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Thank you for running such amazing contests this year! I had the oppurtunity to participate in the Masq and friends of mine were in the Hall Costume events, so I know what a good job was done!

That being said, would it be possible to make a suggestion for prizes for the winners next year? Could you please, maybe, consider giving free memberships for next years con to people who win ranked awards in these events?

If you make that the only prize you give you can be consistant, fair, and give as many of them as necessary to groups who may have more members than the number of awards you were prepared to distribute to the winners of that award.

You also increase the odds of having that quality and caliber of performer return the following year ^_^

Just a suggestion, thanks!

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Personally I'd second the motion for some kind of reduced price to next years Otakon, or even a free membership. I was the Rude from the Soul Society News skit (skit 13), and while we were totally floored by our win and absolutely estatic too, the DVD player is one of those things there is no way you can split five ways. We've come to the conclusion we're either going to sell it to buy a dinner or use it at cons, but something that could actually be given to each member of a skit would be nicer since not everyone lives right next door to each other in skits. Wonderful idea Neolunaangel and I hope it's taken into consideration seriously. ;)

Other than that small annoyance though, thanks for an awesome masquerade experience. It was fun and we had no issues to speak of which is the best you can hope for out of anything.

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Hopefully Edwin will see this, so that we can consider doing it. I know we always have a hard time with prizes, we pretty much have to work with what we're given. I personally think discounted or free memberships is a good idea though.

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A good idea, maybe. A feasible idea, more than likely not.

Our prizes our generous donations of dealers and other entities that are at Otakon. It's through their generousity that we can even give prizes out to our participants without eating to our miniscule budget.

The cost of offering an entire weekend membership starts to add up very quickly when you start multiplying it by the number of participants. This year, we had approximately 80 winning individuals spread across the 16 categories. Do a little math, and that's roughly $4000 at the pre-reg rate. It doesn't sound like a lot when you're talking about a convention the size of Otakon, but we do use every penny we get to run a top notch con, and well, that simply takes away from it.

As much as I'd like to do something like this, especially since I would do whatever it takes to stop getting kicked to the curb each year, it's a severe cost to our event. So much so, that it would probably come down to a decision between getting the Masquerade back in the 1st Mariner Arena, or dishing out for 80 free memberships.

I'm not here to burst anyone's bubble, but it is a ton to ask for. I'm not even sure if our registration system allows for discounts, so I'm not sure even that is a feasible option. Simply put, I'm more or less being asked to take a financial hit AND put on a world class event at the same time. It's not feasible unless we scaled down our event at the same time. And considering that it seemed like a lot of people liked the 1st Mariner Arena this year, I can't really be for that.

I know it's not the answer you all are looking for, but I don't think you guys would like a really minimalistic event in the echoey confines of the exhibit halls of the BCC either. We'll always look into what we can do to make our event better, but please understand that there is usually a price to what we do to consider.

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Totally understandable and yeah I think most everyone would agree if it meant the difference between getting something like the arena (which I have heard nothing but good reviews on except on the arena staff themselves), and performing in a small space, that they'd rather have the arena. It'd be nice to have the discounts, but again if that would cause the same/similar problem to free memberships I can understand again. Still perhaps instead of one huge nifty prize such as the DVD player, perhaps you could suggest smaller prizes that could hopefully be distributed more evenly throughout a group? Again, as they're donated I know you don't have much if any control over them at all, but I could see hurt feelings etc come from a prize not handled well in a group, especially if you don't live close to each other as in our group's case. Thankfully we dodged that bullet nicely with what we decided to do. :wink:

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Well, the DVD players were offered to me at the last moment. I mean, I would've sounded pretty silly if I turned them down.

I will say that we had a new prize wrangler this year, and I couldn't even imagine how difficult that job is, especially when you're starting out. So understandably we had a little less to work with. It'll improve as the relations get built up, but until then it's pretty much get what you can take.

Oh, and before I forget, I will gladly take suggestions as to what you guys like as prizes. I'm supposed to list what I want, but truthfully, I have no idea... so that probably didn't help her cause at all.

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For 200 badges to be free, that would take over $10,000 away from the con's budget. There's really no way that's feasible from an accounting perspective, because no matter how you look at it, it's gonna come out of some other department and is going to hurt the con.

