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[Cairyn]

for me the current situation seems a good compromise between crowd management and bidder flexibility but I would certainly dislike more drastic/coercive measures

I am trying to avoid measures that are not really necessary. Making changes right and left just for the sake of making changes is just confusing. I believe the current status works for now; if we encounter shifts in the status, we can still think about adjustments.

What if only people who have already set bids to certain art, would be allowed to add new bids to that piece when panel is closing?

That would be quite difficult to check: You'd have to read the bidsheet every time some new bid is placed, during the already hurried situation at closing, and decide whether a new bid is allowed. Like other ideas, this would only be possible if the whole bidding process is supported by automation.

I'm not sure how common that really is — someone bidding on something they don't really want, just to make things worse for other bidders (and eventually better for the artist, again).

Rather unlikely because whenever you bid on something, you run the risk of being the last bidder and must buy something you didn't really want.

[Codewolf]

just a quick post about queuing: https://forum.eurofurence.org/index.php/topic,5794.0.html

[Bartimaeus]

[...] territorial about their minibar [...] We should be able to use the minibar to store our own drinks

And concerning the minibar: You are wrong, not all hotels allow emptying the minibar and those who do, often charge a fee. Their internal storage-room for minibar-stuff was simply overfilled after so many people requested it. I am sure something can be worked out in the next years. But this was the very first year for us and them!

Does this minibar problem really exist?

I was also very concerned and surprised by this after reading the forum prior to EF. The problem seemed strange and illogical to me so I decided to check with the hotel staff and see how they would explain to me why I could not use a fridge in my room too cool my mineral water and such.

I went to this guy:

And he told me it was OK to use the minibar fridge to cool my drinks. And it was OK to remove minibar contents as long as all the bottles were visible when they checked the minibar. So I put all the minibar contents RIGHT NEXT to the fridge and used it for my own beverages till the end of the convention.

[Ralesk]

I asked the same in e-mail and was told differently: that they can't empty the minibar and I will have to pay for everything I remove — so we decided not to touch it at all.

That said the room was cool enough for our mineral water and coke, so in the end we didn't really need it anyway  Friends had a car coolbox + AC converter for the Snack Exchange stuff, and that thing wasn't deemed an issue either.

[Cheetah]

We talked about the minibar topic in our debriefing with the management. They were basically totally surprised by the amount of requests, and then again surprised by how our attendees would get creative to circumvent the posted rules. We all agreed that there will be a clear, pragmatic solution for the minibar problem next year.

(It will be something along the lines of "You are allowed to empty the minibar as long as all contents are lined up clearly visible next to it so housekeeping can check it at a glance" or something similar. We'll keep you updated when this becomes official.)

[BD]

I loved the marching band leading the fursuit parade, that was a brilliant idea. They were really good! I had a wonderful con despite the fact that Norwegian Air lost my baggage which included my fursuit body.

[Ralesk]

I loved the marching band leading the fursuit parade, that was a brilliant idea. They were really good!

Absolutely!   That reminds me, there was a fursuiter with a trombone somewhere in the back third of the parade.  That was great as well.

[Korrok]

My feedback is a bit late due to being busy rl! I will try to keep it short:

- Love the new hotel. I was never a big fan of the Maritim hotel for various reasons and I feel the Estrel is a massive improvement in terms of con space and social (foyer) space. Staff were very nice on the whole too.
- Not so keen on the new area. Felt rather unsafe, the little exploration we did further down the road (in the car) led us to not want to go wandering around it. Obv this is unavoidable due to the hotel's unique position as the largest con hotel in mainland Europe.
- To that end: it would be massively appreciated if next year we could have a feature in the con book or here on the forums etc about places to get food/supplies (e.g. drug store?) in the nearby area.
- Hotel food was nice but a bit too pricey for every day. Hotel breakfast is super and a very welcome upgrade.
- New Dealer's Den is beautifully light and was nice to work in. A great location!
- All the extra seating in the foyer/lobby etc was hugely appreciated.
- Bar prices and standards were a bit offputting.
- No issues with hotel check in or check out. It was very painless and friendly.
- Elevators - I agree with the person who suggested an actual little queueing barrier. It made me angry to see inconsiderate entitled assholes throw themselves to the front of the queue and push you aside to get in before you when you'd been waiting patiently. I don't think there's going to be any way around the heavy elevator traffic so this would at least make it more bearable.

- A random aside for other attendees of the con. PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE TO TAKE VIDEO/PICS OF A PERSON AFTER THEY MAKE IT CLEAR THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE IN SAID FILMING. I wish that was basic stuff and not something that needed said. -_-

On the very largest whole I thought the new hotel was fab and I am excited to see what EF does with the wonderful new space available to it! See you guys next year.

