Feedback Discussion - Anime Boston 2024

[Nemra]

Please post feedback (good & bad) here regarding Anime Boston 2024.

Rules:
1) This is not the place to post constructive criticism regarding previous years, but only for Anime Boston 2024.

2) Do not disrespect each other or staff. If you disagree with something, feel free to discuss, but we will not tolerate blatant disrespect for your fellow attendee or staff.

3) This is also not the place to post feedback for panelists. There should be an entire section for panelists to use for feedback in the appropriate forum, so use those. However, if you have feedback regarding the way panels are handled by AB staff, this is the place to post it.

4) This is not the appropriate thread for Staff feedback. Please use the Staff forums for feedback regarding your division.

Please do not expect an immediate response from Staff. While the convention is over for everyone, for staff it is very much still being worked on and we're winding down and resolving many things on the back end. Be assured, however, that we are reading every comment and taking it in full consideration.

We also have a feedback survey; Please fill it out at your earliest convenience! In addition, two lucky individuals will be selected to win 2 weekend memberships for Anime Boston 2025 for completing this survey after completing the required section! Form will close on Saturday, May 4th 11:59 pm.

[CoyCoyCoy]

Thanks so much for making this feedback thread!

I really enjoyed all the panels I went to, especially the Sunday panels on wig styling and foam crafting that had live demonstrations. I feel like panels focusing on how to do something that include live demonstrations are really engaging, and would love to see more panels like that selected by Staff in future years!

Unfortunately, I had more accessibility issues at this year's Anime Boston than any other. I get migraines from bright lights, and have never had trouble with the AMV contest or Masquerade before, but the pre-shows for both used incredibly bright lighting that rotated down to flash at the audience - and they gave me an immediate migraine. Other panels also used extremely bright flashing lights around the screens (like the AMV room) and I was in pain for most of Anime Boston (Friday and Saturday). I had another friend with me who was light / sound sensitive, and he actually had to leave half way through the Masquerade because it was so bad - mostly because the lights at the beginning really messed with him and lowered his tolerance for anything else. I also saw many people in the pre-shows looking down at their phones or shielding their eyes instead of watching what was playing due to the lights, but then paying attention once the lights stopped, so I think others had similar issues.

The venue was also extremely crowded, and despite lining up over 30 minutes in advance for most panels on Saturday, I wasn't able to make about half of them. If there's any way to move to a bigger venue, even if it's more expensive, I think Anime Boston has really hit the point of needing to change locations. Even saying that breaks my heart because I've been going to AB almost every year since the 00's, and I have great memories of the Hynes Convention Center! But the rooms were just not big enough for the panels - even the hallway was crushing to try and walk in. I saw panels that had double the amount of people that could fit in the room lining up (like Family Feud for example). I also think crowding is a big accessibility issue for people in wheelchairs and people who can get overwhelmed by extremely pressing crowds, like ppl on the spectrum; my friend that I previously mentioned was super overwhelmed and uncomfortable with it.

I feel bad leaving such a negative review - I really appreciate the staff and love this convention! The staff was clearly working really hard to manage the large number of people and I can't imagine them doing a better job, they were really on top of everything. I just thought I should bring these two issues to ppl's attention. Thanks for your time in reading this!

EDIT: Someone else mentioned that a large amount of AB funds are going into guests doing signings. IDK if this is actually true, but if it is, it might explain why there were so few panels this year? I'd like to second that I'm really uninterested in guests that just sign stuff, and none of my friends are either. (I'm sure some people are into them though, not saying they should totally stop coming!) But I'd prefer the funds to go less towards guests, and more interactive panels / events - like how Pax East had escape rooms, or free miniatures painting like at SDCC, or perhaps a LARP cosplay game like Otakon's Otalarp. Or you could just use it to give budgets to people who provide a valuable service to the con, like doing a panel / performing in the masquerade / being a maid / volunteering to work for the con / etc.! I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd love to perform in the masquerade but the cost of high quality cosplay / props might be too high, for example.

[kittengeist]

Thanks for posting this forum!

This year I was honestly less than thrilled compared to other years. I had fun for the most part, but saw a lot that could've been better.

The Pros:

- LOVED the artist alley diversity this year. Every artist there has such an amazing display of stuff on sale and were all super nice.
- Security as always was super efficient and quick. Didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes to get into the con.
- Shout out to the family feud panel staff because they were so funny and interactive with the audience. If family feud is run again I hope for the same staff to run it.
- The Worldbuilding 101 panel was also super fun!! It was interactive and I learned a lot during that time. I hope for it to be back next year

The Cons:

- It was EXTREMELY. Overcrowded. I mean I'm surprised the fire marshall didn't step in kind of overcrowded. I couldnt get into certain areas because of how packed it was in certain rooms which made me feel extremely overwhelmed.
- Part 2 of overcrowding. The back row of the artists alley was one of the main culprits as you could never go from one end to the other without standing still. The aisle itself was extremely narrow, which was probably one reason why it was so bad. It wasn't until Day 3 that something was done, and even then it was still bad. It was also extremely hot and stuffy in Artists Alley because of the crowding.
- Too many people were standing around or stopping dead in their tracks in the middle of aisles/corridors which leads to bottle necking. Staff should really be on top of this and prevent such issues from happening.
- The accessbility for people with disabilities was Bad. I've had friends telling me about how they were treated by staff as well as being constantly moved around when waiting for panels and events. Staff need to be better trained on handling those with disabilities, because this is such a huge disappointment that it keeps happening every year.
- Lines for panels and getting into Dealers/Artists Alley were Long and cramped together, stretching all the way around. Getting into artists alley saturday was entirely out of the question because of how long the line was. I couldn't even get into certain panels because they were filled up long before the panels began.
- Putting the concerts in the Sheraton was a horrible idea. I didn't attend any of them personally, but heard how bad lines were and how many people were cut off due to capacity. Concerts like those should have been put in a bigger location.
- There were some schedule inconsitencies. An example was Family Feud being on the schedule for 2 hours but only lasting one. There were also peoples panels left off the schedule and hours changing without notice.
- There were barely any panels this year, and 90% of the 18+ ones were hentai related. I was looking forward to panels but barely had any to choose from.
- Lastly, the website was completely inaccessible during the con, often times crashing or taking 10+ minutes to load in. I could barely access the schedule due to how slow it was.

Overall I'm disappointed, because I know Anime Boston can do better than what happened this year. I hope that 2025 will come with fixing some of the issues that have occurred at this con.

[Ojipon]

This is my second anime boston ever, and for the most part, I had a good time!

I do have a couple of complaints/requests though.

1. The maid cafe sign-ups did feel a bit more unfair this year. This may just be me because my group and I couldn't make it to the venue at 8am, but even when we got there at 9:30, it was all sold out. I feel like last years system was a lot better in terms of being able to get a spot, especially when some people have to drive over 30 minutes to even get to the con.

2. Someone else on this thread said it, but DEFINITELY a bigger venue if possible. The Hynes and Sheraton aren't bad in terms of conventions, but it was WAY too crowded this year. I mean, they literally hit capacity, which is a achievement! But it also means that people who need accessibility and/or spaces to not be in crowds had no to little space to get around. Even in the quiet room it felt packed. I think myself and others would totally help fund a different venue if given the option.

3. My experience with the staff was 50/50 this year. Some were very friendly and nice this year, although I did have some staff who questioned my disability because I didn't have to use a wheelchair. There were even some staff who completely disregarded the priority seating for people with disabilities. I think more training on how to help people with disabilities, both visible and invisible, would help a LOT with these kind of problems.


Now onto the things I loved/were good.

1. The variety in artists alley this year was good! I liked the different kinds of art styles and goods sold this year, it didn't feel like it was JUST Keychains and pins this year.

2. The guests and panels were also amazing this year! BabyBeard, the Genshin Panel, and Lotus juice were my personal favorites. Sadly Genshin and Babybeard overlapped so I missed the concert, but overall, all the panels/activities were interesting this year.

3. The good side of the staff interactions I had were above and beyond.

There was a line I was in where I was about to pass out, and staff members helped me by getting me a chair and some water, which I very much appreciated.

I also want to shout out Todd, who was at the Genshin and I think Babybeard Q&A panel. He was VERY helpful, making sure everyone was okay, helping some people with wheelchars get seating, and was generally great with accessibility stuff.


That's all I can think of at this moment, but if I have anything else to add, I'll comment again.

But thank you for a wonderful time this year at con!

[kittehspring]

Firstly I want to say I had a lot of fun at Anime Boston this year! To me personally, I feel like things have improved since last year.

My main feedback, like most people probably, is the Artist Alley. I've been reading people's comments about it on social media so I'll try to keep from being repetitive, but I do hope next year the traffic issue will be addressed. Last year, the alley was so packed it was hard to get through. This year, the traffic overall felt better except when things got bottlenecked in the back. Honestly I did not mind when it got changed to a one way and I greatly appreciated the staff handling it! Because things were finally flowing, I was able to actually see the artists back there.
I wrote this in the feedback form but I was happy to see a lot more variety this year! The dealers room also felt a lot better than last year!

I'm not sure what could be done about this next year but I was a little sad there was constantly a line for the arcade room! Not even at the individual games, but just to get in. Every time I walked past it, there were always people in line so I gave up eventually. Thankfully I was able to go in once on Friday! I wish there were more games / wish it was in a bigger room as well. It was feeling a little crowded when I went, and I'm sure it felt worse on Saturday.