If it were possible to do so, I would say maybe alot $100 off of admission per group or something. If there's 2 in the group, that's $50 each. If there's 10 in the group, that's $10 each. It's much more fair than having a set prize per person, IMO. But again, we don't even know if the system can accomodate discounts or things like that yet.

From my perspective, I think a set discount per winning group is the way to go, because even with smaller prizes, we'll never know how many are needed, and some groups may walk away with hundreds of dollars of prizes while smaller groups get smaller prizes. That just wouldn't seem fair to me.

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Ok...fine...200 badges (at the most, for EVERY WINNER to get a free badge for EVERY contest at Otakon, I don't even know if they have that many winners, I was guessing a number...) will cost $10,000 to the con...

22,000 members is the sell out limit. 22,000 x $50 is $1, 100,000.

So don't give them out to everyone, do what I said in the beginning and give them to the first place winners or the top-rank winners. They used to give them to the video game tournament winners, but not this year. I don't care if they ask the dealers to sponsor winners by putting up part of the cost of the badges...

I'm not pretending that I know how to run this con, but I'm not going to let someone tell me it's not feasible when they are working with over a million dollar budget.

They probably spend more than that fixing all the stuff the 14-year old Otaku break in and around the convention center.

I wonder how much of our membership money goes to cover damages?

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Please understand the BCC isn't free, and the 1st Mariner Arena especially isn't free. Also consider that money isn't used to run just the Masquerade, but the other 97% of the convention as well.

So the income seems like a lot, yes, but when you divide it amongst all the events ran at Otakon, plus the cost of facility usage, plus the cost of all the contractors that setup the equipment, flying in all our guests, etc., that number takes a nose dive fast.

If you've ever asked yourself "where did all of my paycheck go?" Imagine that about 1000 times worse. We're all asked to tighten our belts every year, but at the same time, put on a better con than last year for less.

$10,000 doesn't sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but it's $10,000 less that we have to work with to bring whatever venue the Masquerade uses up to snuff so that it actually sounds good.

Please trust me in saying that. There's no bonus for me for saving that amount of money. This is a non-profit organization. We don't make any money for doing this, and some of us even take a financial hit to run our events. I brought along two of my own personal computers to run this event, one of which unfortunately got damaged, but I wouldn't think twice about doing it again.

I will always explore the options, but I can't make any promises, particularly with something of that magnitude.

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If the prizes are donated from dealers, why not gift certificates to their booth? I believe Nekocon did this one year (I'll check with my friend who won in the hall contest). It was for $40, and he bought enough pocky and candy to make for a very good trip home! It would drive business to the booth, and the winners could split it however they wanted.

To me the best prizes are trophies or certificates, something that recognizes your cosplay. Other things are nice, so long as they don't feel like something the dealer couldn't sell.

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Here are the problems with offering memberships as prizes at Otakon.

1. There are way too many winners in the Masquerade to justify the cost -- especially when we have companies who donate prizes (and pretty decent ones) every year.

2. We generally only give away memberships (or reimbursements) to the current convention, not to next year's. There are challenges involved in keeping in touch with people from year to year.

3. What do we do if someone can't attend next year's con?

4. What if we don't HAVE a con for some reason?

5. Too many unknowns. Masquerade is built around skits with an unknown number of participants. We absolutely cannot afford to give away 80 memberships to prize winners.

Groups and group discounts are similarly unworkable in practice. There's a very good batch of reasons why we did away with them, and we're certainly not about to reintroduce them (and the associated problems) just to make a cool prize.

As for "c'mon, this isn't gonna put you broke" -- I wasn't aware this was a goal we were shooting for. We already comp badges for panelists, guests, press, and small children. We issue reimbursements to gofers. It adds up faster than you think.

