Thank you to everyone who filled out the post-PUDDLE 2014 survey. All of the comments and feedback are greatly appreciated. The feedback was mostly positive, and it makes me happy to hear that people had a good time. However, there is always room for improvement!
Three fourths of the people who responded to the survey attended PUDDLE in 2014. More than half of those were attending for the first time.
1. The number one recommendation for improvement for next year will be accomplished – we will have the entire ballroom in 2015. (Huzzah!) I am taking a leap of faith that we’ll have as many attendees as we did in 2014 and will be able to pay for the ballroom. This will give us lots of room to address some other issues. For example:
– Vendors will have more room. That was a big problem last year, in the smaller room, and I apologize to all the vendors and thank them for their cooperation in sharing space. We’ll be changing the vendor process a little this year, so if you have any ideas, send them along to me and vendor coordinator ravenwcatz via the Contact Us page here on the site.
– We will be able to have one central table to pick up entry slips, voting slips, and the like.
– Hopefully we will have some “extra” tables for those eating lunch in the room.
– We will have adequate room to fully display all the lovely raffle and auction items.
– We will have adequate space for free items and for Leave Something, Take Something.
2. We will have ice breakers and trivia again, as both were very popular. I would really encourage everyone who attends PUDDLE next year to introduce yourself to others. It can be really hard, but you may find the other person is just as hesitant as you. When asked “How did you participate in PUDDLE 2014,” the most selected answer was “Made new friends!”(And some of you may be surprised to hear that I am a real wallflower at heart. I have trained myself to be outgoing.)
3. We can’t address every comment, but I will note that, not surprisingly, some of the feedback was contradictory (for example,”too many activities” v. “not enough activities” and “offer simultaneous events” v. “I love having only one event at a time”) and some suggestions are not affordable/practical (for example, we can’t bring in a meal as we are required to have the hotel cater any food, and we can’t set up the night before without paying for the room for both days).
4. A few people wished there were more custom dolls for raffle or auction. I’d love to see that too, but it will take more people customizing and donating dolls. Once again we had requests for a formal workshop, something I’d love to see but it requires a committed volunteer to organize and lead. Someone suggested we have a “make it, take it” craft, a terrific idea and we already have a volunteer to work on that one!
How can you help make PUDDLE better? Volunteer to help! A few people commented that the scrabble mixer we played before the door prizes was lame and disorganized – as indeed it was. I was trying to address requests for a mingling activity when I didn’t have the time to put enough thought into it. Babelglyph’s were much better. This is a perfect example of how distributing the tasks among many people makes things better.
As always, I appreciate your interest in the Pullip and Dal Doll Lovers Event.
TrueFan