Open question to everyone for '06

[Editor]

A simple serious question.

Is there anything that people can think of that may improve the convention.

New events or better ways to do things. The AE staff do want to be able to provide our guests with the best experiance we can, and we do need to hear from you to know what you want. So please if you have any thoughts or ideas please post them at the AE boards, or if you aren't a member of the AE boards, the ideas posted here will be taken note of aswell, so feel free to leave them here.

Some things may be things we have already heard, or may not be posible but others may be the next big thing or could seriously change the way we see or feel about something so please post them. The Sunday Fashion Walk-off this year was just a simple idea that was brought up that became one of the most popular events, Maybe you have next years standout event.

Thanks.  

[K U R I C A K E]

Alright, these may or may not have been suggested.

-Banners: I think I've heard this every year but the school takes them down, maybe find a way to prevent that from happening?
What AE needs is a "tittle" (you know, the tittle of a letter or the tittle at the top of the page). When you enter the AE "area" a huge sign would help the lost and make it clear where you are. Perhaps get the "trap" material so they can be used for many years!


-FOOD! I heard there was some problems last year, so its not really the staffs fault. Lots of food, it doesn't need to be japanese, a great asortment in an area right in the con like 2004.

-dealers room, we need more. Maybe call up some of those e-bay dealers? They always have rare stuff XD

-bags (reg)- something more interesting would be loved, but I know you guys are limited. I'm still pissed that I pre-reged and didn't get the RO trial T__T

-Mascot. ae-chan is cute! Why don't we have someone dress up as her to run around the con?

-video rooms - last year (2004) was bad, this year was a little better. I still never got to see the movie I wanted because it was late by and hour. ><
Try to get some new anime? Maybe show one or two complete series?

-AMV contest rocked.

-Auction, I found that the "voice actors" suck at the auction unless they've done it lots. They took too long and everything had to go quick at the end. Get a pro in and then have them assist. 3nodding

-Music: maybe a room just devoted to that other than going to the ker?

- Tshirts, colour based ones next year? I hate white shirts...><  

[Editor]

Lets see, cause there are some comments I can address already..

K U R I

Alright, these may or may not have been suggested.
-FOOD! I heard there was some problems last year, so its not really the staffs fault. Lots of food, it doesn't need to be japanese, a great asortment in an area right in the con like 2004.
-dealers room, we need more. Maybe call up some of those e-bay dealers? They always have rare stuff XD

These are two areas that are already being looked into and the full intention is to improve. Also with the UniverCity project expanding next year hopefully there will be more food sources available beyond the convention aswell.

Quote:

-bags (reg)- something more interesting would be loved, but I know you guys are limited. I'm still pissed that I pre-reged and didn't get the RO trial T__T

We only have what we are given, and with that it's first come, first served to a certain degree, and we were somewhat supplied according to early projection numbers, which as most know by now, we completely overshot. We do try to give everything to everyone when possible.

As for Pre-reg, as people who pre-reg can get their badges and bags the night before the convention starts, most do get the best chance at the "best" bags.

We will do our best to try have everyone with similar bags next year if possible.

Quote:

-video rooms - last year (2004) was bad, this year was a little better. I still never got to see the movie I wanted because it was late by and hour. ><
Try to get some new anime? Maybe show one or two complete series?

Now this is something I know a lot about as I helped put that schedule together. One thing that wasn't improved from last year is an explanation about the times for the video rooms.

If you have a copy of the schedule, you will notice that everything was in 4 hour blocks. Usually with 2 half-hour episodes of 4 shows. Now if show A started at 10:00am, show B was to start at the end of the second show A episode not right at 11:00am. Due to this If you were in the room you would see everything as per the schedule, but if you went right at a certain time unless if was for the show at the beginning of a block, it may not have meshed exactly. (Which movie was it exactly, as I may be able to give an exact reason why it was an hour different

Quote:

-AMV contest rocked.

We somehow have already made a name for ourselves as being a contest people want to be part of. Vlad has agreed to run next years contest aswell and I'm sure it will rock aswell.

Quote:

-Music: maybe a room just devoted to that other than going to the ker?

Interesting idea, I will make sure programming is aware.

Quote:

- Tshirts, colour based ones next year? I hate white shirts...><

Already brought up, and being addressed. Hopefully next year we will have this fully addressed.

Thanks KURI. hope that helps somewhat.  

