My thoughts on Sogen Con 2010

[Sir VG]

Another year of Sogen Con has come and gone.  Now that I'm home and rested, I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Once again, the staff continues to be wonderful, hard working people.  You guys have been awesome from year 1, and continue to be.
Dealer room seemed a bit smaller, but all had great stuff to share.  I think I got a bit more this year for manga then I've spent in past years.
The schedule was well laid out, though I did notice a few mistakes, mainly cause it wasn't updated for this year, like four square date, some guest info, and dealer room layout.
LARP was a total blast!  Too bad the zombies won. :(
It looked like four square was to happen, but it wasn't at 1:30 on Saturday like I expected.  Did it not happen?  Or was it at another time?
Luckily for us, Wolfwood didn't crash the cosplay contest! :P
Nice to see the convention get on the local news!  More recognition possibly means more bucks and more attendees!

One idea I thought of though for next year, is maybe doing an official photo shoot?  Anybody in cosplay that wants their picture taken for like an official photobook that can be purchased shortly afterward?

Overall though, another great convention!  Thanks guys for a great time! :)

[Eiri Yuki [Sexta Espada]]

Since I'm on and here, I'll leave my thoughts.

I think the staff went above and beyond the call of duty this year, as far as making sure there was plenty of security, and trying to keep things as updated as possible for scheduling. The guests, as always, were phenomenal, and I am always glad to see Greg and Chris there :]. As I said before, I've been coming to Sogen Con since 2007, and I can personally say that there has been so much improvement since then, although, being very easy to please perhaps, I have never been unhappy with it. I'm not going to say there weren't alot of problems then, and that there weren't problems this year, just that it went so much smoother. The main thing that troubled me, is that I had a little problem with the schedule, I have troubles sometimes with maps and grids, so the one on the back of the book confused me a little, but this was redeemed by the boards in the hallway :]. I was not the only one who noticed there were some spelling errors in the book, but that's more aesthetics, than actual problems.

Am I the only one noticing that there always seems to be a wedding during Sogen? I know this is a hotel thing, and not a con thing, but seriously, it's kinda interesting.

I also thought the dealer's room was missing something, but unfortunately, I can't say for sure what that is. I was happy with the selection, and I spent all of my money XD. so it was good. I finally saw some of the things my sister in the twin cities had told me, that I wasn't sure really existed. Namely a Hello Kitty hairdryer, and Hello Kitty Toaster [which I so want btw.]

I know it's probably a location/size issue, but I think some of the prices were a little high, and I had this conversation with a few people, in comparison to, say Detour's prices for certain items. however, not unreasonable. My wallet was crying though, so it could just be that.

I like the idea of an official photoshoot, and I apologize for the Risembool Rangers shoot not happening. and also for myself being disorganized at my own panels.

I do want to do more to help the con, so I am brainstorming on this end.

[Sir VG]

Half the fun of Sogen Con is watching wedding party members rubberneck!  I remember that happening one year...I think it was in 2007.  So many WTF expressions in that one.  Didn't get to see this group to see if we got the same reaction again this year though.

[Missie Panda]

Ohh, trust me, we got WTF reactions.. there was this one lady complaining about how it's impossible to be serious and get anything done when there's kids running around in costumes. I lol-ed at that. xD Anyways..

I THINK IT WAS AMAZING! (: My only issue was I was told there was a Mystery Anime Theatre going on, but I never saw one and it kinda broke my heart. :( There definitely should be one! Unless I'm a ditz and I missed it cause I was too busy running around looking for 'shrooms to eat and go bloop-bloop-bloop.. jk. maybe.

Other than that, the staff was great, the people were wonderful, dealer's room and artist's alley made me squeal <3 (although I'd ask for more stuff, but that's just cause I wanna SQUEAL MORE) and everything all-around was just GREAT.

ONE OTHER THING.. I think for the cosplay competition you should only have the people who have workmanship and everything go in first, cus we had to wait forever and ended up leaving cus we thought it would be over sooner and joined last minute, but had other plans so we had to withdraw.. :( sadness! but maybe it's just me. I dunno, either way, YAY FOR SOGEN CON!

I had a great time and I love you all. ^w^ <3 Oh, and I definitely think an official photo shoot would be a great idea! Yess~!

[Eiri Yuki [Sexta Espada]]

Half the fun of Sogen Con is watching wedding party members rubberneck!  I remember that happening one year...I think it was in 2007.  So many WTF expressions in that one.  Didn't get to see this group to see if we got the same reaction again this year though.

It was '07 :]

@Panda - I heard about the Mystery Anime Theatre, but I was so busy, I couldn't tell you when or where it was..

[Sir VG]

Yeah, you missed the MAT3K.  It was Saturday early afternoon.  It was a funny old anime, Toto the Dragon Boy, I believe.  It was on the schedule, so you just must have missed it.  Funny, but not as hilarious as last year's pick.  Last year's was so bizarre, there was no NEED for commentary.  That was one that you were rolling in the aisles over!

