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EF20 feedback

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Red-Claw:
Most of the things I have in mind about this years EF have already been said.

I'd just like to add something regarding the area surround the hotel and the locals:
From the experience I made the area is very hostile and unwelcoming. I've had locals insulting us, but I can deal with that. What I hadn't experienced until now was a physical attack. One early evening (around 7 p.m.) we were eating doner kebap right in front of little shop on the streets. Suddenly someone came up from behind and smacked my arm, supposedly trying to push the kebap I was holding into my face. Luckily it just scratched the side of my head, but my glasses were knocked off and left a little scratch next to my eye. Then the person yelled incomprehensible things, shattered a glass on the shop's wall and kicked some of the tables while running away. It all happened so fast that none of us could react or do something in time, that person was gone. I was lucky that nothing serious happened. Even my glasses survived without major damage. Heck, I suppose no one should leave the hotel alone. But things can happen to you even when in a group.

I know that this has nothing to do with Eurofurence, it's just a report I wanted to share. I loved the convention itself and had one of the best times in my life. :)

Suran:
brain dump initiated.....

First thing: Best Dead Dog party ever.
Including an improvised dance that easily rivaled an entire, smaller convention.


Navigation

Obviously the elevator situation needs improvement.
Especially OUR behavior in it that made security personel inside the elevators a necessity. :/
Any way of opening the connections between the hotel wings or (if at all possible) the stairs would be great.

The random distribution of panel rooms and missing context in the maps leading to them can be improved.
(So this map is of what wing? Where IS wing 3? How is this oriented regarding any kind of landmark?)


Food

The food was expensive and closing down at unreasonable times, given the usual schedule of an EF.
(No food after the PPS and beer only in the irregular bar on the dance floor.)
I hope the hotel learned a bit about our event. Breakfast also closed very early.
The menu of the italian restaurant was...extremely limited.
3 kinds of Pizza, no Calzone, no Lasagne.

The drinks where...okay. Quality seems to have been random. Not bad enough to reject them but not 4 star material either.

I missed the tomato soup for the english breakfast. (Got to like that stuff in the Hilton used by Confuzzled.)
Staff in the restaurants was also not as responsive and abundant as in the Hilton.

The opening times of the hotel restaurants where a mystery. Even the restaurant staff themself had to go and ask.
You basically found out if one of the restaurants was open for business by a waiter arriving or not after a certain time.
No other indication.


Prices

108eur for parking your car is a lot of money. Even for a hotel.
Removing all the parking ticket machines on the late departure day was...a problem.

Fursuiting

On the fursuit photo shoot I had a security guy guiding me through the crown on the way too the shoot.
(That was very much needed.) On the way back out that kind of help was aparently not possible.
Had a hard time finding my way and not destroying any art or atendees.
Luckily the way was free and visible during the fursuit parade. After the photoshoot I didn't expect this route
to be possible at all.

Dealers Den

It looked nice but not all dealers who registred right at the start getting a space was a disappointment.

Infrastructure

The power grid, cabling and ventilation is something that for the most part can not be improved but still should be mentioned.

Disassembling all parking ticket vending machines on the late departure day was extremely bad timing.

As for the waiting times... keep in ming that people behind the stage waited serveral hours longer and everything reasonable was done to avoid that situation. Something things just happen.

I liked having supermarket and food places nearby. Didn't expect that given the early descriptions of what to expect there.
Not getting any "10% off" like in Magdeburg is to be expected in a city the size of Berlin.

Hanging opportunities in the rooms where...very limited.
One of the 3 cabinets in our room was a fake. So there was space to hang 1 fursuit, 1 inner fursuit and 1 outfit for 2 guests with 3 fursuits, 6 outfits and actually even regular clothing.
I liked the large desks.
The random distribution of lights and light switches was...confusing.
Air conditoning was of...limited effect.
Sometimes they forgot to bring new towels after taking the old ones. Not acceptable in a 4 star hotel. Happened not just once.
(okay, fursuiters shower a lot more then businessmen I guess)

Tinka:

--- Quote from: Cheetah on 26.08.2014, 19:18:36 ---But if your PC suddenly blows up at 3am during the dress rehearsal and takes 3 hours to fix ... how much do you add to your delay estimate?