[TheIllustriousBlueJay]

maybe there should be a costume contest where the audience judges the costumes.  

[Editor]

TheIllustriousBlueJay

maybe there should be a costume contest where the audience judges the costumes.

That wouldn't be an easy thing to pull-off, but none the less an interesting thought.

First off, There is already a number of cosplay events already. The Cos-play contest, Fashion show, Walk-off.

Second, what way would be used to compile votes? The AMV contest can use a simple Ballot for the audience choice, but those slips are printed up in advance of the convention once the selected videos have gone thou the judging panel. Most participants of the Cosplay contests sign up at con, so it is hard to set up something for the audience in advance.

A cheering/most noise method could always be used but those tend to end up with some level of debate over the results.

That said, It is an interesting idea to pursue, I shall bring this up with programming to see what the people who will be planning the cosplay based events think about an audience selection.  

[Sawryn]

Yay! wanted to comment on the sight about this but couldn't find the right section.

the cosplay last year, for the pertisipants wasn't set up so great, we didn't have seats this year and they hand rehersal and the cosplay slip so far apart the the cosplay so late in the day that well it pretty much took up the whole day, if there is anyway the could find us seats for the 06 cosplay that would be enough for me but like I said having it spread apart made it take up all of saturday I was way more pleased with 04's cosplay then 05's

Just my feek back will so be a part of the cosplay regadless ^-^  

[Editor]

Random Romanji

Well... I just have a couple of concerns.

The first one, most importantly, is the location of Artists Alley. I felt that the corridor it was located in this year was a little.... cramped for the large amounts of people that go through there. All I'm wondering is why it was moved from the Reg Hall area.

There were a few reasons why the Artest Alley was placed there.
- The area the alley was placed was not available to us the year before so it was placed in an area we did have available. That did result in comments that the area around the main theaters with the artist tables was extreamly crowded.
- As this year we had available and had programming in Images Theater, there was an effort to have other things also going on in order to give people more reasons to head over to that side of the AQ. Obviously viewing and panel rooms couldn't be moved but the alley could

Random Romanji

Maybe there should be a couple of extra panels focusing on Eurobeat? Since alot of people I know missed it because there were other panels going on at the same time.

In setting up the live programming events, many steps are taken to try not to schedule things against each other that will split peoples interests. However sometimes there is no way that all overlaps can be dealt with.

Sorry, things overlaped for you this year, hopefully we will be able to present things next year in a way that is better for everyone.

Random Romanji

There was a debate during the opening ceremony, "Why the One Piece dub sucks." Maybe it would make a good panel idea? Debating on various aspects of anime/games?

We have done some panels of that nature in the past, and the panel on the state of anime in Canada has touched on many aspects of "americanization" of anime shows.

I can't Guarentee anything but if we have people willing to run panels (Once ready, the programming head will likely place a notice on the AE website asking for panellists with fully planned out ideas to submit them for approval) we do try to present various panels that attendees with enjoy.

Random Romanji

Overall, the convention was awesome. Though. Life IS sustainable in the pond. cool

Thank you. But people please don't enter the pond or distrub the fish. SFU security if they see you do have the power to remove you from the Campus for doing either.  

[Editor]

Sawryn

Yay! wanted to comment on the sight about this but couldn't find the right section.

the cosplay last year, for the pertisipants wasn't set up so great, we didn't have seats this year and they hand rehersal and the cosplay slip so far apart the the cosplay so late in the day that well it pretty much took up the whole day, if there is anyway the could find us seats for the 06 cosplay that would be enough for me but like I said having it spread apart made it take up all of saturday I was way more pleased with 04's cosplay then 05's

Just my feek back will so be a part of the cosplay regadless ^-^

For '05 we did have a large issue with the fact that the person who was suppost to be in charge of Cos-play did not have much experiance in doing so and due to work issues had to pull-out of the convention at the last minute. We did (thank fully) have Mellisa who was willing to get involved and take charge of things in addition to her full time job in Bellingham, and her Convention duties with Guest Relations. However due to the late point in the game, there was only so much she could do to get the cosplay running properly once she took over. Cosplay should run in that capacity better next year.

As for seating. I have no idea if seating will be set aside for the people taking part. That will be up to the people in charge of the event and room control at con.

---WARNING - COMPLETELY PERSONAL OPINIONS---

Having been involved in helping running Cosplay events before I can fully understand why you would want to be able to sit down and watch the competiters behind you. Heck, why wouldn't you.

