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EF20 feedback

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ANTIcarrot:
Let the annual Hug Box an Complainathon commence! ;D


The good:
Much bigger hotel. Better food. Very nice decorations and even occasionally the ability to swing a cat without hitting five other cats. A left luggage ability for the Dealers Den and Art Show. Room for expansion, especially if/when the Estrel Tower is built. Shorter train journeys for those of us flying in. Reliable, if slow, wireless present through the hotel.

The Bad:
With the best will in the world, the Estrel is located in an area that simply isn't as nice as the center of Magnaburg. Lack of preventative maintenance on elevators is in no way our responsability. Being told the fire escape doors were alarmed when they weren't. The hotel locking the door between Wing 2, 3 & 4 and the only flight of stairs leaving to the lobby; because reasons presumably. Being charged for breakfast, but not learning it was available until Saturday. 'High speed internet' being very glitchy and limited to 3MBps in the lobby. It would be nice if the hotel did not invalidate our free wifi-tokens the moment we check out. The 4 hour delay for the pawpet show.  m( But meh. Par for the course for EF. My Sig is there for a reason. ;)

The Ugly:
However, speaking of the pawpet show... Sending the queue outside when you're next to some of the largest empty rooms in Berlin that aren't currently being used for anything else. Implying there might not be enough seating for everyone - especially given the Estrel's public capacities for this kind of thing, and how everyone seemed to fit in the end. Forcing people to queue next to the smoking area for three hours. Security failing to stop those two groups mixing.


A lot of this is new hotel teething problems, and probably won't happen again in the near future. Perhaps next we we could have a 'meet the hotel' section in the con book? For new visitors and second-timers alike. We should also know enough to put together a neighborhood map for those who want to venture out of the hotel. Nearest pharmacy for example.


The completely unacceptable!!!11!!!
Germanwings losing my suitcase. :'( And then not picking up their phone, answering their email or doing anything to contact me until it turned up Saturday just before the pawpet show; the miserable ########! But I do accept this was for the most part beyond the control of the con staff. ;)


The whimsical:
I couldn't help but notice that, with four 'wings', the Estrel is almost perfectly setup for some kind of Witchcraft and Wizardry theme. You know. Just saying...

Tinka:
" Perhaps next we we could have a 'meet the hotel' section in the con book? For new visitors and second-timers alike."

This is a good idea and should be (will most likely be) included in the "Your first eurofurence/furry con panel"

"Sending the queue outside when..."

Queues are queues - you can't stop them, you can't ban them - "don't queue before 1900" - that worked well ;3

All you can do is to manage them and make them tolerable. I've patented the Tinka2000 queueing system for furrycons (1) everyone gets in the queue and is handed an A4 paper which they write their badge number on (2) everyone layes the A4-paper on the ground and goes to the bar until they announce the delays are over >;3 any takers?

"I couldn't help but notice that, with four 'wings', the Estrel is almost perfectly setup for some kind of Witchcraft and Wizardry theme"

more like the wings of a mental asylum >:P

Suicune:
Since I wrote everything about that great hotel in another thread, I don't need to mention that here :)

I know everything is new, so everything can't be perfect.

So let's start with the good things:

- Something changed regarding GEMA, huh? There was so much good old music on the Fursuit friendly dance, had a lot of fun! :D
- I noticed much more female furs. Made me feel really comfortable :)
- Really nice dealers den. Bright and much room. Sadly I didn't find the time to visit the art show.
- Great idea to make that corner where I could leave my luggage in front of them and using the registration number for it. Would be nice to see that somewehre in the middle of the hotel if possible. Would reduce the stress on the elevators maybe. Maybe print buttons that people could put on their luggage :)
- The show I was visiting ran without any technical problems.
- The Pawpet show was great! ..and sad. ;__; - I want one of the posters! >.<
- Funny crime scene things here and there
- Orga, Security etc. always nice :)
- Nice that we could go outside in the fursuit lounge. Because of the opened doors it became quite cold at evening/night. I started freezing in the rooms next to it xD
- Plushie panel was funny again. But Redmoon: Why didin't you learn from last year? You know there are lots of lates! xD Especially so early in the morning x.x

Not good and not bad:

- Nice to move the Karaoke on that little stage, but a lot of people who wanted to visit it couldn't sit somewhere and barely see anything. Was it moved because of that privat -soon to be open for all- party in room Paris?
- The inflatable community gathering next to it was annoyed because of that party, so they closed the door. Because of that I didn't knew it was still running after karaoke (wanted to visit it once more), so I went back to my room..