[Lolita-san]

Trust me, its a good thing you missed the Mystery Anime Theater, Toru the Dragon Boy...it was really strange and very perverted, but the commentary by the voice actors made it slightly bareable to watch. :P  This was my first time at the Sogen Con and I was very impressed at how every thing went.  I hope to go again next year. :)  I thought the Dealers room had a lot of great stuff, though I was a bit disappointed at the t-shirt collection.  Sadly, I only experienced Saturday, but it would have been awesome to stay all three days!  

[Doll-san]

I think it was Taro the Dragon Boy, but who knows? :P It is forever stained in my memory.... *shudder*

Seeing as this was my first Anime Convention everything was like AMAZING. I, with Loli-chan, sadly only attended the Saturday, but it was great nonetheless. The Dealer's Room was like some sort of heaven... I found my adorable Shiro-chan plushie there! XD The cosplay wedding was really funny, as well as the panels. Everyone there was really friendly and even though the schedule was just a little confusing I still got to do all the things I wanted to do. The rave was really good, too. It exceeded like everyother dance I've ever been to. So bottom line-- it was AWESOME. :)

[Jaretha]

As a first-time Sogencon-er but a veteran con-goer, I feel like Sogen has a lot of room for improvement and growth, but it still a great con.

As folks have said, the dealer hall was rather understocked on interesting items.  Lots of DVDs and manga, but lacking in other areas.  I still spent all my money, and walked the hall many times.  It's so sad that cons are dependent upon the goodwill of dealers in this area.  With the online prices of places like RightStuf, it's hard to compete in a Dealer's Hall.

My biggest gripe about Sogen was the panels.  It seemed like few things really started on time.  I personally walked out of the Host Club events because it took them forever to get started.  At 20 minutes past the start times, and one of them starting with Simon Says, I was fed up.  However, there were some GREAT panels.  The AST3K was absolutely hilarious, and unique to this con.  I've never been to one at any con I've ever been to, and it was fantastically funny.

The prep for the costume contest really wasn't handled as well as it could have been.  If I hadn't asked, I wouldn't have even known there WAS a prep meeting.  Many people staggered in late, some over an hour, being loud and obnoxious during the workmanship judging, which had to be rushed since there were so many of us and so little time.  I felt bad for those NOT doing workmanship, because they were literally sitting against a wall for close to an hour.  I recommend next year handing out a sheet with the times to those who sign up, requiring the workmanship folks to be there at a certain time and the rest be there half an hour before the show to get lined up.  And those who missed the time on the sheet would be disqualified. 

Overall, I had a lot of fun.  The guests were great, the staff was amazing but badly overworked, and the congoers were mostly a great group.

[Eiri Yuki [Sexta Espada]]

@Doll-san - HOMG, you must have been one of the few cosplayers I saw with the giant Hitsugaya plush. I got mine on thursday at DMA, and I saw about 3-4 other people with it at the con, and felt like starting a plushie club.

@Jaretha - I apologize. I'm not even going to justify how horribly some of my panels went. however, I will explain some. The Tea party, I was under the impression Q-chan was going to run, however, it was passed off to me rather last minute, so I was at a loss for what to do with it. I apologize how last minute that one was. The Host Etiquette panel did get a little out of hand, and I swear I had a file on my laptop outlining the entire thing, but I couldn't for the life of me find where I had put it, which is why I plan to get a flash drive just for storing panel info on. Regarding the Simon Says incident. [wow, did I just upgrade what happened into an 'incident'?] That must have been the Anime Talk Show panel. The reason that one started late, is because moments before, my friend had to run up and change, and I figured it would be about 5 minutes at the most, and wanted to wait for her. So.. simon says felt like good filler. Had I known it would have taken that long, I would have gotten things moving right away.

I do want to say that in the future, I want to make sure my co-panelist stick to what the schedule, meaning changing ASAP if needed, and not bailing out on me last-minute like. This happened on more than one occasion, and I admit I'm a little irate.

Again, I'm really very sorry, and these events did not go how I pictured them in my head, and your feedback has really helped me to see just where I need to improve.

[Hinataro]

Thoughts-

Being the socially awkward person I was, I found the con amazing. The people were nice, welcoming, and altogether, well, together. The dealers in the Dealer Room were really nice and the panels were fun, even though I do know a few were a little hectic. I did miss out on a lot so I suppose I can't give out criticism. I'll have to try a bit more involvement next time. ;w; Really, though, that had to be my top favorite in cons and I look forward to going again next year.

[Doll-san]

@Doll-san - HOMG, you must have been one of the few cosplayers I saw with the giant Hitsugaya plush. I got mine on thursday at DMA, and I saw about 3-4 other people with it at the con, and felt like starting a plushie club.

Teehee, I married my Shiro-chan. Loli-chan had hers, too. You should totally start a club. o.o I would have been the first person to join!!! We could have voted for the best plushie and made it our mascot. Then we could have made our own plushie theme song and made plushie posters and we could have all went out to eat with our plushies!!! O.O plushies FTW!

