Search

[BigBlueFox]

Only little comment about EF prime: The transmitting/ streaming team needs some sort of feedback about what arrives in the room ... there seemed to have been a loose connector somewhere so transmission was sketchy at times. And when you stream sth with voice: please turn down the background music then

will be in berlin again next year!

Ragear

We actually did turn down the background music. Or so we thought. The audio mixer showed the channel as muted - but obviously didn't mote it. We had to mute it a second time to fix that after getting feedback from you guys. We're going to establish a way of monitoring the stream in the future, at least during transition periods to keep this from happening.

[BigBlueFox]

The one thing that really bothered me was the preparation of chairs and the projection on the canvas at enter the arena. If you did not was sitting in the first two lines, then you could not see the dance floor. Standing did not help to see anything. To look at the canvas was pointless, because due to the light and fog nothing could be seen. So either next year the fursuiter dancing on the stage or you build grandstands.

Yes, that is a good point. The problem was that as you may have noticed, we had a very unique and different stage layout this year, and with this, a lot of challenges come. In our case, it was the unexpected lighting situation that kept the projection from being clearly visible at times, not only during Enter The Arena.

Moving the dancers to the stage is a no-go - since this greatly limits them with their possibilities. But we'll see how we are going to handle this in the future.

[Reshi]

I'm actually curious to know which one that was, or which day. We had a total amount of more than 40 hours of individual programming this year (not counting the live shows), and the individual show was being rerun only two or three times during the entire 5 days.

I think it was on either Wednesday or Thursday, it happened only in one day but I found it strange !

[Sheena-Tiger]

I'm actually curious to know which one that was, or which day. We had a total amount of more than 40 hours of individual programming this year (not counting the live shows), and the individual show was being rerun only two or three times during the entire 5 days.

I think it was on either Wednesday or Thursday, it happened only in one day but I found it strange !

I'd say Wednesday, after the opening ceremony.
It is quite clear in my head, as I was ill and could not attend the first 2 days and a few minutes before the end of the ceremony I looked at my twitter and saw the link to the stream.
After that I let the stream run for quite a while but the videos got very boring, seeing the same one for the 3rd or 4th time. After that I did not turn it back on since it gave me this feeling "you will only see something else when something on the main stage happens"

[Mystifur]

Overall I think the con was very well managed (even if I didn't manage myself very well!) but I do have a few ideas for improvements:

• Fursuit Lounge - More Pegs Plz! (Mystifur already knows about that one). Also, if some insulated ice buckets could be left out, so furs could add their own ice to their drinks. Finally, there needs to be a equal number of tables for heads and paws/feet, the latter was almost always fully occupied as there was only one of them, so the rules were bent and the heads tables used instead.

Hi and thanks for the feedback.

Paw Dryers: Your Math is wrong Technically we'd need 4 times the number of paw dryers to the number of head dryers. As every head head usually comes with 4 paws. ;-)
But seriuously, the lounge has been growing and work-in-progress for the last 11 years. Had you come last year, you'd only seen have the amount of head dryers. We had some budget to build more, and we deemed dry heads more important than dry paws. Next year, something else will get some money and improve.

The good stuff:
- Fursuit lounge was nice and roomy, even tho it was more farther away from the lobby than last year, it was easy enough to get to for me

And we even had a secong lounge running in the very same old location as well

The okay-ish stuff:
- Not a big thing, but it bothered me that the water in the fursuit lounge was a lot of times more room temperature than actually cold. But that is just a small nitpick and it happened to be like that only couple times when I were in the lounge, and I visited it a lot

Ice and Drinks:
Sorry that you found "every luke warm at times". (Which may actually have happened in the morning hours, but unlikely in the afternoon.)
- Did you try turning it off and on again?... Or rather have you tried different kegs? We keep some of the drinks free of ice intentionally, because suiters also complained about all the drinks giving them brain freeze.
- If you did, and found all of them to be warm.. Did you talk to someone of my team and inform them? I know they'd love to help right there. Such things can be solved easily IF you let us know right there!
- We decided against public access to the ice cubes for 3 reasons:
1) You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get enough ice as it is, because for some reason the hotel also wants it for their cocktails
2) Suiters will fill their cups with ice, drink some, and then throw the cups with left over ice into the bin. ..where it starts to melt and gives us this lovely watery mess to clean out.
3) Health/Hygiene issues. 500 sweaty fuzzy fursuiter paws/hands rummaging through the ice that others are going to consume is a no-go.

