I appreciate the shoutout Stephen!
I was really nervous being my first stream game and my first top 8, but it was so cool having a familiar face there judging from the collector scene.
Hope to see you at future events! EUIC maybe? 
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Canada is actually stacked lmao, easier to top 8 a regional than a league cup 
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Yeah my 1 loss day 1 was me conceding mid round to make the SMS queue, and then I was fortunate enough to do the signing really fast (big thank you to @tyranitardaddy for letting me go in front of them!!!), and made it back to my next round with the judge waiting at the table to give me a game loss for being late in 30 seconds lmfao. If I lost that game I wouldn’t have even made day 2 probably!
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Amazing to hear all of this!
Does anyone have any fresh takeaways/advice for the next event like this? I’ve yet to have the opportunity to make it to one but definitely want to set myself up for success the next time the opportunity presents itself!
Do we have something confirmed for Hartford?
The number one advice I would give is to be prepared. That includes being prepared to be on time, having the right clothing, gear, and snacks you need to wait long hours. But most importantly be mentally prepared to not get any signatures. You have to go to these events knowing that it’s only a possibility and not a guarantee.
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Happy to hear the event went well for Himeno and ran smoothly! Here’s to more in the future
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I’ve been to 3 of the 4 recent signings, here’s the best advice I can give:
- You are not guaranteed anything unless you have a panel. Be prepared for the possibility, and in fact the significant likelihood that you will leave with nothing.
- Assuming the events remain first-come, first-serve, arrive early on Thursday to react to the line in real-time. Get on IG or the E4 discord and follow our #irl-events channel as most people attending will post there.
- Signing speed is a huge factor. People like Harada and Arita were relatively fast, but Saitou and Himeno went slower which meant that fewer people got through. You can never tell how fast someone will sign until you get the stats from the previous day.
- The best part of the event is seeing other fans, meeting up with friends, exploring the city, and enjoying the experience outside of the signatures. So be sure to focus on that as well!
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Amazing points, thank y’all. Forgive my ignorance, but how does one secure a panel?
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The panel tickets are distributed via lottery, you need to enter beforehand and if you’re selected, you have an opportunity to purchase. Usually the panels involve a Q&A session or demonstration, and then you have the opportunity to purchase autographs afterwards.
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Shoutout to the e4 folks for being patient, classy and most importantly, following the rules.
Time and time again you lot lead by example.
It was great seeing all of you
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Aw, so heartwarming to hear she had a great time this weekend! Happy for everyone who got a signature! Real shame i wasnt able to make it, sounds like it was a really fun experience. Hope I’ll see you guys next time! Cheers
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Thank you to the volunteers who sacrificed personal time to ensure the event ran as smooth as possible esp. @pfm @swolepoke @gengarbrigade you all are great friends to me now as well. The meetups were the highlight of the trip beyond the autos.
See everyone at the next one.
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I wish had words that could describe the event for me but I honestly have none that can measure up to the great feelings that came with it all. Im still in shock from so much and honestly I couldnt have asked for a greater experience.
Beforehand I was anxious as could be. I was ready for it to be such a mixed bag like Saitou was in how crazy things got, but this was a LOT different and I attribute everything in that sense to the Staff, @Alec , and the people involved. When I got there all my woes melted away and as the days went on I became so incredibly sad to leave. I was so grateful for meeting everyone and by the end, the sig aspect didnt even matter anymore. Knowing Himemaru had the time of her life and truly connected so deeply with her fans was such a blessing to hear and opened a huge door for her return like no other. My heart couldnt be happier right now, and I honestly cried a bunch of times now being that this all just hit me so hard.
Seriously, there isnt enough good things I can say here. One day I could only imagine to provide such a feeling to others in anyway I can, and this all just inspired me more and more to break out of my shell and see everyone for such things. We are all family in this together, and while families can have their ups and downs in the end we proved wholeheartedly that our bonds are so deep that we can impact everyone in the best possible way for the better. I hope others feel the same, and once more I hope to see everyone real, real soon again. 
Love you all.
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Thanks for working on these events and posting on here to try and improve/maintain open communication and transparency. What a weekend of emotions… here are my thoughts on what worked well & areas of opportunity (specific to the signing). I’ll do my best to keep personal feelings out of it, but the lines can become slightly blurred.
What Worked Well:
- Virtual queue served its primary purpose
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Kept people out of having to physically stand in line everyday so they could do other things
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Dispersed the massive crowd which becomes a health and safety risk
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No constant large line crowd standing around to overwhelm the artist (separate room also helped x2)
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Rules were set for line cutters & resellers. This led to folks being mostly nice and respectful in the line (minus people who smoke in your face/around children in a big crowd… like walk across the street) as they didn’t want to deal with the potential of being kicked out.
