[sammy-45]

This thread is for the 2009 program books.

Let us know what you liked, loved, or hated.

[Voxx]

You already know my suggestion about fanart ^.^

[sammy-45]

Yep.

I just thought I would get the jump on all these threads. And I hope that sticking them will cut down on the # of same threads. Because we always get about 7-8 threads that are exactly the same.

[Alysia]

When I get back from the future, I'll give you a report on the con.

[sammy-45]

AweSome!!!!!

[aakachan]

Hi,

I wish there had been a map in the pocket program.
I kept having to switch back & forth between the pocket guide & the big program to see where the various panels were.

[GenkiGirl]

I was a bit disappointed that there were no autograph pages in either of the books this year. I think those should be put back in and kept.

Also with the maps, the panel rooms should be labeled. We had to walk around and ask IRT, and the guys I asked didn't know where any of the rooms were either and told us to just check random hallways.

[jenchan]

I didn't care much for them at all. Why do we need two books? I would like one book with all the complete information. There wasn't a map of the dealers room/exhibit hall ANYWHERE that I could find.

I would suggest a small, perhaps manga-sized book with all the maps, panel descriptions and the various information contained in the large and small program books combined.

[Cuddles116]

I had a few issues with the two booklet system and big calendar style schedule. 1) Location names weren't universal between them 2) I had to use all three just to find one location/event and it was annoying, 3) Panel listing organization.

For an example on the universal naming the calender style schedule called a location Pan #, when you opened the larger guide to see the map of the Hyatt that was not a listed location, so all you got from the larger guide was the general location of panels, then you had to open the smaller pocket guide and find an overly sorted listing of events to see that Pan # really meant something like Davinci # which you could then use on the map in the larger guide to find the location of your event. It was overall a little like a run around, especially since after you got downstairs to Davinci # it turns out you needed to know what your Pan # was lol.

Also just organization wise I think it was suppose to help to have the panels split by day and what they were (fan panels etc) but really just day and alaphabetical order would have been SO much easier to navigate through or a breakdown by time if no one wanted to sort everything by name, really I think it is impossible to go wrong by putting everything in alphabetical order just split by day.

[Heartnet]

Everything could have been in the program book rather than having one book describing panels, one describing guests and then that huge schedule sheet. It was just too many things to play around with. If you wanted to plan out your day, you had to have all three out, cross-referencing each, and it becomes a pain. An autograph section would be nice, just a nice blank page at the end of the book would have been great.

[JJS]

The small programming book fit easily in my back pocket which was nice. If you could chop up that 11x17 schedule sheet and put it in that book that would be perfect. Basically just turn the book sideways and have maybe 3 or 4 hours of info on each page along with location, etc.
I didn't look in the big programming book at all and I certainly couldn't carry it around with me. The giant schedule sheet was manageable when folded a few hundred times to fit in my pocket but it was like opening a bigass newspaper when I wanted to check what panels were going on in 30 minutes from now.

So basically combine the small book and the schedule sheet, do whatever you want with the big programming book.

[Kasin]

a map with photo shoot location names

[Kewpie83]

I also agree that the program books should be condensed into one. The pocket guide was the perfect size to carry around through out the weekend, but I would have loved having the information (or some info) from the large book in there as a reference, too.

Also, splitting the program descriptions into various topics wasn't very helpful. I think just placing them in order by day and time would have worked fine. Having to guess what topic a panel would be listed under was complicated and time consuming.

Also, I know ACEN has hardly anything to do with the cosplay photo shoots, but might you consider working with the groups who ask you to advertise there location by having a map of the locations somewhere or better descriptors in the ACEN booklet? Some photo's were listed as vaguely as 'East Wall'. A map would have been great and if they want you to print in your official booklet, I think they'd (the group) would be willing to let ACEN Staffers know so it could be put on a map at the info desk or in the program booklet.

[Valencia Crowe]

I did not like the two books. They need to be put into one.

Also, the map needs to be BETTER. I know a friend asked me about where a room was and we looked at the map and we couldn't find it.

Some photoshoots had rain back ups in the con center. Where would that have been? Would that be outside the dealer's room and registration room?

I agree with Kewpie about the photoshoot stuff. Some places are hard to find.

[Kasin]

label all help desk as such. i did not know ballroom reg. was a info desk

[sammy-45]

Ah I see everyone wants to go back to one book.

We had one book at one time, but went to two books because of programing delays and getting the grid out.

We also know that not everything we wanted got in the program book. We will work on fixing it all.

I too would also like to go back to one program book, hopfully it will be better now that we have been at this a few years.

[Brightdreamer]

sammy-45, on May 11 2009, 11:10 PM, said:

Ah I see everyone wants to go back to one book.

We had one book at one time, but went to two books because of programing delays and getting the grid out.

We also know that not everything we wanted got in the program book. We will work on fixing it all.

I too would also like to go back to one program book, hopfully it will be better now that we have been at this a few years.

I don't particularly care about having one book, but you needed to have a key on the schedule saying what room "Panels #" coincided with. As others have said, it was next to impossible to figure out what room was which panel #, and wandering around trying to find random rooms was not the best way to do it.

