Last year we had a room dedicated to documentaries of anime. Do you think this was a good idea, or do you think it is a waste of space?
I think it definatly earns us some bonus points and is a big plus in the coolness factor of the con, and it did get some attendance, but what do you think?

I just wish I coulda watched more of them :-P

I couldn't find them. lol.

With all that was going on, I totally missed this. ><

We should have it again.

Judging by the Documentary room's attendance, I'd say that having an entire room dedicated to documentaries would be a bit much. Istead, I suggest we have a "documentary block" where only the best doumentaries are shown. That should allow us to have more flexability and the block can always be extended if needed.

In all the video room chaos, the documentary room never really got a fair chance. It wasn't running for most of the con. (The were even a few hours Friday night when it was showing stuff but without sound.) I'm not sure if we posted a schedule outside the door. We didn't really promote it. We had all sort of really cool stuff that we didn't get to show. (We never did show Talking Head! Or Japanorama! Argh...)

All that being said, I don't really accept your premise that the success of a video room is measured by its attendance. The Armageddicon doesn't pander (much). To me, three people watching a video about the making of Space Battleship Yamato is worth more than a packed room watching the latest harem show. It's not just about how many people show up; it's about how special/cool/unique/transformative the experience is.

The documentary room doesn't need to be big (though "Otaku Unite" drew a bunch of people), but I will defend the existence of the room with my life. A block doesn't do the concept justice. There's just so much cool stuff out there that needs to be seen.

Chris, don't jump to conclusions. I never said anything about the success of anything of a video room (or anything else for that matter) being measured by attendance. As a matter of fact, I agree with you 100%. I also was one of the documentory room's biggest supporters from the very beginning. That is why I was so upset that out of all the rooms, that one eneded up being the most neglected. So, next year, as long as we can make it work, I'm totally for a 24-hour documantory room.

I agree with Chris on how he defines the success of a video room.

Plus, as with a lot of what we had, it was a really new idea, and sometimes those take time to catch on. I hope to keep bringing in new ideas, but a lot of them will probably take a few years to catch on, just because people don't expect them or havn't worked them into their traditions and routines yet. I think even had the room ran smoothly this year that it wouldn't have been well attended, but that isn't to say that it won't be this year.

Even at that, it was how you stated things.

I still stand by bringing it back. New trends tend to catch on, and as Mike stated it was something people didn't really expect.

Keep it.

Knowing the true frighting depth of Chris' latent powers, I advise keeping the documentary room. I'll back Chris on this too.

There were some glitches that had to be worked out. With those corrected it will get more viewers.
I found myself make notes in my pda of things I wanted to look up when I got home. Anything that gets me thinking, or wanting to know more is cool. If it wasn't for the con I never would have seen it.

As video head, and one of the champions of the idea of a documentary room, I will keep it!

I am also working to make it very awesome, I have a few wonderful docs already lined up. The most I can say is the French know their shit about anime, and when their stuff is translated to English, its absolutely amazing!

So stooooooooooooooooooked!!!

Keep it, keep it!