Greetings, I have a bit of feedback for you.
Schedule - Sheduling at the con was extremely poorly done, there were basically two blocks of all the panels so rather then being able to attend a few, it was a case of one or nothing. Just because I fursuit doesn't mean I won't want to go to panels about other things. It would have been so much better if they had been placed to run two or three events and then a next set of things spread out better.
If the intention was to provide a lunch or dinner break it's been my experience that people will take them when they want to. Forcing things into a narrow band creates an overload on the food outlets both in and around the convention leading to delays in serving.
In addition, the fursuit games preliminaries were scheduled at the same time as the fursuit photoshoot. A bit of a clash within an interest really. Also to put the fursuit games at 22:30 was pointless, I really wanted to go in for them, but that was too late really. In the end it became around 00:00 for a start because of the late start of the concert. So some potential audience would have either gone to the bar or bed and that would have not really been any fun to try and entertain people.
To have nothing on during the pawpets show was a bit disappointing too, not everyone wants to see puppets and such so something as an alternative would have really been nice to see.
Also, there was no closing ceremony or feedback session? I would have thought that they would have been rather good things to see. Although I am told there was somthing said at the end of pawpets, which connects to my previous point.
Photoshoot: I think it has already been mentioned about the fursuit photoshoot not having enough spots. To restrict things to ten minute slots is bound to create a bottleneck on slots being free for people. Some might want to have more time for larger amounts of pictures. So perhaps one day of the full slots with longer hours and then two days of turn up and shoot things would give far more chance for people to have pictures taken. Of course the most interesting thing for me was on the last day of the photoshoot I turned up an hour early to make sure I was able to get a slot. When they were ready to sign up we were told there was only twelve slots left. I was first in the queue and there were already three names on the list. That's just not on, if you're giving people a one day sign up each day, how can it be morally right to give slots away prior to this? We ere also asked to consider sharing our slots to give more people a
change at getting photos. Not really fair on us when others were able to take advantage of the full ten minute slots. Now even though I was on the last slot of the scheduled day, we were delayed whilst others had some shots taken and the film crew came in. I started to overheat and went to go and cool down in the suit lounge only to find the fans had been turned down for the filming.
Stairs: After the delayed group photo I went to take the stairs to my room as there was many suiters that would need to use the lifts more then I did. I went up the right hand staircase that was signed for all floors only to find that all the accommodation doors were locked. Coming back down I told a passing staff/security member who said they were only for the C level. This is not what the sign said so I showed him directly and he removed the sign. Details like that really need checking first before putting signs up. Before finding him though I naturally went to conops to tell them it was locked, only to find conops left unstaffed. With the amount of staff EF has I found this very surprising.
Art auction: During the art auction all of the runners were handling art without using any protective gloves to stop marks and such being put on to the canvas or art frame. Could this please be looked at for next year? I found it interesting to note that the screens showed uncencored versions of the artwork being sold. Not everyone wants to see that sort of thing and it would be nice not to have it enlarged up there.
Housekeeping: I don't know what happened with them, but the room servicing seemed to be getting later and later and they kept missing items needing to be done. We had our cups cleared away and not replaced on one day, the bin not emptied and beds not done until gone 18:00. For a four star hotel this was rather a surprising lapse in quality of service.
Hotel space: The hotel itself was ogf a good standard and the rooms were certainly spacious enough for everything to be free moving. I never had to wait that long at the bars or for information from the hotel staff.
Dealers Den: Security was controlling the numbers into the dealers den quite loosely it seemed with several coming out sometimes before people were being let in. It took thirty minutes for me to make it to the front of the queue and then ten minutes before I could get into the room. The den istself seemed to be rather spacious and could have accommodated more people at a time to keep the queue down.
Sponsors: I don't really think as a sponsor I got value for money. Essentially there was a coin and a tshirt provided as well as a late arriving pin. But supersponsors got the early entry into the den and exclusive events and flask. Now I really think sponsors should have at least gotten early entry into the den, I'm not bothered about getting better seating for events as for the most part the main stage events were not of interest to me.
Overall the I would say the social experience was excellent, but the con experience was mediocre after all the hype and build up I'd heard about EF before.