*sigh*

All I can say that I'm sorry for the waiting, and that (like always) we'll do everything to prevent that from happening.

--- End quote ---

*hugs* Any live event is subject to such delays - I've had military exercises 'bomb' for 12-24 hours because of supply/technical/vehicle/personnel issues - multiplied by conflicting schedules, weather effect, geographic distances. When you're in charge of something like that you just have to "improvise, adapt, overcome" and get it solved - when giving up is not an option. However you have to make compromises and the first thing you usually compromise is keeping the grunts waiting in the rain informed of your every trouble and intention. They'll just have to sit it out. In the military it's not a big deal, they're used to it. With a paying audience its a quite a different thing... your PR-department should have contingencies for such scenarios: like now you did with A.J.A fiddling to the crowd while the roach-man acted as a speaker stand (the only thing he's good for). 
 
For these reasons I have to say I quite enjoyed the queuing this year my spot being just next to the impromptu show ^^' We devised many ways to keep ourselves entertained while waiting with each incremental announcement of further delays being taken with great humor and more jokes. We even began to script a comedy routine or panel on 'how to queue at EF'- its written down on my phone. I'll have to polish it to see if it becomes something I could make a production out of for next EF - since I have a feeling it will be needed ;3

Sincerely "that fox guy" >:3

Nimrais:
I'll keep it as short as possible ... :3

Positive:
- The hotel! So much space and the lobby has so many possibilities to sit down with people. I also like the dimmed light in the evening with the chains of lights in the trees.
- The hotel staff was so professional and friendly. A lot of staffers seemed to have an awesome time with us :)
- The breakfast buffet! It was so good to just go downstairs and have something proper to eat! They also constantly checked the buffet and refilled it.
- The conbook was really well made this year, definitely a highlight!
- The Dealers' Den is AWESOME! Large, light, soo much space! Also the DD team and the artshow team did an absolutely great job again this year.
- The food was really, really good even though the prices were quite high (the daily dish was a nice alternative though)
- Loved the café where you could get ice cream x3
- The artist hour in the Art Show is such a great idea (even though it's so much easier now for artists to visit the art show, since it's right next to the den)
- The showers worked perfectly compared to last year.
- The dance was really good with greeeaaat music. Heck, I even danced for the first time in my life this year.
- EF Prime is still awesome as ever.
- The extra bar at the dance was a good idea!
- The security team left a really good impression on me, they were always present and attentive.

Neutral/Negative:
- The Artist Lounge was so small :/ Every time I wanted to go there, it was crowded without any space left. I would've loved to spend more time with the people, but we mostly ended up in a room together with a few friends.
- It has been said so many times already ... but I've always looked forward to the dance on Saturday, it has been a major highlight for me since EF15. I know people already gave this critique and I'm very happy it even happened (Caida did an awesome job btw and we had lots of fun once it started), but the starting time of almost 3AM due to the PPS was a major downer for me and my friends (at some point you can't stay awake anymore and you have so little time for the event you looked forward to). I know that there were unavoidable problems, yes. It probably would be easier if the dance wouldn't depend on the PPS, but I guess this probably has to be, due to limited convention space.
- Sound problems of EF Prime, but I guess I don't have to mention it anymore ^^'
- For some reason we couldn't pay our parking tickets at the Estrel parking garage because the ticket machine was removed, so we had to pay at the registration desk where that huge check-out queue was. So we lost quite some time and had to pay more (though the hotel staff did their best to help us). Hopefully the machine will be back next year :)
- Roomservice kept checking the room so often, it started to get a bit annoying.
- The Dead Dog party felt a bit scattered, but I guess this is due to the hotel layout. I just loved the combination of the dance + bar at the Maritim. It felt so intimate and cozy. Guess you can't do anything about it, but I thought it doesn't hurt to mention :)

Suran:

--- Quote from: SiranaJHelena on 25.08.2014, 20:59:20 ---
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.

--- End quote ---

Quote from a much earlier EF:
"Don't go fursuiting in the woods. There are hunters."

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