Regarding the schedule, the only issues I found were that some things had changed without us realizing. Unsure if this was our fault or guidebook, though. For example, we were trying to attend a cosplay meetup that was supposed to be at 12pm. However, when I looked on guidebook, it was suddenly at 10AM. Again, I'm not sure if my cousin was just remembering wrong but they swear they checked both thurs and fri and it said 12pm.
I also used the "reminder" feature on guidebook quite frequently, but every time it would remind me 15 mins before, it would say the wrong time (Like if I set a reminder for something at 8pm, it would alert me correctly but the notification would say the event was at 3AM-4Am or something crazy like that). This wasn't that big of an issue and might have been a glitch with guidebook.

Thankfully (and unfortunately), the only panels I attended were the Holomeet ones (Fri and Sun) and those ran pretty smoothly except for some audio issues during the karaoke on Friday! Seeing how people were getting turned away from full panels, I was a little worried about the holomeets but I was able to attend the two just fine! I'm very thankful to AB for always inviting both hololive and holostars guests!
I would have liked to attend other panels/events but they were unfortunately at the same time as other things I was going to

My last issue is with the hotel portal. I'm unsure as to what exactly happened because I witnessed this second hand, but a friend had booked a room at the Hilton with two double beds (same as me). We both got an email saying that we could check in on the app on Thursday so when we went, he realized that his room had changed to 1 king bed instead of two double beds. He called the hotel and they said there was no indication that anything had changed from their end, so we're not sure where things had gone wrong. While we were checking in, we had overheard someone complaining to the front desk about a similar issue. The hotel was unfortunately not able to make accommodations because of how booked they were, so our friends had to sleep on sleeping bags / the couch / squeeze into our room.

Overall, I felt good about this years AB though! I think the staff did a great job with handling things on the fly and I look forward to what next year will have to offer!

[Mirotic]

Cheers to another AB in the books! Here are some things I noticed:

The Good

• Badge pickup Thursday this year went wayyyy faster than it did last year! Cheers to that team! Even at open I only waited a few minutes

• I definitely saw an improvement in the dealers room, it was more variety, less TMobile truck than it has in the past few years

• Along those same lines, I saw more variety in the Artist Alley as well, quite a few different styles and items!

• The guest list! The guests this year were a huge step forward. Glad to see a few JRock artists and JP VAs! Hope to see more of this next year.

• Chaotic Harmony was excellent and I hope AB brings them back for more JRock events!

• The security team got everyone in very quickly, as they have the past couple of years.

• Loved the sets to take pictures at, and thank you for posting the 5min signs.

The Bad

• It's a cyclical thing as we get new congoers, but man there were WAY more people than usual causing clogs in the hallway (of course the amount of people didn't help), but in general a lot of people were stopping in the middle of the hall for photos/conversations/etc.

• The 1 hour line up rule was not followed at all. For example, BabyBeard/Hizaki/Kaya concert. And I know many people were turned away for this one, which stinks

• Getting rid of concert tickets seems so odd to me. I hope the team thinks about re-implementing these

• Not AB's fault, but I had a not-so-great experience with the Sheraton employees this year, won't be staying there again

• Lines were not well controlled in terms of keeping them against the wall, ensuring it's one line and not just a mob, etc. I saw a few staff members trying to keep lines out of the way and in order but just couldn't control the crowd

• The Artist Alley has outgrown it's current layout. Walking around was unbearable at times and a definite fire hazard at others.

• The Sheraton Ballroom doesn't have strong enough audio for a real concert.

The Ugly

• You will hear this a lot I'm sure. The worst part of AB this year was easily the crowding. We hit our cap on Saturday, which goes to show we've officially outgrown the Hynes. That being said, there are no other alternate facilities that suit AB as much as the Hynes does (I attend BCEC for FanExpo and PAX, and dislike it, especially for a panel/event heavy con like AB).
  I would be curious to know the official numbers, the amount of people on Saturday and what the cap really is. Now that we've hit it, I think the cap may be set too high. I had to leave the con early and head to my room Saturday as it was impossible to navigate through the massive crowds on the first two floors (even the third floor got quite busy, which is unsual!)
  What is interesting though is that the Dealers Room functioned well, even throughout Saturday. The crowding was felt less there than in the hallways and Artist Alley, so cheers for the setup there!
  AA has been an issue for a few years now, especially that back aisle. I saw sometime through the weekend, staff made it a one way, but it was still dead stop in that area (thank you to staff for trying to assist!)
  My thoughts are, lowering the cap or expanding ABs area. We would need more areas other than Dealers Room/Artist Alley to really get the crowd more spread out. I almost wonder if we can do something else with the Sheraton rooms we have to lure more people out there. Maybe moving the arcade over there? The current Hynes area is small anyway. Does the Sheraton allow food? Maybe a food area as well with vendor stalls? Just trying to think of options! It's definitely a tough situation.

[Biowolf_23]

This was my first year attending AB, definitely an awesome experience for me, and I had a wonderful time. That being said:

Best stuff:
-The staff was extremely friendly towards us, and they really helped out for finding things, keeping crowds moving, and just keeping things running smoothly
-Many great panels, the one's that I attended were really cool, and all of them had great content
-All the great cosplay events. The death match is a favorite of mine, and I loved seeing all the cosplayers face off, and a wonderful reaction from the crowd as well.
-The concerts were absolutely fantastic, and the guests from Japan were amazing to meet as well.

Needs Improvement:
-Line control. I get it, you have a lot of people in a small place and you want to keep lines moving and keep areas clear. However, multiple staff (like at least 5) should be around to keep lines moving in the area. And before someone jumps in saying that there isn't enough staff for that, it needs to be for the BIGGER events, like concerts and big name panels.
-Schedule notifications. Especially on the app. I found out the hard way that the app isn't the most accurate for the times and locations for events, and because of this, I didn't even know where some events were taking place. Get a better app for the next year, one that has better software, and can update frequently as needed.
-Security. What is it with every anime and comic convention happening in Boston renting out the same subpar security company? The security was not that great, and I've experienced problems with this same company at multiple conventions. AB needs to get a different security company for next year, there has to be multiple that can be chosen from.

Unacceptable things:
-as it was pointed out before, Capacity limits. Does the higher up admin not realize just how popular the guests from Japan are, especially for Weebs? I missed both the Babybeard and Lotus Juice concerts because programming had the wonderful idea to have one in the Sheraton, and one in a ballroom. Both should have been in the Hynes auditorium, and schedules could have been easily shifted around so that you could have both guests in there at different times
-Speaking of capacity limits, the fact that the Hynes filled to the max on Saturday. It has been mentioned before, AB has outgrown the Hynes at this point, so what is stopping them from going to the BCEC? Fan Expo Boston and Pax East have no problem with capacity limits, and with the amount that AB makes from the weekend, they can definitely move it there.

Other than those things, I had a wonderful time, and I'll probably be back next year

side note: please do concert tickets that people can just pick up on the day of a concert, it would help so much with the line and capacity problems. I go to metal concerts all the time, and when tickets are gone, that's when you will have max capacity, and not have to turn people away like what happened this year

[SirSwagGeeMcBallerOfYoloton]

Moving Anime Boston to the BCEC is NOT the answer.

I agree with everyone about the crowd size this year. Inconsiderate people stopping in high traffic flow areas to chat or take photos. I saw staff bringing large equipment through the crowd and people just stood there like deer in headlights until they were asked to move. It sucks but you need to be constantly on people’s butts about not blocking traffic.

Everyone and their mom is saying move to BCEC but as someone who’s gone to both AB and PAX East for a long time, the only advantage the BCEC has is bigger capacity. I love the Prudential Mall. I love the Sheraton. I love Newbury Street. I love the T stop in the mall. I love the Star Market grocery store. Traveling to PAX East every year sucks compared to AB. People don’t realize what you’d sacrifice so just you could have more space. A good convention experience is more than raw capacity.

On this topic, I think it’s time AB make a hard cap on attendance. This may raise prices. It will suck for those with less money. I don’t want to turn AB into Coachella or Burning Man where only the rich can go. But at the same time, we can’t let everyone attend. Look at all the complaints about overcrowding. I overheard someone complaining they drove 7 hours for the Lotus Juice concert, very worried if they'll get in.

I remember when PAX East used to sell out in minutes. People accepted that. The BCEC is the biggest convention center in the Northeast. Did anyone tell PAX East to pack up and move? No. But when Anime Boston hits capacity? It's suddenly “LET’S MOVE”. We should accept that Anime Boston is a limited capacity event just like PAX East.

I would be willing to pay more for a less crowded AB experience. The same way people pay for fast passes at amusement parks. We can do a first come, first serve for badges like PAX East or Anime NYC. People already accept first come, first serve that with hotel spaces and buying concert tickets. I could be wrong, maybe moving to the BCEC might be great for Anime Boston. But I can’t imagine AB without the Hynes.

EDIT

I did some amateur math, curious of how much prices would increase if AB did significant limits on attendance.

* 2023's attendance was 25,615.

* Early weekend badge prices were $95 for 2023, assuming all 25K bought at that price.

* 25,615 x $95 = $2,433,425

* Let's cap AB at 20K people.

* $2,433,425 / 20,000 = 121.67

Obviously, there must be more cost variables but, so far, any arguments that it would substantially increase prices isn't convincing. To reduce crowds by 5,000 for only adding $27 dollars to the badge? People pay way more for fast passes at amusement parks or front row seats. To everyone disappointed you didn't make it to your concerts or panels, you would only pay $27 more for a significantly less crowded AB experience. Limiting badges would have the side effect of making Anime Boston more desirable.

