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[ThtGrl13]

Originally Posted by dizzylizzy

Pshah!!!!

Classical. Know it! "Hoedown" from "Rodeo" by Aaron Copland. It's part of of the American classics and is very patriotic... hence why it's played at that Gaylord. One of my favorite pieces by him! Let me tell you how crazy of an arrangement it is to play! lol

Ah I didn't see your post! It is a fun piece to play and I am glad someone else recognized it as Copland.

[mrgetalife]

Originally Posted by Eurobeat King

This. Another year where I paid $55 (just made the cut-off for pre-reg.) and really didn't need it. Didn't go into the Dealers' Room once, any panels, or any events on the convention center side EXCEPT for watching most of the WCS, which my badge was checked.

I had a feeling after last year that I should've not pre-reg. for 2012, since I wouldn't have needed one. "I didn't learn anything! heh. I was right all along!"

Next year I probably won't pre-reg. but I may end-up doing so since I do support the convention and once again, Katsucon proved that it is my favorite anime con on the East Coast.

Yeah its always good to support a con like that when they get a Facility like that to run the convention. Not to mention technically if the Hotel security somehow doesn't like you they can't flat out kick you out if you have a Badge or stay at that hotel.

And best East Coast con for Cosplay would probably be spot on.

This year the hotel was prepared for the Con. They increased security and let the noise get louder at night as long as you weren't yelling or some dumb drunk person causing trouble.

[Hisokas_baby]

Originally Posted by KateSkirmish

Last, I just wish that there were badge requirements in more places. I love walking around and seeing all the cosplayers, but I know a lot of them don't even buy badges at all. And when they want to go into the dealer's room or something, they borrow their friend's. :/ Why am I paying so much when someone else is paying nothing?
And besides just being kind of peeved about that, I REALLY don't like how random people just show up because they hear there are "a bunch of idiots in costumes" and they show up and just basically troll the whole place. I go to a convention to be around like minded people, and I DO NOT feel comfortable when a bunch of groups of local guys are strolling through the place hassling me. I know there are plenty of creepers with badges too, but with every person that walks through the door just to see the spectacle and not to enjoy the event, there is a higher probability of risk. I know they can't just check badges right at the door, but maybe there's a way to keep the drunk locals out of at least some of the larger areas? It's nice that there are so many ways to get around in the Gaylord, but maybe that's what makes it so difficult to set up badge checks.

I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who felt that way.
My friend and I ran a panel at the con, and we had asked many of our friends to come out and support it. We had even arranged for one of our friends to help us with the panel. But she decided not to spend the money on a convention badge, so we had to find a replacement. That's not the cons fault at all; I'm just trying to make a point that badges should be more reinforced at future Katsucons. It's definitely not fair for the rest of us to spend $60+ on one while other people basically get a free ride.
On that note, I thought the 18+ badges were handled very well. I noticed they took down my name and badge number when I went to pick it up. That takes care of the whole "sharing badges" issue and I thought that was a smart idea. : )

The random people also were starting to creep me out. Granted, there's always going to be regular hotel goers and "normies" around any sort of convention. Can't do anything about that. But I remember getting a private photoshoot with my photographer, and a whole gang of drunk men were just standing there oogling me. Very uncomfortable. So again, there I am wishing that the whole "con-attendee" part was more enforced.

My only other big complaint was the panel scheduling. Katsucon, what the hell.
First off, my friend and I continuously had to send emails to the woman in charge of panel submissions (she was very helpful and extremely nice, albeit) because we had no idea when the freakin' schedule was going to be released, at least to the panelists who were trying to get everything completed. I've never heard of a con schedule being released the week before/week of a convention. Never. I even asked a bunch of veteran panelists and they thought it was ridiculous.
Secondly, they somehow got our panel description mixed up with someone else's. We sent a quick email to the staff about the mistake, which they must've realized or got our message last minute because the booklet had the correct description under our panel (phew). But after waiting for them to finalize the schedule for so long, you think they would get it right. Ugh.
Lastly, during the actual panel, we arrived 15 minutes early or so to get set up. We were kind of peeved that when we got there, the panel before us still needed to wrap it up and get out. There was no staffers to be seen either. But the panelists were nice enough, apologizing about the delay and they cleared out their stuff (the one guy left us a MLP drawing...how cute). However, when we were getting our equipment/computer set up, we were seriously confused how to go about it since there was no free outlets by the front table. I ran out to grab a staffer for help. But I honestly couldn't tell you if I somehow missed all of the staffers on that floor, or if there were none there to begin with.
I think the staffers should be more readily available or recognizable for the panelists. We could've used the help, as this was only our second time running a panel.