Things that went wrong:

- My roomies T-Shirt size wasn't available anymore on the 2nd day. -> XXL
-You know.. waiting times, LONG waitung times. At every stage event I wanted to visit. It feels like I was waiting 1/4 of the time where I wasn't in my room. -_-
I don't remeber how much later the walk started, but it became really crowdy in from on the fursuit lounge, it was hard to get in and out there.
After waiting for 1hr for the concert I would have loved to see I left the line. And I was lining up earlier to get a good seat.. I wanted to visit the karaoke and Infla gathering too and not wasting the whole evening waiting.
And then.. Pawpetshow waiting. *sigh* Please, do that never ever like this again..
First you say next line up is at 19:00 (what wasn't held since people lined up earlier again..), then you put another delay and then another one on it.. What was it? 45Min and then 30Min?
Then came nothing for a long time and then the final 10 Minutes. Then we could go in at.. 21:40?
After a long time of 1 1/2 hrs you had the idea that people are maybe thirsty and bored. I myself got hungry and started freezing because I had to wait outside. I'm just glad I had my 3DS to keep me kinda busy.
Within that 2 1/2 (3 1/2) hrs wasted with waiting I could have had dinner and could have put on my suit what I rarely did because of a f- up own timetable partially thanks to delayed stuff.
I sadly had to skip the Big Blue Dance because it got too late since my roomie and me were travelling home on the next morning. Couldn't say goodbye to some friends who would have been there.

I would have loved explanations why all the different events were late. But there was none. There was not even a real excuse, just a "We are delayed again haha, sorry, thank you for you patience." and that is what annoyed me the most. I'm sorry, but taking everything  with humor stops working, especially after 2 1/2hrs with hurting feets and legs. Stones aren't really comfortable :D
From what I heard Sardyuon was late because something broke. The concert because of soundcheck.

For the next time if you know you will be late, please choose the hightest possible delay and don't make us queue up forever.

I look forward to the next EF and hope everything will work better :)

Cyrilius:
Eurofurence was a blast once again. Even though I missed out a couple of the main events sadly, I still had the time of my life!

The hotel is interesting and even though there were a few problems, I think they will improve next year. Every hotel did, after they realized just with what they have to deal XD And the Estrel looks professional enough to adjust a few things ^^


The only thing that bothered me, was the way how the delay at the pawpet-show was handled over EF-Prime. Can't speak for the people in the queue as I don't know if they were better informed, but I think it's a bit rude to simply state "Show will start in 10 minutes" and after the timer reaches 1 minute, it was simply set back to +/-10 minutes... Somehow I don't think that anybody responsible really thought that it would really start in 1o minutes, as in the end it took about 2 hours... I think it would have been better to set it to a more realistic time... like for example one hour.

Time is a valuable thing, especially at the EF. Lots of things to do and if we would have known that it wouldn't take 12 minutes (and even though we expected it after several more delays, we still didn't want to risk missing the show in the end), we might have gone to the lobby to chat with people, go to one of the hotel-restaurant or maybe go fursuiting for another hour.


With that said, I want to thank everyone responsible for this great con once again. For me Eurofurence is still the most important event every year, easily beating Christmas, Easter and even the start of the next Game of Thrones season ^^

Also a special thanks to the whole fursuit-lounge team! You guys really rock. The lounge is already pretty professional and even during the more hectic times just before the walk or the photoshooting they always remained friendly and offered a helping hand.


All I can say is, I'm really looking forward to next year already... just after only a few hours of being at home ^^

SiranaJHelena:
Howdy!

