dragoncon_lj_archive | Security at Dragon*Con 2011

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Security at Dragon*Con 2011

EDIT: With the great response this post is getting, let's try and make something happen here. Send Dragon*con security any ideas you may have in ways to improve security for the 2011 show. Go to the contact security form through the D*Con web page. Get as many people as you can to do the same. Pass the word along. Select "security" from the drop down menu. The hotels and Dragon*con MUST agree to start checking badges or room keys at the hotel entrances to keep the non-con goers out. Why should we pay and others not?!

dragoncon.org/dc_contact.php

Since it doesn't seem like anyone has addressed this issue for D*Con 2011 recently, I will go ahead and put it on the table.

As I'm sure many others noticed, last year there were several security concerns during the convention. I remember reading all the different posts of women being accosted and "felt up" by individuals who had no badge and nothing to do with the convention itself. Letters were mailed to the hotel and complaints filed. Since then, it has all gone quiet.... Has anything been done by the hotel or Dragon*Con to alleviate this problem? Or, are the powers that be just hoping we would all forget about it and just deal for next year?

I have noticed every year the convention getting more and more filled with people who have come to the hotels thinking they would be getting a free "freaks on parade" show. Individuals include: Football fans, nearby college students, and random people off the street hoping to get a free good time at the expense of those who paid to be there. It's not the same convention it was 5 years ago, the con is changing and not for the good.

Before I go dumping more hard earned money on a convention that is already getting ridiculously priced, are any of these issues going to be addressed? What is to keep random grabby pervs away from my girlfriend or friends? With everything getting expensive these days, I need some re-assurances that this will be a safe convention and the money will be well spent. I wonder what the ratio is of people who just wander in off the streets is, to those who actually paid for a badge?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In a crowd of 40,000+ people there are going to be bad apples. Throw in alcohol (and other legal/illegal substances) it is going to get worse. All D*C goers are not angels; all football fans aren't potential perpetrators. Physical and sexual assaults (attempted or completed) are unacceptable - but in any large population (temporary or otherwise) they will happen.

Con has a responsibility to provide reasonable rules and protection, the hotels have their rules/regulation as well, and there is coordination with local law enforcement. The hotel (and dragon*con for that matter) are in the business of making money, they do not want to create an unsafe environment that affects their bottom line. Law enforcement is there to maintain law and order without reference to the individual being a con-goer, football fan, transient, hotel guest, ect...

This isn't a geek utopia. It is the real world. Set your expectations appropriately.

"This isn't a geek utopia. It is the real world. Set your expectations appropriately."

True, but up until about 5 years ago, it was pretty damn close.
Many geeks are socially inept, but I find that many who attend DragonCon aren't, so you have more casual partying, more indulging without fear of danger from those around you, and a lot more relaxed envrionment. My first few D*C's it wasn't unusal to see a drunken congoer being helped back to their rooms by a complete stranger who would get them in the door, make sure it was locked behind them, and go on their way. After the escalations of last years non con goers (And I get flack for this, but I usually refer to them as douchebag fratboys, since as far as I saw, most of them WERE)I feel safe simply because I'm a big guy, but I would never let my wife around without an escort, especially if she'd been drinking.
If this year is a replay of last year, it will most likely be the last year than many of us go simply because we've lost that "our place" environment. It makes me sad, but this happens sometimes and you just have to move on and find a new place.

I shake my head at this because, coming from Southern California, Dragon*Con IS a more intimate environment than Comic-Con.

I've joked that I fly cross-country to go to Dragon*con so I don't have to go to Comic-Con ever again.

I went once -- and that was before they finally capped membership -- NEVER AGAIN.

We live in Phoenix. We *might* someday attend SDCC, just to say "we did it".... but, most of what I've heard hasn't endeared it to me.

I think alot of this business also has to do with how you spend your time at D*C. I've always told people it's more like dozens of little cons combined into one place at one time. There are people who just go for the celebrities. Others, for the writing tracks, others for the fan tracks, or the music, or the partying or the cosplay... you get the idea...

But frankly, every year we've gone, it's always felt like going home. Maybe that's because we do the panels and the "day time" stuff as much, or more, than the nighttime stuff. Whatever it is, while the con *has* gotten bigger, while the lines have gotten longer, and while it's become near impossible to find a table in the food court... it still, for us, at least, has that perfect mix of large environment, (con as a whole) but small intimate settings (track room).

But hey, mileage varies, right?

I used to live in San Diego, went to SDCC from 89 to 2000, DragonCon is a lot more of a fun place to me now simply because I don't have to deal with the pretentious atmosphere the ComicCon became. I enjoy the "coming home" feel that I get at DC that I never saw there. to each their own, I suppose :)

Everything you've said, pixie, mirrors my own heart. It's sad to watch something change that used to be seen as a second home in the eyes of my boyfriend and I. It's where we met, and it felt pretty safe up until 2009/2010. Whenever the advertisements started, and Dragon*con started receiving press coverage, and not all of it from upstanding reporters.

