Various suggestive notes/thoughts

[chessimprov]

Schedules for gophers who sign up early enough may be helpful if possible. Setting up a schedule for all may be good. I guess the first hour or two or so could be "general setup- help with whatever is necessary, etc. the entire time" for some or most gophers. This can also help prevent leaving a person in one place too long.

Bad thing is it may be harder to accommodate for preferences. A good rule we can go by is if you sign up early and indicate preferences, we can try to give you a schedule that fits more that person's style. No guarantees of course. Otherwise, others have to take what they get or try to trade time slots w/ someone letting the gopher head know.

For an early gopher that may have to cancel or do not show up promptly, you could hand their schedule to a last minute gopher if necessary.

Is there a way we can ask [potential] gamers to play in the hallway lounge tables/chairs and/or in an empty room (or many empty rooms) that we may be able to reserve? I saw a few people playing in the video room of all places! They were nice and tried to be quiet, but it really did not fit in.

At least 15-30% bigger panel and video rooms are highly recommended
now if possible and if we expect our crowd to stay the same or increase. This is a good problem to have.

[Technowraith]

Think it would be possible for cosplay chess at 2008?

One other suggestion i have:

I noticed at Z-kon 2007 (which was yesterday ) you had signs on the walls that pointed to Panel Rooms. I think it would be more helpfl if you listed which panel rooms the signs pointed to. Such as : <arrow> "Panel Room: New Hope" I know i found my self guessing where some of the panel room were at first. Although the layout was at least that if you walked around the perimeter hallway enough, you would run into your destination eventually. I think the other thing you may want to do is close the door between the game room and whatever other room was on the other side, becaue i think people were confused about being able to use that door to access the room beond. Put a "staff only" sign on the door or something in case the staff needed to get though real quick if something came up.

[ike]

I second the suggestion for larger rooms and better signage. I mean, within 5 minutes you do get familiar with the layout, but I think for people who might have problems with remembering where things are it would be a great help.

[Ramothhe]

Thanks for the suggestions. As far as the panel room size, the main problem i saw was with the dating game and whose line. We did not know
that there would be SO much interest until panel attendees FLOODED the room and hallway!It was a test run for both those panels but now that we know, we were definitely planning on moving them to main events or at least the bigger panel room.
For other panels in the New Hope Room, it seemed to fit people OK. And the Williamsport room never seemed to have too little space everytime I peeked in there.

-Another suggestion we have been given is more appropriate chairs in the video gaming room. They gave us rolling chairs but regular chairs were also available that take up less space and are better for gaming. That's an easy one to fix at least heh!

[Seaofclouds]

. I think the other thing you may want to do is close the door between the game room and whatever other room was on the other side, becaue i think people were confused about being able to use that door to access the room beond. Put a "staff only" sign on the door or something in case the staff needed to get though real quick if something came up.

Actually that door was the enterance to the panel room. That one panel room was in an awkward place and the only other way to get to it would've been by going though the other panel room and that would've cause a lot of interruptions, so we had people going through the game room.

[MeahtSingan]

About the only major suggestion I have is considering the timing of certain events and how they affect the adjacent rooms. I was in a panel in the Williamsport room that went until about 4:45. We got used to the noise from the gaming room, but about 2/3 of the way through our panel the band started warming up in an adjacent room making it VERY difficult to hear in the panel room.

[Technowraith]

Actually that door was the enterance to the panel room. That one panel room was in an awkward place and the only other way to get to it would've been by going though the other panel room and that would've cause a lot of interruptions, so we had people going through the game room.

That probably exlains why i missed the one panel in that room. I wasn't sure if i was allowd in there, as i did see others in there, but i assumed it was staff. Oh well. If you guys use the same set up again next year, also include a sign under the game room sign that indicates there's panel room access thru the game room. i'm wondering if people were confused by that odd set-up. I know i was.

I'll second the chair change in the game room. The office chairs are too awkward for the game room. Unless you choose to enlarge the game room next year.

[ike]

it'd be great if the con could find better sound systems for the panel rooms, I feel bad for the room Bad Anime Bad was in, especially, since they got all the noise from both the Gaming Room and the Main Events room. The guy only had like a tiny boombox for his audio, and the room was full (probably the only time it was, all day? )

[MamaSkull]

Yeah that problem with the sound systems is one of the first things we have talked about improving for 2008. We were running on a shortage of speakers and had to improvise at times.

[Ramothhe]

Actually that door was the enterance to the panel room. That one panel room was in an awkward place and the only other way to get to it would've been by going though the other panel room and that would've cause a lot of interruptions, so we had people going through the game room.

That probably exlains why i missed the one panel in that room. I wasn't sure if i was allowd in there, as i did see others in there, but i assumed it was staff. Oh well. If you guys use the same set up again next year, also include a sign under the game room sign that indicates there's panel room access thru the game room. i'm wondering if people were confused by that odd set-up. I know i was.

I'll second the chair change in the game room. The office chairs are too awkward for the game room. Unless you choose to enlarge the game room next year.

Actually we did have a sign in the gaming room pointing to the panel room that you could access from there plus a listing of all the panels. we thought that it might be clearer if that sign was next to the vg room sign so we moved it out to the hallway with the words 'Go through the vg room to get to the panel room' Also i think we may have marked that on the con map?

[Technowraith]

Oh... ok. Maybe i just ddn't notice it. No big deal. Thanks!

[Topaz]

My suggestion would be to have the dealers and the artist in the same room. or like right next to each other. I felt bad that most of the artist were in the back.

and my other if maybe like how at otakon they have ota-chan where there is a few things for the "younger" otaku to color or do a craft and give parents a moment to sit.

Other wise you all did great and i know some of this will come with the more Zen cons that are put on. you can only learn from doing.

[Ramothhe]

My suggestion would be to have the dealers and the artist in the same room. or like right next to each other. I felt bad that most of the artist were in the back.

and my other if maybe like how at otakon they have ota-chan where there is a few things for the "younger" otaku to color or do a craft and give parents a moment to sit.

Other wise you all did great and i know some of this will come with the more Zen cons that are put on. you can only learn from doing.

Yeah I like the idea of kids programming. I dont know how we'd pull it off but we will put it into the 'ideas to look at' pile for sure!

[Fluffyshippo91]

Hmmm.. for my suggestion... [if they don't have it already.. just let me know.. ^_^;;]
How about a Cosplay Fashion Show? People would sign up for it.. but their costume would have to be hand made or something [so it would be fair] and people would vote for who the best was and etc...

Hmm.. or maybe have little skits people can create and perform =D

[NozeNuggets]

You know, fluffy. They're one step ahead of you.

I believe, Jackie, that would be called a masquerade?