The good with the bad.

[mabey joe mabey not]

This is a topic where you say what was good about your experience at mew con and then follow it up with what was bad, and I hope people post more bad than good. If they don't then this con won't improve much and will eventually go under if people are to afraid of saying the wrong thing and only say what they liked.



Good- I LOVED THE CCG ROOM. I had so much fun there, I played plenty of games there as well as met at least 30 people. I liked the Bang Bang neko stuff, they were all fun and enjoyable. I especially liked the dating games, like anime speed dating and the almost anime dating games.

The Bad- The biggest thing that I think can be done is improvment in staff comunication. There was often times when the staff didnt know what was supposed to be going on, such as timing and event runners. This was very annoying when it came to diffrent events, many events were delyaed, over time, or skipped entirley do to staff miscomunications. The anime speed dating was delayed due to a no show host, poor tofu's band was completley unable to play for the con due to time misarangments, which I was luckily able to attend sense there was little much else going on at the time of their testing. What really got me was the staffs, well disregarde for fellow staff. I was at several panels where somone on staff didn't want to leave a panel, while another panel go unran. A well tuned schedule that is FINISHED a couple of weeks before the con would be very helpful, equiped with the staff members that will be hosting the panel so that if somone is not there its easily notable WHO is supposed to do it, instead of the entire staff running around asking eachother whos doing this, and other staff is able to enjoy there time at the con and not be forced or bugged into hosting a panel as they miss an opertunity to do somthing. Another thing that was a big peave of mine was timing. I would be waiting 6 hours to do somthing I wanted, in the mean time going to the exhibitors hall and the game room. and then for three hours 7 diffrent , WOULD be well attended events happen and a minimal appearence at all of them because there are so many of them no one can actually go to them all and end up doing one thing in bits cause their trying to aqueeze it all in.
I have more but I have contributed enough, or at least I think, but I think all the problems in the end come to staff comunication.

[Kittyminion]

Opinions are welcome with constructive criticism. Don't be afraid to share your opinion but try to give direction of what you'd like to see change.

[Admin]

Constructive criticism: post the good and the bad, the indifferent.  Attendees and panelists r&r session to each other and the staff of MEW.

For staff to staff R&R please see staff suggestion box.

[Kai]

I have to agree with Kitty Minion... All Constructive criticism is welcome... However I do feel compelled to put out my own opinion.

    This is only MEW Cons 2nd year, and for such a short time I think we have come a very long way. The big thing I think is we are still having growing pains... so to speak. We are quickly forming a core of dedicated staff (and fans.. though who could say no to this cuteness.... =^.^=) which will only get stronger as time progresses. Bang Bang Neko was awesome! they were fun to work with and came up with some really awesome ideas... Very excited about what I will see next year! I also have to make a shout out to Morak Events! you guys were great to work with and made the con not only run well, but fun all around. I do have to disagree about the staff not knowing exactly what was going on all the time mabey joe mabey not ... yes not every panel was perfectly covered and there were some schedule changes... but overall we had some Uber programming, which again will only get better. So in short... stay tuned, its looking to only get better as each year goes on.
                                                                                                                                                             ~Kai

[TOFU]

Good:
The attendees that I talked to were having fun and seemed to enjoy the con this year.  There seemed to be a lot more to do and the vendors all seemed really cool.  I think our greatest success this year was probably our vendors' hall, just from my observations.  Having the vendors more central was very helpful for that area and they seemed to be really happy with the booths that they had.

Bad:
Main Events seemed to really suffer from being out in the Centennial Center.  I think it was too much of a hassle for most of the attendees to go all the way out there for events when there was plenty of interesting stuff going on between the panel room, workshop, gaming, and just chilling in the lobby areas.  In addition to the layout of the hotel itself being sub-optimal, the inability of the hotel to maintain their end of our contract was really detrimental.  However, I think our biggest inhibiting factor was definitely communication.  I know that it was a big source of stress for me.


There are a lot of kinks left to iron out, but I think that this year was a huge improvement over last year, and that this improvement will be most accurately demonstrated by next year's attendance.

