Acen 2015 debrief

[Dtrain323i]

Ok folks. Another Acen has come and gone. Let's discuss the weekend. What went well? What went not so well? Any suggestions for next year?

[Luinbariel]

It was all pretty awesome! No big drama this year!

Now that it is over I want to see all your faces again.  Facebook?

[The Generic Name]

What went well:  Lots of fun and anime and pods were there and I got to see you all again.
What didnt went well:  Too short a weekend,  needs to be longer/I need to see you jerks more.

[Gasman]

What went well:  Lots of fun and anime and pods were there and I got to see you all again.
What didnt went well:  Too short a weekend,  needs to be longer/I need to see you jerks more.

Perhaps a secondary con during the winter months?  My schedule/funds won't really allow more than one set of airplane tickets a year, but that doesn't need to stop others from doing it.

[Didzo]

A west coast con.  :-*

[kaese]

NEED MORE CLUB SODA AND TONIC WATER FOR NEXT YEAR
what went well: spreading the mpreg love through streetpass ; bartending with each of the anime twinks, spectating battletech (lel)
regrets: crave crate...we never learn

I wouldn't be opposed to a chicago thursday evening hangout next year, I thought it was fun and is a nice change from the usual sit in hotel room and drink.

[TOH]

I agree, I think an event of some sort would be a good change of pace. I was talking to Dtrain in the airport, he was thinking the German place he and the others went to yesterday could accommodate a big group of ours, and it's not hard to get to. It's a good chance to get us all together too, because it feels like chilling in the room gets really segmented with people in different rooms. It was kinda awkward to see people going into the other room and barely coming out into the bar area. Feels like we're becoming segmented, not together.

[Dtrain323i]

I agree, I think an event of some sort would be a good change of pace. I was talking to Dtrain in the airport, he was thinking the German place he and the others went to yesterday could accommodate a big group of ours, and it's not hard to get to. It's a good chance to get us all together too, because it feels like chilling in the room gets really segmented with people in different rooms. It was kinda awkward to see people going into the other room and barely coming out into the bar area. Feels like we're becoming segmented, not together.

Very true. That back room VIP thing gets old. Plus the restaurants are a 5 minute walk from the front doors to the convention center. It'd be a nice change of scenery and give us a chance to all have dinner as a group

[The Generic Name]

[quote author=TOH link=topic=7508.msg284877#msg284877 date=1431910137]
I agree, I think an event of some sort would be a good change of pace. I was talking to Dtrain in the airport, he was thinking the German place he and the others went to yesterday could accommodate a big group of ours, and it's not hard to get to. It's a good chance to get us all together too, because it feels like chilling in the room gets really segmented with people in different rooms. It was kinda awkward to see people going into the other room and barely coming out into the bar area. Feels like we're becoming segmented, not together.

Very true. That back room VIP thing gets

[/quote]

also spankings from Fraulein

[CaffeinePowered]

I agree, I think an event of some sort would be a good change of pace. I was talking to Dtrain in the airport, he was thinking the German place he and the others went to yesterday could accommodate a big group of ours, and it's not hard to get to. It's a good chance to get us all together too, because it feels like chilling in the room gets really segmented with people in different rooms. It was kinda awkward to see people going into the other room and barely coming out into the bar area. Feels like we're becoming segmented, not together.

We could try limiting things in the back room in the future, but there really isn't another option apart from the VIP room for a group of our size. It also serves as a nice gap-fill if the other room gets too crowded. We've all been in the cabana suite when we tried cramming 30 people into it.

Saturday it might help if we limited the number of bombers more for the tasting and moved it into the main room instead, it got way too crowded and hot in the back. Or we could scrap the idea entirely going forward and just have the nice beer dolled out as we see fit.


As for events, we did drop the pizza thing this year, maybe the German restaurant would be better - maybe call ahead and have a catering buffet style thing? I personally don't like leaving the con and being out for a long period of time, but I can see where people would like to do something like that.

What didnt went well:  Too short a weekend,  needs to be longer/I need to see you jerks more.

I'm not sure we could do another con...it might not be in the budget for a lot of people, there is Otakon, which I know is close to a lot of people in Baltimore. There is also the possibility of starting ACEN on Wednesday night.