[WhtHAwk]

Being that I was around when there was only 1 book, I like the current format. The large book is most useful for it's map, but is generally left behind. However, when I do autographs and have them sign the book instead of some piece of merchandise (almost never) I have them sign their picture; I don't personally think we need to add more cost for autograph pages. The pocket guide is nice as it is, the single book, even when it was reasonably small, was not as easy to carry because of the added content. The 11x17 schedule, is easy to delay printing until close to the con and thus is more likely to be up to date and not need to be augmented by several smaller slips of paper which may get missed, overlooked, or otherwise not noted and cause frustration to the attendees.

There are some improvements from this year which could be made though:

• Provide a numerical key and table of contents to cross refrence the program name on the paper schedule with their descriptions in the pocket guide.
  
• Provide a summary of the translation between "PAN 1" and the name of the room on the map on the printed paper schedule.

Thank you,
WhtHawk

[Carmel]

I liked having a pocket guide and a separate schedule sheet for the most part. Though I do agree with others that there should have been a map in the pocket guide. The biggest problem I had with it though is that the time for Anime Hell was different on both or at the very least, wasn't clear in the pocket book. I was under the assumption that it was at midnight and was very disappointed to find out at 11:30pm that it was actually at 10pm. Needless to say, I missed it. Otherwise I liked it a lot. It was nice having a section with video programming separated into various categories.

[gavv]

Carmel, on May 12 2009, 04:23 AM, said:

I liked having a pocket guide and a separate schedule sheet for the most part. Though I do agree with others that there should have been a map in the pocket guide. The biggest problem I had with it though is that the time for Anime Hell was different on both or at the very least, wasn't clear in the pocket book. I was under the assumption that it was at midnight and was very disappointed to find out at 11:30pm that it was actually at 10pm. Needless to say, I missed it. Otherwise I liked it a lot. It was nice having a section with video programming separated into various categories.

it was kind of wacky to see in the pocket program that 4 things were listed to go from 'noon - 2pm' in Main Prog . Though i would have thought that the clue would have been the 'Midnight Madness' might just be the one that's supposed to start at 12 Midnight .

gavv

[Alysia]

We are actually planning to go back to one book next year, while possibly keeping a separate foldout grid. The reason we went to 2 books was that we were having difficulty getting the schedule locked down early enough to go to print with enough time. Sending the color guide out to print less than one week before con was the equivalent of setting up to ten thousand dollars on fire. It was actually cheaper and more efficient to do 2 books and thus be able to offer a relatively accurate schedule to our attendees.
For those who like the pocket guide, do you think that printing the guide on a lighter paper stock might make the large book more manageable.
We've finally managed to make all the changes to processes and contracts that will allow us to truly lock down the schedule several weeks precon.

There was no map in the pocket guide because of format issues-the text was unreadable when I tried it, and I couldn't break it down in a way that fixed the issue. Ditto for Exhibit Hall & Artist Alley-this will be fixed next year when the books are combined again.

The panel room issue was partly an oversight on my part, and I apologize. It's normally included on the excel spreadsheet I get from Panel Programming. We had new staff this year, and I didn't think to remind them and didn't catch it myself when I was laying it out Monday morning. I only noticed it at the con when I finally got a grid for myself.

The problem with the photoshoot is that we really don't touch it at all, we just print what we're given as a courtesy, and unfortunately we can't really detail a staff member to coordinate it. What would need to happen is for the cosplayers interested in the photoshoots to come up with a standardized way of listing locations, and then we could have a legend explaining that.

The autograph page was a casualty of a printing necessity. The book needs to be laid out in multiples of 8 pages. When we finished laying out the necessary information, there simply wasn't enough room without adding another 8 pages.

gavv, on May 12 2009, 07:31 AM, said:

it was kind of wacky to see in the pocket program that 4 things were listed to go from 'noon - 2pm' in Main Prog . Though i would have thought that the clue would have been the 'Midnight Madness' might just be the one that's supposed to start at 12 Midnight .

gavv

That was awesome wasn't it?

This is why you don't proof things after midnight on 4 hours of sleep in a week.

[Silversage]

This was our first year so I don't have any reference points but I liked the pocket book and we kept it with us at all times. We marked what we wanted to do (photo shoots and panels) with little post it notes and someone made a schedule for our group on the note pad in the hotel room. I pulled the map out of the big book and folded it into the pocket book and that worked good for us. Otherwise we didn't really use the big book but kept it nice as a souvenir.

If the map could just add east wall, garden, tree patch, garden fountain, and loading dock for the locations of the photo shoots it would be helpful but of course, now we know where those are

[jenchan]

sammy-45, on May 11 2009, 06:10 PM, said:

Ah I see everyone wants to go back to one book.

We had one book at one time, but went to two books because of programing delays and getting the grid out.

We also know that not everything we wanted got in the program book. We will work on fixing it all.

I too would also like to go back to one program book, hopfully it will be better now that we have been at this a few years.

\

I think that one small to mid size(manga size) book would be fine.

[sammy-45]

Oh that would be cool, making our guide smaller overall. It would be more pages to smaller it gets, but doing something in the large manga size would be something we could look at.