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Panel distribution seemed fair. This is hard to measure but I saw a wide range of folks get panels from all the various “cliques” of this hobby. So kudos to that.
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Himeno was happy. This is the way.
Areas of Opportunity:
- Communication
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It was obvious the 500-600 people in the virtual queue were not all getting in. The staff should have been more front coming with that information especially after the 2nd day when Himeno’s pace was set. Instead staff said many people didn’t show up to their groups on Sunday and said they might call more groups even up to 615pm on Sunday they were saying that…
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Give folks the numbers (e.g. how many per group, how many groups would make it) transparency here would alleviate the stress/anxiety and probably just crush a majority of rumors during and after the event.
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Adhere to prior announcements (e.g., line will not start until night) people who broke these rules were rewarded and ultimately caused the panic that ensued with everyone rushing to camp and the line reaching over 200 by 6pm (before sunset). You edited your post about this day of as well after the line started and security gave their greenlight, sort of bad manners. I spoke to a lot of folks who were in the high 200-300s and they said they were following the rules and planned around them (e.g., flights, driving in at a specific time to make it Thursday night). I’ll tell you this, people will just keep lining up earlier and earlier if the artist is a big name and you don’t enforce your own policies. I already heard several people who said I’ll just fly in the day before and line up Wednesday night going forward. This is not good.
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Virtual Queue Group Processing Speed/Time Some groups would be ready to go while others were still trying to put their names on the sticker. Why not have folks have that information prefilled out before they return? Maybe have people also prepay in a separate staging area and have their stuff pre-approved to help the flow. We shouldn’t have downtime on the signing unless the artist is on a break.
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No line management at the end of the day the line rules were “self-enforced” I did not personally see cutters but based on the rough numbers of assuming Himeno went through 100 on the first two days and there were 10 people per group on Sunday I’m not sure how people in the 150-160 range did not even get a group. The math doesn’t add up unless people cut. It could be that there were not ~100 people through the general line on Fri+Sat and not 10 people per group on Sunday which would just lead back to my first note listed above regarding communication.
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No opportunity to even physically see the artist this is a double-edged sword as you don’t want to stress the artist out but the fact that so many fans couldn’t even just wave from a distance is remarkable and sad. People paid upwards of 2k+ (in this boat sadly lol) if they were flying in and at the very least couldn’t see their favorite artist. How you address this I’m not sure but ultimately this was my biggest disappointment.
Sorry, this is a long post and I’ve left out a few things but thought the above was enough to think on. I’ll leave this with a suggestion to move to a lottery virtual queue for the general line (basically do the same thing you do for panels) I can outline some ideas if you wanted them on how this could work and discuss your concerns with this approach. For example, if you’re worried about not generating the revenue then require folks to have a spectator badge to enter the virtual queue general line.
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Dunno about this event, but there are 100% people who bring/have brought card(s) that have no direct relation to the artist to get signed. Its not always done with malice, but it does happen.
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yeah, there was someone at the Saitou event who tried to get a 20th battle festa signed lol. Prob a simple mistake since its just a one letter difference in their names.
I can answer some of these
This was not an issue. I was managing the flow for a lot of the time. There was virtually zero dead time between autographs (outside of breaks) because there was always at least 3 people ready to go in the room.
8 people per group
I can totally understand this. But this was basically at the request of the artist. Himeno did not want to appear in photos. This is why all phones where off in the panel and you were not allowed to use your phone in the room of the general line. Even just walking between rooms, someone took a photo of her and they were told to delete it. Again it’s really unfortunate that you didn’t even get to see her but in this case it was all to accommodate her preference
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Thank you for responding.
That’s fine with the flow it was hard to tell from an outsider perspective so I could only see what I see but I’ll believe you that things were always in flow on the inside!
the number 8 makes more sense and I appreciate the transparency, 10 was thrown out a lot and I know the event staff was probably just exhausted as these events are long and can be stressful so it’s not really a big deal at all.
Lastly, I definitely respect the artists wishes of not being photographed that makes sense she wants her privacy. ultimately just something to be disappointed on but easily something that passes with time.
here’s to hoping she comes back and I have the privilege to meet her then!
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Any idea why she didn’t want to be photographed? Cultural thing or other reasons you think? This is the first time I’ve heard of a Pokémon artist that tight about cell phones and pictures