Hotel issues:
Stairs locked - If anything can be done about it, get it fixed. But I get that there may be fire code issues at play (at least you have 1 year to get any changes to the stairs cleared). At least, make it possible to go down the stairs without sounding an alarm, and clearly indicate where that is possible so there will be fewer stops for people going down. However, the elevators are a different problem:
Elevators - The elevators were a problem not due to their design (3 per wing isn't bad) but because of these problems: Security was not enforcing the capacity (making sure that elevators not only didn't go up overloaded, but that they also were not being closed and going up UNDERloaded with people waiting to go up). Priority (disabled, fursuiter, food delivery) was not being enforced whatsoever and people were not doing it out of courtesy. People were very willing to cheat the queue to get on the elevator - is this a German thing? Do people in Germany think this is okay? So please set up a queue rope (with "wait here for next elevator" sign) in each elevator lobby and have a volunteer enforcing things when things are busy. Read this for lots of helpful tips:
http://timoran.livejournal.com/291375.htmlBy the way, there's 6 elevators - 3 for low floors and 3 for high floors, for all 45 floors of the new Estrel tower that will be built. So you can expect elevators to be even worse there!
Bridges between wings - To the first poster who said they were locked, no they weren't
But, I don't know why they felt the need to post signs saying they were closed, whether that was true or not. The only one that has reason to be closed is the one that enters the breakfast area during breakfast hours. (The bridges were on floors 1, 2, and between wing 1 and 2 only on 7 and 10.)
Room space - A lot of people couldn't stay in the Estrel due to the convention block not having the full capacity of rooms. Please extend to 100% during the nights EF is expected to consume 100%. Also please have a clear list of overflow hotels arranged, this year the announcement was "hotel is full, go find one on your own. Good luck." And please work with Estrel to allow triple and higher booking in large rooms (there is easily room for a third or sometimes even a fourth person in the deluxe rooms and suites sleeping on the sofa/floor/cot).
Lobby - Tables and chairs really blocked a lot of flow, especially during breakfast when they formed a Berlin Wall around the whole restaurant block making getting through the lobby very difficult. Is there any way to request the hotel go to the honor system for breakfast during EF rather than having the Berlin Wall and key card checkpoint?
Cold drink storage - The hotel was very territorial about their minibar. They promised to charge us for drinks that we didn't consume, if we moved the stuff out of the minibar and put it back at the end of our stay. Can you talk to the hotel about not being so strict about this? We should be able to use the minibar to store our own drinks and not be charged unless we opened the hotel's drinks. Forbidding storage in the minibar, AND forbidding minifridges of our own, is a greedy cash grab by the Estrel and does not make me want to purchase their drinks more as they may think, but has the opposite effect. The 5 euro fee to empty the fridge, while still a bit of a cash grab (most other hotels do this for no charge), would have been a tolerable option but the hotel only did it for a few rooms and then said no to anyone else requesting it.
Con issues:
Theme - The theme itself was OK, but the con didn't implement it as well as it could have. It wasn't heavily incorporated into the panels, it wasn't the same theme for the PPS (that just went with EF21's theme), the con-run fursuit photoshoot wasn't as detailed as past years, and there was no free-use photoshoot point like in past years (by the revolving door at the Maritim). You could argue the police cars were usable as props, but they didn't have backdrops and they had the no-touchy rope all around them. This was a major step back from previous EFs and something to put more thought into for next year (and next year's theme could make for some really good sets).
Main stage - Will need to move since the capacity of Estrel Hall was already not enough this year. Can we use Convention Hall A or CD for the main stage next year? The fursuit lounge could then be in B or the foyer where dealer's den was. What's left of Convention Hall I can go to dealers and art, or those things could move to Estrel Hall and its foyer. Worth noting that, apart from opening ceremony and PPS, the main stage could probably be cut in half for its other functions during the convention, so that makes more space available during the actual con.
Dealer's den - The layout was a bit odd, and it was hard to find my favorite artists - no map, no big signs with table number and artist on them.
Art show - Also needed to have signs with artist name on them and a map. Also, they closed the bid sticker registration over an hour before closing (for no good reason that I could see), which caused the artists and the convention's charity to receive less money because I could not bid on anything. So I hope the person who made that choice so he could do less work at the end of the day, is very proud of himself.
Panel room finding - Signs could have been better. For panel rooms on wing 3 floor 2 or 3, refer to them by the actual room number (e.g. 30241), don't call them Panel Room 4, etc.
Lobby group photo - Location was not clearly communicated, and the tables and chairs really got in the way.
Fursuit lounge - Didn't have much privacy from above, but if it gets moved like I suggested above that problem won't exist anymore.
The Android app - has some bugs and isn't updated by the con when it should be (e.g. delayed or moved events).
EF prime - Picture and sound quality were not very good. And, it seemed to be running in standard-def, even though the hotel TVs are high-def. I heard from some people that the internet streaming was better, but I never tried since I didn't expect any kind of streaming to work on the hotel's internet.
Things that went well:
Registration pickup for pre-reg - it was fast.
The PPS itself - once the show started everything was magnificent and the delays in between scenes were much shorter than last year.
Closeness of the con to the airport - pretty good (will be even better if the new airport ever gets finished). In the previous years I had to fly to Berlin and ride the train to Magdeburg. I would gladly do that again to have the con back in Magdeburg but this location is at least closer.
Closeness of shopping to the con - Fantastic! There are so many grocery stores right by the con, liquor shops, the King Doner and Sonnengarten Imbiss food shops which will be like Furnando's for EF. Sit-down dining outside the hotel isn't as close but there are good places after a bit more walking (Louis was good).
The hotel restaurants - were pretty good and had specials that weren't as high priced as the menu fare. Breakfast was good too.
Overall - I have to say I did like EF19 better than EF20, but EF20 was still very good. I think EF21 can be great again with some fixes.