Thank you to all of our hard-working staff for your time and effort and have a safe and happy year,
-Charlie "DancingTofu" Mitchell
Programming Director
MEW II

[oslapedo]

I had a lot of fun this year~

+ PARA PARA MACHINE
+ Anime Dating Game, hur hur hur
+ Chilling
+ lulz

- Dances/raves were a bit awkward. If the lights had been off it might've been better but a well lit room for moshing didn't really work
- Not much going on panel wise
- Panels seemed to just start whenever and not on time
- Food (lack of)

There were some nitpicks but I'm glad I came. ~~~

[lychee-twist]

There was a massive lack of trash bins so the con goers got lazy and left their trash everywhere. It was really gross. I think that there should be some sort of "Con Etiquette" page. I saw some cosplayers smash ornaments off of the hotel's christmas tree and then leave a huge pile of trash that I picked up even though I had nothing to do with it.

I was far from impressed with the trash situation. I really think that needs to be fixed before the next con especially since MEWcon will likely have more goers than last year.

[Lynx2Xero]

Pros
-Met at least ten new people and became friends.
-Watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
-Watched Digimon
-Watched Boondocks
-Played a new game that was birthed within the Library
-High volume of hugs
-Met up with a few old con friends
-Became friends with some staff members
-Ran a panel despite being a cosplayer/attendee
-Neko auction was entertaining
-Really nice hotel staff
-Instigated much merriment in the lobby with the aftercon hangout
-Geographically close panel rooms
-Really mellow con staff
-Almost always had parking available
-Easy badge pickup
-Really relaxing Lobby area
-Bought a Nekogirl
-Convenient prgramming guide on the computers in lobby
-THE FREAKING MAP
-[Insert stuff here later]

Cons
-Some communication between staff members for efficiency
-Panels schedule vs actual time happening
-Fairly large amount of white space that could've been used on the programming guide
-Limited amount of programming guides
-Minor confusion regarding where main events was
-Musical selection for the dances [Merely opinion, but I appreciated the DJ and shook his hand so]
-Scheduling to accommodate for some events due to general sleeping patterns for cosplayers
-[More to be inserted later]

[oslapedo]

There was a massive lack of trash bins so the con goers got lazy and left their trash everywhere. It was really gross. I think that there should be some sort of "Con Etiquette" page. I saw some cosplayers smash ornaments off of the hotel's christmas tree and then leave a huge pile of trash that I picked up even though I had nothing to do with it.

I was far from impressed with the trash situation. I really think that needs to be fixed before the next con especially since MEWcon will likely have more goers than last year.

To add to this, the carpets had all sorts of crap over them which sucked when there was nowhere left to sit. More trash bins = b

The hotel staff and the con staff were chill, I had no problems with any of 'em~

[TanisNikana]

This con needed more printed programs, a closer main events, and a hotel closer in town to Portland, so more people could attend.

Tanis is tired, sleepytime.

[StarryShay]

I love the Con being at the Red Lion~! <33
The Hotel Staff was helpful and not at all rude, the lobby was so comfortable and homey, staff was doing a good job, anime dating came was really fun, and PARA PARAAAA AND ROCKBAND, WOO WOO. :333
The only problem was lack of panel scheduling, and not much going on. xD
Overall, it was better then last year, and I had funnn!

[I, Jon]

I want to preface this with the fact that I:

1) am on the exec board for Sakura-Con,
2) staffed this convention and planned to go literally 48 hours before day 0

I have never attended a 'small con' before, and as such learned they operate -MUCH- differently than the big-league conventions. That said, I have had the most fun being at a convention in my life. I'm not kidding when I say this.

The majority of the problems I had with the convention are out of the con's control:

-The hotel kind of had a "falling apart" vibe to it.
-Dance floor in main events was also falling apart; I noticed a friend had gotten a splinter in her foot from it.
-Main events being as far as away as it was was a pain in the butt.

That said, I had a lot of praise for the convention! You guys did the best you could with the space, and I applaud that.

-Gaming was fun, and always had something to do
-I did present one event in Main Events (albeit at the last minute - Whose Line is it Anyway?), and it went very well.
-The caliber of the panels I attended was a lot of fun.
-Your DJ not only had some fun music for the dance, but also in some of the panels I attended in there had great music to accompany the situations of panels.
-Having the dealer's room with a view of the Columbia was brilliant! It is an amazing view.

I will definitely staff for 2010-11. I had a fantastic time.

[SkyeKit]

I feel all sorts of happy to see all the good and bad(yes Im happy to see the bad), bad stuff usually fly around me. its like the feces fan has a cutout lol.