Almost awake again, it's time for me to write some feedback, too. :)

EF20 was not my first Eurofurence but the first after we left Suhl. So I can't compare it to Magdeburg. Also I slept at home, so I can't criticise the room quality.

Location Berlin
As someone who lives in Berlin this new position made it possible for me to visit EF again. Money was one of the main reasons why I had to skip the EFs in Maritim, so I was glad to hear it is moving in the neighbourhood.
Unfortunately the Hotel is located in Neukölln, one of the quarters with a pretty high crime rate and although it fits the topic „CSI“, a less dangerous place would have been better for a convention. However, as far as I know nobody got hurt in one way or another, so maybe we're still a few streets away from the trouble.

Berlin as a whole is a pretty exciting city though there people are used to crazy things and which is offering many crazy stuff itself. Also: Stores which aren't closed 16'o clock are quite helpful. :)

Hotel
It is huge. Really huge. I like that. Also the Hotel Staff is totally awesome! I mean.. waiters wearing fursuits? What the heck? I'm really glad they enjoyed the con just as we did. ^^

The restaurants were quite expensive but I wouldn't be surprised if this was a condition for the low room fee and now where they can assess us a little bit better I'm sure they'll change that next year with some extra menues or so.

There are some negative things I'd like to mention though.
Although everything was very large, many places were obstructed by something. Of course the restaurants needed some tables and it is quite helpful if people aren't standing around holding lots of drinks, almost waiting to spill them. ;) However, with all the fursuits and normal visitors it was hard to find a good place to stand and just talk to someone without blocking someone's path.
Also in the part where the registration was located, there was this small stage in the center. What was that for? I really couldn't figure it out. There was some couches to sit on but I have the feeling it wouldn't have hurt to place them on the ground.

And last but not least: The temperature. Because of the temperatures outside I decided to travel to the hotel with three layers of clothing but I'd never have expected to keep them on when I'm there. Maybe it's just me but in my opinion it was way to cold in the main places. In the lobby you had the doors and additional cold air from the fursuit lounge. In the stage the ventilation overdid it and make me feel pretty uncomfortable.

Food
As already said, dining in the hotel 3 times a day would have made my wallet implode. The opportunities around are quite nice though. There are many restaurants and snack shops aside from McDonalds around which probably earned their monthly income in these few days. :D

Program
The workshops were really interesting and covered many different topics. Sometimes the rooms were too tiny but with 400 more people around than expected it stands to reason.
What bugged me was the schedule around the Group Photo. It was positioned shortly before/while the Dealer's Den was closed. Many artists and also staff people were simply too busy with that to get to the Group Photo in time. In the hours before the artists had to pick up unsold pictures and their money, customers had to pay their art, there was a charity concert right before that and – in theory – the Pawpet Show was about to start afterwards.
Maybe next year it's possible to place it somewhere else?

Art Show and Dealer's Den
The Art Show seemed to be small at first sight because the room itsself was even larger but it really takes time to enjoy it. The light was ok and the space between the panels pleasently wide. Some artists should overthink their definition of „adult“ and „clean“ again though. There had been a hand full pictures which would have fit better in the adult area and vice versa, both concerning blood and porn. ;)
The fursuit photoshoot right next to it was very unpleasing though because of this constantly flashing light you've seen as soon as you were looking in that direction. Please don't forget that this can be even cause medical problems for some people with e.g. migraine or epilepsy far away from just being annoyed. Please move that somewhere else or shield it from the Art Show.

I can't say much about the Dealer's Den as being neither seller nor customer this year. Leaving my bag outside wasn't such a problem for me. If you want a sketchbook signed or need money or whatever, it's easy to just take this out of the bag before you enter. In fact, I really liked the opportunity to left my bag outside as a person without a room. I always feel like an elefant when walking around with a heavy bag, ready to damage something.

I'm wondering if the fact that you have to go through the Dealer's Den to get to the Art Show might have influenced the visitor's decision about where to spend the money. Are there any statistics about that?

