We have the feedback forms that are supposedly read, yet they don't seem to be listened to as far as I can tell. But enough negativity! Hopefully we all remembered to write down our ideas on it, but I know I thought of some others after-the-fact. Here's some of my ideas that hopefully could improve the main complaint areas we all see. This thread will hopefully be in the vein of improvement, not of bitching!

Problem 1 - Faxing
I went up to Brian right as the club roundtable ended, and he asked the audience who would pay an extra $10 a single year if we got online registration. The entire room's hands went up. Brain said "that's all I needed to see", so hopefully this one will happen next year!

Problem 2 - The "rush" to get registration in, as well as the first 100 pin
There's no reason for this mad dash. It makes people frustrated when they hear busy signals. If it's online next year, there's the risk of the server being brought down. I understand they want incentive for people to preregister for a wide variety of reasons, but the current system punishes those who work odd hours, and don't work or have easy access to a fax machine.

First things first - it's not going to sell out in a week. This year, they made a lot more than normal, so that they only had a handful left over post-convention (down to 8 now). That's almost perfect for FP (everyone who wants one gets it, no excess inventory, most cash possible for them). Hopefully future years follow this policy so people don't have to worry with it selling out before the convention even begins. Even though this year's set wasn't as hot, I think they've shown that they can make more than they used to and be okay.

So, if everyone doesn't go apejive and BUY BUY BUY the second the forms are posted, the next hurdle is people rushing for the first 100 pin. I like the idea, but it's extremely unfair. And I'm not crying over sour grapes - I've gotten it the past 3 years. The current system actually works IN my favor.

I suggest a drawing of X amount of people (I actually think more than 100 would be good, perhaps first 10% or 20% of boxsets made) from those that register within the first week. That way, people are still encouraged to register early, but not punished for not being able to.

I'd like to see that extend to customization classes as well, or better yet - allow more people in them. Have it in a larger room, use the video camera and microphone to show Shawn doing his thing, and get others to help around the room.

Problem 3 - Thursday night lines
We've asked for years about putting our attendee exclusives on the form (as blind sets). Brain said it'd make things even worse, which I can't fathom (how can it be worse than a 5 hour club store line?). Maybe there's some logistical reason he's not telling us. But until he speaks up - being able to mark "1 of each set" or "Mystery Set 1", "Mystery Set 2", etc would be great.

If that's not viable, then at the very least, split the club line into "1 of each attendee set" buyers (or multiple lines of this if needed) and "I want to buy only some pieces and/or other club items". Noone is in a rush to buy t-shirts or hats or Cybertron figures or whatever the hell else they have there. I'm still flabbergasted that they didn't have a separate ROTF line this year. That was ludicrous.

As for the package pick-up itself - the current suggested times obviously aren't good enough. Mine was in the first block, I was close to the front of the line, and it still took me an hour just to get my box set. I'd recommend more staff handling that, and more precise line-up times over a wider time range. Perhaps make registration pick up from 3-10, with people's papers telling them to the half-hour. They need to be able to move at least 1 person every 5 minutes. There's really no reason it shouldn't be more like 2 minutes a person. Everyone gets a box set with the comic - the only variable there is the pin. We don't inspect them in the line anymore as it is. It should really move faster.

I know Brian likes to have his announcement to everyone, but there has to be a better time and place for that. Hell, this year, it's not like anyone could hear him anyways.

Problem 4 - QA sessions
It's great to be able to go ask people your questions directly, but each year this gets worse and worse, and this year was seriously miserable. People go up and babble, or ask 10 million questions, or stutter, or ask for stupid stuff (hugs? signaturess? wtf?). And half the people feel that it's the proper time to say thank you for this or that, and I understand being polite, but I don't feel it's really worth the entire room's time to hear you say thank you.

I'd like to see the QA line go away. Instead, have a QA submission area in the back (so the line doesn't block people's view), and people can pick up from the stack of paper and write down their questions, and hand them in to staff. First submission, first asked, as long as the question isn't retarded. This would cut down on the babbling, the fifty questions, the awkward people, "SPEAK INTO THE MIC!!!", hugs, and general fandom embarrassment. Maybe everyone else hates this idea, but I hated having to skip so many QA sessions because the signal-to-noise ratio was so bad.

Problem 5 - LINES LINES LINES LINES LINES
Ya know, we've all gotten accustomed to BotCon involving standing in line more than 50% of the time. We make friends, we shoot the jive, we nap, whatever. But with a huge dealer room, and panels going all weekend long, there are better places to be after the convention has opened.

