Feedback of sorts!

[KristenDeity]

First of all, may I say that CFz was brilliant as usual this year! Despite being a new location, I found myself having fun and all around enjoying my time at the convention.
But, onto feedback!

DANCE CONTEST

I will not go into my personal problems, but I do want to address a few things. The contest has always been a popular event so was a little disappointed with the size of the room that it was held in. Whilst I am not one to complain, as I was one of the first people in and was quite comfy and on a chair, I saw people looking a little uncomfortable and such because they were squashed onto the floor. I don't think sitting on the floor was a problem for most, it was just how crowded it was. Maybe next year, a bigger room would suffice.

Secondly, I do not understand why there was only a first place prize this year? All previous years they have always announced 2nd and 3rd, regardless if they get a trophy or not (which I also think would be a nice touch.) Something small I know, but I heard a few people, dancers and audience asking why there was only a first place award.

ART AUCTION.

Now this will probably be a section which will cause some drama.
I understand people want to auction off pieces of their art, whether it be an original piece or a limited print of something and some people want to keep most of the profits and donate a little to charity. I personally have no issues with this, but here's my complaint about it.
I think if a piece goes to live auction, regardless of how many bids it has gained before hand, I think for a piece of artwork to go to auction, the piece should have an absolute minimum of 20% to be accepted into the live auction. The main reason behind the CHARITY auction is that some of the money should go to charity. The live auction will attract a lot more bids on an item, generating more money to go to the chosen charity. As mentioned above, I have no issues with people submitting art and having a 5% or even 0 to charity, but I think if a piece is chosen to go to auction, it should be at least 20% or higher charity donation.

My complete and utter respect goes to those who give 100% to charity during the auction.

That's about all the complaining I have to do for now.
Hats off to all the staff for organizing a great con as always, despite the delays but it wouldn't be Confuzzled if events ran on time.

[EmberKomodog]

Hi there!

As one of the two hosts of the dance contest, I completely agree with you about the prizes! I was not responsible for the planning and organising of the event, but I will certainly be liaising with the organiser so that next year we have a first, second and third place trophy

Many thanks for your honest feedback!

Ember

[KristenDeity]

Many thanks!
Great job with hosting as well! Enjoyed myself thoroughly!

[Tailen]

ART AUCTION.

Now this will probably be a section which will cause some drama.
I understand people want to auction off pieces of their art, whether it be an original piece or a limited print of something and some people want to keep most of the profits and donate a little to charity. I personally have no issues with this, but here's my complaint about it.
I think if a piece goes to live auction, regardless of how many bids it has gained before hand, I think for a piece of artwork to go to auction, the piece should have an absolute minimum of 20% to be accepted into the live auction. The main reason behind the CHARITY auction is that some of the money should go to charity. The live auction will attract a lot more bids on an item, generating more money to go to the chosen charity. As mentioned above, I have no issues with people submitting art and having a 5% or even 0 to charity, but I think if a piece is chosen to go to auction, it should be at least 20% or higher charity donation.

My complete and utter respect goes to those who give 100% to charity during the auction.

Thank you for your feedback. As you may have noted, the event is called Auction Live Bidding Show, and not a charity auction.
Our current policy is to change 0% items that go to live auction to 5%, which is around the equivalent of an administration fee for conducting such a live auction. We are indeed a charity organization, but we do not want to levy a tax on artists for submitting their work in the art show. Many of our artists rely on the income of their sales to pay for their stay at the con, or to save up money to go to another con. We find that our artists give generously to charity every year and we neither can nor want to make their donations feel forced in any way. Many of our artists also submit items with differing charity donations, so even if they have items in the art show at 0%, they may also have other items at 20%, 50% or more.
In general, artists also seem well aware that their charity donation percentage has an impact on the bidding prices for their items.

ConFuzzled provides free exhibition space for artists and potential exposure to a massive audience (this year we had over 1000 attendees), and judging by our charity figures for the art show every year, we are being repaid for our hard work by the artists' donations. ConFuzzled wishes to continue supporting our chosen annual charity as well as the furry artist community in general each year, and we find our current policy to be a good guideline for doing both.

[KristenDeity]

Thankyou for clearing this up.

[ferret]

I enjoyed the art auction this year and was really happy with the amount raised for charity.  It really felt like everyone was doing their all to make it a charity-focussed event!

[Swolf]

Many thanks!
Great job with hosting as well! Enjoyed myself thoroughly!

Hi
In the first year of running the comp, I had a runner up medal for second place. sequential years we've only ordered a main trophy, as the organiser i can see bringing back the medal for 2nd and 3rd would be appreciated by the contestants.
Also apologies that there wasn't an announcement of the other places, with the last minute setup in the room and the hunt for our judges we were running behind schedule so wrapped things up a little hastily.