Also, Fan Expo Boston is using the Hynes this year. It's one of my least favorite cons but being at the Hynes this year alone is making me interested in going again. Moving to the BCEC is like giving up your cool city apartment to move to a McMansion in the middle of nowhere.

[MistyKristiCosplay]

Another solid Anime Boston on the books - Wanted to give some feedback on some of the things I noticed;

Positive

Anime Boston Cosplay Event Staff: I say this pretty much every year but kudos to you all, while I only participated in Death Match, each event seemed well-organized and well-rehearsed. Give yourselves a pat on the back for another year well done.

Security was smooth this year, as in past years - It never took more than 5 minutes to get in and the lines moved without issue.

Dealers Hall looked much better in terms of selection and variety this year, had to say all the vendors selling apparel had a bunch of variety overall.

The timing of panels improved greatly this year - I didn't see many all-ages panels taking place at 1 am anymore which made it a bit easier to carve out things I did want to see.

Badges being mailed this year - I received mine about 2 weeks before the con, had 0 issues, and saved me a whole bunch of time this year.

Neutral

This didn't affect me too heavily, but just a suggestion for the future when it comes to the Guidebook App: Is there any way to potentially include a section for the non-ballroom cosplay meetups? The only way to find the smaller meetups and where they were occurring in advance was on the website - which wasn't the most effective place when the website was inaccessible/not working as effectively on mobile during the con.

This is for feedback on Cosplay Lipsync specifically - But I wish this event was in the Sheraton Grand ballroom in the future, The hosts and staff did the best they could but the ballroom utilized this year felt very cramped, also as the video screen wasn't used to show the stage this year - It made it a bit hard to see the participant's performances if you were towards the back of the room.

Negative

Overcrowding: I know AB felt this in all areas this year, especially on Saturday when the Hynes hit capacity, but this was a struggle all around. I know packing up the convention and moving to other locations (such as the BCEC) is not necessarily the end-all-be-all solution and comes with quite a lot of drawbacks. I do remember in the past however (I'm guessing around 2017/2018?) there was a counter put on the website of how many weekend memberships were left during online pre-reg - Re-implementing something like this may be a good idea if AB is expecting to hit capacity again in the future.

Will add to the overcrowding issue - The Genshin Impact meetup on Saturday felt poorly handled from a crowd control standpoint due to the astronomically large turnout, besides the fact that the line for this snaked around the entire hallway outside the ballroom, the fact that attendees were still being let into the ballroom even after the room was filled was a bit startling.

Foot-Traffic Enforcement- I believe that due to the overcrowding of AB, Foot-Traffic enforcement (Mainly in the back of AA, Dealers, and even the Sheraton) was very poor. Trying to get from point A to point B was a nightmare in some cases due to the congestion of con-goers not moving in the slightest, in artist alley in the past, there were overhead announcements to remind people to keep moving, maybe implementing this would potentially help?

Panels hitting capacity: Another result of the overcrowding I assume, most panels hit capacity anywhere between 45 minutes to 15 minutes before panels had started, I will say that it was very confusing as I saw very little enforcement of lines from staff (especially in the Sheraton) so there would be lines for 3 completely different events stacked next to each other - Best solution here would be potentially giving the panelists larger rooms to accommodate more attendees (noticed this specifically with the Fashion Crimes Panel and the Mental Illness in Anime panels).

[jcarp1999]

My one main critique for this convention would be scheduling. Panels and meetups were held in rooms that were either too large for the attendees or were way too small leading to many people missing out. I also believe that cosplay meetups should not be given a large room over panels scheduled at the same time.

This wasn’t a time issue for one of the panels I tried to attend but Fashion Crimes was held in the Sheraton Gardner room on Saturday and only had a capacity for 76 people. Ballroom A had a Genshin meetup from 1-2pm and then nothing else scheduled until 11 pm. ChelleBelle Cosplay and HanniBanani could have used that space seeing as over 100 people were turned away after their panel had already reached capacity at 3 (30 minutes before the panel start time) and I personally waited in the overflow line of at least 30 people. While in line many more people cane and were turned away if they didn’t want to wait for people to leave mid panel (which only one person did).

They also had a panel in the morning on Saturday that hit capacity before anyone was let into the room. I’m sure this was an issue for many other panelists, and now with AB 2024 having hit capacity on the Saturday I’m sure this will be an issue in the future. The underutilization of larger rooms makes it seem like AB is too big to be in the Hynes anymore but I think what really needs to happen is to get better metrics on how popular specific panelist or panels are and fit them into rooms accordingly. If some panels only get 30-40 attendees then snaller Sheraton rooms work, but for panels getting 200+ and more than half the people who want to attend can’t they need to be put in bigger rooms

[DancingTeaNinja]

Overall the weekend was what it normally is, a weekend to enjoy with friends and fellow con-goers.

Pros:
-More variety among vendors between Artist Alley and Dealers Room.
-Mostly went through the Prudential side entry way. Going through security went a lot quicker compared to previous years, awesome work

Cons:
-Foot traffic in AA and space managment: I don’t fully know if it would have made the aisles easier to navigate, however, not having the back booths more flush with the columns and not utilizing that open space behind the booths off to the left side (everyone’s 9 o’clock if visiualizing the room space) certainly made things frustrating.

-between the AB staff, Hynes staff, and security making the rounds…can someone explain why we had to show our badges going into almost every panel room…when there are only a select few entry points into the con hall. I’d toss that to folks not being on the same page, but it felt like overkill beyond the entrance check.

- Line managment/more foot traffic: there were 2 instances where either the staff seemed to be overwhelmed and started getting snippy, or lost track of where the lines started and ended (snippy was Artist alley opening up…another was either the cats in Japanese history or ramen panels…line got split into 2 and folded in on itself somehow. (To whomever was behind me getting in…I do want to apologize to you if my snippiness felt like it was directed at you. That wasn’t directed at you, that was at how that situation was handled by AB staff, that wasn’t something you should have had to deal with

Would it make sense (especially in Artist Alley) to have taped off lanes? (AA layout: shoulder paths for booth buyers, middle section of aisle split into 2 single lanes.) even the queue lines for events may assist in herding folks into line?

Here is to hoping for adjustments made for the better moving forward.

[ChrisBSAA]

Honestly, its time to move to the BCEC. Much of charm of the location at the Hynes has been gradually lost as things have changed over the years. Now you have better, newer, and mostly cheaper hotels in the waterfront. There's plenty of food options. Trader Joe's is a quick walk down the street too. Food trucks are also available.

If anything I've had a much more closely knit con experience at PAX East by virtue of not fearing for my safety in an elbow-to-elbow crowd.

AB outgrew the Park Plaza Hotel in 2005. Its outgrown the Hynes.

[RoseGardenz]

Thank you for posting this forum, and letting attendees add their full thoughts.
I went to Anime Boston 2024 from Thursday to Sunday, morning to evening, and I had one of the worst experiences at Anime Boston that I have ever had in my 7-8 years of attending this con. This convention was one I deemed my "home con", one I always attended every year as it was my favorite. It is no longer such, unless Anime Boston fixes the outstanding issues.
I am a disabled cosplayer, therefore I use mobility aids when I can. I do not have a wheelchair myself, so I must use those provided by Anime Boston and the Hynes Security. I have not been in many wheelchairs, as my mobility aids vary, but I can confirm that both years I have used these wheelchairs, they have been less than ideal. No matter which wheelchair I selected, there was always something broken, and I was not given any option for it to be fixed. This year, the leg supports were broken, so I could not adjust and rest my legs higher than the lowest option available. The left wheel was also a dud as well, as it would not push past any kind of resistance whatsoever. So attempting to move throughout the ballrooms without assistance proved futile, as I could not move across the floor without getting stuck. The main Prudential Mall entrance to the Hynes has such a steep ramp that I cannot push myself up whatsoever, and I cannot wheel myself down it without crashing into the person in front of me. I had to have a handler pushing me around the entire weekend, and I did not have the freedom I should have with the accessibility I was provided.
The accessibility service I was provided was less than favorable. Many staff members did not acknowledge me or other mobility aid users unless their handler or an able-bodied attendee was speaking to them. Most questions when it pertained to disabled people and their mobility aids were dismissed, or the staff simply had no idea what to do. I did not attend many panels or events personally, as I knew lines were going to be abhorrent, and I was proven to be correct with the few events I participated in. I specifically note Saturday, during the Genshin Impact meetup. Me, my fellow disabled friends and attendees, and our handlers were haphazardly put halfway in the middle of the hallway next to the door, then chaotically diverted to a separate line opposite of the main line to get in mere minutes before we were allowed in. When the accessibility stickered attendees were allowed in, the front of the line were given vague directions, and the rest of the line was left to fend for themselves, less than a minute before the rest of the attendees were let in. Not knowing how the meetup was going to be set up, and having no assistance whatsoever by staff, my group sat at one of the front tables with two other mobility aid users. As we were settling down -- not even fully settled yet -- Regular attendees were let in, and immediately started to block our access to the front of the room with no regards as to who was sitting behind them. One of the wheelchair users was completely blocked in by people sitting on the floor, and many people had to ask them to move. More people just replaced their empty space. There was absolutely no staff involvement in the chaos of this meetup, as the host had to continuously shout into the microphone for people to move and for lanes to be cleared so people could actually access and participate in the photo-taking. Myself and many other mobility aid users had to leave the meetup early to avoid heavy, unmoving foot traffic.
Speaking of foot traffic, I am incredibly disappointed with how staff handled traffic within the rest of the convention. The best-managed room was probably the Guest Autograph room, as most of the people were stuck in long, multiple-hour lines to get a signature. But I am disappointed how difficult it was for me to maneuver my way around the Hynes, to where I had to have multiple people walking around my wheelchair as a barrier for me so that I could pass by without hitting someone who decided to stop in the middle of the hallway or in the middle of the vendor exhibits. Most of the time, I was either stuck forming a line behind me because people wouldn't move, or I was completely destroying my voice trying to yell at people to move. Convention attendees should all be treated with respect, and I barely got any.
I do give my thanks to the con staffer named Pirate, who was extremely kind and helpful in assisting me when I had questions about my wheelchair, both on Friday and on Sunday. I wish Anime Boston had more staff who were as attentive and quick to solve questions such as he did.
I know this next complaint is on behalf of the Hynes and the Sheraton and not Anime Boston, but the lack of accessibility for the elevators was miserable. Any time I tried to use the elevator, it was an awfully long wait time, as there was only one elevator on either side of the center that only fit one wheelchair and two people max per ride. I felt like a sitting duck most of the convention, as I could not get anywhere within an appropriate time due to the overflow of attendees and the lack of care about it from Staff.
One last thing to note, is the attendee who supposedly brought in a lifelike doll that is used for NSFW purposes. This doll was dressed as 2B, with the attendee matching cosplays. This attendee put the "doll" on a rollator, and supposedly used the elevator and cut in front of disabled folk who needed to use the elevator. I saw this doll and attendee myself, and it was absolutely revolting, especially with how many younger children under the age of 18 attended AB24. I do hope that proper action is taken against this attendee, as that doll should have never been allowed past security.
I understand a lot of my post is negativity, but my experiences with this convention this year were unfavorable. I do hope that Anime Boston improves based on provided feedback, and perhaps I can attend again some year.
Thank you for your time.