Here's what $10k buys Otakon. (each of these items costs about that much)

* 2 Japanese guests

* at-con transportation

* about half the water service cost

* BCC cleanup costs for 2 years

* Art show, artist alley, and dealers/industry management supplies & signs

* Nice dinners for all our guests for the duration of their stay

* about 2/3 the cost of one performance day at the Rams Head

* about 60% of the cost of our temp staff that gets us through registration

* Radio rentals for the con

* cel phone rentals for the con

* 80-90% of the badge holders and lanyards we use

* Hardware & software for our POS system (used in reg, merch, and art show)

* Register terminals for registration

* about 1/3 the cost of our 35mm setup

* the entire cost of our 35mm programming

* about 2/3 the cost of our at-con telecommunications bill

* The entire cost of our at-con operations room

* About 2/3 the cost of our video gaming (excluding the TVs)

* the pocket program guide in most previous years (cost was NOT a deciding factor in the new layout this year)

* about 20 new room signs

So yeah, there are a lot of things that are better uses of the money than as prizes. If we were talking about a couple of memberships for individual craftsmanship or something, that'd be one thing. But the groups make this largely unworkable from my point of view.

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I want to start by saying that I like making costumes and I like performing on stage. I do it because I like making people happy enough that they clap or smile when they see a presentation my friends and I have worked hard on. That is the important part.

But we are discussing the awards given for being judged to have done all of the above well, and I feel that the awards at Otakon have always felt impersonal. All I really would have liked was an award that reflected that the masq knew who had won. Even if it means only a piece of paper with our names on it.

I thought that with the budget Otakon has they could regulate the prizes to something that would reward the participants with something they would undoubtedly enjoy, a return to the convention they had worked so hard to perform in. The badges would have taken the guesswork out of showing your appreciation to the participants. I have been proven wrong. There are many other things that benefit the con that could use the funds.

Otakon can either acknowledge the winning groups fairly by rewarding all the members or just hand out the title of the award and don't bother with a prize.

That being said, people like:

posters (little ones work well, they role up small)

figures

first dvd's from series

first manga from a series

soundtracks

plushies

pocky or other snacks

Just ask your prize person to look at the haul, make sure there is enough stuff to go around, and if they wouldn't want it or they think the stuff is really random, chances are the recipients will too. If it means no prizes, oh well, we weren't really in it for the prizes to begin with.

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But we are discussing the awards given for being judged to have done all of the above well, and I feel that the awards at Otakon have always felt impersonal. All I really would have liked was an award that reflected that the masq knew who had won. Even if it means only a piece of paper with our names on it.

Certificates were added for this year. Each group was given one, including the ones who already received trophies.

Please understand that it's pretty difficult to fit everyone's names in a 1"x4" space, which is why we opted for skit title or entry number in the couple cases where there was no skit title.

If you saw somebody making a mad dash back and forth during the awards ceremony, that was me. A couple certificates didn't even print right on the first try. These things aren't exactly the easiest things to come by on our short timeframe.

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But we are discussing the awards given for being judged to have done all of the above well, and I feel that the awards at Otakon have always felt impersonal. All I really would have liked was an award that reflected that the masq knew who had won. Even if it means only a piece of paper with our names on it.

Certificates were added for this year. Each group was given one, including the ones who already received trophies.

Please understand that it's pretty difficult to fit everyone's names in a 1"x4" space, which is why we opted for skit title or entry number in the couple cases where there was no skit title.

If you saw somebody making a mad dash back and forth during the awards ceremony, that was me. A couple certificates didn't even print right on the first try. These things aren't exactly the easiest things to come by on our short timeframe.

I signed every one of the darned things, too, during the 15 minutes I had to sit in Ops whilst glomming some lunch. Used my fancy purple pen, too, until it ran out.

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I saw the certificates after the show, and my heart did a little jump of happiness :P

It was the dvd player that had me scratching my head. I don't want to sound ungrateful, it just seemed a little impersonal to expect a big group to split the prizes awarded.

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I really didn't expect anyone to split a DVD player, knowing how physically impossible that is.

We handed out 4 DVD players. You guys seem to be the only ones who have a huge beef with the DVD player itself. The point about more prizes has been taken about 7 posts ago, as well as the response that was given.

You're point has been taken. We're getting to the point that it's a serious case of kicking a dead horse. I don't want to have to lock this thread for being repetitive, but at the same time I don't have a time machine to jump in and rewind to the point where I was desperately looking for prizes, which is apparently what I'm being asked to do now.

