Sure, why not, I'll bite.

/cast Wall of Text
# I apologize for the formatting I know it looks atrocious but bear with me here.

Just to give a little background I've attended Magfest for approximately 2 years now (this year will be year number 3 assuming nothing comes up) so I can only provide feedback based on Magfest 7 and Magfest 8. However I did spend a large chunk of my time in the tabletop room and can definitely understand the need to create a more 'steamline' experience for individuals who are new to Magfest and maybe confused by the somewhat structured unorganized randomness (yes 'structured unorganized randomness') of the entertainment provided. With this said I'll provide some feedback:

Space Limitations:

Issue:
I believe this was probably one of the primary complaints of staff/volunteers and in some cases individuals in tabletop. Equally I'm sure there were some scenarios in which some people were interested in tabletop however either they walked away due to the number of people in the room or kept walking down to Jamspace. I think this is just a general reaction whenever people see something is overpopulated so they'll find something else to kill the time (i.e: there's a line for arcade cabinet and/or challenge booth 'x' so I'll probably go play 'y' if no one is around it).

Proposed Solution:
There's a couple ways to approach this...

Obtain a second/overflow/dedicated tournament/activity room:

Pros - Creates a secondary space which can be utilized for a specific activity (i.e: Trading Card based game {Magic, Warcraft} , Hexigon Warhammer like game that's there every year). Also organizing staff can be much smoother as shifts can be based on room locations rather than 'were all in this room person 'q' go monitor the second room. Lastly similar to the video game room schedules can be set-up ahead of time where people could sign-up for the tournaments at that room and return when they begin.

Cons - In a way it kind of splits up the masses into niches and as a result when one individual is done playing random board game (catan, candyland, risk etc) they'll have to relocate. Depending on the distance of the room it can either be annoying or hardly a bother at all (i.e: a room down like last year would be greatly different than say somewhere on the second floor). Also I'm not sure how cost constraints are but another room would need to be allocated to magfest from the Hotel.

Obtain a larger room for tabletop as a whole:

Pros - Larger room simply means more people you can stuff into it which is not bad at all. Also in the rare occasion where pizza is order all the orders can be taken at once from one location. Also as compared to having two smaller rooms people maybe more tempted to enter when walking by tabletop. More roaming space is always nice as in the process of after a 6-10 hour game of what not it would be nice to get up and stretch without too much worry of bumping into someone (personal preference I suppose).

Cons - I'm not sure how many larger size rooms are at the hotel so that maybe one limitation or if the cost would fluctuate for having one large room vs. 2 rooms. Something I guess is either 'has/will/already been/be looked into.

Added Notes 'Space Limitations':

If possible it might be a better idea to have long tables as compared to round tables. A mixture of them wouldn't be a bad idea as some games or configurations of games can benefit from long vs. short tables (Magic, for example, in a 'free for all' set-up I think is more enjoyable on a circle table for but tourney/emperor/ two head giant a long table makes more sense... More of an added note as compared to an actually issue.

Organizations:

Issue -
This I believe could be greatly improved upon. Some of the scheduled tournaments (some relating to vendor points or not) were held a bit random. Some felt almost like an after thought where it would announced randomly and then by word of mouth if you were at the right place at the right time you could participate.

Proposed Solution:

As briefly mentioned earlier I believe a sign-up sheet of some sort (be digital or paper) would solve this problem quickly. As long as its planned ahead of time as to what tournaments are going down (Magic and its various formats, catan, warcraft tcg, candyland, 'the game', or whatever) people be less likely to ask at random. Also by providing a schedule of the tournament based task you can effectively have some sort of forecast when the tabletop room will be busy. This can help determine how many staff members/volunteers that maybe needed on hand. No real pros or cons to the only con being the sheet gets lost or something random.

Consolidated List of Expectations:

The one thing you'll hear from Magfest almost (lol almost who am I kidding) every year is the following "Oh...yall are playing 'x'....man I wish had brought 'x' so that I could join ya/roflstomp". I realize there's no real way to emphasize this via the webs but for some activities people need to bring some of their own materials. Maybe in the "Places -> Tabletop" add under the rules something like "Feel free to bring your own card/board games as its encouraged however Magfest is not responsible for lost/stolen items" or something along those lines. I honestly have no idea how many people were introduced to "Lunch Money" over the weekend as a result of bring the original set and having "Sticks and Stones" on stand by (Sticks and Stones can be overwhelming to nooblets). Equally noted the individuals who bring extra Magic or Warcraft decks are highly praised for their effort. Bottom line guess trying to say put more emphasis on the 'bring your own stuff'. Heck I know the forums are rarely checked but maybe 1-3 months ahead of time make a thread listing all the games that are currently at Magfest along with recommendation of what to bring.

As one that attends cons as a participate (with approximately 4-5 years of anime con staff/volunteer experience) these are the main issues that come to my mind. Their were a lot of more new people at Magfest this time around, seemed like almost every 1 to 3 people I asked if it was their first time they replied 'yes'. Hopefully these ideas (assuming the wal of text didn't kill anyone) are considered as to provide a more interactive and enjoyable experience to future attendants.

Best Regards,

Panda

P.S: For those that don't remember me I was the 'token' black guy as dubbed in this youtube video provided below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOb5entBb1s