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[Gero]

Well when you arrive at a con, specially for the first time, youll basicly want to know where to go and what to do in order to prephere youreself for all the fun and get setted for the activities. This could easily be done by setting up two or three official welcome teams with "info and support" signs on them, either accompied by people in suits or not. They should be seated at the central station (I guess a large percentage of the furs enters that way as I did?) and in the entreance/s to the con hotel.

When I arrived I was greated by a friend of mine and a group of furs in the central stations main hall giving me directions to Marriot and my hotell, and thus was greatly helpfull and made me felt most welcome to the con. Id guess it also helped to present ourself for the Magdeburg population in a positive way, so you would have many benefits from such an arrangement!

[ANTIcarrot]

I'm not sure manning the station is needed. There are so many furs arriving on each train (on wednesday anyway) and hanging around that you simply follow the others or ask directions. (This is a big improvement on EF7! Which was my first con.) A large percentage of furs also have access to google earth and the EF travel page.

There was a Your First Furry Con event this year, but it was on Thursday. If you want to organise something for Wednesday night (probably a party of some kind) you can always volunteer next year.

[Wawik]

The travel team values your input on this matter and will make sure it gets recognised as it sees fit.

[Gero]

When I arrived I was greated by a friend of mine and a group of furs in the central stations main hall giving me directions to Banana Fruitcake and my hotell,

Banana what? I didnt wrote that for sure! Id think I wrote marriot there. 

[Tekumseh]

Congratulations Gero, you just volunteered to organize such teams for next year

As a side-note: try to send people to the Maritim hotel (as I remember you writing about Banana Fruitcake)

Edit: whoever edits the Banana Fruitcake in here - at least do so without a t at the end - oh and go and like your banana - on the moon!

[Gero]

Well if I was an better organizer I would happely help, but alas my organaziting skills would spell disaster for this event, so youd probebly be much happier without me atempting this.

But if I come next year and arrive early enough I would be happy to be one off the fursuit welcomers. 

[Kanrei]

I think everyone should be able to find the con location, many people come also with car and not with train, I think you can ask people on the train station, where the Maritim hotel is, so no need for people standing there. Or do you really think there should stand people two day long for showing people the way? (Some have early arrival.)
But in the hotel itself it was a little confusion what I have to do, for example did I not really now, what I will get, where you get the fursuitbadges. (I had one, but some friends standed there, and didn`t not what exactly you will get.) In the end, we managed to get everything we needed. But it`s not that clear, if it`s your first EF.

[Gero]

Well maybe not from 3 am to 10 pm but atleast in peak arrival time like 10 am to 6 pm or something. And the train station thing is not only for our arrivials, its as much for letting the magdeburg citizens feel our presence in a positive way, after all this isnt such a small event and at least the parade will be noticed in the city.

Two other smaller suggestions: (Feel free to ad youre owns if you like!)
-The tv channel EF prime would be great fun to have at the overflew hotell, Intercity in my case. Where not so few that stayed there and we preatty much missed the chance to see the tv shows. Would have loved it if it could be done!
-Stands with the newspaper both at overflew hotel but even more important at maritim! As it was now the only reason I knew about it was that there was a couple of copies lying on a table!

*Also, as some one noticed, the prices at hotel bar was off the scale! I mean 3 euro for a small 0.2l cup of coke or orange joice? I could almost get an entire meal over at the fastfood burger stand next to the station for that price! And there was no price difference between alcoholic beverage and none alcoholic dito as well. Shouldnt there be a price bonus for us that choose not to drink as much do you think?

I might be ranting about a few things here and there in the forum, but I must strongly say that theese are only minor details, over and all it was a great con and tons of fun! I really loved to strall around and take photos off all the wonderfull and friendly furries and gasper at some amazing suits! Thanks for making my first visit to a big con such an amazing one!

[Tekumseh]

[...]its as much for letting the magdeburg citizens feel our presence in a positive way[...]