[Sheena-Tiger]

The okay-ish stuff:
- Not a big thing, but it bothered me that the water in the fursuit lounge was a lot of times more room temperature than actually cold. But that is just a small nitpick and it happened to be like that only couple times when I were in the lounge, and I visited it a lot

Ice and Drinks:
Sorry that you found "every luke warm at times". (Which may actually have happened in the morning hours, but unlikely in the afternoon.)
- Did you try turning it off and on again?... Or rather have you tried different kegs? We keep some of the drinks free of ice intentionally, because suiters also complained about all the drinks giving them brain freeze.

I am not a suiter, so I can only look at it from the outside and try to be as unbiased as possible.
From a biological point of view, drinking and eating cold stuff while your body is overheating the worst thing you can do.
The body has to heat up the stuff until it reaches a temperature where the body can work with it.
So, you are hot and add cold stuff your body heats up which in turn raises your temperature even more.
There is a reason why in certain hot regions of the world warm drinks like coffee and tea is the drink of choice among the people who live there.
So, personally, I would even advise against any cooled drinks in the lounge... knowing I myself have no experience what is helping a suiter and doubting many would understand my reasoning.

Even knowing the facts above... I find myself enjoying a cooled drink or ice and the likes on hot days... knowing it is wrong and regretting it a lot of times, afterwards.

[Ninu]

First EF, and I really liked it. Something that made me chuckle was this :  

I like the idea to "Unite" the former Yugoslavian countries into one, but It would be nice to have each independent countries listed.
Language wise its not that close now than it was 20+ years ago.

Overall it was a really good first experience with a con. Will definitely try to go next year.

[Fafnir Kristensen]

I will separate eurofurence related feedback from hotel related feedback.

eurofurence:
----------------

globally I had a lot of fun, like all the EF I have attended since the 13th,
good job keeping this huge event going on year after year and thanks to all the staff (regular and volunteer) that make this possible.

rooms arrangement:
- separate entry for the dealers den and art show is the way to go, please do it again next year.

non-event waiting queue (registration, art pickup):
excellent, everything went really fast, you did an awesome job

event waiting queue:
it has improved, delays were not as massive as last years, so good work on that, though there is still some way to improvement.
I have noticed most problems seem to come from sound related setup (main stage entrance ceremony, charity concert), and it's certainly not easy to set up, often on the fly, different setup, I dont really know how this could be improved :/ I guess it's something we will have to put up with

earprotections:
there was some earprotections, thank you very much for that,
but it was chaotic at best, as I had to personally ask some staff to have some available at the 80th dance. for the other dances, someone did care of it fortunatly.
about this, I would like very very very highly praise two staff members who put up with me at the 80th dance:
the first was one of the backstage crew, who picked the backstage crew own earprotections box and placed it on the table at the room entrance, because no one else knew where the other earprotections boxes were.
the second one is one of the security guy, who made several travel to conop/secop to ask for the earprotections and print some sign to tell people where to find the box.
I fear I forgot your name but if you read this or if someone of your related group can tell you, know that you are awesome!
I would be SERIOUSLY interested to officially have to handle this particular task next year (availability of the earprotections, table to put them on, having sign printed and placed to inform people)

dealers den:
- the tables in dealers at the back: there was a wider avenue on the back left (artshow wall) and a narrower avenue on the back right (windows side), please can you center a little bit more the table next time so there is a more even spacing around the back isle? it was overcrowded on the windows side.
- side doors: I was bumped quite hardly by some hotel staff suddenly opening violently a door in the side of the room, as I was looking at a dealers table next to it.
as far as I know that door should have been locked and stayed locked. can you inform the hotel they should not use these side door? maybe adding a "NO ENTRY" sign on the other side or something.
- NO BAGS INSIDE THE DEALERS DEN!
in all the EF I have attended since 13 until 19, we have always been allowed bags inside the dealers den, so we can put all the stuff we buy in them.
BUT, last years, since the artshow entrance was through the dealers den, you decided we had to leave all the bag outside.
This year, the artshow entrance was separate, I see absolutely no reason anymore to force people to leave their bag outside the dealers den.
Please re-allow bags inside the dealers den next year

main stage:
- excellent bigger room!!!!!!!
- awesome LASERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
awesome, thanks Djem!
BUT, when the lasers where on, we could hardly see anything anymore on the main display screen.
that was very noticeable during the opening ceremony, and a good lot of the hard work put inside the opening ceremony displayed animation was lost because of that,
please see if it would be possible to either position the lasers differently or find a way the lasers dont pass in front of the main display.
- backstage crew:
I had the occasion to see how the crew was working and especially the guy at the light management table. I fear I wasnt of much help, since there was so much to learn in a short time, but I would very highly thanks the guy who took the time to explain how it was working (and I would like to quote him: "dont worry, at worst all the lights switch off, but it's ok, we still have the lasers!")
I have a better understanding of all the work being done so people can enjoy dancing, thank you all for everything you do!