Other topics for discussion:

• Large group cosplay - also fits theme of doing something together
  
• Moving people out of the suite for purposes of sleeping (4-6 max in the back rooms) and having a general pay-in party fund so everyone pays the same room "rate"
  

[Dtrain323i]

Well that's the beauty of this place. Its a block away and there are cosplayers milling around in the courtyard area. Plus at the time we'd be at the restaurant is when we would be in partycat anyway. So you're not really missing anything con-wise.

[Eightball]

Good con all around, no real complaints per se. I concur that group food should be a thing. Scar and I got food to the room Friday & Saturday but since it's not something we had officially announced a day beforehand there was still a good portion of people who didn't know or otherwise splintered. Not that that's intrinsically terrible.

Large group cosplay - also fits theme of doing something together
Moving people out of the suite for purposes of sleeping (4-6 max in the back rooms) and having a general pay-in party fund so everyone pays the same room "rate"

Much agreed. Terrorists was okay; nice to have a group of 5-6 again but something more massive and coordinated would be fun too. Massive I know we can handle, coordinated may take a bit more work and advance planning. I also favor the idea of people paying some nominal tribute ($20ea?) towards the VIP room; this would knock the cost down ~$750 so we could either have fewer (7 vs 10) people stuck in there, or a cost of staying that's more commensurate with the quality of sleep people get in those rooms.

Another thought: Does anyone know of an app for which we can collectively upload photos (in real time)? Those of us who just use a smartphone would be able to immediately pool our photos rather than dealing with the post-con dump, edit, annotate and upload.

[zaneyard]

Another thought: Does anyone know of an app for which we can collectively upload photos (in real time)? Those of us who just use a smartphone would be able to immediately pool our photos rather than dealing with the post-con dump, edit, annotate and upload.

G+ party mode does that

[Luinbariel]

Large group could be fun again!
Also you were all a bunch of very sharply dressed gentlemen. A+ would ogle again

[CaffeinePowered]

Another thought: Does anyone know of an app for which we can collectively upload photos (in real time)? Those of us who just use a smartphone would be able to immediately pool our photos rather than dealing with the post-con dump, edit, annotate and upload.

Dunno about real time but..

http://www.brbuninstalling.com/gallery/i.../ACEN-2015

Already dumped mine

[Evil Cheese]

I also agree we should continue doing some other group things outside of the con. I don't get to see Chicago everyday so it's nice to go do something in the city, but even just a group dinner across the street at the German place would be fun too. Kase makes a good point, a change of scenery is nice and drinking in the same room for three days does get a bit old.

[TronPaul]

The con was great fun. If there was another con that many brbuers were committed to going to, I'd be interesting in going. It doesn't need to be an anime con either.

In terms of splintering, you're going to have that happen with a room of that size, the amount of people there, and how loud it gets. It was nice to talk to a few people I didn't know too well in the side room.

I got some complaints about anime using the TV for long portions of time, but it seems to have been well received overall. I hope more people bring hard drives next year so they can share their anime.

I like getting food in at the con rather than going out.

I'd be down with paying into the VIP room to split the cost. Seeing how much people staying in it had to pay compared to other rooms made me feel bad. We'd have to figure out how to split keys since I doubt they'd give us 30 keys for it.

Looking forward to next year!

[Whendilin]

I know I had a bunch of fun this year at the con and I agree with generic that it always goes faster than a normal weekend.

As far as events, if we could maybe even plan some sort of board game time with some "unique" board games or even scheduling some sort of video game tournament (like the smash one that almost happened) rather than it just being a fend for yourself type of deal.

This would be great for people who are just hanging out in the room just drinking or trying to get something going of this nature.

I'm also down for paying for stuff and stuff for stuff. All I need to know is an amount.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Photos dumped. Gotta get to work. I'll write more later.

[rilnac]

Pros: everything
Cons: 367 days until next con

Lots of good points here, we should definitely get like 5x as much mix, that stuff is so cheap we can just pour it down the sink when we are done.

Like the idea of a bonus con at some point. Also +1 to pitching in for VIP to get more space (and/or) starting a day early.