alabaster
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Posts posted by alabaster
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On 9/3/2019 at 5:26 PM, rotinoma said:
- Shunji Inoue - Lantis guy, LAZY keyboardisT
He’s been to otakon a lot, and is a friend. But he rarely performs these days because he essentially runs lantis and typically accompanies JAM project... (not as keyboardist, though).
the Lazy reunion may have changed his mind.
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For context: Grandrodeo and Garnidella have both been attempted before. I feel like we may have come close with M-flo a while ago, but I know we had Taku this past year.
Scheduling is always a challenge, especially for folks who work the lucrative summer festivals in Japan.
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On 8/15/2019 at 3:21 PM, Krabstarr said:
This stopped happening in the past couple years, but in the years prior to that, there would be a page on the website with information on Premieres and Special Screenings. It would be really nice if that would come back. I asked on social media this year if it would be back and got a "maybe" gif response, but nothing happened.
Can we please get the Premieres and Special Screenings page back on the website to make these events more visible?I'm sure the web team will make note.
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18 hours ago, Zeeba Neighba said:
Good points, all. But what about my recommendation of a separate entrance line for autograph seekers so we could get to the autograph area without having to deal with the massive mob entering the dealers' room?
I'll preface this with a big fat disclaimer: not my job, not my call to make.
That said: The issue is likely access control. The initial rush of people to the dealer hall is probably the single biggest logistical line management issue in the whole convention. The autograph area is in the dealer hall. Anything that puts people in that space before it's open properly and the pent-up line of people is processed is ripe for massive abuse and confusion. You'd have folks standing in the autograph line only to break out and hit the dealer hall, and thus skip the huge long Friday morning line there. It's much the same reason why certain escalators are one-way during key traffic points.
OR you'd have to assign more staff to make sure nobody popped out from Autographs to go to the other areas.
But I agree, it would be ideal if we had a way to make autographs its own space more easily. But as the guy who ran guests for many years when we were in Baltimore and stuck with a terribly limited space and virtually no lining area at all, this is a big big improvement.
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As you said, wires got crossed. Sometimes it isn't clear until just a hair too late that that's happened. With 200+ events on the schedule, it's almost inevitable.
Privately, I'm going to suggest that Ellyn use a less generic name for her panel to avoid similar mishaps, much like Richard does with his outtakes panel.
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On 8/8/2019 at 9:56 PM, ashlynx said:
-pre-convention communication. I feel like Twitter, Facebook, anywhere fell on deaf ears. I really needed to know who was going to be at artist alley, so I could plan accordingly, but that info got updated HELLA late, practically the day of.
-the lack of water at the con itself. I've been to other cons where they kept water stations everywhere and kept those suckers filled. I understand this is a way bigger con, but I'd expect at least in all the panel and video rooms, and several for artist and dealer's, there'd be massive amounts of water coolers. At least all the ones I used were filled.
-I really wish I had known about some of the premieres happening. I literally only found out about Promare during the GKids panel, and I had no idea on City Hunter or Uta Prince. Maybe just advertise these on facebook and twitter and such the week before the con? I mean, if you said something back in february, no chance I'd remember it come July.
-gawd, the DC traffic! wtf?!
Hmm. May want to tweak your settings and put Otakon in the "always show" camp. I was seeing social media posts from Otakon nearly every day, and the info was on the website, IIRC. A few of the things were confirmed quite late in the day, though. I think the Promare announcement got something like 30k views just on FB.
Unlike the BCC some years, the water in WWDCC is potable, and I kept refilling my bottle all day. It's something I do at every con -- I refill whenever I see water. I didn't have much trouble finding a place to do that, but I know we buy less bottled water than we used to because the water fountains by all the bathrooms work just fine. (As do the bathrooms, and there are more of those, too...) I'd have to check but I think we reduced the number of water stations based on usage patterns; I know we *talked* about that at one point, but I'm not sure we did it.
