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[Rainingmadness]

I think everyone said what needed to be said about the BBYO. So I will skip talking about that.
Whenever I go to Katsucon it is for one thing and one thing only and that is the AMV contest. This year the AMV contest was absolutely terrible on a technical level. The first showing on Friday was delayed for 30 minutes before they got the audio and video working. However even then, the audio was completely trashed with low volume, the bass set to a high setting, and an audio delay that caused all the videos to lose their timing. During the showing, three videos were cut off due to either the disc or the original file being corrupted which is inexcusible since anyone I know would have double checked their stuff to prevent that kind of issue. It also begs the question why didn't the coordinator bring his laptop incase the raw footage was needed?
The second day it took only 25 min to get everything started. The good news this time is that the sound settings were no longer an issue. However the 5th entry in action AGAIN cut out, this time it was being run through his computer so it was indeed a corrupted file. What the heck!?! How is that even possible? Why would someone not go through all of his material after the travesty from the Friday showing? I am not sure if the same issues occurred for the other 2 videos because we left after that.
During the amv salad 6/amv contest awards (because apparently those needed to be put together). It took almost an hour to get the video and audio working this time! Once he got the media working did he quickly apologize and jump right into the video? No, he had to spend another 10 minutes tooting his own horn first.
I personally find the current person running the amv contest to be in way over his head and is quite frankly to be unprofessional with my brief interaction with him both in person and through my emails with him when I would submit my videos. Some of the staff I talked to seem to really dislike him. I seriously hope that Katsucon takes the amv contest away from him and gives it to someone who can handle it like the black star cosplayer from 2011 (I think his name is Gene Starwind 21122 on animemusicvideo.org). I even ran into him this year and he expressed to me that he has been wanting to run it again, but the con won't give it to him. Even when he ran it there were technical problems sure, but the guy was able to resolve them much faster and most importantly LEARNED from his mistakes by demanding sound checks BEFORE the contest started. The guy was able to charge up the crowd as well. The current guy only gets crickets when he tries to tell jokes.
I hope some authority figure from Katsucon reads this and considers making the change. I am seriously saddened by its current quality. Although I liked the trophies, those were the only things that were done right. To the guy whose video beat me in my catagory with his gurren lagann amv, congrats! It was a very well edited and energetic video, hats off to you and I look forward to competing with you again if Katsucon actually makes the change.

[CassieKitten]

I just wanted to note a couple of things here. We appreciate you attending the ball and your feedback and really do try to make it better each year. I am glad you enjoyed the dance lessons. We did hope to teach a few different styles however there just wasn't enough time. With so many people attending and the experience level it's easiest to stick to one thing in the time span we were given.

As for the ball itself, around 40% of the music style played were waltzes. We were actually given music by the instructors from this year, and previous years, to play based on what they would primarily be teaching in the dance lessons. I think the problem was that some of the music was just hard to recognize as a waltz, which we will definitely work on fixing for next year.

Also around 85% of the music was anime/game related, with around 10% being 'geek culture' related, and the other 5% being straight classical/formal music, and the last song thrown in because we knew it would be a crowd pleaser, and it was. It may be that you didn't recognize a lot of the music as it might night have been from something you were familiar with. The only thing I can recommend is to make suggestions because we do play requests as long as they are something that can be danced too fairly easily.

While it is a formal ball our goal is for everyone to have fun and cater to the majority. We do play a lot of formal stuff but it is an anime con and we don't want to be too stuffy.

Also the issue with the water stations - the gaylord does not permit water stations to be inside of the main ballrooms (at least that is what I have been told by their staff). We had the gaylord staff fill up all the stations in the hallway 30 minutes prior to the event. Next year we will try and work on having them moved closer.

-Formal Ball Staff
[/quote]

I...kinda doubt that, unless the waltzes were incredibly backloaded. I was there for all but the last 30 minutes. I counted two, perhaps 3 songs with an actual 3/4 time. That said, even if 40% of the songs were waltzes, that leaves the problem of what were people supposed to do for the other 60% of songs, given the only thing taught in the lessons *was* the waltz. But, fine, I can accept you didn't have enough time to really get into it. That's more Katsu's fault.

As for the music choice...I can't really push that further. You're right, it's possible I didn't recognize stuff, but I'm fairly sure some of my friends did and it wasn't anime/game stuff for much of it. That said, I'll cede the point, I could easily be mistaken.

The water issue I did not mean to blame on the ball staff or even Katsu staff. It sounded like a Gaylord issue, though the problem is, the Gaylord didn't even provide water stations in the *halls* until sometime Saturday. That is not a good thing. Either way, complaining here about that won't help, Katsu staff handled it really well.