Pawpet Show
Best things first: The show was awesome! The main topic might be not entirely new but I really love what the PPS did with it. The puppets were outstanding! Although I will never stop loving Lionel, Poke and all the other cute handpuppet family members, they are too tiny and their actions too limited vor such a large audience and a huge stage. (Sorry pals!) This evolution of the „actors“ is really amazing and offers their players many new opportunities to act.
The music was underlining the play very well and the quality was really high on a scale from 1 to Fox Amoore.. :D

Although I don't want to start nagging now after I know what a hard fight you had to survive before and during the show there are some things I just have to criticise because I hope it helps you to know how to improve it next time.

First thing is the queue for obvious reasons. Eurofurence is no professional conference but a large convention of many talented people who just want to have some fun and the least I want to complain about are the people behind that show who are working their butts off to fix something in the last minute, get a new microphone out of thin air or improvise something McGuiver would be jealous about. If so I wouldn't have stayed in that stupid queue the whole time.

I think it was at EF14(?) where we had a similar delay and I did the same and although it was annoying, I could stand that because for the simple reason we were still standing in the lobby. Yeah, no roomparties for bullheads, no restaurant visits or other stuff but we still were part of the party. It was warm, we had fun anyway and it was easy to laugh about the delay.
This time was different and that's why I'm mentioning it at all: Except for the few people inside it was all but fun. After sunset it became cold pretty fast. It was boring. And from our position next to the main entrance near the end of the queue we could see where the party took place: Everythere else. Also we were standing right next to the smoking people. Not a very pleasant place.
Getting us water was a really nice gesture and surely helped many people who didn't have something to drink with them. Unfortunately we couldn't hear anything from the show Uncle Kage and AJA were doing next to the door where the queue came out but I don't want to blame them for their hartwarming efforts because they aren't able to clone themselves yet. ;)

It was no fun and if the queue doesn't take any other place next year, I won't wait, even if this means that I'm missing my first PPS since forever. I don't want to miss the party.

Beside complaining about „Shit happens“-issues I'd like to mention something else which made me not angry but sad. Although the show was really great I couldn't really get into it. The immersion didn't get me. I thought hard about the reason and I'm still not so sure about it. I think it was the result of many small things. As already said in the beginning, the stage was quite cold. Also the room wasn't completely dark. This doesn't hurt so much during Uncle Kages story hour or the auction but during the PPS it resulted in being permanently aware that this is just a stage and that I'm in a hotel at the con. During the PPS from EF13 I „was“ in Vegas, I tried to get into that goddamn cinema/theater and silently stand right next to the ritual at the end. This time I was sitting in front of the stage because the cold air, everything I saw in the dimmed light and the frustration of that queue-thing before.

Also – and I wouldn't wonder if I'm alone with this opinion now – I had the feeling the music between the scenes was 2-3 seconds too long so I started to look around. I really don't want to discuss about Fox Amoores music skills, they are awesome and the soundtrack is beautiful. But it didn't catch me enough to keep me focused for the whole duration. I know this „Old Scene – Recorded Explanations – Music – New Scene“ cycle isn't new and was already there in my all-time favorite but the music seemed to be more part of it, at EF13 e.g. part of the radio show. Also it wasn't pure instrumental and the lyrics were more than just supporting the topic (e.g. „Locking up the sun“ from Poets of the Fall). Instrumental music doesn't has this effect on me, no matter how epic it is. So I'm getting distracted more easily when it's more than just a few accords.

Wishes
The text is getting longer and longer, so I'm keeping this one short. As a result of this pros and cons there are just a few things:

1) More free space to be aside from the Artist's Lounge. Between lobby and Dealer's Den there have been many empty spaces. Put a few seats there, make it comfortable and I'm happy. Or at any other place. ^^
Additionally please put this useless mini-stage away in the lobby away.
2) Pleasent temperatures! Nobody would have expected August being like a second April but these things happen. Please make it warmer, at least the stage!
3) Rearrange that queue. There will always be queues, so please put it somewhere where it's more or less bearable to wait.

That's all, folks!
Oh, almost forgot:

THANKS FOR MAKING SUCH A GREAT CONVENTION!

Ok, now I'm done. ^^

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