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I spent Halloween weekend at an anime convention. We were at a new hotel this year... that ever so wonderfully looked like it was flipping off Canada. This amused me. I also felt like I was in a Shadowrun game all weekend... scary creatures and the hotel was confusing as fuck.
Even though I went to the convention with the best intentions to NOT work... and I had a comp badge.... yeah, I think I put in about 30 hours, helping with lines and also with a friend (S) selling hats in the Dealer's Room.
THE UGLY:
Mismanagement on an Epic Scale
The hotel didn't believe the con when we estimated how many people were going to be attending. They literally didn't believe us no matter how many times we told them. We had more people staying in the hotel then were there when the Super Bowl was in town... and this hotel was the premiere hotel for the Super Bowl. They had just the normal amount of employees on shift. We had 8,206 paying attendees plus staff and guests and panelists and other comps. The head of the hotel (Mr Hotel Himself) was there and there are rumors that he ripped into the local hotel management for how they handled things... so at least we should see improvement next year!
Wanted: Eye Spork
People wearing spandex though should NEVER be allowed to wear spandex. And people deciding that a voluptuous character is a good reason to let their heavage roam free...
More brain bleach needed! Please! Help!
THE BAD:
ElevatorCon
People riding the elevators in the opposite direction from where they needed to go, which meant that everyone else had to wait longer for an elevator. And these same people bitching when staff told them that they can't ride the elevator down to go up... because then the poor woman in a wheelchair can't get on an elevator on the first floor. Hint to people.... bitching to staff and not listening when they're giving you orders increases your chance of being removed from the con.
This is NOT a One-Way Pillar
The same goes for you... all of you people who didn't understand when I told them that a specific hallway was one way... we had a line for the rave in the thin hallway, and we could only allow traffic in one direction because there wasn't room. Really really trying hard NOT to get shut down by the Fire Marshall, thankyouverymuch. And when I tell you that the hallway is one way and that you need to go around and I POINT where you need to go, trying to sneak around the pillar in my hallway is NOT going to work. Going around the pillar does not turn it into another hallway. If you're staff, SHOW ME YOUR BADGE instead of snarling at me and trying to push past. If you're staff, I'll let you down the hall. But when your badge is backwards and I have no fucking clue who you are, I'm going to stop you.
Traffic Jam and Other Dealer's Room Asshattery
Also, stopping in the middle of a crowded aisle in the Dealer's is going to make me frustrated. I will tell you to move. I can't get to my booth because you're blocking the way, and the woman I'm helping is swamped.
And you, sir, next time you want to put your bags down on my table and sort through your belongings... not even looking at my merch or looking at me, and not asking... yeah, you need to move. NOW.
Fellow vendor behind me... your music is so loud that I have to shout to be heard. I was already having problems because of my asthma, now I have no voice. Oh, and the migraine I had on Sunday was not helped by this either. You turned it down on Saturday when asked... so why the hell did you think it was ok to turn it back up on Sunday?
And you, Ma'am. Yes, these hats are handmade original designs. If you pay cash, it's $20 even because we don't want to deal with coins... we still pay the state sales tax, we just give you a deal and we worry about it later. If you're paying with credit, we WILL tack on the 6% sales tax because we get charged a transaction fee. And we tell you this up front. Gushing at me that $20 is an awesome price... but then turning nasty when I tell you that the total is $21.20... yeah, that's not happy-making. Actually, S & I were both flabbergasted at your response... you actually asked us if we were joking and then made a catbutt face. You'd much rather go to an ATM and pay a surcharge to take cash out than pay the $1.20 in tax. Of course, we closed up the booth 15 min later and you didn't get the hat you wanted. Sorry.
TO THE PARENTS OF...
Your preteen kid was running around, jumping into people's faces, and "humped" some girl's head, freaking her out. Security came up to me to ask me to keep an eye out. Two minutes later, the kid got into MY face. I was able to give an excellent description of the kid and he was caught in less than 10 minutes.
Please keep your spawnling under better control next time. The only reason he wasn't removed from the con was because he was a child and we handed him over to you. Next time we won't be so nice.
THE GOOD:
I'll Be Back...
Hanging out with my friends... and never being questioned about being in staff/vendor areas even though technically I didn't have a staff or vendor badge. It's nice being around people who know that I'm working my ass off and respect me for it. This is a convention that I'm willing to staff at because of that.
The hotel security and the local cops/EMTS. And the hotel maintenance and cleaning staff. They LOVED us! Hell, they were chatting with us and taking pictures of the cosplayers. We had over 9000 people in the hotel and caused next to no problems... I didn't hear of a single person arrested or anything broken in the hotel.
*Twitch* Need... another... hat....