I'd like to see a "fast-pass" idea implemented. Autograph lines are always a nightmare and consume so much of the convention time. Now, before the convention starts for the day, people are gonna line up. Maybe people want to line-up for fast-passes too, that's their prerogative. But to be able to go up, get a ticket that says "come back at 9:25", and come back after that time and go to the much shorter line, would be ideal. People who get in the regular line accept that if the fast pass line have people in it, that they might not get autographs. If the fast-pass ticket giver-outer-person showed up before the dealer room or panels start for the day, then people wouldn't have to miss near as much of the convention.

Perhaps even have a single "fast-pass autograph station", where you can get passes for all the autograph people during the day. If you don't show, there's always people in the regular line to take your spot. If you show up a little late, you get in the fast pass line which will be shorter, and are given higher priority.

If fast-passes work for Disney, surely they can work for BotCon

So what ideas do others have? I'm trying to be positive, and not turn this into a FP bashing thread (which is very hard for me...)

Hold it in the summertime as it used to be.

If a way can be found for this to work, I'd certainly be glad to see more people get a chance to participate in this event. However, although there ARE other helpers around, getting personal access to Shawn (who was very gracious to at least one needy class member, who's finished product is now visible via the "Transforming Seminarian" blog) is rather important to the success of the class. That simply wouldn't be as possible if Shawn was just an "on camera" figure.

Not to say that nothing can be done, but figuring out something that works is bound to be tricky.


This would be far more effective than separate lines for cash and credit....


While we were waiting in line, we observed that there's a lot of chatter going on once at the table that didn't really seem to have that much to do with getting one's items. I think there's a cultural thing going on here (perhaps Texans are more social than Southern Californians? I'm not the best to judge, but we do have a reputation for cutting to the chase--although not as great a reputation as New Yorkers!), but keeping things down to business would speed things up quite a bit, too.

Ugh! This kind of thing happened quite a bit. Just look at the line! There's no way the folks in back are going to hear you!

A clearly stated "one question per time at the mic" (go back to the end of the line if you want to, sure, but wait your turn all over again, please) would also help.


I expect I'm not the only person that feels this way, but my back was getting to be in some serious pain after standing for so long in those lines. If you can't make things shorter, providing chairs along the way could also be a serious help.

xZAOx, I think you covered every one of my complaints. 1-4, anyway. I've never cared enough about autographs to bother standing in line. Problem 3 is the absolute worst thing that absolutely needs to be fixed and still just gets worse every year.

I'm from TN, and a pretty chatty person, and I was done in 2 minutes. I'm polite, I smile, but there's hundreds of people behind me. This year's lines were actually a little worse, because you didn't line up right to the table/club store (on Friday). You had the little distance to walk, which meant people couldn't even visually browse, plus the time for them to wave someone over.



I can bet. My back was fine, but that's because I'm not too embarrassed to sit right the hell down




I'm caring less and less. But we had several people I hadn't gotten autographs from before this year. I skipped Cullen though. But that's bad when 2 of the big parts of the conventions itself - panels and autographs - are problems (due to QA sessions and lines).

Thursday night lines are probably the biggest issue, along with in the future how they'll handle online registration.

I think you basically need to make the problem/solution simple. Either don't sell anything other than souvenirs on Thursday, or have a separate line for other stuff. (preferably a third line rather than cutting the souvenir lines in half) The "exclusive" movie edition toys were not enough to get MOST people in a hurry. (not when they found out what made it exclusive)

If you allowed people to put them on the preregistration form, this would ALSO save time. Combining that WITH the previous suggestion to eliminate or segregate non-souvenir purchases would be super-efficient. (eg: if I didn't have all that money to spend months in advance of BotCon, it would be nice not to be stuck in the same old situation of badly-handled lines Thursday night.)

While I just opted out of the souvenir lines on Thursday, which seemed to be a perfect solution, I did notice irregular speed in the registration check-in line.
When I had additional questions, I made sure to ask them when the person wasn't busy, and that I wasn't holding anyone up, and made sure my question was as brief as possible. I don't know. Maybe I still took up too much time. I don't know how they handle people who slow things down too much.
I'd like to know the various times people waited in these lines, and at what times. Although I could have gotten in line as early as 6, I didn't go into line until 7 or so. I think I waited maybe 30 minutes, despite there only being no more than a dozen people in front of me. Well, I guess that's a little over 2 minutes per person, which isn't bad.


$10, huh? Strange. At least he's listening.