[mistling]

I've been to Anime Boston a handful of times before the pandemic, but this is my first time post-pandemic. Here's how the con went for me.

Positives:
- So glad y'all have continued putting water coolers in all the panel rooms! It makes it so much easier to stay hydrated.
- There were more food options inside the con than when I last went, and of course there are tons of food options in the mall.
- Getting into the con was super quick! This is the most significant improvement from when I last attended.
- All the staff I interacted with were helpful and friendly.

Neutral:
- There was a fairly solid variety in both Artists' Alley and the Dealers' Room.

Negatives:
- When the schedule was first released, I immediately thought that it seemed like there were fewer panels than when I used to attend. The nerd that I am, I compared a pre-pandemic year to this year and estimated that the pre-pandemic year had about 100 more panels (industry, fan, guest, etc.). As panels are by far the main draw for me at conventions, this was a significant negative change for me. It might be that Anime Boston is focusing more on other convention aspects (balls, meetups, concerts, etc.). It might be that the overlap with Sakura-Con lessened the number of panels. Either way, I think I'm going to wait until the panel schedule starts exciting me again before coming back.
- So many panels had lines - and so many panels had lines that started more than 30 minutes before the panel.
- My mailed badge never arrived. Staff were very helpful in getting me a refund and a physical badge once I arrived at the con, but I would have much preferred that my mailed badge arrived.
- I miss when everyone could use the shortcut passage between the Hynes and the Sheraton.
- Anyone else want arrows/tape pathway dividers in the Dealers Room and Artists' Alley so people on the left would move in one direction and people on the right another?

Overall, I had a pretty good time and I'm sure lots of folks had a great time. Thanks to everyone at Anime Boston for helping that happen!

[Penti]

Another AB has come to pass, so it's time to get down to my usual post-con thoughts...and might as well get the negative out of the way first

The Bad:

• Although impressive that we hit capacity, I feel like AB might end up needing to move to a new venue if they want to continue growing. The downside of moving is, I really love the current setup; getting to the Hynes via the T is simple due to many options to get there with just the subway, there's a lot of options for food in the area, and generally I just like the vibe of the Hynes and Sheraton.
• Timing on some of the panels. Like, I was interested in attending Sword Lesbians in Anime, but it happened during the Swap Meet that night, which tends to be one of the big parts of my con weekend.
• Line control often made no sense. Like, we were told when waiting in line for the Swap Meet that we could not block the doors to the FedEx store in the Sheraton, even though it had already closed for the day several hours before the line was formed.
• More just a minor disappointment, but kinda sad that the Con Chowdah is no more. I get it's saving money, given I just use the Guidebook app for the schedule, but it was a nice memento to hang onto.

The Good:

• Badge pickup went a lot smoother than the previous two years; feels like we're finally back in the groove, as the line moves very quickly.
• The arcade was great, and once again I loved having the corner devoted to Touhou, as I played through Perfect Cherry Blossom.
• The manga library. This was my first time taking advantage of it; it was a nice, quiet spot to unwind with a good book.
• The Spotlight game. It was fun; my friends and I were searching to find QR codes around the convention center in order to try and find new scenes in the game. I would love to see it come back next year; I got many laughs from some of the scenes in it.
• There was a lot of variety in the dealer's room this year; lots of stuff I wanted to buy but I only had so much money and room in my suitcases to bring everything home LOL.
• The limited edition plushie of the cat in the lobster costume, sold at the AB Merch booth, was adorable. I hope opens the door to further AB limited edition plushies.

Suggestions:

• Maybe move the arcade to a bigger room? It's clearly quite popular, and I imagine in a bigger room, they could bring in more games.

[Zenyomi]

A lot of general concerns seem to have been brought up already but I might as well chime in with a few

Good:

Mailed badges are awesome! keep doing them if possible, my group didn't mind the shipping fee because we ordered ours together so It was great to not have to come Thursday to pick up badges for once.

panel rooms having water is great

guests were great this year and very hype

autograph lotteries being free

Neutral:

crowding in the hynes was a bit worse this year, some people blocking paths and such, artist alley I heard was very crowded at times.

Bad:

Concert lines were terrible, Ab really underestimated how popular the concerts would be and it shows in the room choice for the concerts. people were also able to line up WAY too early for them and staff did nothing (maybe adding concert tickets next time would be better)

con registration hitting capacity is crazy and it might be time to move on from the hynes even though a lot of us love being there.

the site being down the whole weekend basically and not being able to find vital information easily (I suggest maybe adding to guidebook as a backup)

autograph bracelet pickup being a 1 hr period and also being in the hynes is a huge negative imo, there was a lot of traffic caused by people trying to get into artist alley so having bracelets be 1 hr to pickup stinks.

Japanese guest signing policies not being consistent combined with staff not knowing their policies in detail wasn't fun, I got turned away from a signing I had a bracelet to because I had nothing they "could sign" only to find out I was given misinformation from a staff member and I could've gotten a signature on a postcard.

Japanese guests signing "limited waitlists" emails were not respected and the waitlist just turned into people who didn't even enter the raffle initially showing up trying to get a signature.

Thanks for making the feedback post so we can help improve the con experience

[DocWatson]

AB has a newsletter. In the future, please use it to announce in advance when the hotel rooms will become available for booking. This will make that task much easier.

[Baby Seal]

Most of my points have been mentioned here already, but my two cents:

The Good

• Japanese/musical guests - while not everything was my cup of tea (only Yukana and Babybeard really), I was very pleased to see a much more robust guest lineup this year compared to the anemic Japanese/musical guest list from last year. Hoping that this trend continues and that it's not a one-off just to make up for how lackluster 2023 was.

• Artist alley - Lots of great artists showed up this year. I still have issues with the overall lack of variety of content but this isn't an AB-exclusive thing, it's been happening at pretty much every con for the past 3-4 years. But I understand why, artists need to make money to live too and if it sells there's no need to fix what isn't broken. I'd do the same thing if I was tabling.

The Bad

• Arcade room - once again, the arcade games were shoved into a tiny room like last year. It used to be in a huge room and this was never an issue, so why is it being relegated like an afterthought these past two years? And - this is more of a problem with the supplier and not AB specifically - but the pads on the DDR machines were absolutely awful. Not sure if they just got worn down from overusage on Friday or if they arrived at the con in terrible shape but when I went to play on Saturday they were abysmal. I don't know if it's a new vendor this year or what but they were not this bad in previous years.

• Registration - I hope next year badge mailing is accessible for far longer than just through mid February, and that it's not capped at the first 3,000 badges. The line on Saturday moved reasonably fast considering how many people were in it (especially compared to my experience last year), but the fact that badge mailing is still a very new thing at AB compared to many other cons, plus not being able to pick up Saturday or Sunday badges on Thursday just makes the registration line on Saturday a huge time sink. Almost every other con I've been to doesn't have the badge pickup issues that AB has, so it would be nice to see improvements here.

• Autograph lotteries - personally, I prefer the old way where we could show up early and get a ticket and just go to the signing. But I know for high demand guests, cons are moving to lottery systems nowadays. I don't particularly have a problem with it at AB compared to the bigger cons (also partially because I won lol) but it's honestly unacceptable that we didn't receive the lottery results until midnight the day before the con started. These should have been opened up much earlier and the results sent out much earlier, to give people time to get something to have signed and allow people to plan their schedules better based on if they won/lost. I did like the Eventeny platform though, I much prefer it to Growtix or whatever it is that ANYC uses for their lotteries.