[CookingMama]

I've been to many cons, but this was my first time at Sogen. And I had a BLAST!! I volunteered most of the time and it was fun getting to meet all the people. For a small con it seems to have a lot of heart to it! <3 I have to say my favorite part was the game room. I've been to some huge cons, but none have had such a diversified set of games! I mean most cons the gameroom is for people who are really good at gaming and only have some of the more popular games, whereas sogen had some games for people like myself who aren't soooo awesome at say first person shooters or combat games! When I wasn't badging at the door I was playing tetris or katamari. My only grip would be to have something the volunteers wear to signify that they are volunteering. I volunteered a total of 12 hours this con, eight of which were consecutive badging gigs. It would have been nice to have like a button or a vest to wear. People get really annoyed when they see some random girl just walk to the front of the line and standing there, when they have been for an hour. Most people were cool with it, but there were a few who almost threw a fit at me. All in all if I can I would definitely come back and volunteer again! After all everybody loves Cooking Mama! <3   

[Dawnius]

Yuki I have to give you credit for working on so many panels, but maybe you should not try to do so much next year. I had fun helping with them but it was kinda last minute so yeah, I was not really prepared and I feel bad for that. But the Original Character Panel went way better than I thought it would. I really enjoyed being a part of that panel. 

As for being an hour late for the cosplay competition, we did clear it with staff beforehand and opted out of workmanship to make it easier for the staff. Why were we late? Because Yuki was the one hosting the Cosplay Marriage panel. She even had to make a super quick cosplay change at the end of the panel. I'll admit we were a little loud and I do apologize for that.
 

[Eiri Yuki [Sexta Espada]]

@Dawnius - Most definitely. I thought I could definitely handle it, and even sacrificed food to host, but next year, perhaps not as many :]. I do have to thank everyone helping with them.

And oh god. Quick Change is no fun, second con in a row I've had to speed-demon to the next thing, and let me just say, I'm amazed I wasn't ripping my hair out.

Although, somehow, reading that, I really feel like I was oblivious to something massively important o.o

[Lolita-san]

Teehee, I married my Shiro-chan. Loli-chan had hers, too. You should totally start a club. o.o I would have been the first person to join!!! We could have voted for the best plushie and made it our mascot. Then we could have made our own plushie theme song and made plushie posters and we could have all went out to eat with our plushies!!! O.O plushies FTW!

That would be fantastical!!!  Plushie club, plushie theme song, plushie posters...Plushies are everywhere!!! If by some freak coincidence there is another wedding reception happening at the same time as the con, any random person would be like, "WTF is up with all the plushies!!??!"

[Hunter Gren]

Thanks for all the great and useful feedback so far, be sure to stay on topic though, we want it to be easy to find the info we need to improve!

[torra]

The prep for the costume contest really wasn't handled as well as it could have been.  If I hadn't asked, I wouldn't have even known there WAS a prep meeting.  Many people staggered in late, some over an hour, being loud and obnoxious during the workmanship judging, which had to be rushed since there were so many of us and so little time.  I felt bad for those NOT doing workmanship, because they were literally sitting against a wall for close to an hour.  I recommend next year handing out a sheet with the times to those who sign up, requiring the workmanship folks to be there at a certain time and the rest be there half an hour before the show to get lined up.  And those who missed the time on the sheet would be disqualified. 

It's rather silly to complain about people having to wait almost an hour for the cosplay contest even if they aren't doing workmanship. I've waited up to three-four hours in contest green rooms before, this was the shortest wait I've ever had! c: Even though it's a small con, organizers need people there well before it starts to get things ready. That waiting time is the price you pay for participating in the contest.

[Maru-sha]

Well I couldn't go to it this year, but I was there in spirit!

I hope they don't keep pushing back the months for this con, which is why I couldn't go this year.


- Maru-sha
aka: Zetsu

[ErikB]

Well this was only my second Con ever and my first time at Sogen. I had a lot of fun as a dealer and though I heard a few complaints about times of set up and whatnot I was on schedule along with several other. I noticed the people complaining might not have had the updated info or were not even trying to be on the same page as the staff.

I hear a few of you talking about lack of material in the dealer room. What would you have liked to see? I ran the Flashbax booth. Not a lot of anime/manga stuff but I had a lot of off the wall items. I have a whole year to prep for next year instead of a month and a half. What things should I try to bring? 

[Shu-chan]

I had a lot of fun at this year's Sogen! The panels I managed to make it to were a lot of fun, Though there were a few issues I noticed, but nothing major...

One of my favorite parts about the con was the timing. It was right in the middle of summer, after I've gotten hours in for work to get the money to go, but I don't have to worry about school or last-minute summer homework.

My main gripe was, when I went into the karaoke panel, they said that they would not be accepting CDs for songs. This completely threw a wrench in my plans, because I had burned 4-5 CDs for me and my friends for that panel, knowing our songs wouldn't be in the con's index. I had promised that I would sing a certain song (Spice! by Kagamine Len) for a friend of a friend/for a room-mate, but ended up unable to do soon. I think it would be nice if they allowed CDs to be played on the karaoke panel at Sogen 2011.

[Shun_Goku_Satsu]

I was honestly surprised with some of the things I did find this year. The fact that I was able to get an Akamaru backpack was unexpected but perfect.