If you want to make sure you don't FAIL at online purchases like Mattel did with their Masters of the Universe Classics exclusives, just make sure your servers can handle the strain, which will cause one or both of the following: 1) crashing your servers, or 2) waiting an hour or two for a page to load. For #2, you might want to reduce the number of different pages you have to load in order to register. The actual registration process should take as few pages as possible, so that if it does mess up, you don't have to start over or something. Timing out would also be annoying during this process.
I'm not suggesting you use this next method, but Mattel finally, after over half a year of this nonsense, put in a place a queue system, with automatic page refreshing. Basically you were forced to sit in the queue and wait for it to finish, and manually refreshing would ruin things so there was no way you could speed things up. While the toy they tested it on wasn't very popular, we'll get a proper test in 5 days when Hordak goes on sale.


signs for lines:
I noticed they had signs for some of the lines. (I saw them carrying them for Weird Al's line) The problem was that they weren't in places that really needed it, like outside where you could see the sign. There should be at least ONE sign halfway along the line or at a visible corner of the line. Not just inside the door where only the first person can see it. (although I guess it's good to know where to start the line, so you can tell everyone that asks you that it's the right line)
Perhaps a really big sign that says "BotCon Map" so you can see where to go for walk-in registration, late pre-registration pick-up, autograph lines, store, dealer room, hotel, etc.

food:
I doubt this is really something that you can really base any decisions on, or that matters to anything more than a small niche of fans, but I really appreciated having a grocery store near the convention. I try to eat real food, so I can't eat fast food for days when I'm at the convention. I usually end up eating Subway sandwiches.


Eh... I dunno. I don't really care that much. If they did do that though, how about just within the first 24 or 48 hours? A week would really dilute your odds a lot.
It would be nice if the rush to get into the customizing class didn't take up room for the rush to get the 1st-100 pin, but who's going to actually opt-OUT of the pin, and there's no reason you can't get both if you really want both.
I also don't think it's a good idea for the customizing class. It takes time for people to respond whether they WANT to take the class. although... I guess people already send in their forms requesting that, without actually knowing if there's room for them, so that info's already supplied. Still... no. :>


They do this (submitted Qs read by someone else) for TFcon's Hasbro questions. but then you can't have a follow-up question if they don't answer it properly. Hm... maybe it's a good idea though.
I hope if they do that, that there's more access to the guests, because a lot of the attraction of the convention is in interacting with your favorite guests, not just being an audience to them. Increased attendance means there's no time to actually do this. One autograph item, no personal photos, no chatting other than in the time it takes them to sign something, no talking to them as you ask a question. (I dunno. maybe it'll be a relief to some of them to not be mobbed by slobbering fangirls. )


What is "fast-pass"? I didn't really get enough of a description from what you said.

Speaking as someone who hasn't been to BotCon, but has been to other Cons...

I'm surprised they didn't have online registration already, as every other con I've been to had it, even the tiny ones. I'm also surprised that they don't mail out badges ahead of time whenever possible like some larger cons do.

For autographs, one con I went to had it that people were called over the hotel loudspeaker in batches of badge numbers, and when your number was one of the ones called you just picked up and went and got in line in the appropriate spot.

For Q&As, if you still want the thrill of getting to ask a question personally, just have people jot down their question and badge numbers, then call people up to the mic if their question gets picked (or they can have the question handler do it if they're too nervous).

I dunno, this is all stuff that other Cons already do, so looking in from the sidelines, it always seemed weird that BotCon doesn't.

It's available at Disney, although it wouldn't need to work exactly the same at BotCon. The idea is this:

There's two lines. Fast-pass holders, and the regular "wait your turn" line. Fast-pass tickets would be given out on a first-come first-serve basis. It would tell you at what time to return to get your autograph. They could print these up ahead of time, allowing 1-2 minutes per person for the duration of the autograph time. People go to the ticket booth, get their fast pass for which ever person, then return to the fast-pass line at that time. The rest of the time, instead of sitting in line holding your spot, your spot is already held for you while you can go enjoy the actual convention.

You can return to the fast-pass holder line on or after the time on your ticket. The only people allowed in that line are those who have fast-pass tickets and their time is right (or later).

You can still have the regular line, for when there's noone in the actual fast-pass line (but those people aren't guaranteed a chance to get an autograph, and should be told so).

Basically, all it does it hold your spot in line, without you having to stand there.

(sorry for the double reply)



Heh, me too, actually. I just picked them up Friday morning (which was still a good wait).