In the end, I do appreciate your response and your explanation of your reasoning. I may very well suggest stuff, I do know quite a few danceable songs in the anime/video game/J-Pop category.

[musepoetique]

Originally Posted by o01101011

For those wanting a digital schedule: THERE WAS ONE.

There were several places on the paper schedules that had a QR code to scan. This loaded up a digital schedule that you could browse and (if you signed up) could mark what events you wanted to attend. This meant you could press the "My schedule" button and see just those panels you marked.

Not only were times posted, but a drop down button let you view the description if there was one.

Not sure if this was a problem with my phone or not, but the online one kept signing me out and didn't update unless I was using the non-mobile version. Was kind of a pain.

[Marika]

Originally Posted by tatooine

- Don't double-book with BBYO next year. Their need to keep their kids from escaping into the more-fun anime convention, which required blocking off areas of the hotel in a way that sharing the con space with adults has never done, was bad.

- Katsu needs better communication. The main Katsu page, and its Twitter feed, should have been running full time documenting all the status changes of the Gazebo Strip and the resulting Two-Con Solution. Silence on Katsu's part contributed to the confusion and unhappiness.

BBYO isn't coming back next year to my knowledge. I believe they go elsewhere each year, and this just happened to coincide.

Actually, I can tell you that from what I know took place, most of those "status changes" were things that we had to fight for and weren't cemented even after they happened. I can't count how many meetings with both BBYO and the hotel staff that the department heads had to rush off to, how many ended with "I was there, but only one of them showed up and the rest didn't bother so we have another meeting at X time", and how many times there were "well... we honestly have no idea, but this is what we have right now though it might change in a few minutes." Pretty much the congoers knew what was going on just as well as we did.

[GeneStarwind211]

Originally Posted by Rainingmadness

I think everyone said what needed to be said about the BBYO. So I will skip talking about that.
Whenever I go to Katsucon it is for one thing and one thing only and that is the AMV contest. This year the AMV contest was absolutely terrible on a technical level. The first showing on Friday was delayed for 30 minutes before they got the audio and video working. However even then, the audio was completely trashed with low volume, the bass set to a high setting, and an audio delay that caused all the videos to lose their timing. During the showing, three videos were cut off due to either the disc or the original file being corrupted which is inexcusible since anyone I know would have double checked their stuff to prevent that kind of issue. It also begs the question why didn't the coordinator bring his laptop incase the raw footage was needed?
The second day it took only 25 min to get everything started. The good news this time is that the sound settings were no longer an issue. However the 5th entry in action AGAIN cut out, this time it was being run through his computer so it was indeed a corrupted file. What the heck!?! How is that even possible? Why would someone not go through all of his material after the travesty from the Friday showing? I am not sure if the same issues occurred for the other 2 videos because we left after that.
During the amv salad 6/amv contest awards (because apparently those needed to be put together). It took almost an hour to get the video and audio working this time! Once he got the media working did he quickly apologize and jump right into the video? No, he had to spend another 10 minutes tooting his own horn first.
I personally find the current person running the amv contest to be in way over his head and is quite frankly to be unprofessional with my brief interaction with him both in person and through my emails with him when I would submit my videos. Some of the staff I talked to seem to really dislike him. I seriously hope that Katsucon takes the amv contest away from him and gives it to someone who can handle it like the black star cosplayer from 2011 (I think his name is Gene Starwind 21122 on animemusicvideo.org). I even ran into him this year and he expressed to me that he has been wanting to run it again, but the con won't give it to him. Even when he ran it there were technical problems sure, but the guy was able to resolve them much faster and most importantly LEARNED from his mistakes by demanding sound checks BEFORE the contest started. The guy was able to charge up the crowd as well. The current guy only gets crickets when he tries to tell jokes.
I hope some authority figure from Katsucon reads this and considers making the change. I am seriously saddened by its current quality. Although I liked the trophies, those were the only things that were done right. To the guy whose video beat me in my catagory with his gurren lagann amv, congrats! It was a very well edited and energetic video, hats off to you and I look forward to competing with you again if Katsucon actually makes the change.

Let me say this it's not necessarily the con that willn't give it back. I gave it up because I thought I was moving to Texas. There are other things going on that I can't discuss. However I want to say I enjoyed the convention this year.

Also as far as your comments go about me running it in the past, I appreciate them. I will be running T-Mode in April. I just got the notice last week. So I've been working on the rules and will have them up tomorrow hopefully on animemusicvideos.org. It's going not be as pretty as I want it to be but we'll get a show going at the convention.

[Nerosurge]

Every year I look forward to going to Katsucon and each year this is something different.