Besides that, the Gaylord is seriously the prettiest hotel I've ever seen and I'm excited to hear that they renewed their contract with the con! Being an avid cosplayer, I really do feel like that's the selling point of Katsucon. I'll definitely be there every year if it's at the Gaylord~

I guess most of my post is olds news, but just thought I'd put my two cents in. c:

[Kaliban]

I will have to say after reading 8 pages of this some of you actually have some legitimate points .. now for some others ..

Some complain about the hotel pricing and thier security and staff .. well lets look at it from thier point of veiw ..
1 They have to clean up after a bunch of the con attendees meaning trashed rooms,puke,damaged rooms and areas , noise(the con guests are not the only paying guests and not all the con guests stay at the gaylord) Oh and lets not forget the under age drinkers .
2 I am not sure about the other hotels but the gaylord did offer discounted rooms for con guests , The staff I dealt with were very nice and respectful but so was I to them .
3 Besides MD laws the gaylord also has its own in house rules when it comes to things such as shirtless guys .
Those are just a few things .. Now for the Con itself .
Yep I didnt like how they did thier directory for events it was pain to read . As for the Reg lines well thats why we have the chance to PreRegister . Everyone I know who PreRegged were in and out in no time . If I go to a big event and I did not PreReg i expect to sit in a line for awhile . I am sure nobody working the con had any idea that 12,000 people were going ot show since last year was only 7000 and with the economy the way it is i am sure it was a shock .
Dealers room was bigger this year than last and yes there were some shops selling some of the same stuff but I see that at every con I have been to as well as most Ren fairs andI cna go on . I found plenty of anime DVDs and also some other interesting items i wasnt expecting to see . The guy in the uniform was interesting but he did get quite a bit of buisness from con guests .
As far as costumes I do not care if its hard core anime or gi joe or even furry . If you want to dress up go right ahead its a Con and also if you dress up in a costume expect to have your picture taken even if someone doesnt ask you for it ..take it as a compliment and move on .
Some how I think if things were more strict when it comes to the Con people would have a bigger problem . And yes a bunch of you have a lagitimate complaint but some of you i think are complaining just to do it .

Cons are not easy to run and if you think you can do a good job then step up and work them and give up your time to do it .

This is not a bash on everyone but I think some people need ot look at things from both sides and there is always room for improvement .

[negativedreamer]

Made my first trip up to Katsucon this year, and was also part of staff. So here are my thoughts of the convention.

-Location is amazing. Please never change venue.

-Staff were treated WAY better than any of con I have been a part of. Thank you!

-Convention scedule paper was hard and annoying to read. Next year please make it Excel format for everyones sanity.

-I didnt have any issues with hotel staff, actually they were very nice and professional to me. I feel sorry for those who did though.

-It was a change to see a convention where almost all the cosplayers are on one side (atrium/lobby), and all the rest are on the other (hall/dealers) with very little cross polination. It changed the experience for me, but not in a bad way.

-I really hope to make the trip again next year, thank you for the memories!

[Xale D]

Just a couple notes from another Katsu Staffer:

First up, the Pocket Schedule:

Originally Posted by ConChair

Q: Who designed the pocket program schedule, Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems? A: Yes. We're bringing back the normal grid next year. I don't know what happened, but if someone says, "Hey, this is the final proof, want to check it out for errors?" Don't think because 90% of the stuff is right, the other 10% must be fine.

Yeah, even we, the staff, found it less than helpful.

Next, Masq and WCS starting late: we had a breakdown in communication in how/who was seating the room for the Masq, so it took much longer than expected. For that, I apologize. Fortunately, we had built some extra time into the Masq's time slot to allow for any complications that may have popped up.

The WCS... I'll take full responsibility for that delay. We got the list of skits and their tech requirements a week before the con, but then, just as the Masq was finishing up, I discovered my version and the version that arrived at con were different in small ways. So, I went through each skit with the presenters to confirm that my information was true and accurate, which took time, but resulted in a near flawless presentation, even though we didn't have any rehearsal. I have likened the event to playing chicken with a train and winning.


Badges: While we had fewer obvious check points, more of the staff were on the look out for people in convention space without a badge. Note the operative term: "convention space." While we would like to think of the entire Gaylord as ours, it isn't. Katsucon used roughly 1/3 of the total available space this year. We can only restrict/control access to the spaces we have rented, but at the same time, with 12,000 attendees, the decision was quickly made to have as few bottlenecks as we could afford. So, we did positive badge checks at the exhibit halls and a few other places and tried to stay out of the way. I spoke with several folks, including a few in costume, about appearing to not have a badge, and they were all able to produce it from a pocket.


Other than those points, please keep the feedback coming, there are a bunch of staffers reading this, and the pros/cons will all be discussed at our upcoming Postmortem Meeting.