Yeah, they know what their rush will be, they have 5 years of data, they should be able to plan for it.

Note that currently it handles a lot of concurrent requests for the PDF you had to download and print, so you'd think it'd be okay.




You know what I think would really solve those? A damn map with the convention brochure. I always end up having to ask people where things are. A map with each area labeled, and each event matching one of those labels would be nice. Putting local eateries and stores on it would be nice too. And I know you've been wanting a dealer map as well (which other conventions have).



I think 24 hours is probably a little too strict, but 2-3 days works too. Basically, give people till a Saturday to take care of it.

As for the customization class, increasing the threshold in a manner so that people could still get hands-on help from people who know what they're doing would be good. If they moved to a proper online system, it'd be easier to facilitate a first-come first-serve manner with immediate feedback.

I think a lot of is just growing pains of JoeCon to BotCon that FP still hasn't full grasped, at least in regards to the convention itself.

Registration issues are because they're married to an outdated system that really limits their capabilities, and it'd be expensive to replace.

I do like the idea of mailing out badges ahead of time. I like that one a lot, actually. Then you can just stop by whenever to pick up your box set, after all, you've already paid for it. If we could mark our souvenirs at the same time, then we could just pick it all up together with our badge (mailed to us) at any time during the whole convention, and skip all those lines altogether if we wanted. That'd be awesome!

Of course, they'd have to set aside everyone's items ahead of time to make sure not to sell the same toy twice, which I think they may not be organized enough to do comfortably. That was part of the reason Brian gave for not wanting to mark down the souvenir sets on the forms in the first place (although he wasn't as direct as I just was - he just said it'd be a headache to get in order).

Well, that's why restructuring for online registration would be such a boon... you'd have everyone's info in your computer system's database, so when you called up a certain name/badge number, it would tell you what toys they get. So there's no setting them aside ahead of time: you just grab the appropriate toys from the bins behind you and hand them over.

What? Not just having registration done online, but actually using a computer for the online store at the convention itself? The mind boggles!

XD

Ironically, you're talking to someone who last month had a temp job doing check-in processing and onsite registrations for an industry convention that probably had a couple thousand exhibitors/attendees at least. It went very smoothly, but I couldn't imagine having had to do it all without our laptops and info databases. (Admittedly, we also had nifty badge heat-printers and badge-code scanners.)

I mean to be able to pick it up at any time during the convention - it'd have to be set aside ahead of time, so that they could just sell the extras at the club store, without running into any pre-purchased yet not-picked-up orders.

Well, if you have all of your pre-regs and their toy info in your system, then you already know exactly how many of each toy you'll need to cover all of the pre-regs.

So, I guess there is some "setting aside" to do, but it's just in the sense of counting out the resulting number of extra toys for the store's separate bin (or whatever they use), which doesn't strike me as being that complicated. There wouldn't be a need to count out individual member bundles or anything.

Even big city McDonald's can manage to pass through hundreds of people at lunchtime, and their menu is more extensive than what Botcon has to deal with an even involves heating of food. There's no reason not to make the system more efficient, and as I've said in other threads on this topic, there must be some sorts of reasons that there's just no interest in it. Either there's no money socked away for investing in improved systems (like an online registration system, especially I'm thinking this if they think that charging everyone to build it out for the first year is the solution), or all those people who work to hand out the stuff would be missing some income and they feel badly about that, or something. Because from a process standpoint, Botcon really is unique in its inability to move people through lines.

I wasn't there this year, but based on experiences from previous years, I'm pretty sure I"ve had occasions where I've spent less time at the DMV.

Online registration. This is a must, and the man-hours saved on this alone would pay for the system within a few years. But either way, adding $10 for year 1 and nothing for future years seems...odd. I mean, if that's what it takes, then do it, but if the price could be more incremental and make it, say, $2 over 5 years, that'd be better. But again, this could be a cash flow issue. But really, this just needs to be there.

And once this is all in the computer, and not in massive books to flip through on site, computerization can really get things sped up at checkin too. There's ultimately no need for a real physical signature, so long as there's a requirement to show valid photo ID to check in. The computer can put a virtual checkbox next to you when you get there, and you're done. Go pick up your stuff.

That's where they lose most of the time now is in the stuff. They really should have an understanding of what percentage of people buy particular "packages" of souvenirs. For example, using numbers I've just made up, if 60% buy both souvenir toy sets and nothing else, that says you need to put that on the order form, regardless of other concerns. If 30% buy both souvenir sets and a t-shirt, then that's significant too, and grabbing a shirt should be made very very simple. If all the other stuff is much lower down, move it someplace else and run it as a separate operation.