lost & found:
- please, dont bring lost & found in the secop room, I had a really hard time finding it there and I had to annoy several conop and security people until we found it in the secop room (yes I know it's my own fault for leaving a bag 10 min on a table, but still)

artshow:
- poor lightning
this was already said and I have read the answers already, still please try to improve if possible.

charity auction:
- as already stated, the charity part of the auction are always rushed because of not enough time, which of course highly depends of how many pieces in the artshow went to auction and how fiery (or slowly) people fight for them. since you wont know that before the closing of the artshow, I dont know how it would be possible to define a fixed time for the charity part, unless it become open-ended (with its lot of problematic consequences). also having the charity at the beginning is not a solution since people would keep their money first for the items they are fighting for and after for charity if they have any left (this is a simplification of course).
I dont have a solution, beside maybe reserve a bit more time as already done, but thats at best a mitigation.

fireplace:
- EXCELLENT!!!!
thank you very much to the staff who handled the fire and kept it running, ESPECIALLY ON LAST DAY! the con is over but you still made the fire, you rock, simply

trash can at every floor:
- excellent idea, thank you for doing that


hotel:
------

internet:
wifi: better than last year, though it may depends which aisle and level your room is?
cabled internet: completely unusable, I have no idea how it's possible to fuck up so totally a cabled network

main lobby bar (not the piano bar):
stuck up staff, never felt really welcome there, no food anymore, premixed watered down cocktails
I now avoid that place totally.

beer garten:
excellent, staff super cool, also curry wurst and bbq!
and the the barman!!!!!!! that guy is almost as awesome as Andree! he is an absolute keeper! also he made the EF cocktails on the fly there

breakfast:
OVERZEALOUS WAITERS!!!
seriously, you couldnt look elsewhere for a second before the staff was already picking your plate and stuff on your table,
I mean, ok, they want people to get out at 11 or so, so they can clean up and prepare the place for the restaurants, but this is going way too far.
I have been seriously annoyed by this and Im not alone.
please tell the waiters manager to calm down next year

[Runo]

We keep some of the drinks free of ice intentionally, because suiters also complained about all the drinks giving them brain freeze.

Which I was very happy about. I once chose the wrong keg by accident, and the drink was so cold it physically hurt - so I was glad there were others with a more agreeable temperature (not complaining about the cold stuff at all - it's just not for me!).

[Honigeintopf]

lost & found:
- please, dont bring lost & found in the secop room, I had a really hard time finding it there and I had to annoy several conop and security people until we found it in the secop room (yes I know it's my own fault for leaving a bag 10 min on a table, but still)

Heyho everyone,

please note that the official lost & found was operated the whole time in the ConOps-Office. Only at Sunday evening all lost & found related items had to be moved to SecOps on grounds of the ConOps-Breakdown. The easiest way to solve that kind of issues is to just drop by the ConOps-Office and ask. Staff-members sitting there will do their best to help you (This means less work for you )

So long,
Honigeintopf

[Fafnir Kristensen]

Staff-members sitting there will do their best to help you (This means less work for you )

I know, but poor KingSimba who was at conop at that time had no idea there was stuff in the secop room (I know you did your best , sorry to have annoyed you), I only found out where it was because I asked the people in the secop room a second time to look for any out-of-place plastic bags. apparently even people there didnt know there was lost&found being deposited there nor if there was a place in the room specifically for that.

[Carbine]

Most has already been mentioned, there were just a couple of (small) things that I wanted to add.

-Lanyards: Would it be possible to get lanyards with break away buckles? This would really simplify putting on my badge while in fursuit. I could use my own but these obviously aren't official EF attendee/sponsor colored lanyards.

-Themed decoration: Last year we had the police car, the crime scenes around the hotel and several other things that delivered the feeling of the theme. I really missed that this year.