The Ugly
Only one item here: Overcrowding - as many have said, there were way too many people. There have been crowding/line management issues in the past on occasion but this is the first year I've gone where it truly felt like AB has way outgrown the Hynes. Artist alley was consistently gridlocked. The arcade room had a long line to get in at several points because the room was way too small as I mentioned. Several panels (such as the Genshin one) had extremely long lines that were ambiguous as to where the start and end was because they had to wrap around other crowds/lines. And the Babybeard concert line was an absolute joke. The 1 hour lineup period was not enforced, and when I showed up 45 minutes before the start of the concert, the line had already gone upstairs to the 3rd floor of the Sheraton and wrapped all the way around. There were probably 2000-3000 people in line already, and when I got to the end, I was told it was capped. Why did you go away from the old method of allowing people to pick up event tickets on the 3rd floor of the Hynes like previous years? And why are concerts still being held in the Sheraton ballroom? These should be in main events, both for better acoustics and increased capacity. Feels like you guys really missed the mark on estimating the demand for these.

I'm sure you get the "please move to the BCEC" comments every year but I think it's worth seriously considering a move in the future. I know there's probably contractual obligations and financial things that would prevent an immediate move, but the attendance issue isn't going to go away as long as the event continues to be held at the Hynes unless you dramatically reduce the attendance cap. Something has to be done because it's ruining the experience for many.

[Kalyoth]

Most of my feedback has been already covered.

Moving out of Hynes? Won't happen for one very good reason: significant lack of public transportation into other locations. Pax East pays for transportation to make it work. Unless u want ur badges for AB to cost 200 & up, it wont happen. We are not the type of gathering for that type of location & it won't work. All that can be done is cap the con & consider studying doing it 2 times a year - Spring & Fall - at a smaller size. More controllable costs & potential to gain people unavailable certain times of the year.

Artist Alley - can be corrected within the same space - have fewer artists crammed into the room & widen the aisles. People do not like making things smaller. But, public safety & the ability to make ur product available to the largest group of your attendees possible is how u have a success. Once you pass the peak balance point of space to movement, you begin losing. Might need to redefine what Artist Alley is. Most of the merch I saw in there for sale, was better in a Dealers room as, let's face the truth: they are all vendors. Merge the two concepts together & spread them across two floors.

New Feedback: Ugly: The Swap Meet was like it became Artist Alley. Far too many people, crammed into far to small a space, with a pile of Sheraton fixtures pushed against the walls, filled with dealer's room pile of stuff. Might be time to have a registration for Swap Meet, to forecast space needs, limit the pile of stuff allowed to bring to an equal amount of bags etc. for all & operate the room such that you can safely escape it in case of emergency w/o trampling over hundreds of people to get out a single door in the corner.

[Ariandante]

Let's start with the good: Easiest badge pickup process I've had at AB ever since I started going in 2017 - and that was even after forgetting my wallet, and needing to run home to Somerville and back to grab my license. The guests this year were fantastic (Kira Buckland FTW!), and (when I could actually get into artist alley) I really loved the selection and variety this time around.

Most of my criticism this year relates to the overcrowding situation, it eventually got to the point on Saturday that everything my partner and I tried to go to was full and concerned about the protest in Copley Square affecting our ability to get out safely, we ended up leaving early. Also was it just me or were there way fewer panels in general this year? Panels are just one of the reasons I attend but the schedule felt much lighter this year, which could have been part of why everything filled up so quickly.

As much as I hate to say it I think it's time to move to the Seaport. I love the Hynes, in my heart of hearts I WANT AB to stay there, but with attendance levels like what we saw this year, I don't think it's tenable for much longer, let alone any kind of growth or expansion. As others have pointed out, Anime Boston is fundamentally different from events such as PAX or FanExpo, and the BCEC would not work very well for AB **BY ITSELF**... but there are two hotels on the same block as the convention center both each with their own event space. - the Westin (next door) and the Omni (across the street.) If AB was able to secure the hotels, then the BCEC could be used for main events, the dealers hall, artists alley, arcade gaming, and maybe one large panel room/ ballroom type space (VA guest panels, concerts, etc...) - then, use the space at the Westin and Omni for panels, tabletop gaming, workshops, karaoke, meetups, etc... Also, isn't the Hynes slated to be closed and redeveloped in the next 3-5 years?

On a smaller, more personal note, I also wish the changes to the karaoke contest had been handled differently. The move away from the "first come-first serve free-for-all" signup on the forums was **definitely** necessary, but myself (and several others) felt the pendulum swung too far the other direction this year (Almost 60 auditions for 12 spots meant it was absolutely cutthroat.) I'm not saying go back to the old free-for-all, but I do hope that Brian and the karaoke staff can somehow rework the contest next year to allow for greater participation. One possibility could be having preliminaries, send in prescreening videos like this year, pick the best 36, and then have preliminary contests throughout Friday and early Saturday of con (probably not in the karaoke room but one of the panel rooms, let them be open to the public to watch and vote). Top 4 from each of the preliminaries (12 total) advances to the finals on Saturday evening, which runs just like before. Just my .02 Or maybe add a second singing related competition, maybe something akin to the lip sync battle, but have contestants singing 90 second TV-sized anime themes (or similar).

[strangely_khaotic]

Hi friends! I understand waiting for elevators in both the convention center and (especially) the Sheraton gets long and overwhelming, but can we not push and shove past disabled individuals with mobility aids who have been waiting longer?!

Same with when we’re moving through big crowds.

Also let’s stop touching and leaning on people’s mobility aids. Lean your body somewhere else or bring a small folding stool if you need to rest when you’re tired. Part of my walker is loose and not very stable after multiple leaned on it with their full body wait (thankfully while it was locked) when looking at various tables and booths over the weekend and when I would speak up about it I was treated so awfully.

Although my walker was about $150 out of pocket for the one I have, that’s not something to I can afford. My friend had to buy it for me. My dad paid for me to attend AB this year to celebrate surviving brain surgery (I’m 4 months post op) and I was looking forward to so much fun and although some was had most of the weekend was stressful and worrisome because of able bodied individuals being super entitled and rude and literally hurting me.

I never in a million years have treated someone in my position the way I was treated Anime Boston weekend even when I was “ablebodied”.

Sorry for this rant but I just hope people can do better. We all should be able to have fun and enjoy ourselves. No one should be touching somones moblity aid unless granted permission or when the user is asking for assistance.

[Ryan227]

I had a great time this year! For me the badge pickup (Thursday afternoon) was super easy and fast and all the panels I went to were really great.

The thing is... I would have really loved to have gone to more panels! I thought it was just a feeling I had but a post here confirmed it, there were way fewer panels than in years past? I wonder if it's an issue with not that many people applying for panels or staff accepting fewer panels. I feel like having so few panels adds to overcrowding because people have less options and they all bunch together so that leads to even panels you might not expect to fill a room filling a fairly large room before the start time. The main reason I attend the con is to go to panels so it's frustrating for me not to be able to get in to my first choice panel cos I'm a bit late and then not really have many other options for a while.

Personally I feel like the Hynes is still fine but I think the space and space in the hotels around it could be used better.

[TheGlassesGirl]

I always have a great time at Anime Boston, and this year was no different! However I do have a few things I loved this year and a few things that could have been better.

Positive:

-As always, the staff of Cosplay Games are absolute MVPs. I was in Lip Sync Battle and Chess this year and every staff member taking care of us was lovely; they made sure we were organized, always had water for us immediately after we came offstage (much needed!), and were super clear and organized about every aspect of the events. From the coordinators to the support staff and assistants, every staff member and volunteer I interacted with in the Cosplay Games was absolutely fantastic, and I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate them and all their hard work.

-Artist Alley and Dealer's Rooms were both great this year! Artist Alley had a really nice variety of artists and goods, and Dealer's Room was a BIG step up from last year in terms of variety. I was so happy to see multiple card and game shops selling Weiss Schwarz! There was a great variety in plushie and merch options too.

-So happy to see the return of the Spotlight game! It's so fun and I was actively on the lookout for more places to scan this year. The little story scenes, the team versus aspect, and all the outfit options were all great. Please keep bringing this back!

-Registration was super speedy this year. I don't know if it was because of the pre-mailed badges or the amount of staff that were working registration, but the wait times were some of the best I've seen at this con and everything was super efficient. Myself and my partner were able to get our badges in under 30 min on Thursday, and on Friday morning one of my friends ran in to buy a badge and was in and out in barely 10 min!

-Even with how busy things got on Saturday, security was also super quick this year. Going back into the Hynes on Saturday, the line was still constantly moving and we were inside in minutes. Keep doing what you're doing there!

-Loved the food options available in the Hynes on Friday and Saturday, and the Italian ice cart was a super great addition.

Negative:

-I know everyone else has said it, but the crowding was one of the biggest frustrations about this year. I'm honestly not sure what the solution to this is; I'd rather AB not move to the BCEC (I much prefer the Hynes), but lowering the attendance cap may also raise reg prices more than they already have been increased. Maybe utilizing more of the Sheraton (if possible-I'm not sure what space is available), or spaces in other nearby hotels like the Hilton? I noticed that some of the rooms in the Hynes also weren't used this year (most notably Ballroom C on the third floor), maybe those could be used for more events/panels, or just bigger rooms for things like the Arcade room?