There's analytical tools to work through line processes like this, and the club folks really need to be making better use of them. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to show up at any time during a checkin window, show some ID and get handed your bag of stuff which is everything you want (or at least would be for, say, 75% of all attendees) and be done in 2 minutes or less.

That's really most of my gripe, anyway.

For the other stuff, a convention area map (or at least advice on where to go) is pretty standard at hotels at concierge desks and stuff.

The Q&A sessions really should start getting submitted by cards after some of the stuff I heard about this year. It's been getting worse and worse, and I think it's time. This way the folks at the table can decide if something is a lame question and skip ahead to some newer and/or more interesting and/or less creepy stuff.

I like the autograph line solution. I don't give even half a crap about autographs, but it sounds like a very good system, and is actually pretty similar to what stores do on black fridays now. (Or if they haven't yet, they will in 2009 after that Walmart trampling last year.)

I also don't care about a dealer room map, since only one or two places are really "names" that I'd be interested in, but for those more involved, I could see that being helpful.

As far as I can tell, Botcon has pretty much been run the exact same way since 2005, when it's been painfully obvious from at least as far back as 2006 that some significant changes need to be made. The biggest thing is digitizing the system, but after that, really, it's just a bunch of small things. Like I said, it's all very possible and very realistic, but I'm guessing that there may be some things we don't know about the back-end of this system and why these tools aren't being taken apparent advantage of.

I'm not disagreeing with you - I'm just saying that has been the reason they've told us it wouldn't work. Brain seems to distrust computer-anything.

Honestly, having been to two of the classes already, I'd be perfectly happy simply receiving my kit and having a table with the right tools and paints. Aside from needing the usual airbrushed parts, I could through the assembly process without Shawn's help. If they set up such a table for the more experienced customizers, they could easily open up more spots in the class. They'd just need an extra room which shouldn't be that much of a problem if they're selling more slots. More people could take the class and those who want the extra help can still get it. Sounds like win/win.

If for some reason that won't work or they can't rent another room, they should probably drawn slots at random from
all entries received in the first 24 hours. That way even those who work late (since we never know the exact date and/or time registration opens) still get a fair chance.


Agreed. I know people complained about buying exclusives blind before FP but it really seems like the most practical option. If you plan on buying all of the exclusives sight-unseen, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to purchase them up front and pick them up at your leisure. If you'd rather wait then you get in line and take your chances...which you do anyway with the current system. However, the lines should be *much* shorter and the only ones having to wait are the ones who would rather pay at the convention. Even if you pre-pay for the add-ons and decide you don't like them, you can always sell them at the convention for cost at the very least. Honestly, it seems like a "no-brainer".

-SS

Heh. Admittedly I don't have a lot of patience with people who distrust computers. Yeah, computers aren't perfect, but it's not rocket science either - especially something as basic as a database.

Assuming you take the time to test the setup out first and make sure it works during "normal usage", more often than not it's a lot faster to iron out the few individual goof-ups that occur than it is to process large numbers of anything manually. Plus manual processing tends to produce more mistakes.

Just to be clear, Brian actually claims to have worked in programming (or something similar). All indications are that this was quite a while ago, and I actually agree with both of you, but I thought this should be pointed out.

I really like the idea about being able to pre-purchase the souvenirs. Not everyone will want to do that, and that's fine, they can stand in line to pick and choose theirs. Me, I'll gladly buy them sight unseen if it keeps me out of lines.

Online registration just goes without saying. The fact that this hasn't already happened is mind-boggling.

Beyond that, I don't think I had any other problems. With online registration, I wouldn't care so much about the rush. I didn't think the lines were that bad, outside of the one for souvenirs.

As for Q&A sessions, they ALWAYS stink. At every convention I've ever been to. That's just a fact of life. I've long since come to think of panels as being over once the Q&A portion starts. If, by bind chance, someone happens to ask an intelligent question (or, alternately, one of the panelists manages to squeeze an interesting response out of a dumb question), I just consider that a little extra cherry on top. But I sure as hell don't expect it.

I've come to accept this, which is why I didn't attend a lot of the panels at BotCon this year (I did attend some, but passed on a lot because this has become so normal). But that doesn't mean I think it's right....

Online registration makes much more sense than fax.

I absolutely need a map to be able to navigate my way around somewhere I haven't been before.