-Fursuit group photo: Probably has been covered already but this was my main concern. Even though they put out fans and watersuppliers at some point I think it was better if the Main Stage would have just opened and you had us wait in the back of the hall where there was more space and ample seating. This wait was just way too long and up front where I was it was almost impossible to get out. Dangerous situation in my opinion. Please also communicate better with the crowd, what is causing the delay and how you want us to set up for the photograph, use the microphones from the stage?

-Trash cans near the entrance: Trash cans on all the floors was an excellent idea! The hotel should also consider putting one or two in front near the hotel entrance. The small cigarette disposals quickly overfilled with bottles etc. Meaning that a lot of glass was put on the ground or on the ledges. I sometimes removed bottles because I was afraid people would knock them over and they would fall down on somebody. I think larger trash cans would help fight this problem.

Other than that the con went very smoothly! The suiter lounge was excellent and the general layout of the convention was well thought over. Seperating the Dealers Den from the Art Show and the Fursuit Photoshoot was a good choice. The second bar near the Open Stage was a blessing and really reduced waiting lines for drinks.  I had a wonderful time at EF, thank you staff for making it all happen!

[Fafnir Kristensen]

The second bar near the Open Stage was a blessing and really reduced waiting lines for drinks.

ah yes, I forgot about that, it was really nice to have a bar near the dances, to get some refreshing drink without having to walk all the way to the main lobby,
excellent idea

[Schorse]

I'm usually a quiet person, so just a few things to mention.
This year, the theme of the con wasn't really prominent. There was almost no decoration, just the banners in the lobby (which were awesome) and the large panel between registration and rotunda. The way between the hotel area and the conventionspace felt a bit like entering a new world, it was too empty.
The dealers den needs way more space.
At the opening ceremony, the sound at the main stage was kinda bad. A bit too much bass sometimes, and the way too present midrange really did hurt my ears. But I guess it's impossible to find that out at the soundcheck when the hall is empty. So we might need about 1k volunteers next time to fill it up first.
The room for our inflatables panel on Saturday was very nice, we did get a lot of attention because of the glass wall to the hallway. And thanks for LuckyEsel from ConOps to let me in way earlier to start prepairing the toys. It was almost 8 hours of fun there.
Not so nice was, that the room for the plushie panel was used for the snack exchange before and they didn't clean up! So we stood there with our plushies in hand and had to wait for the staff to vacuum the floor and clean the tables. Not to mention the nasty smell.

The hotel staff was very friendly and helpful. But their house keeping needs improvement. It was kinda annoying that they constantly came over to check things. Even worse, that the maids mostly can't speak/understand german or even english. When you have things in your room that you don't want to have been moved/touched, they simply don't get what you want.
A bathroom fan that instantly switches off when you turn off the light is a big fail!
And their shower gel must have an ingredient that causes some kind of allergic reaction. My head started itching after using it, it was almost unbearable.
They need a big pool!!! (But spending 24 hours at Tropical Island after EF pretty much made up for that)
The breakfast was awesome again.

Can't wait for next year.

[Ralphie Raccoon]

Hi and thanks for the feedback.

Paw Dryers: Your Math is wrong Technically we'd need 4 times the number of paw dryers to the number of head dryers. As every head head usually comes with 4 paws. ;-)
But seriuously, the lounge has been growing and work-in-progress for the last 11 years. Had you come last year, you'd only seen have the amount of head dryers. We had some budget to build more, and we deemed dry heads more important than dry paws. Next year, something else will get some money and improve.

No problem. Thanks for the reply.

Well yes, ideally that would be the case, but I don't think there would be room! So an equal number of tables seems like a more realistic proposition.

- We decided against public access to the ice cubes for 3 reasons:
1) You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get enough ice as it is, because for some reason the hotel also wants it for their cocktails
2) Suiters will fill their cups with ice, drink some, and then throw the cups with left over ice into the bin. ..where it starts to melt and gives us this lovely watery mess to clean out.
3) Health/Hygiene issues. 500 sweaty fuzzy fursuiter paws/hands rummaging through the ice that others are going to consume is a no-go.

1. Well, I guess that's a logistics issue really, you could try bringing in your own ice (or ice machine), but I wouldn't know how difficult that would be so I can't really comment.
2. Encouraging suiters to empty any ice left into the buckets beneath the coolers would probably help solve that issue.
3. That's why man invented tongs

Oh and just on a more positive comment, I thought the signage in the lounge was very well made and instructional, especially the heat exhaustion poster. More stuff like that would be great!