Good
Everything I went to was fun, sure I was out in the lobby allot and the library.
Everyone was easy going
Dance Mania was so fun and I hope we have it next year
I liked how they seperated Rockband and the rest of the games, I think that was a great idea
Artist alley/dealers hall was much more fun to look around in, the year before it was so huge it always felt empty
I like that main events was moved, although I hate the cold I would drag my arse that way for much fun
Neko auction, sure there where bumps and I feel like smashing my head against a watermellon out of that little frustration BUT its a great idea and I hope it can be expanded more next year.
Auction: great idea(somehow I ended up in charge of it) needs more items XD lol I scrounged some of my items to sell off because Art From The Heart was unable to attend(they told me two days before con, so my fault for a little of the schedual changes)
CG room was fun, sure card games where not allways going on but there always seemed to be something(later on the second night Risk) the people where also fairly ammuising.
Library is win, they had tons of stuff and the staff where always interesting.
Creation station I loved the masks, I made an awesome one :3
AMV colletion, there where so many oO I loved some of the ones he showed
Dating game: hope to see you next year I would love to be one of the contestants( I went to the 18+ one >///< questions where really really weird XD)
Genetic Opera: I did not attend but from what I heard they where epic
Schedualers: sure you had bumps and no shows but you did an awesome job of keeping things smooth and I rarely noticed anything off

Bad
(Ok so like I said bad stuff seems to avoid me so I rarely see it but this is what I did see
.......-proccesses con for bad stuff-)
I think we should try and see about getting some more vendors
Closer food places DX I dont wanna walk in the cold to eat so I usually scrounged what I could lol
Dance Mania hurts my arms(fun game too much exercise for me)

I cant think of more at the moment but Ill post more if I think of it

[Teepet]

I had a lot of fun staffing M.E.W. this year, I guess I'll have to visit my family for winter-break every year so that I can make it to M.E.W.
Now that I think of it, there was a lack of trash cans, wasn't there?  There were none in that main hallway with gaming and vendors, but there were like, 4 recycle bins which led to mixed trash and recycling (a major pet peeve of mine) and a hesitance to throw away trash.

I'm not sure about the dates, I guess I appreciate having a third day since last year felt really short, but I think that next year it would be better if it was the 30th, 31st, and 1st instead, with the con sort of leading up to a big bash on New Year's and then kind of wrapping up on New Year's Day, I also think that the con should end earlier on the last day, giving people a chance to leave at a decent hour (and not pay for another night in the hotel) with out skipping out on the end of the con.  Driving home at 3 in the morning was a bit dangerous for me =_= I understand that having the last day on a weekend day was more appealing than starting con on a wednesday... but I think it's more important to have a strong last day than a strong beginning.  End with a Bang instead of fizzling out.

I love my fellow staff and can't wait til I see them again (can we have a staff meeting before I go  back to Texas? ), as far as I know there was very little drama, but it sounds like there were some probs with communication, I don't attend panels, at least not on purpose, so I wouldn't know... the attendees were great too of course, loves ya all!

[Charlotte Elbourne]

I had a super fun time this year! It was much better than last years, and I never laughed so hard at a convention before xD Especially at the anime dating game. I was crying I was laughing so hard xD I also took pics of the people there, cept it was on a friends camera so she has to upload it first.

Okay, so here is my pro's and con's list:

Pros:
- Never laughed so hard in my life
- Nice, calm, not squished atmosphere <3 very lovely to relax in
- Con staff were super helpful and very nice to chat with
- Vendors hall was closer, and had an amazing view, although it was a little to warm in there for me
- ROCKBAND FTW (seriously I spent like 4 hours straight in there at once x_x )
- nice attendees, it was fun to chat with everyone and take pictures!
- Getting our badges were a breeze! Loved how quick it was :3
- lots of love for our costumes! Its always appreciated when costumes are complimented x3
- loved that there were carpets everywhere so my dress didn't get dirty and the stairs were not loud to walk on
 I am sure there are way more, but I am tired so I will stop there xD

Cons:
- Hotel staff at check in were kinda rude...
- our hotel room was leaking from the roof, and got some of our stuff wet D:
- Some panels were kinda lame, but some of them rocked!
- Felt a little weird having such a dirty panel, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it so I won't complain about it (Cept my friends made me eat one of their x-rated cakes xD )
- the masquerade was scheduled after closing ceremonies, which I wanted to go to! D: But I had to leave if I wanted to get home at a decent time ;-;
- the THREE fire alarms that went off, first of which I had to run outside and get my feet wet cause I thought it was real, and the fact that I had to leave my expensive costumes in the hotel room ;-;
- okay this is not really a complaint, but I was sad that I  never got to use my Jareth costume at the anime dating games xD it would have been fun ;3;


Other than those, I had a blast at mewcon and definitely want to come  back!