I'm gonna jump on top of the elephant in the room. Jewcon. Okay so it may be a bit harsh to call it that but really Gaylord? Every year you seem to book some sort of religious event when Katsucon comes into town. In the past it wasn't too bad when we practically crashed someone's wedding with a hotel full of cosplayers. Well didn't crash but both families loved seeing all the cosplays we worked so hard on. The government event in '10? '11? I forget when but military old guys getting their dance on in the rave was kinda epic. However with all the other events that went on in the past with Katsucon, it was the BBYO that set everyone over the edge. I'll admit I too was angry when we lost the Gazebo to them, but we did get it back. Now I'm not hating on the BBYO since most of the adults were very cooperative with Katsucon staff, but when you got a convention meant for high school teens that is placed next to Katsucon, you gotta expect stuff is going to happen. Most of us just ignored the BBYO and obnoxious teens but some of us unnecessarily stooped to their level of immaturity to antagonize and provoke the tension between the two cons. As far as we know it, the BBYO is banned from the Gaylord from damages caused by these kids. Even after all of our shenanigans the Gaylord still allows Katsucon to roam their halls and atrium and we should be grateful for that and I know most, if not all of you will be that each year we have a place to celebrate our love for anime, cosplay and the Japanese culture.

Anyway as for everything else, Katsucon was a success. Good panels, great cosplays and decent weather make this con worth it all. However, did we really need 5 homestuck panels? 5? Really? I'm pretty sure 1 or 2 would suffice.

Yay Gazebo. As popular as this place is, there are other great spots around the convention center for photo shoots and I'm not just talking about the fountain either. There was a bit of 'clogging' between photoshoots since one shoot scheduled for a certain time had to wait for another to finish. So for future reference, if you're gonna have a photoshoot at a certain location at a certain time, make sure you have ample time, room and work with the previous or next shoot so that everyone can get enough time in a location without having to wait or be rushed.

Back to panels, Katuscon staff needs to make sure a panel room is cleared, cleaned and ready for the next scheduled panel. When setting up for the 18+ Dating Game, we had to spend an extra 10-15min cleaning up from the panel before. Did anyone else notice the dust on the floor of some rooms? These weren't just bunnies but freaking dinosaur sized dust balls, ick!

As usual Katsucon staff is very helpful, polite and do their best to help out in a bad situation.

With that said, see you all next year!

Oh and BTW, for the douche who stole my badge, I hope an angry badger attacks you in your balls.

[Technowraith]

I'm just curious to know why the Gaylord would turn off all the water fountains on friday, and not provide water stations until a day later. I will admit, that late at night, once the food places close in the atrium. the onlt place to get hydration friday was the sports bar. And to pay outrageous prices for water was a sacrilege. Even with water stations, they were either out of water, out of cups or both. What's the beef with turning off the water fountains? That's something that definitely needs to be looked into for next year: Better coordination of water resources.

[TortureBunni]

This was my first year at Katsucon, and I have to say, I think this is my new favourite convention. The location is gorgeous, both the hotel and the small resort town it is located in. I found the hotel staff and the owners of the local shops and restaurants to be very polite and professional. And of course, the Katsucon staff was lovely.

I liked the wide variety of panels, and there were many that sounded really interesting. My only complaint is that a lot of the ones I wanted to see were at really odd hours, or they conflicted with other things that I wanted to do.

The main thing that I found enjoyable about this convention was how laid-back the atmosphere seemed. I also felt that the attendees were more mature than other conventions which I had attended.

My group and I also loved the buffet dinner that the Gaylord offered on Saturday night. The quality of food for the price was wonderful.

I also appreciated how much walking space there was in Artist Alley and the dealer's room. It was nice not to be so crowded when trying to navigate the aisles in a large costume.

Other than the dissapointment of not being able to use the gazebo, I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to next year.

[mighty damocles]

I always enjoy going to Katsucon. Rarely is there ever something that makes me frustrated.

I did find it odd that this was the second year they lost our registration though. The first year we when they had VIP and now this year as a VIP. The first time I had to jump through hoops to find me registration confirmation. This year, they just added us. Didn't ask for proof. I found that a bit odd but that's on them.

The spontaneous decision to start checking every bag that went into the game room. I understand (through rumors) that a controller was stolen but the line became crazy and people continued to walk through with bags anyway. If you're going to set a rule, make it true for everyone.

People too lazy to take the stairs up/down one or two floors. Cosplayers unable to traverse the stairs don't count of course but really, everyone else could have walked!

And lastly, the annoyance of not being able to get to the garage via anything but the front of the Gaylord. It was too cold to walk all the way around on Saturday night. A minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things but still annoying nonetheless.

