Suggestions for Future Fan Fests

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Originally Posted by FJerome

One of the staff at the till mentioned that they had this same set-up at Gamerscon and didn't have anywhere near this problem because everyone brought cash - if you're not really equipped to handle a lot of people bringing credit cards please just tell us not to bring credit cards?

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I for one only brought enough cash to cover food since they did accept credit credit card and I didn't want to exchange money and then to find out I had too little to buy what I wanted or too much left over.

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Originally Posted by Gamina

The one thing I have seen lots of people complaining about is the venue. In my opinion it was perfect for the size and scale of the event, for the ambiance and the feel of Eorzea. People have cited Earl's Court (which is being demolished anyway), Olympia and Excel... I see MCM being cited as the reason for the 14 FanFest not being in a bigger venue yet lets be realistic 75,000 people attended MCM at the weekend... even if people attended only one day of MCM thats still ten times as many on a given day than were at FanFest.

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The Worldcon was at the Excel, there were about 7000 attendees total across five days. It used a really small fraction of the Excel. The FanFest would have fitted into one hall.
Tobacco Dock was great and there were several unused rooms, so it could be expanded if need be.

*Sees suggestions for future Fan Fests*...

COME TO AUSTRALIA DAMMIT!!! WE HAVE VEGEMITE, a +16 booster for Vitality (Max 32 points).

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Originally Posted by UlricCraft

-Guild room/art display was pitiful. (Not the gallery, the fan art)

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Originally Posted by Denyer87

I really hope you're not being serious here as that is quite possibly the most idiotic thing i have ever seen written here.

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I have to agree that the quantity and quality of the fan art submitted was weak. There were precisely two pictures which were brilliant that I would have been excited to have hanging on my wall at home. But hey, art is subjective right?

Which brings me to my suggestion - purchase of fan-artwork. Put crew with a tablet and the facility to accept payment in the room. Crew takes an order and payment for various size/print/digital download plus postage of the pieces people want. Orders are created post-event and sent out within the month.

As for the money raised, after deducting the cost of making the prints, the remainder of the funds can be donated to a charity by S-E.

Letting the artists know how much they had essentially raised for charity through this might even provide them with encouragement to create another piece for the next year. Letting the fans know through Lodestone would be cool too. A press release to that effect could paint S-E in a positive light whilst also spreading awareness for next year's event.

I see there are complaints about the location......I thought it was WONDERFUL! Please don't change it! With the inclusion of all the Eorzea-related elements I found it to be incredibly immersive, especially when dressed up as well! Top marks!
On the downside my friend and I spent over 3 hours in the merchandise queue, and we were the lucky ones! As we finally paid for our artbooks and moogles, we heard that there wouldn't be enough for the rest of the queue, which still looked to have several hours of waiting left to do. Surely it was obvious that the merchandise would be so sought after?
Other than that it was a magical day for me. :)

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Originally Posted by Mjollnir

I have to agree that the quantity and quality of the fan art submitted was weak. There were precisely two pictures which were brilliant that I would have been excited to have hanging on my wall at home. But hey, art is subjective right?

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I think that very few artists were even aware of the competition untill very close to the deadline. Same applies for cosplay competition. If announcements had been made sooner then maybe there would be more high quality entrants? (Not dissing any of the art that WAS entered at all, I just know that some artists were dissatisfied with their own work due to the hasty nature in which they had to be created!)

In fact, it would be great if information in general had been more forthcoming. I barely knew what to expect of the event before arriving. (Loved it, though!)

We need a shirt with "Please look forward to it..."

There was a concert at the end? Man, that's so annoying! After spending like 3 hours in the queue, we ended up just rushing around to finish all the quests before leaving. Looked at the queue for the closing ceremony and thought "Nope, not again". Sad that we didn't hang around in the end I guess.

I feel it was nice that Yoshi and co in the end decided to do signing to appease the people in the queue... It's a shame we were like 5 minutes too early and ended up being let inside before they popped out. The stock issue was very unfortunate though. Ended up waiting in line for everything but the book to be out of stock by the time we arrived at the end. Was looking to spend like £150+ on merchandise but ended up spending only like £30. No post moogles, no soundtracks, no plushies, no mugs. It didn't help that after the last 60 moogles were announced, somebody bought 5 at once.

Kinda bugged about the people complaining about the Fan Art Gallery while there where so many beautiful pieces hanging in those two rooms. I'm not saying this because I got into the Art Gallery myself (art is subjective indeed), but I've seen some AMAZING drawings there and I've met some of the lovely people who made them. Please be respectful to those artists. I noticed someone said that only two pieces looked brilliant enough in their eyes. I kinda feel like asking all these people to submit something themselves. I wonder if it would look as beautiful as many of the pieces in the current Fan Art Gallery. Also, SE clearly made the distinction between a FAN ART gallery and a CONCEPT ART gallery. Don't you just want fans to express their love for Final Fantasy through their creativity? I think a lot of fans did a great job. I would love to congratulate them for bringing some eye candy to the fan fest.

Man, some people just complain and complain about the silliest stuff. XD

I have another suggestion: Please come back next year!!!