Nathan
Division Head
Technical Operations
Katsucon 2012

[FireFairy]

Yes I think that this convention was a sucess. It do appreciate all of the hard work that all the staff, hotel and convention, did. Like most of the comments about the program I do agree that I like the excel version better and I see that it is in the works to be revamped. Over all there were almost double attendents so I understand that there going to be some issues. So overall I thank both convention staff and hotel staff for doing an awesome job Cant wait for next year!

[otaku_wannabe]

Now, I'm not trying to complain here. Just pointing out a fact.
I missed the Izumi Matsumoto Q&A panel on Friday, one of the ones that I most wanted to be at, because I was waiting for the supposed first autograph session with him, expecting that there would be a huge line. There was no session, and I ended up getting a bit of grief from Mr. Matsumoto's translator. Here's the thing; There was no autograph session at the time, yet it said there was on the schedule app and the pillar schedules. It was later updated, and the issues were solved, but my point here is PLEASE sort out the bugs before the convention panels start. I don't want this to happen to other fans. I realize that I was relying more on the schedule than common sense, and I was at least 55% responsible for missing the panel, but I still feel that such problems should be fixed ahead of time, since fans heavily rely on schedules during the Katsucon and other conventions.

There. I feel better now that I've gotten that out.

[SilverStarboy]

Originally Posted by Stormraven24

Friday started out pretty awful (but that was my own fault, not the con's), but it got better as the weekend went on. The few staff members I saw/interacted with were friendly and helpful, the WCS appeared to run rather smoothly despite a half-hour+ delay (and thank god because I honestly didn't want to be there until 1AM). The footage of the previous winning teams and behind the scenes stuff from WCSs in years past was really very nice!

My only complaint would, of course, be the expense. The Gaylord and harbor area is indeed nice, but it's expensive as all hell. And the hotel I stayed at (Residence Inn) apparently didn't treat my friend and roomie too kindly the whole weekend, but that's not really my place to talk since I didn't witness anything.

Oh I came here just to talk about that. NOBODY FOR ANY MEANS STAY AT THE Residence Inn! Seriously! A bunch of monkeys could have ran that place better. The employees there were so incompetent!

[Kaliban]

we were told that more than a few rooms for trashed by attendies .. so maybe they had a reason to be pissed .

[Bally-Chan]

I really enjoyed Katsu...though I do feel that it was not as organized as last year.

[Starlightslk]

sephygoth 2 cent deal

Originally Posted by Kaliban

I will have to say after reading 8 pages of this some of you actually have some legitimate points .. now for some others ..

1 They have to clean up after a bunch of the con attendees meaning trashed rooms,puke,damaged rooms and areas , noise(the con guests are not the only paying guests and not all the con guests stay at the gaylord) Oh and lets not forget the under age drinkers .
2 I am not sure about the other hotels but the gaylord did offer discounted rooms for con guests , The staff I dealt with were very nice and respectful but so was I to them .
3 Besides MD laws the gaylord also has its own in house rules when it comes to things such as shirtless guys .
Those are just a few things .. Now for the Con itself .


Cons are not easy to run and if you think you can do a good job then step up and work them and give up your time to do it .
....This is not a bash .

I liked your points but....
That's a stupid belief in general dude: to tell people to do it themselves if they don't like it. I think people need to stop throwing that around in society in general. It's like telling a carnival ride operator that the Superman is shaky and needs to be looked at, then he tells you to run the ride yourself,(and they would actually do that).

I don't want to do it myself, I want to be entertained, that's why I go. I will continue to go as I enjoyed what Katsu has.

I'm late to Katsucons in general having only been since 2005. All of them great, all of them with a little negative that gives them flavor. Wait in line a little, keep up to date with the poket planner(it may be incorrect),
The reason I pick at this part : "it's a con who cares what you dress as" shits on the theme of the con If you're more interested in celebrating yourself than the character what it's about and what the hell you'r honoring/celebrating, then wtf are you there for besides shallow "its a con" reasons? That's why I liked WCS there, true to the actual theme of the con and holding strong.

one last thing, Gaylord does not equal con. Other things go on and I found people were about as nasty as it gets: leaving trash around on the cement walls, playing their phone as a radio without earjax, taking over entire areas for a video for major time lapses, and a lot of overall inconsiderateness (same as last yr, gazebo queens insisted on having some gaylord permission for a fake wedding/shoot, they don't set that up without papers presented at the Gaylord, its a lowsy friggin gazebo).

Con does not equal Gaylord either: security checks everywhere was great to see, the schedule was busy, and staff(besides the info booth that looked at me and said nothing when I asked for reg day info) was overall Spectaular.

Letting the guests roam free with staff Sunday night was awsome too. Gave us at bmf a chance to meet and greet and give feedback on the con personally.

I aint scared about next year, it's happening.


-Sephygoth , dammit, using gf account again

[sephygoth]

owning up to above post, and taking punishment later