2009 Ozine Fest is a three-day convention held from the 3rd to the 5th of April 2009 at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall 2. The event featured game demos, merchandise booths, org recruitment tables, toy exhibits, a maid and host cafe, and cosplay competitions. Ozine Fest is one of the larger cons in the country, so it was not surprising to find the hall packed with cosplayers, anime fans, and onlookers alike.
I was only able to attend the second day out of all three, and although it only provided a brief glimpse of the scores of activities offered at the event, I can say with a certain amount of conviction that the con was a vast improvement from last year (where we handled one of the booths), but still many improvements can be made.
Of the many Japanese-related organizations present at the event, OTAKAI’s booth caught my eye since they put up display cabinets to feature toys borrowed from various collectors. This was reminiscent of the display set up by toy retailer TOYS & JOYS at Anime Festival Asia 2008. Fellow toy collectors and shutterbugs were able to get an eyeful of the club members most exclusive and most expensive babies.
My personal favorite was the HATSUNE MIKU NENDROID, which is sort of a grail item for me; it was readily available in HK and SG when I went there, but I refrained from purchasing it as I feared it was going to be the first step in a long and slippery slope to collecting every NENDO figure there is T^T Let’s hope I keep resisting for a bit longer, as I am literally up to my eyeballs in credit card bills purchasing video games and manga direct from Japan.
Cosplay groups arrived in droves as the second day featured the Group Competition. The competition drew a good mix of competitors, from Tekken to Gintama. Scores of individual cosplayers also showed up for fun. Add to the mix the fully-costumed models from the gaming company booths and the hosts and waiters at the cafe, and you have a staggering number of folks playing dress-up at the con.
Speaking of the maids, I was unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on your POV) to play big sister and confidante to two of the ladies who volunteered as maids for that Saturday’s cafe. These two lovelies were commiserating that the cafe was poorly set-up and vastly needed a change in management style.
According to them, too many maids were recruited to service too few tables, and since the guests were given the choice in selecting their maids, as opposed to maids being assigned their own tables like in more traditional cafes, several maids were overworked to exhaustion, while others were sitting around doing close to nothing.
Breaks were also poorly set-up, with the girls getting one hour breaks after every four-hour shift, instead of one fifteen minute break every hour which — from experience, would do more for their sore feet and aching backs. The cafe coordinators should’ve kept in mind that their maids were cosplayers who volunteered to be maids for the day, and are thus unequipped to be on their feet for hour-long stretches like professional wait staff.
Last but not least, some of the “maids” recruited for the cafe were not even dressed in anything that looked remotely servant-like. I personally spied some girls who looked like they just walked in from the mall after a shopping trip. This goes against the very concept of the maid cafe, and the people running it would’ve been better off simply calling the place a “cafe” minus the “maid” tag.
Of course there was nothing much anybody could do at the time, but now the con is over and the organizers have the time to sit down and consider the things that did and did not go well, I hope that they take these small observations into consideration, and take steps to prevent the same things from happening in future cafe events. The rest of the con really isn’t half-bad, so I hope something as easy to fix as the cafe wouldn’t spoil the chances of me returning to the event next year.
JPOP Manila 
nice review. i am sad to say that i agree with most of the comments you had about the maid cafe. hopefully they can improve on it next year.
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i just hope the people criticized take the comments positively and make room for improvements instead of retaliating by making personal attacks online (it has happened before).
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They should’ve just assigned maids to a particular table just like how it really is. That would have made everything else a lot easier. If there were more maids than tables, then assign 2 or 3 to a table. I’m just following common sense here. > . > Anyway, hope they learn and adjust accordingly next year.
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aww, didnt get to talk to you cos i didnt know you were there! was looking for you guys too…
oooh my pic is here! thanks ^__^V
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I have to agree with you. But you should have gone outside during the afternoon. A lot of wrong things went there. Some cosplayers even forgot that they were in a mall and they were in the path of elderly people or in front of the escalator. tsk tsk tsk.
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i just hope you also considered those who are organizing the event, masyado na silang busy, saka voluntary nga ang work sa maid cafe diba? hindi na sila bata para subuan pa ng pagkain kung nagugutom na sila.
