Forum - View topicNEWS: Anime Expo Attendance
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GATSU
Posts: 15299 |
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Maybe they can increase the number of people handling resgistration, while they're at it!
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nagashi
Posts: 78 Location: michigan |
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hehe, that bad??
Thats quite a jump... seeing their guest list, I can believe it. otakon is shooting for that kind of attendance this year, but thats quite a jump for them too. They didn't beat expo by much last year. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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The AX staff were not expecting so many people to come to the Expo ... based on growth estimates, they had expected maybe 20,000. So the registration process was only set up to handle that many. Throw in an extra 5,000 attendees and you can see why Reg was absolutely jammed. They were even pulling staff from other departments to work at Registration, so they did the best they could with what they had. Now that the numbers are in, however, hopefully they can cope better next year.
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Anime is expanding tremendously within the last couples of years so we can see why the attendance has gone up.
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Abel
 Posts: 143 Location: AnimeTen.com |
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Add the fact that they moved vendor registration into the same area added to the problem. Every other event has a seperate registration for vendors in the exhibit hall and this year AX changed it. We lost an hour the first day providing a list of staff name and when one of our staff, the guy who constructs the booth, did not get his badge and another staffer got two badges with her name on them it took another hour to resolve the issue. I really appreciated being sent to several other registration tables before being sent to the correct one. I also appreciated having to repeat the mistake four times to different staff and being told "We're busy". NO DUH. The lines of fans is does not make that relevant. I must really be stupid or dense to have to be told that. The final person demanded to see the ID of the staffer who was not permitted to enter. I told him "No problem. Go outside and let him in so he can come back and show you his ID." Oh but he then "gave me a break" and fixed the name. My issue is that AX did not have to include the vendors in the regular registration room. By doing so I lost 2 hours of set up time and I took up the time of 4 staff members that could have been serving fans who were waiting for their badges. I'm just one person that had to deal with a mistake. I am sure there were others and it can account for several delays. I am postitive if there was such a mix up and the vendor registration was in the exhibit hall, as it had been for the past 12 years, this would have taken up about 5 minutes of time and not taken up any time of the attending fans. AX should have had their banner state "13 years and we still can't get it right." I can safely say I have never had this problem at any other con such as Otakon or San Diego Comicon. |
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tekkaman
 Posts: 117 Location: Space Knight HQ |
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That shouldn't be a surprise since anime and manga have become more popular in the last five years. I still remeber the early days of going to convention where there were only collectors and hardcore fanboys.
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LordRobin
Posts: 354 Location: Akron, OH |
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And they probably never will. I've long since given up hope that convention-holding will become a science. Too much turnover. Too much experience walks out the door every year. "Fan run" conventions don'tcha know. How many years of his life can a fan be expected to give for free? Of course they eventually move on. That said, I really wanted to be there this year. First AX I've ever missed.  But I can't spend the money on airfare and hotel when I'm trying to buy a condo...
------RM |
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areaseven
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1486 Location: Makati, Philippines |
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Tell me about it. I had to wait 2 1/2 hours to get my badge on day 1.
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Having been involved with professional trade show/conference management, I would argue it has nothing to do with 'experience' and everything to do with the sheer volume of attendees, and the amount of money an event is able to throw at the problem. AX Reg got hit by a couple of issues they were unprepared for (...and a first-time Director), but really, there *is* no way to process 25K+ attendees in such a way that *everybody* goes through in a few minutes unless you registration budget is really way up there... |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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Consider yourself lucky ... some people were stuck for 4-7 hours 
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Hotaru
Posts: 481 Location: NY |
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this is why i'm glad that otakon allows you to pick up your badge thursday night. now if we actually can get down there in time, that's another story... 
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The Spatula
 Posts: 163 |
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I still waited in line for 1.5 hours on Thursday night (the day before it started) even though I was pre-registered and pre-paid. I think I was lucky though...
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Kagami no Kage
 Posts: 92 |
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My mother waited from five to ten to get tickets for my friends and I.
You can tell she loves me a lot and that I'll never complain about getting dance tickets ever again. How do I go about registering for next year so I don't have to put her through that again? |
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Bethachu
 Posts: 10 Location: LA-LA land |
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Well, the problem is that even for those of us who pre-paid and pre-registered the wait was still 1.5-4 hours. So that doesn't necessarily cut your wait down all that much. I had to wait 2 hours on Friday morning. Just too many people to process.
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GATSU
Posts: 15299 |
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They should just mail the effing passes for those who already pre-registered!
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