-In a similar vein, on Saturday myself and my friends weren't able to attend several panels due to them filling up. Several of these panels filled up well before the start time, often due to them being in too small rooms for the demand. (The most notable of these was Fashion Crimes, which we arrived at 30 min early to find the room was already full and there was already a large overflow line extending down the length of the hall). Panels that filled up that early needed to be in larger rooms to fit the demand-we were super disappointed to get turned away because the panel was in a small Sheraton room. Additionally, while I didn't notice as much of a difference I know some of my friends (and some people in this thread) noted that there were less panels this year; having more panels would help spread people out and give people more options if something they want to go to fills up. (Again, this is where unused rooms like Ballroom C could be utilized!)

-Please move Lip Sync Battle back to the Sheraton ballroom! While the show was still great, we did reach capacity in Hynes 302/304 and I had a friend who had trouble getting in because of this. Additionally, the lack of screens and the lower down stage in 302/304 meant that those who weren't near the front had trouble seeing. The Sheraton ballroom has more space to accommodate demand, and the higher up stage and the live video feeds in the ballroom make it much more accessible for the larger crowd to watch. Nothing was scheduled in the Sheraton ballroom during Lip Sync Battle's time slot, and we've occupied the ballroom for the last 3 years the show has run, so I'm not sure why we got moved out this year?

-Please have more chairs and tables available in the board game area! We struggled with finding a table, and especially with finding chairs, on Saturday. Roughly half the tables were being held for a mahjong tournament that hadn't started yet, making finding a space even harder. Even just having extra chairs on hand to add to a small table that we could squeeze into would have been helpful.

-Please keep the food stands out on Sunday too! They were open last year on Sunday, but this year when we went to grab some only the Italian ice cart was out, which was unexpected.

*Edited because I realized that Ballroom B in the Hynes was used this year and I misread it, my bad!

[Kohikari]

This was my eighteenth Anime Boston! It has been such a privilege to grow with you over the years.


On lines & crowding:

• Registration did a great job with the prereg line on Thursday afternoon/evening, especially compared to last year.

• Security was a breeze all weekend long; I never had to worry about getting back into the con after making a trip out into the Pru for food.

• Artists' Alley was in a nice big space this year, & for the most part traffic was definitely at least a little improved compared to last year. The only major exception was that chokepoint aisle in the back, which I assume was narrow for a reason? (Pillars or outlets or something else unavoidable about the infrastructure maybe?) Making it one-way on Saturday afternoon was a good call, even if it was still slow going.


On accessibility:

• The quiet room was great this year (& in a beautiful room too). I really appreciated having a place to get earplugs!

• Speaking of earplugs: the tentacle theater panel in the Sheraton Constitution room Saturday night had serious audio issues. I wanted to stay, but the sound was just too painful. (There was a similar but much less severe issue with certain videos in the AMV contest in Hynes Ballroom B on Friday night but not Saturday morning.)

• I'd also like to second the complaint about the circling audience spotlights at the AMV contest preshow (& also the masquerade?); they made it really difficult to see the exhibition videos.

• That said, I loved the masquerade skit subtitles! I assume that's on the participants' end rather than the con's though?


Miscellaneous:

• The slumber party was amazing as always! I would like to comment on the change in table layout though; putting the activity supplies on many small round tables was great for encouraging small groups to interact, but not great for being able to access those supplies once the seats were full, & the tables & chairs were so close together that maneuvering around & through them was pretty difficult.

• I loved the AMV contest retrospectives & staff content. It would've been helpful to get the credits on the videos chosen for the staff battle though; I understand why contest-style title card displays simply aren't possible, but maybe just verbally mentioning the title & editor of the AMV chosen next time?

• The D&Dsekai panel room (Hynes Ballroom B) seemed a bit oversized this year, but honestly I was just grateful to be able to get in this time! (Matching panels/events to rooms is like an unwinnable game of 3D nightmare tetris anyway...)

• I loved all the musical performances at opening & closing ceremonies. (Great idea including the karaoke contest winner too!) In past years some of the closing ceremonies have been kind of boring — understandably, everyone's tired & some of the guests have gone home already — but that was definitely not the case this year!


Thank you so much for another wonderful weekend & I look forward to seeing you next year!

[Ariandante]

Also... can we please PLEASE PLEASE bring back Cosplay Singer next year?

-kthxbye

[dono]

Also... can we please PLEASE PLEASE bring back Cosplay Singer next year?

-kthxbye

YES PLEASE BRING THIS BACK!!!! This was one of the best events I've been to at AB.

[soul_cosplay5]

The convention was okay overall.

The artist alley and dealers room were PACKED, and made it very overstimulating for someone like me who is on the spectrum and had to retreat to my hotel room and calm down.

Another thing that was disappointing to me was that the guest signings weren't on the (very slow) website, so I missed a guest that I really wanted to see because I didn't know when he'd be there. It also wasn't very clear which line was for which guest. I luckily got into the correct line for one of the guests, but that was just by pure chance and without staff at the entrance to the signing area stating where to go for which guest.

I had a good time overall, but there were a few big things that left me very disappointed.

[Kcat85]

Complaints
- masquerade needs to return to tickets. First come first serve makes it hard to attend as a group and part of the point of going is to enjoy the event and talk quietly about what’s on stage. People save places in line for a reason. If that’s not ok then the staff should be stricter with their line up policies and not allow people to line up so early. Attendant didn’t get that and was very condescending over it and didn’t take the hint to not talk to us after refusing to let us stand with our group.
- Artist alley is very congested and confusing. There should be clearly marked locations like street signs in real life that allow people to orientate without the map since stopping to look at the map only adds to the difficultly of moving down the aisles. Long lines and clumps of people are allowed to form to look at booths disrupting if not stopping the flow of people instead of encouraging people to return.
- Data doesn’t always work for everyone in the con or hotels which makes guide book impossible to use or access. Please see if there’s a way to make WiFi available inside the con or offer free paper again. Same reason spotlight doesn’t work all the time making it hard to participate sometimes.
- Age policies with ids weren’t made clear until the door these should be clearly advertised to alert which Ids are accepted prior to the con and should be standard across the convention for getting badges and attending events. Valid forms of federal id were rejected for 18+ events.
- even in artist alley there should be spaces to allow people to get cosplay pics instead of chasing people off its very obvious when someone’s posing for an image and its difficult to get images when you have to leave the space you’re in and might discourage cosplayers from agreeing to have their image taken or keep people from asking for pictures
- Would be nice if the games before events weren’t repeated through every event but a few different ones were used. Many people attend all the big events plus it provided information for events that already passed the previous day come the weekend.
- Autograph times need to be posted in guide book. With how it’s updated there’s no reason to not include times for individual guests. It’s hard to plan the day when important information is unavailable. Plus it would be helpful if policies and the guests preferences were included on the autograph page.
- Lanyards that can hold pins would be appreciated plus for many with sensory issues I don’t imagine the rope style ones are very comfortable.
Over all though I love the convention and artist alley is one of my favorite places to explore during the con. There are always incredible artists and this year I couldn’t help but follow a few on socials that I hope can come back next year

[Fangreaper]

Sounding like a bit of an echo chamber here but to state:

Please move to the BCEC. Like full stop. The Hynes is too small for the almost 25k people who showed up.

The panel rooms are too small for the amount of people who want to attend them. I was turned away from over 7 panels between friday and saturday. One panel I showed up for at about 2:40pm that started at 3pm was already fully sat, the line capped, and had already started. That kind of wasn't fair. Consider moving the video room on the 3rd floor by karaoke somewhere else and use that for panels. The room was pretty large and would work for a decent number of panels.

Artist alley was packed when I attempted to cut through it from the tabletop gaming on friday to the point it took me 20 minutes to get from the back hallway to the exit door. A person behind me started having a panic attack and hyperventilating. Please put some tape on the floors or something that have marked standing room for the booths this way there is a designated 'hallway' so to speak and people understand that if you are in between the red tape it means to move. It was kind of scary for me with mild enochlophobia. I hate the feeling of being trapped and unable to move.

Please don't hold concerts in the sheraton ballroom again. It really made me upset that I couldn't see Babybeard because the line was already sat and capped. I couldn't even go back to the panel I was in because that one filled up after I left and it was half over. Either go back to the ticket system or something there was at least an additional 50-60 people who were turned away after seating who wanted to get in. If the concert was in the main auditorium in the Hynes this would not have been an issue for seating.

I was talking to one of the people in charge at the feedback panel that for the autographs the signs out front with the times and who was signing was a bit confusing and that I wished they put the time slots back on guidebook. But he explained with guests getting tired and yada yada yada which I completely understand like 100% however could you have a section on guidebook like showing us who has a booth in artist alley or the dealers room but for the guests? Like just showing us who is signing that day and then have the times listed outside the tabletop gaming room?

The console gaming area is not watcher friendly for the tournaments. I missed the start of the mario kart tournament on friday because my friend was begging me to do early check in for the hotel and needed help with his bags. There were no luggage carts but that's an issue with the hilton. So I got back about 2:30pm and wanted to at least watch the tournament but there was nothing on the big screen at all and nowhere for me to sit and watch.