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On 8/8/2019 at 10:29 PM, Zeeba Neighba said:
Seconded. I was so looking forward to getting my first ever autograph from a Japanese seiyuu and it didn't pan out. Perhaps Otakon could only afford to have Inoue in town for just that one day, but IMO, her schedule was far too tightly compressed. I just wish they hadn't scheduled her autograph session to start so soon after the dealers' room first opened, considering how ridiculously long the lines are just to get into that place on the first day. Maybe Otakon should should have separate entrance lines just for the autograph sessions.
Inoue-san is one of the busier actresses, and while she enjoys our show, she had to be back at work on Monday to record [REDACTED]. That's been the case with many of our high profile seiyu, and a reason why east coast cons have more challenges with seiyu in general -- that extra 5-6 hours of travel time makes a big difference.
At any rate, it's not a case of not being able to afford her, it's working around her schedule, which unfortunately typically means compressing ours.
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On 7/30/2019 at 11:39 AM, RFS said:
The administrative logistics of Otakon has always been pretty bad and this year was no different (and in some ways was worse). We were turned away from stairs for seemingly no good reason. After trying to find the AMV room, a friend and I wound up on an elevator to the correct floor only to be turned away. The guy turning us away said this space was for VIP's. That's fine. But why not shut down the elevator or, I don't know, have proper signage? I saw door keepers holding loud conversations IN the panel rooms which is super distracting. Actually a lot of people thought having conversations in the back of the room was appropriate (spoiler alert: it isn't).
Suggestions for the Otakon Staff:
- Proper signage. Do a walk through of the space and get a sense of where good signage would be helpful.
- The black lanyards I got from picking up my badge were really sharp. Did anyone else think this?
- Tell the door keepers to not talk. I get that their job is boring but it's very distracting for people who are trying to listen to the panelists.
- Teasing the AMV Finalists with an AMV entry that you aren't going to show is worthless. Either show it or don't include a title card and don't mention it at all.
- Do not have building staff or Otakon staff stand in the way of traffic, especially the escalators.
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Open both doors to allow proper traffic flow.
- Let people leave before allowing people in.
- Please bring back Typing of the Dead to the game room
Many of the issues you raise are, unfortunately, pretty intractable. Communicating to 800 of our staff is a big enough challenge , but there are limits in communicating to dozens of building security through proper channels. Frankly, they’ve been massively better here than in Baltimore, but not all of them get the message.
We keep adding more signs in key locations, and there are quite a few of them now, as well as roving info desks and several static ones. Between them, guidebook app, the program book, and the built in signage, there is only so much we can do to help you navigate.
It also isn’t really possible to shut down elevators or limit their access, but for other closures we would need to have more specifics about where you were denied access, or where staff (ours or the convention center red coats) blocked escalators or entry points. Chances are there were reasons, but maybe they weren’t communicated well. Or maybe you just didn’t hear. As for the door control, in most cases the doors are limited specifically to ensure we track entry and exit and avoid overcrowding. Specific issues would help a lot, because there are a few hundred panels over the course of the con.
I am perplexed by the issue you reported with AMV theater. Are you maybe referring to the third floor area where concerts are held, which did have limited access during key periods? Do you have a room number? Was it a back hallway or something? There were very few areas that were limited to “VIP” or to guests.
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Will there be any autograph sessions for Chris and Sean?
Was wondering the same thing.
Alabaster - Able to shed any light on this? And or what the description of "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F OFFICIAL" is on the schedule?
They'll be signing exclusively at the Funimation booth, as they are entirely sponsored by Funimation. We'll try to post any other info we have.
As for DBZ: If we got a description, it should be posted into the schedule. That's the big show-based panel and you can expect them to be at that.
Apologies, folks, it's been a roller coaster as usual and i've spent most of my waking hours at work or doing Otakon stuff, so I've left you high and dry once the guests were announced.
Sorry!
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Well, in this case it's also a holiday weekend.