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yes, i knew that the organizers were busy — i saw from the size of the events hall and the number of people inside. however, that should not be an excuse to show a mediocre effort for what is supposed to be one of the highlights of the event. if they were truly veteran organizers (and they should be, since they’ve already done a fairly large number of cons), they should have been able to predict many of the possible problems for the cafe, and thought of ways for preventing that even before the cafe opened in the first place.
secondly, i don’t understand this assumption that if people volunteer to do something, they should just put up or shut up if things do not go smoothly. i think that they — above all else including paid professionals, have a bigger right to complain, since they are not being paid for their efforts nor reimbursed for their expenses. if you are an events organizer and you are running an activity off the efforts of volunteeers, should you not have at least the decency to make things as painless for them as possible? they are volunteers, not slaves. please treat them right.
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Hi Ate Rotch! Saw your reply and all I can say is
YOU ROCK! m/
These kids don’t know who they’re putting up a fight with. XD
And I love the emphasis on the ACTUAL MAID CAFE. So true! XD
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Greetings I am one of the main organizers for those who don’t know me yet…
Una I decided to keep quiet na lang about this pero iba na kasi yung dating eh.
Im not being so defensive here pero with regards naman sa “should you not have at least the decency to make things as painless for them as possible? they are volunteers, not slaves. please treat them right.” please lang we are not treating them as slaves or so on, kung gusto nyo isa-isahin nyo pa sila tanungin (maliban na lang sa “two maids” siguro. Nagkataon lang hindi na naayos yung breaks nila kasi madaming tao and nag short sa manpower kagaya na din nung friday meron mga nag absent, thankfully mga maids na dapat on break nag decide to help out. Yun lang you can criticize us for all I care pero wag nyo naman kami sabihan ng ganun.
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Hi, and thanks for speaking up. I am pleased with the chance to discuss this matter with the organizing team like grown-ups, as I feel that that particular Multiply thread where this issue came to fore was populated by far too many immature teenagers who would rather name-call than listen to reason.
Moving on, I completely understand that things can and will go wrong at an event, since I’ve been helping out at cons way back in 2000. I also fully appreciate the fact that no matter how hard you try as an organizer, some things are bound not to go your way. However, I have to reply to some of the things you said in your comment.
Nagkataon lang hindi na naayos yung breaks nila kasi madaming tao and nag short sa manpower kagaya na din nung friday meron mga nag absent, thankfully mga maids na dapat on break nag decide to help out.
While it appeared that the challenge with this con ( I will refrain from using the word problem) is with the staff being shorthanded, I personally think that it was simply the result of a lack of a more sound, better detailed event plan. I know for a fact that your organization is behind many of the larger Philippine cons in recent years, and value the amount of experience and organizational skills you have gained by it. However with this particular facet of the con, I regretfully did not see any of that maturity and experience.
Being shorthanded is not the problem — it is the lack of proper break rotation and manpower distribution. If, for example, you considered what I had previously suggested, and had set tables for each group of two or three maids, that means that even if one maid from each table takes a break there are still two other maids to serve the table. The maids would also have the work load distributed evenly, since there are no playing favorites and making special requests.
Also, if the breaks were scheduled as 10-15 minutes every hour, that means that you do not lose your maids for hour long stretches as they took their meals. They will also most probably remain within easy reach of communication since they know that they are needed back in fifteen minutes, and therefore will not wander off to the middle of the main mall.
Kindly consider these suggestions with an eye on practicality and good sense. I know that it may appear to you and your detractors that I know nothing about what I am talking about and am simply doing this out of spite, however I would like to reiterate that as a previous cafe coordinator and someone who has experienced an actual maid cafe, I am simply trying to help your organization improve on what you already have.
Yun lang you can criticize us for all I care pero wag nyo naman kami sabihan ng ganun.
I’m sorry, but as you yourself have said in the previous Multiply thread, everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I will not retract mine. Thank you very much again for taking the time out and making your comments heard. If you have anything else to add, the comments box is always open. Thanks again and have a productive Easter weekend!
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Well nag change na yan nung day 3 may nka assign na silang sariling tables. Only you weren’t there to see it. Yup you are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to answer back kasi hindi lang ako ang ayon sa nasabi mo and we will never treat our people that way. Ewan ko na lang kung sino ba yung bitter minded na nag iisip ng ganun sige good day nasabi ko na part ko and to lessen or prevent this from becoming an argument stop na ako.
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From what I gathered from the Multiply thread, part of the reason why things went smoothly on the last day was because there was a discussion between the maids and the cafe coordinator Saturday night, in order to fix some of the things that went awry on Friday and Saturday.
Having said that, the changes made for the last day does not excuse the easily preventable challenges faced during the first two days. Also, you yourself admitted that improvements were made only during the last day, and unfortunately this leads me to the conclusion that if the discussion was not held, then things would not have fared any better during the third day of the cafe.
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I totally agree about your review on the maid café
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