People brought in alcohol and were drinking it during the con. Full stop. Bag checks from what I saw were rarely enforced/checked (I guess that's what I'd call it). Friday and saturday I basically walked through security and my bag was not checked once. Not sure what it was like for other people but someone posted in the fb group that people were drinking alcohol outside the masquerade on saturday and that night at cosplay shenanigans I found a can of high noon seltzer under one of the chairs and when I alerted a security member the people sitting there denied it was theirs. Not cool on the drinkers part and the Hynes security.

Guidebook is a great app and I am happy to use it and its ease of access however when an event was happening after midnight the app automatically moved the event to the next day so I got confused when it said cosplay shenanigans was happening on sunday and the Greg Ayers raw uncensored panel was happening for 2 days. I am not sure if y'all could fix that for the future but please look into it. I know technically after midnight is the next day but it was kind of jarring looking for cosplay shenanigans and not finding it on saturday night but sunday morning.

The masquerade was mostly solo dancing skits. I know its first come first serve but it got boring and I along with several others around me became very disinterested very quickly. I am not saying the solo dancers did a horrible job or anything no they were great and had great costumes but when more than half of the entries were solo dancers maybe look back at the other applicants and change it up a bit. I feel a bit discouraged from attempting to enter in the future due to it feeling like solo dancers took a priority for the skits.

I accidentally left my little portable speaker in the main auditorium in the Hynes after cosplay chess on sunday. I realized immediately when I went to play music in the hallway and I went back to get it. Several staff members told me they saw and found it and someone had brought it to the lost and found. I went to the lost and found no staff members had been by in roughly twenty minutes. I went back up to the auditorium and was told by one staff member they had just brought it down and I must have missed them. We both went back to lost and found and it was still not there. The staff member I guess had passed it to someone on the way down and thought they brought it to the sheraton info desk and went to check. I could not wait as I had a panel to get to but figured I would have seen them on my way to the Babybeard Q&A. I did not. I contacted the Hynes twice both sunday night and monday night. My speaker did not turn up. I am not saying the staff stole it but how in the span of less than five minutes did my speaker poof into thin air? I just want it back it was a gift.

Some positives:

I got Greg Ayers to sign the same pokemon manga for a 4th time.
I got to sing the old mascot song parody of Party Rock, Cosplay Rock at karaoke.
I got to share a poem I wrote about the con at feedback.
People enjoyed my vibes and music as Vacation Kuzco.
I got to tell Babybeard a great place to get cannoli. Please bring them back in the future they were all so sweet and adorable.

Also please keep allowing Wild Bill's to keep attending. $21 for unlimited soda for three days is an absolute bargain considering the Hynes food stalls and the surrounding restaurants would charge almost $3 each for soda. Diet soda is the only vice I have left so this made me very happy.

The exit from the dealer's room to the sheraton was really nice please keep that going it made it so easy to get across the convention.

Overall please reconsider space for events and make sure security for the Hynes is checking bags to some degree. The vibes that weekend were there but the space was not. Looking forward to future ABs but we need more room y'all

[Kanechan]

I've already said some of this in the feedback survey, but I may as well share some of my impressions of the con for this year here.

I was rather amazed at hearing the Hynes reached legal capacity on Saturday, although looking back on that I shouldn't have been that surprised; Saturday has always been the most popular (and hence most crowded) day of the con. I'm also not surprised that measures against this from happening weren't adequately taken, as I've little doubt it was quite unexpected. That this has prompted calls for a move to the BCEC next year is also not surprising to me, but bringing the con to that venue might make it more problematic than not. Time will tell.

I suppose I have only two gripes this year. First would be the autograph lines, which although they were just a bit shorter than last year, didn't seem like they were moving at all for hours at a time. I wasn't in a line for more than two, maybe two-and-a-half hours for any of the sessions I attended, but it just seemed like they were going nowhere for such a long time, and that made me quite uncomfortable physically. Maybe next year I'll have to get an accessibility sticker for my ID badge (not that it'll help much with autograph lines, though).

My other gripe would have to be with the apparent lack of industry panels, which I love to attend. There were a couple of premieres from HIDIVE, and a GKIDS panel that I couldn't attend, but the relative dearth of industry panels left me a little cold. Previous cons had lots of panels from anime distributors, but not so much with this one. There wasn't even a panel from Discotek Media, which I was hoping for since Mike Toole was slated to appear. (What happened to him, anyway?) So, the lack of interesting panels, plus the relative inactivity of the autograph lines, were my only real issues this year. Hopefully things will improve next time.

[RoaringJade]

A lot of great feedback so far so I'll stick to specifics:

• AMV Contest - This was in a different room which confused us, but it worked space wise but not chair wise. The metal and fabric chairs were narrow and SO CLOSE together! (The metal and plastic black chairs used elsewhere are wider) There was definitely room for an inch or two on each side. Very uncomfortable to be pressed against strangers or those who are larger. If those chairs are used, please provide a little more wiggle room, literally, please.
  
  Anime Unscripted - was a blast as always. I think some guests could be prepped a little more ahead of time? Some seemed to be learned too much on the spot even for improv. Not expected a professional show, but it would help all around. Also the angled TV in the back was welcome for those who were far away from stage and projectors.
  
  THANK YOU for water in the rooms. THANK YOU for the Repair station!
  
  The Artist Alley - seems to have a lot of empty space on the left side, is there a reason its unused? Spacing booths that way would help that narrow back alley. That back ally should have only one row of tables, not on each side. That said, I appreciate the increase in variety!
  
  Dealers Room - nice wide aisles, better variety than past years. I'd still love to see more variety.
  
  The Artist Alley art show /auction space needs an upgrade. - I don't get it. Is it an art show or an auction because I saw both with some pieces weren't for sale. It's a big space and only a few pieces comparatively, and I see a lot of the same pieces there every year. I think this needs to be advertised a LOT more so more pieces are contributed. Maybe with staff picks (or heck, attendee votes) and prizes like the AMV Contest? I would love to see it as the best of the best, like the AMV contest, that we and staff a can vote on!
  
  Panels - Definitely a lack of panels this year. If its a lack of applicants, then advertise more. Maybe a post on the website/social media saying how its easier than people think and to apply?
  
  Masquarade - TOO MANY DANCES. Can we cap the number of dances please? Some sort of quality control?
  
  I'll end with a vote saying do not switch convention venues, keep the Hynes, but increase ticket prices/put a cap on attendance, or spread some events out to other nearby rental spaces?

[bulletdancer]

AB 2024 thoughts.

Wow did you have a lot of musical guests. 3 separate concerts is a lot. I'm happy to see them, but it was definitely a surprise.
- Queen Bee concert. I don't know whose idea it was to play their Music Videos before they came on stage, but it didn't really sit well with me. it's not hyping me up to see them, if anything it's making me go meh I'm going to hear them soon enough (especially when it looped). Why not just play some music in their genre like you did between Babybeard and Kaya / Hizaki?

General convention:
- Room clears. The impression I got from security that they were starting to do room clears after every panel. This has never been the case unless specifically stated. Could we please be consistent and either not look for rooms to clear / ask people to leave / what not, or announce that there will be clears after every panel yadda yadda?

Artists Alley felt crowded, didn't really want to stay in there long which is sad because there was some nice stuff, and a decent variety. Probably could rearrange the paths to open them up some more. Of course not much of my old school anime tastes, but /shrug, makes me happier when I find that 1-off of an anime or game I love that is nearly 20 years old.

Panels - It felt like you could have fit more panels in during some of the downtime in the hynes ballrooms / other rooms, but I don't know how much setup some of those rooms needed for their larger events. There was a decent variety for me. I learned quickly that you wanted to be outside of them ~ 30 minutes before they were to run, so managed to get into most of what I wanted to see. I do really love when you bring in local-ish guests who know their stuff like Lex Winters (only person I saw this year but I remember last year seeing some great spotlighted panelist stuff as well).

My biggest gripe / complaint
I've been coming to AB off and on since 2008. And right now, I don't know where AB is headed. It seems like you're at a cross roads between staying a fan convention, and being an industry convention (what I call chasing ANYC). And honestly I'd like to know what the general intention of the convention is. No PR speak, just an honest comment of this is the direction that we the board of AB are trying to take the convention, and all of its aspects. I'd love to see it stay a large Fan-style convention, as it means we in the northeast get the best of both with AB being Fan, ANYC being industry.

[BreadCosplay]

I've had nothing but good things to say but did want to bring up a point I was thinking about post-masquerade.
For prior context, I myself was the Sakura Minamoto that sang live and did dance during Masquerade. So, maybe I am included in this category? I wouldn't really consider what I was doing "dancing" though, apologies!!

I was informed personally last year as well as read in the rules from the prior two years and also this year that Masquerade skits that were just dancing to the original choreography were not allowed in the Masquerade (I'm unsure if this applies to Exhibition? I don't think so). The choreography had to be completely self done to be accepted. I've had submissions rejected or asked to be modified on the basis of this rule. So I do (ironically) share the same sentiment a lot of others do about dance skits at the Masquerade and that the "no dance covers" rule should be enforced.

This isn't to say that everyone's performances weren't spectacular this year in the dancing category! I just do understand the frustration and know it does get repetitive, and personally believe that this is the point of having the Idol Showcase.

[bastardkaiju]

I'll keep it short and simple since people are much better at articulating, but I still want to give my thoughts.

Con itself was great as well as the vibes, Swap Meet is my staple. I've been going for some years now and the people there always make it amazing.