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A couple certificates didn't even print right on the first try. These things aren't exactly the easiest things to come by on our short timeframe.

Our cirtificate ended up printed incorrectly. Name / Award reversed, we didnt notice it till later. We laughed. Then made copies for everyone :P

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Could I make a suggestion? What about having a wish list so people (in addition to the prizes from the dealers, etc ) can send something in to you guys as a prize for someone?

For example: I'm a bookcrosser-If I ask for donations from the thousands of bookcrossing members, I'd have a box or 2 FULL of manga (and anime related books such as the "how to draw" ones) that I would be absolutely happy to donate to award winners.(My bookcrosser user name is AlterEgoZoe.)

Just something to think about.

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I really didn't expect anyone to split a DVD player, knowing how physically impossible that is.

We handed out 4 DVD players. You guys seem to be the only ones who have a huge beef with the DVD player itself. The point about more prizes has been taken about 7 posts ago, as well as the response that was given.

You're point has been taken. We're getting to the point that it's a serious case of kicking a dead horse. I don't want to have to lock this thread for being repetitive, but at the same time I don't have a time machine to jump in and rewind to the point where I was desperately looking for prizes, which is apparently what I'm being asked to do now.

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Our cirtificate ended up printed incorrectly. Name / Award reversed, we didnt notice it till later. We laughed. Then made copies for everyone :D
You know what, that was the case with everyone then.

Yikes. I have no idea how I'm gonna fix that one so far after the fact.

*sigh* If it's not one thing, it's another, ya know?

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Our cirtificate ended up printed incorrectly. Name / Award reversed, we didnt notice it till later. We laughed. Then made copies for everyone :D
You know what, I think that might've been the case with everyone then.

Yikes. I have no idea how I'm gonna fix that one so far after the fact.

At least for my group, we don't really care. We didn't even expect to get anything anyways. The reverse made it match the "quality" of our "skit" even that much better. We wanted a copy for everyone before we noticed the goof. After seeing it we HAD to have copies. lol, I hope it's just us. That would be a job if everyone's got switched and they cared.

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At least for my group, we don't really care. We didn't even expect to get anything anyways. The reverse made it match the "quality" of our "skit" even that much better. We wanted a copy for everyone before we noticed the goof. After seeing it we HAD to have copies. lol, I hope it's just us. That would be a job if everyone's got switched and they cared.

No, it's everyone, I know that much. Yay mail merge. Crap.

For some reason I put what made sense to me at the time instead of actually reading the darn thing.

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I know I'm probobly going to sound like a big brat when I say this... but that's never stopped me before!!

I'm part of the Cutie Honey group that won Best Journeyman Craftsmanship. All of the members of our group would suggest that whomever accepts prize donations from the dealers first take a look at what they are accepting.

Our prize was a little black bag full of prizes and a certificate, and two of the prizes we got in the bag were a bit inappropriate. I'm glad that we're all over 18 because a fan-servicey manga (signed by the author!) and a capsule toy of a little girl pulling her pants down (while laying on an english flash card that reads, "Peeling away the clothes doesn't always reveal what is on the inside.") isn't exactly appropriate for everybody. We thought it was funny and took inapropriate pictures of them... ehem, but I'm sure some people would be offended.

We also got a bootleg mousepad for a manga where the title of the manga is misspelled.

But hey! We got a cute hat! Guess who took THAT home! Hahahaha!

We had the idea of maybe giving away gift certificates to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or Jo-ann Fabrics as a prize? ALL cosplayers could use those, as long as they have those stores around them (which most people in the U.S. do). I know you guys were talking money issues with the people who suggested the free badges, but it's an idea. If you only gave them away to the craftsmanship winners, as they are the ones who put the most emphasis on craftsmanship, and probobly spend more money at those types of stores than people who focus on skits, you wouldn't have to give out 9 zillion gift certificates.

Well, anyway, there's my two cents.

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I agree with glitterfizz. Gift certificates to the fabric stores would be nice. Also, it would be nice to get a certificate to a wig store in addition to or in place of the fabric store certificates.

The offer of the box-load of manga is still available for the prize people. ;) I'll try not to take any manga! I'll probably tell the BCers to try to shoot for the more popular manga out there. :D

:D

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