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[Wawik]

Hmmm. Thinking of fast food restaurants. You know the little numbers on the side of the burger wrappers? 

A little slip of paper on the head dryer where you can cross off the time you put down the head. Marked heads get removed after a few hours, unmarked heads can be removed at any time.

[Gero]

Well storage place for fursuits could be a problem but you can always ad a couple of thoose transport containers as storage space, would ease on the burden, also you could design one off the conference room as "overflow hotel change/storage fursuit room" if youd like to.

But the most important thing to do would be to have a rule that says something like "thoose with room on Maritim hotel are asked to take theyre suits to theyre room as soon as practical and thus not overly store them at the fursuit lounge." That would free up some storage room for overflow hotell guests, that otherwise had quite a bit to stroll with theyre suits.

[Suran]

It was said to do that every year.
People just didn't listen.

[Cheetah]

So every receptacle at the drying machine needs a spring-loaded mechanism that automatically launches the attached suit out of the window after a fixed amount of time

[leinir]

That, Cheetah, is perhaps the best idea i've heard to date

[Furvan]

So every receptacle at the drying machine needs a spring-loaded mechanism that automatically launches the attached suit out of the window after a fixed amount of time

I vote for a juggler which can juggle all dry heads at same time.

[Suran]

Make that an automatic vertical parking system with Iron Man style automatic un- and redresser.

[MOW]

[Quincy the Raccoon]

Yes I agree... best lounge of the Fandom!! Mirror and clocks were great idea, and that green stuff was also yummy (what was it?)
Bit annoying part: when I tried to dry my head, most of the time there was no room  So I hád to carry it around or position it at a fan. Also noticed that some fans were rotating at various speeds... hummm?

[Jake R]

@SunWolf: the 'Eurofurence Green' is called 'Waldmeister', or 'Woodruff' in English. I linked to a post earlier in this topic containing info on online import shops for the UK, but I'm sure there's similar things for the Netherlands, if you're interested. =)

@Cheetah: so, I have your official permission then? =D

@Gero: I wish it was that easy. As I mentioned earlier: some furs would rather take the effort to put empty cups they won't reuse on a table, than relax their paws enough to let it fall into an open wastebin literally 30 centimeters away (so they won't even have to touch the lid). If that's the case, then I doubt they'll take the effort to go back to the fursuit lounge occasionally to check if their suit is already dry enough to move. I personally delayed something as important as dinner for hours several days during the con, so even I probably would delay something as 'minor' as this despite ranting on it several times. Conventions can get hectic, and there's too many unforeseen circumstances causing delays. If we want to achieve progress, we need a system that doesn't fully depend on people being courteous, even if they are.

@All: I love this discussion. I think doco's number idea is possibly the best so far, not counting MOW's image (which would be easier to check but harder to implement). A few extra coat racks are probably not a bad idea, and maybe a rack for mostly dry heads and paws. The main problem is designing something that is inexpensive, not too space consuming, is easy to set up, and won't take another truck to transport. I heard the transport crew already hates the giant pipe monsters connected to the blowers, we don't want them to go "AAAAAAAAAH !@#$ THIS" and throwing it all in a dumpster. =P

[Gero]

lol Jake, but one thing you do have is a lot of overhead air room. If you can find a way to build curtain type movable (up and down) storage devices think youll have trippled the storage capacity at one move. Or you can arrange with a flight of stairs and a balcony type off walkways, but I guess that would be not so loved by the truck and construction department... 

[Drift]

First off all: for me, it was also the first time suiting, and I was impressed by the lounge and appriciated it a lot!

Drinks: Wow! Big variety, water with and without ice, coulerd sugar drinks with and without ice - perfect! Though placing filled cups on the tables did not work for me, as most of the times I wanted the drinks with ice. And the drinks in the cups got to warm. Plus, I like to reuse my cups, having the urge to reduce vaste to a minimum. So yes, I might have stored the one or the other EMPTY cup around the dressing tables from time to time, my appologies for that. But I alway got rid of them eventualy.
Food: Again - great to have. But: the salty things did not apear on the tables untill one of the last days. It was sugary stuff only at first. If I would have known that there were Prezel packs just underneath the tables, I would have got them myself - but I just did not!
Storing things: As mentioned by others, I had the same problem in not having a room at the Maritim. And while I removed head and paws after they were dry, I did not bother with the suit and let it on the blower longer than necessary, yes. The reason for that beeing mainly the little amount of ordinary coat racks - I agree with the opinion that more of these will help to get more free blower places. But also, I never really realized that there were not enough places for the suit driers (I always found a place without searching). The paws and heads situation was indeed anoying, there I indeed ended up not gettting a place a few times.
Catapulting dry stuff out of the windows: *shrieeeeeeks*