Yes, its crying over spilled milk, but its very expensive spilled milk, that used to hold alot more worth in many con-goers hearts.

I know alot of people are all "EH! DEAL WITH IT! SHOVE IT OUT YOUR BUTT HOLE AND STOP BEING A PUSS!"

Easy for them to say, obviously. You're right, 5 years ago, my boyfriend and I weren't worried about the hotel floor giving-way to the massive weight. He wasn't having to grab me out of the way of a crazy drunkard as they started shit with the people around them.

We've been on the fence with Dragon*con since the end of the con, last year. We've thought about attending places like AWA instead (reminded us of old-timey Dragon*con last year). Places that AREN'T advertised as being a crazy-hot-girl-drunk fest.

"It's sad to watch something change that used to be seen as a second home in the eyes of my boyfriend and I. It's where we met, "
It's where the wife and I honeymooned :P

My husband and I use D*C as our anniversary celebration.

This is my 7th year going - it is my husbands 10th. In 2005 it was not a good idea for a female (intoxicated or not) to wander around alone at 3:00 a.m.

I went to my first D*C at 22 in 2004. It my lifetime, it has never been safe anywhere for a stranger to assist me into a hotel room. Just because it wasn't widely reported via social media prior to two years ago doesn't mean it didn't happen. Prior to 2009, it was just widely perceived as a "safe place", it doesn't mean that was true. [There are posts in this thread about pre-2009 assaults/groping].

I'm not denying the con has been problem free in past years. I have been going since 2003, the problems have gone from bad to worse. That was the purpose of this post, to show that the convention is growing in size, but the policies are still treating it as if it were the same size it was 5 years ago.

But it's gotten exceedinly worse with the addition of this football/Nascar weekend nonsense and advertisement to the other Atlanta natives, to come on down for a half-naked good time.

Yes, there were horror stories, but you have to admit that there weren't NEARLY as many as there have been the past 2 years. And I remember security being alot less lax than they have been as well. Before you walked into a dealer room, you were basically completely stopped, whether your badge was freely showing or not. Now it's some squirrely kid in a folding chair, barely awake, who gives you a brief nod and lets you in. (Yes, that DID happen to my boyfriend and I, several times)

We're not all hoping against hope that ALL of the bad shit will stop; that's a ridiculous assumption. But we CAN try to get new rules implemented to bring the old feeling back. Beefier security is the start of that.

It would also help weed out if the con-goers are doing something bad, as opposed to some shit head off the street. If they're wearing a badge, you can pull the name/badge number and have them found and reported. (Maybe that's in a perfect world as well, but it's slightly more logical)

As I've said elsewhere, if D*C PTB were willing to lower the expectations for the amount of time they require a volunteer to work over the weekend they would have many more people lining up...like my husband, for one. (He's huge and intimidating when he needs to be!)

Complain to D*C security that they are expecting too much from volunteers. Let them know that there ARE folks willing to help, if they'd only budge a little. I know many, many people had said they would volunteer for security without any sort of compensation if ONLY the con PTB didn't require so much of their time.

I would love to see bigger guys working security. That's the way it used to be. Now there's smaller girls, and scrawny guys. How are they gonna stop someone that's acting like they're 'roided-up because they've had one too many Jaeger Bombs?

I know someone mentioned a 3-hour a piece security service, or something like that? Was this you? I think that's brilliant! If they got enough bigger guys, or gals, to work in 3-hour a piece shifts, that would allow ALOT of headway for fun from the security workers, and would create more security and vigilance, since the workers won't be worried about missing out on the con and they can pick the 3-hour intervals they want to work.

It was myself and my roommate, but the idea never panned because nobody at the D*C PTB would ever return an email. EVER.

IMO that is an outrage that they aren't even doing their job by at least replying to concerns and saying "Oh hey you need to talk to so and so, here is their contact info, thanks for being interested in making the con experience better for everyone". Nope. Just nothing.

And THIS is the main reason

m_cubicle started this.

Why aren't the people bringing in all the money, being heard? This is rude. Those of us who've been going, giving Dragon*con truckloads of money, for years on end, can't have questions answered or suggestions that see the light of day???

It's an ever-so-slight outrage.

It is, isn't it? If we can't do anything about this year, why not make an agreement to say something directly to the PTB AT the con when we get there....each one of us that has a complaint. They're a captive audience there aren't they? They can't get rid of our voice by clicking Delete there.

This.

This I completely agree with. Like it or not, the situation has changed, so we have to change with it. (Both the con itself, in new rules and enforced security, and us congoers in being more diligent and aware.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Security at Dragon*Con 2011

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