Rest assured - they know we are there

Two other smaller suggestions: (Feel free to ad youre owns if you like!)
-The tv channel EF prime would be great fun to have at the overflew hotell, Intercity in my case. Where not so few that stayed there and we preatty much missed the chance to see the tv shows. Would have loved it if it could be done!

I'm not part of the tech-crew - but it's hard enough to live-stream into the hotel - I think there is no way to radio that stuff to the other hotel and feed it into their TV-system as well. I'm pretty sure this will not happen...

-Stands with the newspaper both at overflew hotel but even more important at maritim! As it was now the only reason I knew about it was that there was a couple of copies lying on a table!

There were stands with newspapers in the Maritim - one was right next to the art show entrance for example, another pile was at the reception-desk...

[Gero]

Oh, must have missed thoose. 

A smaller thing: I think there is a rule against having make up that can smedge but alas there is lots of costumes based around make up, mostly face make up, that would be really neat to take to EF! I have a Cats inspired costume for myself and I knew severel others european fans that has to. While I can understand the risk off having make up smudged up in the fursuits it would still be a lovely thing is thoose costumes could be accepted at EF!

[MOW]

-The tv channel EF prime would be great fun to have at the overflew hotell, Intercity in my case. Where not so few that stayed there and we preatty much missed the chance to see the tv shows. Would have loved it if it could be done!

Even if it was possible to get the signal there (are you volunteering to run 500m of cable through the sewers?), I doubt the overflow hotel would let us do that. They have other guests, you know, so it's unlikely they'd put it on a free channel, and then there's the issue about compatibility of equipment. Which we'd need more of. Plus volunteers to set this up. So: Not gonna happen.

-Stands with the newspaper both at overflew hotel but even more important at maritim! As it was now the only reason I knew about it was that there was a couple of copies lying on a table!

One standee was directly between the glass elevator doors at the front entrance, the other was just left of the art show door.

*Also, as some one noticed, the prices at hotel bar was off the scale! I mean 3 euro for a small 0.2l cup of coke or orange joice?

2,50 for a small beer (0.3l) at the lobby bar was very much OK though.

[Jake R]

These last few suggestions aren't about welcome teams, though. =)


I like the suggestion on welcome teams, but I know from experience that they take a lot of time and effort to organize well and are often skipped by the non-newbies, or those who brought a (Google) map. Instead, I would personally try asking the city for permission to hang some arrow signs pointing in the right direction at key locations (and promising to remove them after the convention). This takes roughly an hour or two of on-location work for 2-4 volunteers if prepared well (and again for removal). The only problem with this is making sure the signs aren't vandalised, and pointing in the wrong direction - I suggest using duct tape instead of wires to secure the signs, it might help. =3

Sure it ain't perfect, but it takes a lot less effort and time than it does to have welcome teams. And it's always fun to go out and explore the town =)

[Tsanawo]

Could be me, but seeing it's a straight line from the train station to the main hotel, can someone explain to me the reason for a welcome team? Or even arrows indicating the direction (straight ahead until you walk against the door).

Surely when you travel by train you'll look up how to go and walk before you arrive on the location? Same with arriving by car, you plan your own route to the location, there is no guiding the last few kilometres/miles in Magdenburg for cars either.

_{For the record; this is my personal opinion.}

[Jaryic]

-The tv channel EF prime would be great fun to have at the overflew hotell, Intercity in my case. Where not so few that stayed there and we preatty much missed the chance to see the tv shows. Would have loved it if it could be done!

Even if it was possible to get the signal there (are you volunteering to run 500m of cable through the sewers?), I doubt the overflow hotel would let us do that. They have other guests, you know, so it's unlikely they'd put it on a free channel, and then there's the issue about compatibility of equipment. Which we'd need more of. Plus volunteers to set this up. So: Not gonna happen.

Well this isn't the 90's anymore, so no need to run cable for everything. I know there where some ideas floating around to set up an EF-Prime webstream ... but I can't recall what the status of that was.
perhaps it's worth re-evaluating the do-ability.

[BigBlueFox]

We have the technology and everything, but there is literally no way to get access to the TV system of the Interconti, seeing as how we're just a minority for them. If we book the hotel solid one day, maybe...