Ideas for next year:
Make use of the area on the right side just after the main entrance. Left side for the fotoshooting, right side for the drinks, rest for drying and changing. By doing so, you got more total space, you keep the drinks from the changing tables, and you might use the place where the drinks were this year for more changing tables and/or coat racks. You could also do two entrances: the one we had this year with direct acess to the changing area, and a second one that goes immediatly to the right and that leads into the drinking area. From the latter, you should be able to acess the changing area directly, though.
OR
Put a second fotoshooting set to the right, in order to double the shooting slots (that is, if the foto shooting team could split up doing their job??) 

Finally: Dear staff, thank you so very much for your effort! There was always drinks in the barrels, and always food on the tables, I had never to search for clean cups, the place was really tidy and clean for 544 suiters rummaging around. Providing the sprays for the suits was another great bonus. And I am sure it is a big load of work to set up the place and disemble it afterwards. It was pleasant to suit at the con, and that was for a big part due to your commitment. *great bow* 

[Jake R]

You've got some interesting points there Drift, some quick remarks:

- From what I've heard, the pretzels weren't there until later because they didn't show up as planned. So, they only arrived because someone (Mystifur?) bought them in a nearby shop, apparently.
- I threw away every used cup as soon as I found them on the tables in the middle, and those with the dryers. I only cleared the tables along the edge about once a day, to allow people to reuse cups, as you mentioned. The problem with this is that people kept moving the blowers around, causing empty cups to get sucked up against the backs of them. More on this later.
- Using the area to the right of the main entry for drinks is not an option, as this would mean even people without fursuit (who I believe are allowed to get to the photoshoot?) can grab drinks there. I think the hotel won't appreciate us giving drinks to ALL the visitors, instead of just those who obviously really need some. =3 Not to mention those who can't drink with fursuit heads on would have to pour drinks with paws on, carry their drinks all the way to the headless section first with paws still on, put down their drinks, take off the head... or alternatively, take off the head in a public area, which as we know is kinda 'not done'. Similarly, I don't think another photoshoot is an option due to the area on the right being too small, and another full lighting set would cost too much. It might be used for other things next year, like how it was used for some preliminaries games last year, but I doubt we can find any fursuit lounge related purposes. =)

As for reducing waste: I have been thinking of placing some quick-drying, non-staining black markers in the fursuit lounge so people could mark their cups. Then, one proper cleaning every night / morning to throw out ALL the cups, and only throw out the unmarked used cups during regular sweeps through the lounge. Maybe place some tables away from the airstreams just for cups, so the cups won't get caught behind the blowers or blown away. Can anyone see any serious problems with this? Maybe someone has something to add?

[Tekumseh]

[...]
Ideas for next year:
Make use of the area on the right side just after the main entrance. Left side for the fotoshooting, right side for the drinks, rest for drying and changing. By doing so, you got more total space, you keep the drinks from the changing tables, and you might use the place where the drinks were this year for more changing tables and/or coat racks. You could also do two entrances: the one we had this year with direct acess to the changing area, and a second one that goes immediatly to the right and that leads into the drinking area. From the latter, you should be able to acess the changing area directly, though.
OR
Put a second fotoshooting set to the right, in order to double the shooting slots (that is, if the foto shooting team could split up doing their job??) 

And have two complete sets with backdrop, lighting, props and everything? Highly unlikely. Also we can't split Thalian *g* On the other hand... *thinking* cloning did work well with Gyroplast the other year...

Finally: Dear staff, thank you so very much for your effort! There was always drinks in the barrels, and always food on the tables, I had never to search for clean cups, the place was really tidy and clean for 544 suiters rummaging around. Providing the sprays for the suits was another great bonus. And I am sure it is a big load of work to set up the place and disemble it afterwards. It was pleasant to suit at the con, and that was for a big part due to your commitment. *great bow* 

Thank you for your kind words - seeing ppl enjoy all that really makes up for the work We will try to do even better next year (storage and stuff) - lets see which possibilities we get!

[Drift]

@ Space on the right: Ok, second set of fotoshooting would have been to sweet to come through . But for the drinking thing: what about using more boards to space out that area and include it to the rest of the headless area? So basically create an L shaped space instead of a square? People would go in like they did this year, take there heads and paws of, and move to that part of the room afterwards...