Cons:
Thank you very much for your feedback! EF staff will try very hard to make each con better than all the EFs before ... however, I believe a few of your points are rather unlikely to be changed (anyone, please correct me where I am wrong)
-You have the buffet stated in the official programme and thus Id like to bealive it should be free of charge for the guests, or it wouldnt be off much use to put it as an "offical" meal event, would it? Would have been nice to have a welcome dinner/meal included.
There ain't no free lunch
No, seriously, the hotel would charge us for each guest, and if this would result in a bill of, say, EUR 15,- per person (I am making up this number, but I believe it would be realistic for an AYCE BBQ buffet), we would have to raise the con fee by this amount -- even for those who arrive too late, who are still busy setting up their stuff, or who would prefer other food. This way, only those who wants to join the "official" BBQ have to pay for it.
-Some events, specially the concert, started very late, and I lost info about it.
We are very sorry about the delays, and will try very hard to avoid them in the future (it got already a lot better since the Ringberg days ...) Anyways, the text band in EFprime (visible e.g. on the screen next to the Piano bar in the lobby) was set up to inform people about changes. We will discuss other means of getting this information to our attendees in the future (of course, hoping that we will not have to use them
)
-There was a long que to one off the dealers den, and a short to the other, maybe you should do a better balance or room setting for them next time?
-The GOHs musical event saw the room (munchen room) completely empty and we (including Peter) had to move chairs and other furniturs, thus should be done by the staff, really.
Can't comment on those ... anyone from the teams? Anyways, I really doubt the latter was done on purpose, and Con Ops spend a lot of effort to provide every SIG with the material they needed. However, even if we call ourselves "Staff", these are completely unpaid positions, and our con fee is as high as everyone else's (many are even sponsors or supersponsors, which the staff badges don't show) -- "should be done by the staff" sounds a lot more arrogant than I assume you mean this sentence.
-To loud volume at the fursuiters friendly dance with no (what I could see) earplugs scared me away from that event. Later you suplyed them and it was a great adition to thoose with sencitive ears.
Please submit your Kudos to Thygrrr for that one -- we are very happy about him providing everyone with these earplugs. He will be happy to have feedback on them here:
https://forum.eurofurence.org/index.php/topic,4033.msg39507/topicseen.html
-No info where you could find the different staff sections, specially the lost and found section. As it was now I could see one staff desk and they tryed to make me give a piece I found on the floor at the "lost and found" area but I still havent a clue on where that was.
Basically, all of the staff area most participant should ever come into contact with is the con ops office (you don't want to be in need of the Medics office, and you really don't want to be asked into the security office
)
Anyone with a red badge would have gladly shown you the way to con ops.
-No activities on sunday. I would have loved to had a few thing to do before the dead dog party, as it was now most off that day was a long "the day after feeling."
The con is over on Sunday morning. That's why the night from Sunday to Monday is called "late departure".
Anything after the Big Blue Dance is a bonus.
(We used to have a feedback session around noon, but it turned out to be much more productive to collect the feedback in our forum. Besides, most of our staff is busy breaking down the main stage, art show, Den, and everything else on Sunday)
No official closing cermony. Why, really?
Traditionally, the end of the Pawpet Show serves as our closing ceremony. A dedicated ceremony on Saturday would either delay the Big Blue Dance, or collide with the Pawpet Show. And you don't want to see anyone from the core staff on a stage before noon on Sunday
-Not so good timetable on some event. There where many panels at the same times (12,14 and even 16) and you couldnt visit all that you where interested in.
We have tried out to have an earlier slot in the morning, and AFAIR also a later slot in the evening. Feedback was rather negative. So the only solutions would be to cancel panels (which I would not consider an improvement), or to make EF days having more than 24 hours (which I would consider an improvement, despite all the legal and physical issues this would raise).
Also the fursuit dance contest was at the same time most off us has to go and prephere for the parade, I couldnt onl see 3 or 4 numbers and would have loved to see more of it and it should have been schedualed away from other major fursuiting events.
Same as above. It was not possible to move the timeslot for the fursuit parade for a couple of reasons, and it was not possible to move the Contest for a couple of other reasons. Besides, there is more or less always a fursuit event going on; see above. Anyway, Programming will see what they can do next year -- given the large number of panels, they will only be able to avoid most collisions, not all of them.
-No official meeting point. That would have been much easier to meet and great with friends.
A single meeting point for a convention of 1300 people would have to have the size of the hotel lobby -- which, actually, serves pretty well as a meeting point in my experience
If you need a smaller spot, you can easily add things like "next to the art show", "next to the glass elevators", or anything else
Overall a great and fun experience! Thanks!
Again, thanks a lot -- we are glad to see people liked EF18, and we will be happy if they will like EF19 even more!
