Our Kumori Con Adventure

[Kay-Skay790]

Well I'd have to say that overall we were pretty disappointed.  Though I must say that the hotel was very nice and in a good location and the Con Staff members were also very nice and helpful.

It's also possible that we just had a less than great experience this time around, but I'm posting it anyway.

First thing before the Con even started, I never did get an e-mail confirmation for my registration, I inquired about it a couple of months ago and was basically told that there were more important things for the reg people to do than send confirmations.  But as I got my badge without a hitch I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.  The other thing was that the schedule wasn't posted on the web site until it was less than a week before the con started.

We had a lot of difficulty reading the schedule because the tables didn't have borders for the individual cells.  So we had to kind of guess at the time and hope we were right.

There weren't enough things to do.  The panel schedule was pretty thin so we ended up not having anything to do for large chunks of time, and there wasn't really anything to fill that down time with.  There was the anime viewing rooms(it's not really social kind of thing though), and there wasn't an arcade or a craft room like Sakura Con did this year, which we killed a huge portion of our down time in.

As for the panels go I think we may have just been really unlucky because we went to the first Cat Ears panel were told by a Staff member that it had been moved to the next day at 10:00am in the same room.  We showed up the next morning and the panel had started at 9:00am in the room kitty-corner to the original.

The other one was the Bonsai panel, which we showed up a pretty early for and when we didn't see the panelists arrive we went to find out if it had been canceled.  We found out that it was supposed to start half and hour later than we'd though it did but that as far as the info booth knew it was still on, so we went and watched an ep of Tsubasa and then headed back only to find that in that time the panel had been canceled.

We also went to the armor-making panel and ended up leaving after less than 5 minutes had passed, but that was the presenter's problem not the con's.

I must say though that we really enjoyed the Copic panels they were a lot of fun as well as being very informative.  As far as I'm concerned they were EXACTLY what a panel should be.

The dealer's room wasn't ever over crowded and it had a really good variety of stuff; as always I kind of wish that there had been more venders but what can you do, this is still a pretty new con.

Anyway today we left before noon because there just wasn't anything to do and we didn't want to wait around for the next 4 or 5 hours for the Gripe Session so I'm posting mine here.

I'm sorry if this offends I know all the Staff worked hard and that they volenteer their time for it, but still it just wasn't a fun con.

[BlackjackGabbiani]

and there wasn't an arcade or a craft room like Sakura Con did this year, which we killed a huge portion of our down time in.

There was an open game room, and there was the Fan Creation Station, where people could write and draw.

[Sesari]

and there wasn't an arcade or a craft room like Sakura Con did this year, which we killed a huge portion of our down time in.

There was an open game room, and there was the Fan Creation Station, where people could write and draw.

I hate to be a total pessimist, but the Fan Creation Station was limited in size, and wasn't always open, either. The open game room had the supposedly inevitable 'geek-smell' pouring out of it, which served as kind of a deterrant. (Maybe next year, if we can get some kind of a sponsor, we can put soap / deodorant in the swag bags that you get at registration? That would be all kinds of hip.)

Finally, my group and I had the same problem with the schedules, too. We were half an hour late to at least two events due to confusion. Not a huge deal, but something that could've been easily avoided, I think...

We did have fun, though, and every con can always be better!

[BlackjackGabbiani]

and there wasn't an arcade or a craft room like Sakura Con did this year, which we killed a huge portion of our down time in.

There was an open game room, and there was the Fan Creation Station, where people could write and draw.

I hate to be a total pessimist, but the Fan Creation Station was limited in size, and wasn't always open, either.

Limited in size? We were freakin' huge! And we had tons of stuff! So much stuff that most of it wound up being boxed up because it didn't get used!

And wasn't always open? Even during panels it would be available, unless it was the yaoi panel (which was standing room only). The only hours it was closed were the hours when the con was closed.

[Sesari]

Limited in size? We were freakin' huge! And we had tons of stuff! So much stuff that most of it wound up being boxed up because it didn't get used!

And wasn't always open? Even during panels it would be available, unless it was the yaoi panel (which was standing room only). The only hours it was closed were the hours when the con was closed.

Ooh... I think I had you confused with the art-swap table over near the Multnomah room. I think the whole problem with the Executive area in general was that to the casual browser, it was just kind of difficult to find.

