No On-Site Registration for D*Con 2010

[glowingdome.livejournal.com]

I happened by this little ditty on a track director's homepage. Please tell me it isn't true.

http://www.ageoflegends.net/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1015

Do not procrastinate this year

Post by Kathana Trevalaer on Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:45 pm

Pre reg is running really high compared to last year. So DragonCon is considering a

membership cap. This would mean that there would be NO onsite registration. So if you know

for sure you're planning to come, be sure to get your badge now.

President,
Age of Legends, LLC

Convention Chair, JordanCon

Director of Wheel of Time Programming, Dragon*Con

"Do you know what also doesn't sleep? My gun."
-- The Adventures of John and Dave

Comments

[drkvampirelupin.livejournal.com]

They would lose too much money, I'd think.

There is nothing about it on the official website, although this has me worried.

[captains-folly.livejournal.com]

I doubt they'd lose money. Considering the number of pre-registration and the hotels being sold out. I'm pretty sure they aren't hurting for money at all.

Considering the number of people who attended last year and some issues, I think they want to provide as pleasent of an experience for members, guest, and staff.

[littledrow.livejournal.com]

...the hotels being sold out. This doesn't necessarily mean anything. When the hotel reservation fiasco happened for this year's con, there were single people reserving blocks of rooms in hopes of filling them. As we get closer to con we'll see a lot of rooms go up for grabs as people suddenly are unable to go, or the people they were counting on back out and suddenly one to seven people are having to pay for six or more rooms.

Attendance was massive last year. I know I stayed away from events because of the lines. They were monitoring how many people were in the time travelers ball and only letting people in as other people left.

It would be nice to cap attendance, but I don't think it's possible or maybe even a good idea. It's hard to predict how many people would show up for on site reg, and it's a show of how great D*C is that so many people want to be there.

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

I talked to a few employees of Mariott reservations, and the general answer is that Passkey screwed the pooch on this one in allowing single callers to reserve upwords of 9 rooms when the limit per call was supposed to be 2.
Hopefully people will remember to transfer the rooms over instead of cancelling, which puts it back into the general hotel pool (will SOMEONE at DC staff please look in to this bit of fine print in the housing contract, please?). There's also word that Passkey's system may have given incorrect numbers out and a number of other tchnical issues that have given false data.

[littledrow.livejournal.com]

Goody. Check in this year at the Mariott ought to be a nightmare. We're staying at the Hilton even if rooms in the Mariott do become available. I just don't trust the system they have in place this year. It would really suck to get to Atlanta only to discover that our reservation didn't stick.

[reyesfanatic.livejournal.com]

I hope not....at this point I don't see me being able to pre reg and may have to buy on site.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Considering that I did that in 2007 and had to wait 3 hours to buy a 1-day membership, I wouldn't suggest that.

That being said, I do not attend Dragon*Con anymore. I go somewhere else and make money instead of spend money.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is definitely true. A massive policy shift in an organization with over a thousand staff and dozens of directors, and ONE PERSON knows about it…

[lady-kathana.livejournal.com]

It is under consideration. It's not a definite. We're all aware of the crowding issues DragonCon has had, even with the expansion to four (now five) hotels. Stop trying to make everyone crazy, Marty.

[positive-pat.livejournal.com]

I must have missed the adding on a hotel post. What is the hotel?

[lady-kathana.livejournal.com]

The Westin. No word on what's being moved yet.

I am surprised it took this long

[garybaldy.livejournal.com]

Before word leaked out. Many staff have known about this since the con.

Cue the complaints about the long walk in 3, 2, 1.

Re: I am surprised it took this long

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Heck, I knew about this since the con, and I'm not only not staff, but it was my first D*C. I thought everyone knew this. (The five hotels thing, with the Westin being the fifth.)

Re: I am surprised it took this long

[littledrow.livejournal.com]

The Westin is still listed on the D*C website as an overflow hotel. On the membership link there is still a link for on site registration but no information for day passes etc.

So I don't know what has been decided but if anything was then it wasn't posted on the website nor was it announced here, which has usually been reliable for staff/directors confirming, announcing or denying. I'm going to lean towards what is posted and be highly disappointed if changes/decisions were made and not announced.

Speaking of which...I am on the mailing list for the D*C newsletter and haven't received a single notice about anything. So who knows what that says.