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I've really like to see Troy Baker as a guest here! *THAT WOULD BE SUPER AWESOME!*
Maybe next year. It's been a long time since I've seen Troy.
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Have all guests been announced?
Barring any last-minute surprises, yes -- I never rule out last minute surprises.
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This might be something you are still working out, but with Pony Canyon bringing them both over, are Seiji Kishi and Shinji Takamatsu going to be doing a joint signing session or separate ones?
Probably separate as they are promoting separate properties.
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Sorry...i'm trying to squeeze all the already-booked guests into the schedule now!
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Oh, then you might want to avoid the web page, because hey, it's Tuesday. Two more guests to announce today.
Bazinga.
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Appreciate the thoughts as to how well the semi-offsite areas worked last year. The feedback is helpful.
Rest assured we are giving plenty of thought to where and how we manage autographs, but bear in mind that the biggest issues involve lining-up space, and there is simply not enough of that to go around. Because y'all are a little crazy.
As with the past few years, while the general autograph policy will remain in place, there may be specifics for particular guests that we will alert you to once we've finalized all the schedules and space usage planning.
There's a part of me that will REALLY enjoy having room in DC to consider other options for the autographs area....
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I knew it.
The Garo director was a huge hint.
Kinda thinking that way too once I read her involvement in that show.
If Funi is indeed the one that helped bring Park to Otakon, then they definitely outdid themselves this year with not only her, but also the English voices of Goku and Vegeta (now if only Otakon could have gotten the guests that Japan Expo has in store this year).
Funimation brought us Sean and Chris, as their bios state. They weren't involved in any other guests.
Garo is produced by MAPPA, which is Maruyama-san's company. Those guests came via our good relationship with him.
For Romi Park, we've actually tried to bring her a few other times, but the timing hasn't worked out -- she is after all one of the busiest seiyuu out there. This year it worked out, and we're very happy about that.
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Glad you guys are excited; I am too!
And we understand the concern about how we'll run the autographs. We're working on it and are aware of the various conflicting preferences.
Autographs are always a limited commodity and assuming we got the usual 2 hour-long sessions, only a few hundred people are going to get them. There's just a limit to how much can physically be done to accommodate the demand.
But hey guys, we still have a few guests to announce. Tomorrow's the Sunday act, and then some more guests next week.
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Anyone who worked on both Patlabor and Cute High is worth talking to!
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Well, here's two more guests for you, both directors with some *really* solid credits....
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More guests tomorrow....
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Meanwhile, next week is gonna be a legit CRAZY week for announcements.
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I've been hoping to get the chance to see Schemmel and Sabat at the same con for a while. Now hopefully I can actually make it to Otakon and see their events together, get both of their autographs, etc. A lot of wishful thinking, but the opportunity for any of that is plenty welcome.
I've never heard of Draft King and it doesn't look like they've done anything in anime, so I probably won't be seeing them unless there's somehow nothing going on at the time.
Believe it or not, Otakon doesn't ONLY bring folks with ties to anime, nor ONLY giant stars -- we've long brought up-and-coming, or otherwise under-appreciated, acts as well.
Draft King is *most* of Stereopony, who did what by all accounts was an amazing show in Boston a few years ago -- so we know they can rock the house. But they're relatively new as DraftKing, and the sound is a little different, so if we can help them get some deserved publicity and attention, all the better. Remember, our mission is at least partly about bringing something new or rare -- sometimes it's huge, hard-to-get, well-established stars; sometimes it's awesome bands you might otherwise miss out on.
The question to ask is: have we steered you wrong before when it comes to music?
I hope you'll give them a chance, because these gals ROCK.
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^ Don't get your hopes up about Kappei Yamaguchi he came before & from the description it sounds like someone new.
It's not Kappei Yamaguchi, though I hear he would like to come back at some point when schedules work out. We were his first.
Look like we'll be the first US one for this seiyu too.
2020 Guest Requests
in Otakon Guests
Posted
He has had the option.
i just realized I have known him for 12 years now!