This is the first time we have attended this convention, we leave San Jose tired but with great memories, lots of pictures and many many hours of video.

The panels we attended were very good and had lots of information, the panelists really know their stuff.

The exhibition room was of a decent size and we found several goodies could not resist buying.

Artist Alley was huge! If you couldn't find something you like, you weren't looking.

We could not attend the AMV contest, maybe next year.

The masquerade only lasted one hour and a half but the performances were really funny, well executed and the costumes were great.

The overall feel of the convention was really relaxed and laid back, attendees were pretty much left by themselves. Besides staff members located at the entrance of event's rooms and at the information desk, you would rarely see a staff member or a security personnel walking around the convention floor.

Suggestions:

1. Please, get more printers for next year and a barcode system. 6+ hours of wait time for badge pickup is ridiculously long.

2. Always check your sound equipment before you have to use it. During opening ceremonies is not the time to figure out which microphone works and which one doesn't. Always have a wired microphone tested and ready to go.

3. I feel really bad for the performers at the masquerade. They put many weeks, if not months, preparing their costumes rehearsing their lines, going over their movements again and again, just to have their whole skit blown out by someone at the sound table who doesn't know the difference between the play and the stop buttons.

Also number the entrants and announce who was in the skit at the end of each skit or walk on. This will buy you time if the next skit drops out or needs time to set up.

4. People at the information desk should know at the very least the major event times and places. They should know stuff!

5. The Program Guide is very nice and high quality and almost useless.

While the Pocket Guide contained the name, date, time and location for a panel, the Program Guide only contained the name of the panel and a small blurb about it but no date, time or location for it.

There is no easy way to find a panel from the Program Guide to the Pocket Guide and vice-versa.

Nevertheless, we had lots of fun and we will back next year.