I think it would make a lot more sense to be able to order toys in advance. Then all you have to do in the line is show your ID, and get handed the stuff you ordered. No making change, no processing debit cards, just "here's your stuff." A separate line for people who have to pay (this could also be the line where you buy other stuff.)

I've been to TFCon instead of Botcon the last few years. TFCon doesn't really have much problems with lines....there's the registration line, the line to get into the dealer room first thing, and the autograph line. I think I spent maybe an hour and a half standing in line, and I got an autograph, a toy exclusive, and was in the first 100 people into the dealer room. I'm a lot less fussy at the idea of travelling all the way to Botcon if I'm looking at the prospect of spending 5 hours in lines.

TFCon's Q&A were pretty reasonable....we got a few stupid questions and one girl who insisted on reading off a 12-question list...overall, I think if there's a limit of "one question per person per turn at the mike," it usually turns out okay. SO if you want to ask another question, you go to the end of the line and start again.

Oh yeah, the map would be appreciated. Or at least some damn signs.

A group of us at the end of the Weird Al line on Saturday directed so many friggin' people over to the registration line that I wanted to ask FP for a paycheck.

I was pretty annoyed when, arriving an hour and a half (or more, I don't quite recall) early for the Weird Al line, I had to ask people in three different lines (the last being the Weird Al line) whether they were waiting for the autographs. That's too many. I shouldn't have to waste time looking for which of multiple lines I want. Put up some large, clear, easy to read signs!

Agreed. It took me three tries to get the right line for Weird Al. First I tried getting in line in the direction the line was moving for registration on Thursday, which I think was the Cullen line, and was told the line was on the other side. So, I went into the line heading in the opposite direction, only to be told that this was the entry line, and the line for Weird Al was on the other side of the building. So, finally, I got it right. But, a map pointing out this fact might have helped. See, the thing is, I just assumed that Al was going to be signing stuff in the same area that all of the other autographs were being done. Not so.

Also, I guess my biggest complaint would be the communication of what was going on. The only reason I thought to ask if it was the right line for Al was because I heard one of my friends, who was working staff, mention that Al was going to be signing in another building. How was this communicated to the rest of us!? I just happened to luck out, but how did everyone else find out?

Like G.B., it was process of elimination for me. My friend and I headed straight for the building the con was held in (thinking that was a reasonable place to start) and investigated every grouping of more than 5 people to see if it was the line.

I actually did recognize the registration line for what it was. My error was thinking that the Weird Al line fed into it. Y'know, like the ticket line was so long it zig zagged and looped back out into the street.

A note in the fine print in the back of the club comic/program mentioned the building and room number, but I still call that wholly insufficient to expect fans (most of which have never been to the convention center before. Heck, it's only been open since the rebuild for less than half a year, so even us locals don't know the layout yet!) to know what's going on.

If they wanted to FP could even hit us up to buy more. Make a "Botcon Souvenir" package that comes bundled with the toys/shirt/litho and I'd wager a lot of us would pay the extra $20-$30 just to get through the line faster.

It's less "growing pains", and more "refusing to grow up". Apparently things work "good enough".

I also like the idea of mailing the badges out, but I thought of one reason not to: photo ID. They can verify the person getting the badge is the person who registered. Theoretically if you mailed the badges, they could be sold to someone else and there would be no way to know. (unless you spent the time to do what we already do and check-in, which saves us no time at all.) While theoretically you could also do this under the current system, the person who paid for the registration would still have to travel and show up in order to pass it off, which is impractical.
Photo ID on the badges would be one solution, (after sending a scan of your photo ID) but it would cost more, as you'd need a good quality photo, either printed by FunPub, or supplied by each registrant. Then again, it might be worth the additional cost if it saves time. While individuals might be able to print photo ID photos cheaper than FunPub could, it may be too much to coordinate with the registration if complications arise.

I'm fairly certain that all the hotels and convention centers have had maps easily obtainable for the previous conventions. I believe we might have even had these maps in the registration check-in material once. I'm not sure why it's not standard.


and yet it's not a problem to keep track of how many box sets and bagged sets belong to pre-registrants and how many are left over for sale. :S Maybe he's just really bad at keeping track of this stuff, and wants to avoid having to do so as much as possible. Maybe it's because of his old-fashioned system is prone to errors, and he has to compensate by holding extras just in case.