[Mr Oni]

Well geesh it was an Ok con this year.
Lets see good.

1.con staff was mostly freindly the vip badge staff themselves went way out.

2. Good panels for me

3.lots of awesome cosplayers.


Bad

1.This is going down in my book as Katsjewcon. My gripes are pretty standard.

2.What guy selling nazi stuff in the dealers room? There was a guy who sells military stuff. He had one hat that had the deaths head on it I guess for SS but there wasnt any swastikas anywhere. Just because people are ignorant of militaria dosen't mean it shouldn't be sold. People that are offended are no fun to be around.

3.I am the only person who appearently cares about this but the con let vip badges be counterfitted and because of them trying to find them I was harrased over 20 times for a little number on the back of my badge.

4. The masquerade-Gets stupider every year. People hardly do skits anymore. The whole contest should be divided like the amv contest is. Song and dance acts are far too many and 3 gangam style ones wtf can't people be original? Break the contest maybe into 3 categories and seperate the male and female cosplayers so that male costumes stand a chance.

[girlswithcomics]

Originally Posted by Mr Oni

Well geesh it was an Ok con this year.
Lets see good.

1.con staff was mostly freindly the vip badge staff themselves went way out.

2. Good panels for me

3.lots of awesome cosplayers.


Bad

1.This is going down in my book as Katsjewcon. My gripes are pretty standard.

2.What guy selling nazi stuff in the dealers room? There was a guy who sells military stuff. He had one hat that had the deaths head on it I guess for SS but there wasnt any swastikas anywhere. Just because people are ignorant of militaria dosen't mean it shouldn't be sold. People that are offended are no fun to be around.

As per the Nazi dealer, he's been set up at other cons before. He didn't have the array he has had in past years, but he still had a few items for sale, such as hats that had Swastikas on them, and his mirror he had on display also had a swastika on it. I saw the deaths head, but (as you even pointed out) how many people would even know what that is? I'm Jewish, but it doesn't bother me. I collect Golden Age comics and most of them have Hitler on them. Plus my (very not Jewish) boyfriend collects military items from WW2. However I understand why people would be offended.

[Mr Oni]

Originally Posted by girlswithcomics

As per the Nazi dealer, he's been set up at other cons before. He didn't have the array he has had in past years, but he still had a few items for sale, such as hats that had Swastikas on them, and his mirror he had on display also had a swastika on it. I saw the deaths head, but (as you even pointed out) how many people would even know what that is? I'm Jewish, but it doesn't bother me. I collect Golden Age comics and most of them have Hitler on them. Plus my (very not Jewish) boyfriend collects military items from WW2. However I understand why people would be offended.

Well none of the hats really had swastikas on them. What he does is take East german or Russian surplus and converts them rather poorly to whatever country hes selling them as. I did like the Japanese jungle hat he converted to a sgt frag hat. His stuff is way too over priced for me anyway.

[Raitox]

I think the only problem I had the whole weekend was at the maid cafe. I had a reservation so getting in was fine and getting up to the cafe was awesome, I loved the atmosphere. But then when we got there it was so crowded. I just felt we were all up in the neighboring tables business. The maids were all very nice though. Now I'm pretty aware this probably isn't Katsucon's fault, but the food was mediocre. A friend got the rice and it was crunchy and so were the noodles in my ramen, and everything was cold. All the members at the table were not impressed with the food. But then when we went to finish and pay we waited for about an hour standing at the counter just to pay. There was only one person at the register actually cashing out the rest were just running around taking our checks, looking at them, then just handing them back to us. Also, our maid had a hard time explaining that they needed to split the checks because we weren't all from the same group. Finally, it took about 30 minutes just to wait for an elevator to get to the cafe to leave.

[o01101011]

Originally Posted by Mr Oni

3.I am the only person who appearently cares about this but the con let vip badges be counterfitted and because of them trying to find them I was harrased over 20 times for a little number on the back of my badge.

I talked to some staff about this. Apparently it wasn't that they got counterfeited, but a batch was stolen so staff was forced to constantly check names on a paper list and match it to badge # or something. Its pretty hard to run things smoothly when a batch of legit, stolen, badges is floating around.

[Mr Oni]

Originally Posted by o01101011

I talked to some staff about this. Apparently it wasn't that they got counterfeited, but a batch was stolen so staff was forced to constantly check names on a paper list and match it to badge # or something. Its pretty hard to run things smoothly when a batch of legit, stolen, badges is floating around.

Well like I said if it was once ok but it was 22 times i counted. They should have just taken the hit and worked on something for next year instead of harrassing us vips that didn't do anything.