Your guys' room was really hip, though. We spent a lot of our 'downtime' in there just chatting it up with other otaku, listening to stories or sharing various art techniques. That particular spot was hosted really well. It probably would've had much more traffic if it were slightly more accessible, though I understand that that particular aspect of the Fan Creation Station wasn't exactly under your control.

[BlackjackGabbiani]

Yeah, I for one was very put off by how out of the way we were. It seemed to me that the most traffic we got was people asking if it was the Hamilton Room.

[Teh Becca]

They really did need more to do. Everything (mostly) that I wanted to do on Saturday .. happened at 3:00, which made me miss three(!!!) things which I had REALLY been looking forward to (Copic 101, Super Smash Bros. Tournament, and the LARP). There was practically nothing on Monday, and .. I don't know.

I was quite disappointed with a lot of it, though I did have quite a bit of fun.

[Sinaj]

Positives:
The location was much better this year for sure. Lot more room for everything.

Dealer's Room was much improved too. There seemed to be a lot more goodies available than at last years con, especially in the snacks and drinks department. Strawberry Pocky for $1 was awesome!

The Dubbing panel was fantastic. It inspired me to tinker with it at home for fun.

The Real Life panel was fun too, despite some rather rude and immature folks.

AMV Contest was great. The sound system seemed to be better this year, but that could have been because the room was better laid out. Congrats the all the winners and all those who entered the contest.

Not-so-positives:
Having the Karaoke stuff going on right next door to the Real Life Panel made it really hard for those in the Real Life panel. Next year you might want to put it next to either an empty room, or one of the video rooms.

Having it next to a panel where you're trying to hear people talk was distracting.

Having the Art-Swap table was cool. Having it in the hall where there was a lot of foot traffic was not-so-cool. It probably would have been better to place it in or near Fan Creation Station.

Fan Creation Station was hidden.

[Kay-Skay790]

There was an open game room, and there was the Fan Creation Station, where people could write and draw.

Where the hell was the Fan Creation Station?  I mean I saw the art swap thing in the middle of the busy hall which really made me not want to spend any time there because you constantly have people jostling all around you.

As for the open game room it looked like it was all home console type stuff and I didn't see anything that I was interested in playing.

[Teh Becca]

There was an open game room, and there was the Fan Creation Station, where people could write and draw.

Where the hell was the Fan Creation Station?  I mean I saw the art swap thing in the middle of the busy hall which really made me not want to spend any time there because you constantly have people jostling all around you.

As for the open game room it looked like it was all home console type stuff and I didn't see anything that I was interested in playing.

Do you know where the Multnomah Grille was? It was around and behind that, in the office/meetings area.

And there was also tabletop RPGs, we played the Munchkin card game on Sunday, too. It was very fun (of course, this was upstairs, not in the video game room).

[pinkrandomattack]

[/quote]

I hate to be a total pessimist, but the Fan Creation Station was limited in size, and wasn't always open, either. The open game room had the supposedly inevitable 'geek-smell' pouring out of it, which served as kind of a deterrant. (Maybe next year, if we can get some kind of a sponsor, we can put soap / deodorant in the swag bags that you get at registration? That would be all kinds of hip.)

Finally, my group and I had the same problem with the schedules, too. We were half an hour late to at least two events due to confusion. Not a huge deal, but something that could've been easily avoided, I think...

We did have fun, though, and every con can always be better![/quote]


wow for some reason i also think that having some sort of deodorant samples in the swag bags woudl be the best idea ever, if they coudl get a sponsor for it. that seems very clever.

[web]

Having the Art-Swap table was cool. Having it in the hall where there was a lot of foot traffic was not-so-cool.

I was the primary staffer of the art exchange table. It was run by me and a couple other staffers from AOD (A anime con in San Francisco, website here: http://www.aodsf.com ). We were supposed to be located in the dealers room, but apparently since we arrived late we had to find another spot.

The hall was the best place we could find, and worked out pretty well since we could stay open forever instead of closing at the same time as the dealers room.

Next year we hope to have a bit more space. We had no idea it would be so popular, as some of you may have noticed from the shortage of paper.

[BlackjackGabbiani]

It was a great idea. Perhaps next year it could be combined with the Fan Creation Station.