I'd like to see them streamline registration, IE get an online form going, and eliminate most of the need for the ridiculous Thursday night lines by allowing people to buy a complete set of toys when they register instead of only the boxed set. I really see no good reason why you should have to wait in two lines back-to-back, when they could make it into one line for those that are willing to buy the souvenirs blind. I'd rather risk being slightly unhappy with some of the toys and sell or trade them later, than waste four or five hours in sheer hell during what's supposed to be a vacation. If they're going to leave the option open to buy multiple souvenir sets again like they did this year, just have a separate line for that after the initial check-in. This would still cut down on wait time, I'm fairly certain.

The Q&A could use a little tweaking, but I've always thought the sideshow aspect was part of the charm (up to a point). It just wouldn't be the same without the doofuses giving me and Spectre something to giggle about during the Q&A. The multiple questions or non-question encounters with the guests can be a little annoying, and I'd hope people who really want to talk to the Hasbro guys for awhile could do it on their own time, but I'm not really sure the best way to regulate it without creating new problems. Don't really have interest in autographs, so I'm not worried about that.

I guess one of the problems with the blind souvenir option would be if someone decides they don't want it at the time of pick up and holds up the line then while FunPub tries to refund that person their money. In that particular case, I suppose the only thing to do would be to direct those persons to the FunPub store line, but then you'll end up with a whole other set of complaints...

Refunds aren't an option =P

Not so certain that would fly well as a business... I could see MANY problems with a no refund policy on a "blind" product.

Botcon/OTFCC exclusives were technically blind items for years, even if they were leaked on eBay or whatever sometimes, and they were unveiled at the dinner during the convention. Fun Publications were the ones that started the trend of unveiling the boxed set toys before the convention. So there's definitely already a precedent set for "well you paid for this already, but here's what you're getting".

Besides, how many people register for their Primus packages only after the entire boxed set has been shown on the Botcon website?

Edit: I guess maybe in the old days, you paid after you saw the toys. I can't remember for sure, or what quantities you were allowed to buy in.

It's flied just fine for 5 years, or longer if you count previous convention owners. They're told they're buying things sight-unseen, and the risk that comes with that.

Why not? If you're not willing to take the "risk" of paying for figures you may not want, you simply wait until the convention and stand in lines that are almost guaranteed to be shorter than with the current system and hope they don't run out.

At least this way the people who pre-pay *know* they're getting the add-ons and not rolling the dice by wasting ungoldly amounts of time standing in line.

It's not like you don't have options if you decide you don't like what they're offering. You can sell them for a rediculous amount of profit on eBay. You can take them into the Dealer's Room and at the very least make your money back in store credit. You can sell them out of your hotel room for some extra cash.

Hell, if all you're interested in is a refund you could just walk up to the exclusives line and say "Hey! I've got this year's add-on so-and-so! First person with their hand up gets him for $10 more than cost!" I'll bet at least 50 people would be willing to pay a few extra bucks rather than wait in line.

The only time a refund would become an issue is if you pre-ordered and then had to cancel. In that event, handle it just like pre-ordering the box sets. However, no refunds at the convention unless the product is physically damaged
and can't be replaced from stock.

-SS

The lines is mostly an issue with people in a big hurry to register when there's really no hurry, same largely with the frustration over fax or whatever (and the pin would the only issue here).

All the trannies waiting in lines for hours on Thursday and then on Friday morning I walked up, waiting 3 minutes and got my registration package. I got my Wings of Honour and Leozack just like everyone who took hours to do the same the previous day.

Other improvements? Get Shia Labeouf!!

Yes, but try convincing all those people to do things differently.
If the lines were handled better, it wouldn't be a problem. and the solution is not difficult. FIVE HOURS is completely unacceptable! It would be nice if this just... weren't a problem because the lines were handled better.
And what happens if next year I don't have free time on Friday to buy the souvenirs, and instead I decide to take the Thursday lines instead of missing out on something I want to attend on Friday? Ok, I guess that's not likely. I suppose even if there were panels, I could sacrifice precious dealer room minutes to pick them up. :S Those 3 hours are like gold though.
What happens if everyone waits? While the problem may be lessened, we'll still have improperly managed lines over a prolonged period of time with no relief. We have no lines after Friday morning BECAUSE all those people are crazy.
Ehhh... you're mostly right. I just would prefer if I could pick them up Thursday evening when I don't have anything else to do, but without sacrificing the entire evening. It's not as relaxing to sit on the floor and inch forward regularly than it is to sit in your hotel room or somewhere with, you know, CHAIRS.

I just waited Thursday because I wanted to get it all done in one day, and I didn't know how busy the lines would be the next day or whatever.