My one gripe is truly one that can't be remedied: Costs. At this point, with the large capacity of people and the insane costs of the Hynes and nearby hotels, we need another space. $100 + a minimum of a $1000 hotel stay + expensive food and transportation. At the very least, I expect more 'perks' or improvements made with all the money from registrations especially considering there was so many sold that we hit capacity. Connecticon has $100 all weekend passes but your pass also gets you access to events for free / highly discounted that happen throughout the year. They started doing that and I now feel it is more of a bang for your buck.

As well as this, I really don't see such a high influx of guests as much of a reason for expenses as someone who doesn't really get autographs and pics unless it's someone I REALLY like. I feel like other AB staples should be improved upon or added if so much is going into just getting guests.

Artist Alley is also pretty insane but people have already been very vocal about that. Honestly, Dealers are always overpriced not to mention there was an insane amount of bootlegs, I genuinely wouldn't mind if a good chunk of dealers space was removed in favor of more Artist space.

[xenoglossy]

Seconding that the food options inside the con were much better this year than they have been previously (especially in terms of vegetarian options) and that I loved how smoothly Thursday badge pickup went - I was really expecting that to be my whole evening, as it has historically been, and instead I was in and out in under half an hour. I didn't take advantage of the badge mailing, but it benefited me anyway, so I definitely hope AB keeps that up!

Many people have mentioned my main complaints about this year - the lack of line management and the low number of panels (with large blocks of unscheduled time especially in larger rooms) - but I'm wondering if this is due to not having enough staff? I know most cons have been struggling with understaffing in recent years, so maybe there's not much that can be done about it, but I wonder if AB could step up recruitment efforts? I follow AB's social media accounts and I feel like I don't see a lot of posts getting the word out about AB's volunteer perks, so I think they have plenty of room to do more of that before it starts becoming obnoxious!

Regarding the speculation that there just aren't enough panel applications anymore: as someone who applied for panels, knows a number of other people who also applied for panels, and followed the discussion about panel rejections on the AB Social FB group when they were going out, I know a lot of panels got rejected this year that were proposed by veteran panelists and were theoretically AB-appropriate (either had been run in past years or were very similar to things that have been), so I feel like something else must be the limiting factor. It was also strange to hear that some people who got rejections later had AB come back and say "never mind, your panel is accepted after all." AB usually waitlists a comfortable buffer of panels, so why did they apparently not know how many panels they needed this year?

(People have been saying on the forums that AB should move to the BCEC for over ten years now, so I'm not sure what people say on the forums has any effect on that, but I will say that panels, especially fan panels, are the highlight of my AB experience and I would worry about those going by the wayside if we moved, since the BCEC is set up for expo-style conventions that mostly revolve around the show floor. Though getting the Westin as well would help with that.)

Speaking of which, can anyone post a panel feedback thread in the panels subforum or does a moderator have to do it? It may be too late for one to get any traction, but I would love to talk about the handful of panels I managed to get into.

[amiche]

Thank you for this thread! Just wanted to second that the lights in the auditorium were extremely glaring and bright and gave me a headache

[DocWatson]

(People have been saying on the forums that AB should move to the BCEC for over ten years now, so I'm not sure what people say on the forums has any effect on that, but I will say that panels, especially fan panels, are the highlight of my AB experience and I would worry about those going by the wayside if we moved, since the BCEC is set up for expo-style conventions that mostly revolve around the show floor. Though getting the Westin as well would help with that.)

The Westin declined to renew Arisia's contract this year and the con is moving back to the ziggurat. This does not bode well for an Anime Boston at the Westin.

[kayecho]

Moving out of Hynes? Won't happen for one very good reason: significant lack of public transportation into other locations. Pax East pays for transportation to make it work. Unless u want ur badges for AB to cost 200 & up, it wont happen. We are not the type of gathering for that type of location & it won't work. All that can be done is cap the con & consider studying doing it 2 times a year - Spring & Fall - at a smaller size. More controllable costs & potential to gain people unavailable certain times of the year.

I agree with this.The BCEC is also just the wrong kind of venue for AB, which is panel heavy. It's not an expo kind of con. You can't have the same number and variety of small panels and video rooms at BCEC without relying on the Westin Seaport and that location is too small even for Anthro New England.

Two times a year sounds like a great idea, sort of how Anime Expo does AX Chibi. There could be one larger con, and a smaller one to maybe break up attendance a little. But maybe this is just me wanting more Anime Boston more often lol. There is concern that two cons may end up turning into two giant cons that becomes even more difficult to manage though. T_T

[animosc]

I recently heard from a vendor friend about some negative things that happened this year. Even though this thread is focused on the attendee experience, I hope that it's all right to bring up their vendor experience too and that this feedback can be relayed to the appropriate department.

Basically, load out was an absolute disaster this year. The way AB organizes how and when vendors queue up to enter the loading docks didn't make sense. Inside the loading docks were trucks that sat idly for hours, taking up spaces but not getting any moving done.

Why were they idle? Because their pallets had not been brought down by the Freeman movers. Apparently, Freeman waits to completely fill up the freight elevators with pallets before bringing all the pallets down to the loading docks simultaneously. That becomes a problem because the trucks are being let inside on a first come, first served basis. So there are trucks already waiting inside whose pallets have not arrived yet, and there are trucks waiting outside whose pallets have already arrived but who have no space to enter. This makes no sense. The trucks should be ushered inside only when their pallets arrive.

My vendor friend waited hours to enter. He was further incensed when he saw other trucks who were behind him in the queue allowed to enter before him and also leave before he entered. Later, he learned that that was because those trucks either did not have pallets to move, or had staff that did all the moving themselves with no reliance on Freeman. The staff could move their wares quickly themselves using the passenger elevators. As a result, they did not suffer the bottleneck of waiting for Freeman. They were still at the mercy of the available space inside though.

Whatever changes AB made to the load out procedure this year compared to 2023 failed. Please revert to the 2023 procedure because that worked just fine.

That's all for the vendor's comments.

Now for my comments as an attendee.

Basically, most of my complaints were already touched upon by other commenters above. Things like the overcrowding and whatnot.

Personally, I am accustomed to overcrowding and slow-moving areas because I attend a lot of conventions that are much busier than AB. I understand the need to line up hours early for popular panels, so that didn't bother me so much. Of course I wish I didn't have to, but AB has grown greatly so attendees need to develop different strategies to adapt. This is not AB's fault.

What did bother me was the lack of staff that help keep the crowds moving. I would like to see more strategically placed staff directing traffic at busy choke points. It's a straightforward job. All they need to do is to stand there and tell people to keep moving in the correct direction, not to stop and take photos, etc. At other cons, I've seen some of these staff carry a voice amplifier or megaphone, or a big sign with an arrow showing the direction to move in.

I was very impressed with the Japanese guests AB got this year. English guests too. I love going to their panels.

What I was not impressed with was the new autograph lottery. There were even people who had won a lottery but who didn't know to bring proper items to be signed. Clearly, those winners were not actual fans of the guests. There were apparently some no-shows too because attendees in a standby line were getting in.

The lottery procedure is simply not suitable for a convention. The presence of a lottery attracts people who like to gamble and who are not actual fans. Those gamblers are just looking for things to do and, by winning, they steal the spot of actual fans. Hence the people who didn't bring any items or who didn't bother to show up despite winning. It's all terribly disappointing.

Your ticket distribution method used in previous years was just fine. Let people who want to line up, line up. First come, first served is the most fair method and it will weed out the gambling non-fans.

My final comment is about water stations. I would like to see water stations placed somewhere in artists' alley and the dealers' room. And I would like to see water stations marked on the map.

Thanks! See you next year!

[CoyCoyCoy]

Just a small addition given people are talking about BCEC; PAX doesn't seem to use them much, but the BCEC has 82 meeting rooms, while the Hynes only has 38. Source: https://www.signatureboston.com/bcec It's not just the big open space people know from PAX!

Given that, I think a move to the BCEC would allow for more panels as well as more room for everyone to walk, unless the meeting rooms are tiny? Then the artist's alley / dealer's room / game playing / photo shoots could all be moved to the wide-open area - maybe a section could even be segmented off for a big stage to host things like the AMV contest / Masquerade / musical guests. I know PAX usually has a big screen for watching game-play live with lots of seats, so a stage / seats in the big room has been done before. Overall it seems doable to me - although I'm sure there are a lot more considerations and I might be missing something big!

The crowding has just made AB incredibly low access for people of various disabilities / sensitivities on Saturdays, and I'm assuming it'll only grow each year.

EDIT: the meeting rooms at BCEC total 151,781 square feet, while the meeting rooms at Hynes total 91,000 square feet. So it would have more panel room overall! Sources: https://www.signatureboston.com/bcec/fl ... cs#meeting https://www.signatureboston.com/hynes/f ... -and-specs

It looks like the meetings rooms can have walls added / taken down to merge rooms as well? So if Anime Boston could use Guidebook or some other sort of system (like people registering for panels or just registering interest ahead of time) to estimate the number of people who'd show up to each panel, you could try sizing them based on anticipated popularity? There should be a lot of interesting options.

[Aurabolt]

I've noticed for the last few years Panelists are not making threads in the forums. I get most people are on social media these days but I do think it should be mandated that panelists for the upcoming year who get slotted have a presence on the forums. More so at this point.

I was panelist for five straight years myself. It was just unthinkable back then to not have a presence on this sub-forum unless you were an industry guest. Now, you don't even see feedback topics. This can't continue to stand going into next year. Not uness the plan is to get rid of the forums entirely.