[Fairy Hime]

I think one smaller programming book would work well because that big one is just way too unruly especially if you add more pages to it. It also needs to be more thorough. Make sure that every single event is in there and instead of putting all the rules together, put the rules for each event by the event or at the very least write on the page for that event that rules for said event can be found on such and such page. A good index would also help a lot. Maybe something like this:

Masquerade pg 15
-Attendee Rules pg 15
-Participant Rules pg 16

Masquerade Ball
-see Charity Ball

Mignona, Vic
-Autograph Sessions pg. 28
-Bio pg. 21
-Panels pgs. 30, 38

Moonie Reunion, A pg. 32

[aakachan]

I would have liked to see some kind of listing for each of the guests showing what panels they were going to be on.

Some of them were obvious ("Q & A with Caitin", eg), but on which panels would I have seen Dr. Freedman, or Aoi Kidokoro, et al?

I list of panels for each guest would have been really useful.

[okaonos]

I noticed an error in the pocket schedule this year. Anime Hell AND Midnight Madness were listed as being at the exact same time, 12AM. Other than that, the pocket schedule was very handy. Perhaps next year the dimensions of the paper should be different, so it more easily fits in your pocket without jutting out.

[ElectraStarr]

Alysia, on May 12 2009, 12:44 PM, said:

For those who like the pocket guide, do you think that printing the guide on a lighter paper stock might make the large book more manageable.
We've finally managed to make all the changes to processes and contracts that will allow us to truly lock down the schedule several weeks precon.

There was no map in the pocket guide because of format issues-the text was unreadable when I tried it, and I couldn't break it down in a way that fixed the issue. Ditto for Exhibit Hall & Artist Alley-this will be fixed next year when the books are combined again.

The panel room issue was partly an oversight on my part, and I apologize. It's normally included on the excel spreadsheet I get from Panel Programming. We had new staff this year, and I didn't think to remind them and didn't catch it myself when I was laying it out Monday morning. I only noticed it at the con when I finally got a grid for myself.

The problem with the photoshoot is that we really don't touch it at all, we just print what we're given as a courtesy, and unfortunately we can't really detail a staff member to coordinate it. What would need to happen is for the cosplayers interested in the photoshoots to come up with a standardized way of listing locations, and then we could have a legend explaining that.

I actually never used the big programming booklet, because I didn't know it had different information! LOL

This being my seventh ACen (damn I feel old), I LOVE how we've gone to pocket guides, since it is much easier to either keep on you or in a purse or small bag. As stated, the large separate grid/guide was a bit cumbersome, but I love the idea of the separate fold-out grid. It seems that you've addressed the issues with the AA and Dealer's Room. I've never really needed a map of the dealer's room, but a map of the AA can be helpful for locating your favorite artists in the maze of unlabeled tables

I think the lighter weight paper would be good, but make sure it doesn't get too close to newspaper weight, because they'll start to get too flimsy (especially since they're not handled with any particular care during the Con, lol )

I think it would be great idea for us cosplayers to come up with a uniform description of shoot locations.Then (since meetups/photoshoots aren't really the responsibility of MAPS) maybe you could just have a small "Looking for Cosplayers?" blurb with a legend that lists the main locations that you might find photoshoots. You wouldn't put specifics of which is where (since that's what this forum is really for) but that would at least let some Con newbies (and some of us who get confused/exhausted/lost) get an idea of where the best spots to track down their favorite cosplayers are at.

I feel your pain about printing deadlines, so personally I think you guys did a good job considering how tight those deadlines are and how much info you have at your disposal!

[Elf From Space]

CONSISTENCY!

I've commented on this before and if you need someone to proofread the program books before they're printed, contact me!!! I'll do it! Labeling should be the same THROUGHOUT! The names for panel rooms are one thing here, something different there, etc.

This year the biggest annoyance was that program book. The panel descriptions were in seemingly random order, and were sorted into categories that made little sense. When anyone wanted to look for a certain panel description there was much complaining about being unable to find it in the book. They should have been straight up alphabetized, or if you HAD to sort out the special guest panels, then just have those, alphabetized, and then all the others alphabetized.

A map in the program book would be awesome too, and it would be a piece of cake to edit the silly map and just tack on labels for where the panel numbers are actually located.

Also, the 8am panels.... even the few people who attended them were all dead tired... Perhaps there needs to be a little tighter evaluation of all the panels submitted. All the ones I went to were at least decent if not good (the Hetalia panel, D Gray-man, Photoshop tricks, How Not to write a lemon. Ghost Stories of Acen was a little less well presented and the Batman one was kinda self-promoting, but understandable.) But surely a way could be found to try to get these panels enough space and to not have them to early inthe morning. Having the same people run one that went to 11:30 at night and one a t8AM was cruel.

[Elf From Space]

Reading the comments here... I really DON"T want to see the two books combined! The rules, and descriptions of guests and stuff are things I really want to leave behind! If you do combine the panel descriptions into the main book, then at least make a small, thin, foldable handout with the entire schedule and maps!

And... Panelists should be given a chance to comment on their schedule before the books are printed up. That way they have time to notice conflicts and get them resolved before the schedule is printed up.