And yeah, there are totally plenty of options to unload your exclusives if you bought them blind and don't like them. BBTS will give you either cash or store credit, and they'll actually give you more monetary value for store credit. Then there's always eBay when you get home, trading during the convention itself, etc. It's a total non-issue, no need for debate. I guess the Fun Productions guys can come up with reasons that buying a set of souvenirs before the convention and having them ready for you when you check in wouldn't work, but that doesn't mean I have to agree and don't think they're just being stubborn.

I've never done the dealer souvenir trade-in. Is there a typical rate, at least for BBTS? (both cash and credit) I'd love a cash-advance on my credit card for the dealer room next time, but when I didn't see any signs, I didn't think to ask about it. I was really short on cash this year and missed out on quite a few things because of it. T_T;

The Sovier bread line crap has to end. Between the relatively brief prereg pickup line and the at-show toy line, I was in line for 5 solid hours. That's obscene.

What made things far worse than usual this year was that they had movie toys, but you didn't know what they actually had until you got to the front of the line. There are always people who want to spend a good 10 minutes just shopping when they get to the front of the line, but tthanks to the poor handling of the ROTF toys that applied to nearly everyone. It's a long line, so why not set up some displays so we can see exactly what's available and what it looks like? Do this for absolutely everything available, from exclusives to retail toys to hats and posters. And instead of having the checkout person run off for minutes at a time to get everything we ask for, have a production line going where there's an Exclusive Set 1 person, an Exclusive Set 2 person, a clothing person, and so forth. If some customer needs to dwell at one particular station, that's fine, people who don't want that thing can continue past that station and people who know what they want at that station can get their stuff and continue. Just put some kind of effort into getting people through this line.

bring back the mugs!!!! like they had in 07. I would buy one each year

Better planning, pre con.

In short they should already have the next area picked ... signed and announced. So those of us who have to plan for lengthy trips have the time to save up. The details... by all means announce a few month or so before the con. But the area should be released in a short amount of time after the live con.

Not all of us are rolling in dough. Having the time to plan for a trip, would no doubt increase the amount of people going to the cons. Given the con area pricing fluctuates every single year (by that I mean the area costs for food, hotels, airfare and so on).

So just plan to save for a far away convention, and be pleasantly surprised if it's cheaper and more accessible.

I'm sure they already try really hard to get the convention location finalized so they can announce it as soon as possible, so just save up an extra $250 to plan for a plane ticket if necessary. It's not like you won't still have that money if the convention happens to be within driving distance.

Although this would be nice, this is pretty low on my list of things FP needs to do better. I can accept that having the venue lined up can't always be done so far (we ARE talking well over a year) in advance.

I wasn't even going to respond to him. This argument has came up fifty billion times, and some people just can't seem to grasp the "it's every year, save up $1000 and you'll be able to go as a Primus holder, and if it ends up being in driving distance, congratulations, you have extra money!" And if you can't save up $1000 due to a tight budget, save all you can, and if it ends up being too far - hooray! You have extra money saved up for something else.

At this point, I consider the thread derailed =P

Although, I would like to know things sooner - but not for fiscal reasons (that can be dealt with). I know some people have work commitments that require them to plan vacations much earlier, and a time/place sooner than 4 months out would help them a lot.

Put it on the East Coast.

Bizarrely enough, my plans to attend this year's BotCon (mere blocks from where I work) were monkey-wrenched because I asked so early in the year. The seminary in which I work (like most educational institutions) has been having financial trouble, and my supervisor simply couldn't plan so far ahead to know whether they could do without me. I finally got the official "okay" a mere two weeks before the convention.

That's obviously not a very normal situation, of course, and indeed if the convention wasn't so close, I'd have needed an even earlier guarantee (or, more likely, I'd have been barred from going entirely).

You weren't asked to respond.

The question was Botcon Improvements one would like to see. I would like things announced sooner.

"Some people can't seem to grasp", YOUR individual situation is far different than many others. A LOT factors in to some families going to Botcon. (Timing, vacations,money, kids...)

Also for reference... (Since I seem to need to define in my posts, this is in response to the "budgeting" suggestion.)

Saving up for a trip is rather a moot point. Since doing so in advance is a colossal "DUH". However, your calculations are merely concoted numbers plucked from no where. And neither are entirely useful. Botcon pricing fluctuates yearly (and not by small margins either), not to mention for families that number is likely doubled or tripled. (Budgeting commentary ends)

So before you try to act omniscient. You may wish to back up a step and think... not everyones situation matches your own.