingly lack of RPG planning
 No cheep food only poky
 No energy drinks for sale anywhere

[Teh Becca]

Actually, for me, Labor Day Weekend ISN'T the best time, because my family traditionally gets together then to do Labor Day Stuff(tm). I had to leave Monday before closing ceremonies, which was really disappointing.

I'm sure quite a few other people have obligations like that, too. It's something to think about, to be sure...

[PezCat]

While this response won't cover everything you mentioned, in regards to the "apparent lack of RPG planning," that was in fact very much not the case.  I know I personally spent more than 40 hours working on two one-shots for the weekend, and I know for a fact that Nyco spent a great deal of time preparing for her games as well.  We planned out when we would be where, how long the games would be, and how many players we could take on.  If anything we OVERPLANNED it due to...

...the three big problems we had with the RPGs, which were:  (1)  NOBODY SIGNED UP!!!  Virtually every time Nyco or I (as we were the primary GMs) walked by the RPG room, the signup sheets were completely devoid of signatures, leading us to believe that noone was interested.  This truly baffled me on Saturday, as a goodly number of people had voiced interest in a Magical Girl game, yet noone had signed up on the sheet for it;  (2)  On Saturday, at least, there was a major problem (unrelated to Kumoricon) on the 7th floor that prevented people from being able to go to their rooms.  This prevented at least myself from returning to my room for the stuff needed to run the game I had planned on until it was far too late;  (3)  Both Nyco and I were on registration duty as well, which tied us up for much longer than expected due to the registration issues that have already been beaten to death, so I won't go into them again.

Now, to be fair, I can easily understand why when someone who went into that room could see disarray or lack of planning, but in our defense, there was a lot of unforseen circumstance that we couldn't have planned for in advance that hit us upside the head.  At least the games that DID go on seemed to be a hit on both Saturday and Sunday, and for that I am very thankful.

PezCat

[Teh Becca]

Personally, though I looked and looked, I could NOT for the life of me find the RPG room. I was quite interested in that Magical Girl game, too...

[spindrift76]

Next year

 :arrow:  It would be nice to have a video room for each of the fallowing areas:
 AMV
 First episods
 Anime voted on by attendes
 Bring your own Anime

 :arrow:  The dance/ raves/ rants  call it Cyberia and play AMVs on mulitple walls maybe.

 :arrow:  Cosplay dress up & down room for people that don't have a hotel room
 
 :arrow:  Dedicated staff to harold events (I don't rember but a few times when some one when around telling people what was coming up next)

 :arrow:  The Airport Shilo Inn could maybey host and they are cheeper (atleast as far as the rooms go)

:arrow: make staff more reconizable
:arrow: emergency fans/ ac units ?

[psyentific]

Next year


 :arrow:  Cosplay dress up & down room for people that don't have a hotel room

I don't know your gender, but the girls at least had a fairly decent lounge area in the conference restroom where getting a cosplay together would work well.  It certaintly helped for touching my hair up and taking a nap :P