[spambrian.livejournal.com]

The Westin will be used for night parties this year, no plans for main programming to move there. Rooms are available at the Westin, so you can party where you sleep if you book properly :)

[spambrian.livejournal.com]

Agreed, this was a minor discussion point at the last director's meeting and is not definite. I would advise people book in advance to save money, not for the "what if" of an attendance cap.

[dismaldelight.livejournal.com]

So would that include Ticketmaster memberships too? If this is indeed fact? And if there is no on-site reg, that means they would have had to be selling one day or two day passes since badges went on sale last year. You can only buy those type of badges on-site on the day you are trying to go correct?

[dismaldelight.livejournal.com]

just seems odd...maybe they are thinking of putting this in play for DC 2011, but it just doesn't seem smart to start this now when people haven't had options to pre-register for single or two day badges. Not that I'm completely against capping attendance. I've been going to con off and on for ten years now, and attendance is definitely getting out of control.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

If DragonCon does institute a cap, the thing to do also is to make the memberships all weekend memberships (like Otakon did when they capped). I think making it a weekend only membership would prevent the con from losing too much money from loss day passes.

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

They have "considered" this before...but let's hope this time they do it. And also institute some changes to move the pre-reg line along faster. There were a number of good suggestions for that in the threat on that topic. I love dragoncon and I'd love to see it improve!

On-Site Registration

[glowingdome.livejournal.com]

I certainly hope they do no cancel on-site registration. I takes us maybe 30 minutes and less at times.

Personally I would rather pay the extra money because my time is worth more than standing in hour(s) long pre-reg lines.

Whining

[frankkmiller.livejournal.com]

Good lord I get so sick of the belly-aching about standing in line .. the crowds .. boo hoo.

Last year I was able, with some friends, to see practically every single big-name on the guest list. I waited in line. I got into the events. I did not melt.

When I wasn't in the panels I enjoyed the people watching the big crowds afforded.

If you want to sit in a dark basement tossing dice around with a bunch of scared idiots then by all means .. keep complaining about the crowds and attend NotAsBigACon in whatever crappy city they hold those in.

Re: Whining

[glowingdome.livejournal.com]

It looks like this thread has taken several directions.

One, and the one I intended it to take is the elimination of on-site registration. That is my registration form of choice and I do not want to see it eliminated.

Second is a cap on membership. This seems like a hard thing to do. However I know little about administering Cons.

Third is now waiting in lines. No doubt I brought this on myself. My only point is I would rather pay the full fee for on-site registration than save the small amount of money for pre-reg and have to deal with that line.

I do not have a problem dealing with lines for panels and tracks. These are things I chose to attend.

Pre-reg is never a line I would choose to attend.

[lady-kathana.livejournal.com]

It looks like I misunderstood a joke this weekend, likely because of the cold I'm fighting off. Sorry if I panicked anyone. =)

[akasha63.livejournal.com]

Capping attendance would be like San Diego Comic Con. At least there would be more control over the number of people in attendance. I think it is a good idea.

[fiendy.livejournal.com]

If they cap... Oh I hope this isn't true.. I still have to wait a month to pre-buy my DragonCon badges due to financial constraints.. =( And I already have hotel booked and flights are pretty much a go.. that would majorly bite.

[justjessica.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of iffy about if they should impose a cap or not... if you had asked me 3 years ago i would have said yes...

This last year was wonderful, the best I had in all the years we had been coming to Dragon Con, but the time we went before that was awful, i mean really, really awful... I was so upset I wanted to pack up and go home in the middle of the con.

I think it was '07.. we only got to see ONE, yes ONE big panel we wanted see to even after spending several hours in various lines (and that one was just because my husband got up early and waited in line for like 3 hours just to make sure), we got stuck on various floors in the Hyatt due to overcrowding multiple times (fire marshall closed the floors and we couldn't get out), and this one security staff member was so rude and nasty he almost had me in tears. It was so bad we didn't go the next year and only went in 09 because several of our friends who go assured us it was better. To our surprise they fixed about 90% of our issues with the con.

I was so happy when we left this last year I booked at the Hilton as soon as I found out they were reserving rooms.

[meowwl.livejournal.com]

I agree. Last year was perfect, even with the Nimoy and Shatner panels. I knew the lines would be epic for them, and so watched them on D*C TV in the comfort of my room.

I don't like the idea of the westin being an official con hotel for anything...I've never heard anything good about their staff.

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

On a related note, when DO the ticketmaster tickets go on sale?