[SiranaJHelena]

The information about the delay changed a lot and contradicted itself.
After we waited already 1-2 hours some people came along who said they were told to spread the information about a delay of 3 hours. We checked different other sources then (Prime TV, Staff members, BBFs twitter account) and got many other delay times from 1 hour to 5 hours.
I infered from that that nobody really knew.

The cause lies in the nature of the delays. For the last two hours, we were basically fixing and finishing things as fast as we could - but it wasn't one single thing that needed to be done, it was more like a list of a hundret little details, and when you're in this state, all you can say is the order of magnitude of the delay, especially if you discover new problems while fixing others. We knew it would be at least an hour - so that's what we communicated the day before. We did not expect three hours delay, otherwise we would have re-scheduled things more consistently. We were hit with many unexpected challanges. We will do our best to not let that happen again. My sincerest apologies.

My apologies if it wasn't so clear but this post wasn't ment to be a critique. I just shared my experience with the communication about the delay to show that there was nothing clear about anything because.. well.. nobody really plans a delay. I know you had a lot of trouble backstage and I know you guys don't let us wait 3 hours in the cold because you'd like to have a five-cours-dinner and a bath before it starts. (Ok, you might like to, but you wouldn't let us wait for that. )

I press thumbs for you that next year Murphy's law won't hit you so hard again, so you can actually enjoy the con yourself and have a great time!

[BD]

Absolutely!   That reminds me, there was a fursuiter with a trombone somewhere in the back third of the parade.  That was great as well.

Yes, I met him too but didn't get his name. It must have been the same trombone-playing guy (how many trombones are there at a furry con?!) who joined us in the Sunday afternoon music jam which was a real blast, lots of people ended up joining in and singing along and generally making a joyful racket.

[DarkFoxDK]

Absolutely!   That reminds me, there was a fursuiter with a trombone somewhere in the back third of the parade.  That was great as well.

Yes, I met him too but didn't get his name. It must have been the same trombone-playing guy (how many trombones are there at a furry con?!) who joined us in the Sunday afternoon music jam which was a real blast, lots of people ended up joining in and singing along and generally making a joyful racket.

I seem to remember seeing Blaster Hedgie with a trombone at some point during the con, though I might be mistaken... o.o

[Mystifur]

In the fursuit lounge I saw someone blatantly stand up, take out his cellphone and started recording everything around him. Not a minute before, I was asked to put away my cellphone when I was just checking to see if I had a message.

The request to put it away was friendly and I complied. But to have someone stand up and be /care about it was awkward and I didn't know what to do with the situation. I guess mentioning it now is too late, but I feel like this should be addressed as a good concern for the future.

Most important thing first: We been saying this for years, we will be saying it again, and is written in bold letters on the sign at the lounge entry:
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SUSPICOUS GOING ON IN THE LOUNGE, CONTACT EF SECURITY IMMEDIATELY. THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO DAYS LATER AFTER THE CONVENTION.

Photography is a reoccuring issue with the lounge and it mean walking a narrow line.
If we check people too stricly, we're called Lounge-Nazis that make everything so complicated and unfirendly. And really.. Security taking away peoples phones? I really don't want to see this.
If we rely more on peoples common sense, someone will sneak in a camera and take pics, until someone tells him to not do it.

(I take the priviledge to exclude myself from this rule. I, and I only, will occasionally take out my cam to take photos for EF internal documentation. But luckily people know who I am. )

Yes,we found one fursuiter posting a short video of himself on youtube, warned him to take it down immediately, and he instantly complied and begged pardon.

I also heard about a photographer selling pics of people that were headless to a newssite, including me. I would love to know how that is possible, as he would have to have sneaked into the fursuit lounge. I didn't see the picture as it was removed, but I'm definitely not ok with this.

The problem here starts with "I also heard.." and immediately goes into "how is that possible?"
I'd rather if people didn't listen to the rumor mill. Because it was NOT possible.

The true story:
There was a private Lacy-Fursuit-Photoshoot, that was not handled by EF, taken in a location that was not part of the EF convention location. The people running this shoot did allow a photographer in, who claimed to be taking pics only for himself. Pictures of this shooting ended up sold/published to the media yes. Feel free to take legal action against this photographer.
While EF-staff is very unhappy about this incident, and definately has this person on a blacklist now, it is not acceptable to blame us for that, because this was in no way an EF event, and not even on EF location.  


EDIT: I just realised this issue has wide been explained already, and feel stupid now :-) With doing all the stuff-stuff, and concrud, and travel, i'm a bit late with working through the forum.

[Mystifur]

And here's a bit of knowledge for everyone who found that neon swan installation in the beergarden either amusing, or weird, or kinky, or startling:

It's neither of that, it is a depiction of acient greek mythology.
The swan is godfather Zeus. You can learn about it if you search for
Leda and the swan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan

[ysegrim]

Greek mythology is amusing, and weird, and kinky, and startling.

[Schorse]

I prefer my big squeaky swan in the pool.