Getting another hat. I'm slightly addicted to hats. Well, specific hats. I have a totem-pole of these specific hats.... and I still need more. If anyone ever wants to buy me a present, I can send you the website. My collection of hats is here:
Oh, and here's my wearing my newest hat:
Even though I went to the convention with the best intentions to NOT work... and I had a comp badge.... yeah, I think I put in about 30 hours, helping with lines and also with a friend (S) selling hats in the Dealer's Room.
THE UGLY:
Mismanagement on an Epic Scale
The hotel didn't believe the con when we estimated how many people were going to be attending. They literally didn't believe us no matter how many times we told them. We had more people staying in the hotel then were there when the Super Bowl was in town... and this hotel was the premiere hotel for the Super Bowl. They had just the normal amount of employees on shift. We had 8,206 paying attendees plus staff and guests and panelists and other comps. The head of the hotel (Mr Hotel Himself) was there and there are rumors that he ripped into the local hotel management for how they handled things... so at least we should see improvement next year!
Wanted: Eye Spork
People wearing spandex though should NEVER be allowed to wear spandex. And people deciding that a voluptuous character is a good reason to let their heavage roam free...
More brain bleach needed! Please! Help!
THE BAD:
ElevatorCon
People riding the elevators in the opposite direction from where they needed to go, which meant that everyone else had to wait longer for an elevator. And these same people bitching when staff told them that they can't ride the elevator down to go up... because then the poor woman in a wheelchair can't get on an elevator on the first floor. Hint to people.... bitching to staff and not listening when they're giving you orders increases your chance of being removed from the con.
This is NOT a One-Way Pillar
The same goes for you... all of you people who didn't understand when I told them that a specific hallway was one way... we had a line for the rave in the thin hallway, and we could only allow traffic in one direction because there wasn't room. Really really trying hard NOT to get shut down by the Fire Marshall, thankyouverymuch. And when I tell you that the hallway is one way and that you need to go around and I POINT where you need to go, trying to sneak around the pillar in my hallway is NOT going to work. Going around the pillar does not turn it into another hallway. If you're staff, SHOW ME YOUR BADGE instead of snarling at me and trying to push past. If you're staff, I'll let you down the hall. But when your badge is backwards and I have no fucking clue who you are, I'm going to stop you.
Traffic Jam and Other Dealer's Room Asshattery
Also, stopping in the middle of a crowded aisle in the Dealer's is going to make me frustrated. I will tell you to move. I can't get to my booth because you're blocking the way, and the woman I'm helping is swamped.
And you, sir, next time you want to put your bags down on my table and sort through your belongings... not even looking at my merch or looking at me, and not asking... yeah, you need to move. NOW.
Fellow vendor behind me... your music is so loud that I have to shout to be heard. I was already having problems because of my asthma, now I have no voice. Oh, and the migraine I had on Sunday was not helped by this either. You turned it down on Saturday when asked... so why the hell did you think it was ok to turn it back up on Sunday?
And you, Ma'am. Yes, these hats are handmade original designs. If you pay cash, it's $20 even because we don't want to deal with coins... we still pay the state sales tax, we just give you a deal and we worry about it later. If you're paying with credit, we WILL tack on the 6% sales tax because we get charged a transaction fee. And we tell you this up front. Gushing at me that $20 is an awesome price... but then turning nasty when I tell you that the total is $21.20... yeah, that's not happy-making. Actually, S & I were both flabbergasted at your response... you actually asked us if we were joking and then made a catbutt face. You'd much rather go to an ATM and pay a surcharge to take cash out than pay the $1.20 in tax. Of course, we closed up the booth 15 min later and you didn't get the hat you wanted. Sorry.
TO THE PARENTS OF...
Your preteen kid was running around, jumping into people's faces, and "humped" some girl's head, freaking her out. Security came up to me to ask me to keep an eye out. Two minutes later, the kid got into MY face. I was able to give an excellent description of the kid and he was caught in less than 10 minutes.
Please keep your spawnling under better control next time. The only reason he wasn't removed from the con was because he was a child and we handed him over to you. Next time we won't be so nice.
THE GOOD:
I'll Be Back...
Hanging out with my friends... and never being questioned about being in staff/vendor areas even though technically I didn't have a staff or vendor badge. It's nice being around people who know that I'm working my ass off and respect me for it. This is a convention that I'm willing to staff at because of that.
The hotel security and the local cops/EMTS. And the hotel maintenance and cleaning staff. They LOVED us! Hell, they were chatting with us and taking pictures of the cosplayers. We had over 9000 people in the hotel and caused next to no problems... I didn't hear of a single person arrested or anything broken in the hotel.
*Twitch* Need... another... hat....
Getting another hat. I'm slightly addicted to hats. Well, specific hats. I have a totem-pole of these specific hats.... and I still need more. If anyone ever wants to buy me a present, I can send you the website. My collection of hats is here:
Oh, and here's my wearing my newest hat:
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