However...
-- As a staffer: Depending on which room the event is held in, there is a question of how many seats are available. With the current attendance numbers we run the risk of fully filling the whole room while turning people away. Just as people want to take part, more people attending just want to be able to watch and it is very hard to turn people away while leaving seats empty for the majority of the event.

-- As Former Head Usher for Sakura-con Main Events: Depending on the set-up of the room, it can be quite hard to move people once they have finished their time on stage into the crowd without causing some distuptions for others watching or even worse for others who may be on stage afterwards.

-- As a former Drama student: People in plays don't get the chance to come out and watch after their part may be finished. And also it is a tad unfair that the people who take the stage later would get to see a much smaller amount than those before them, let alone the person or group that goes dead last. The only way around that is to have all the groups sitting in the room from the start, that however would not work for some of the groups with planned skits, and it would distroy much of the mystic if you could see all the costumes before they come on stage.

The fact is most cosplay events at conventions around North America try to give Cosplay attendees things to do, or if possible give them a way that they can watch what is going on, but usually without seating them unless they have a good facility and enough seats that all the people that want to watch can and still have space for the cosplayers.

I'll get off my high horse now.

---END OF COMPLETELY PERSONAL OPINIONS---

Regardless of my personal ramblings, your feedback is valuble to the convention and will be address as such.

We are looking into what options we have available to us to improve our cosplay events and taking into conciderations what would improve things for the cosplayers aswell. Your comments are ones, that others have said aswell and we are fully aware need to be addressed, I am certain that things on the precosplay side will improve next year, The aspects for watching I'm not sure about, but I know that we are toying with a possible idea that would allow such an action if it can be pulled off. If it does, I'm sure it is something that will make you happy. If we can't..... The people in charge of the event will do what they can to give you a positive experience regardless.  

[Sawryn]

Thanks for hearing me out ^-^ I look forward to attending again next year.  

[TheIllustriousBlueJay]

so do I  

[Velvet Opera]

Random thought, yet not totally random:

Were there any Japanese musical talents at AE over the last couple years? If anyone was there for '05, I guess I didn't notice. xd ; But lately I've been getting into TM Revolution.. and I noticed on their website that they'd been to Otakon. T.T

That said, we should have some kind of uber-spiffy fundraiser so we can afford to get these people here. :K I'd looove to hear Invoke live. >>;;

..and I wouldn't mind seeing Kotani Kinya either. u.u <3

*dreams* 8D  

[Editor]

Velvet Opera

Random thought, yet not totally random:

Were there any Japanese musical talents at AE over the last couple years? If anyone was there for '05, I guess I didn't notice. xd ; But lately I've been getting into TM Revolution.. and I noticed on their website that they'd been to Otakon. T.T

That said, we should have some kind of uber-spiffy fundraiser so we can afford to get these people here. :K I'd looove to hear Invoke live. >>;;

..and I wouldn't mind seeing Kotani Kinya either. u.u <3

*dreams* 8D

Not in so far. Bringing in a Japanese music talent is a VERY EXPENSIVE issue. In working with Pacific Media Expo who had TMR 2 years ago and with the Hiro & Angela performances at Sakura-con I know some of the issues that would go into bring in even a smaller Japanese musical guest , which AE has already started perparing for (if not for the upcoming convention, then in future years) as we do want to be able to give Vancouver Fans a concert but the shear financial numbers that would be required are very high.

At this time for an artist the level of TMR we would need to almost triple our attendence and raise admission over double just to cover the charges of the concert, not including venue charges, and would leave us with zero budget for the rest of the convention.

The conventions that have been able to bring in groups like TMR, Arc en Ciel, and such exist in cities with much larger population and fandom bases and in conventions that have been operating for much longer periods of time. We are hopeful and are planning that AE in time will be large and successful enough that we can host such events in the future but as for '06, an act like TMR is just too far out of our ability to present.  

[Velvet Opera]

Understandable. 3nodding I appreciate the elaboration! smile

Just wish I could help come up with some uber super-duper master plan that'd get someone like them to AE sooner xd ! But.. ah. xd  

[Mizoko]

Only let a specific number of Inu-Yasha, Naruto, and FMA cosplayers in. And no fat chicks in mini-skirts. xp

Actually, what I think would be really fun is an eating contest. See who can stuff the most ramen down their pieholes in an underlying period of time.