Security at Dragon*Con 2011

[m-cubicle.livejournal.com]

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?

Comments

Re: Expectations need to be managed.

[rap541.livejournal.com]

I saw three people hauled out with heat exhaustion, one had been boozing it up, so I will argue that the hotel is creating a health hazard by serving alcohol in the badge line.

I don't care if someone drinks. I do think that because there aren't reports of bad behavior, that doesn't mean its not happening. I've had to deal with the drunk in line and let me tell you, its perfectly legal for someone drunk off their ass to continue to be served - the hotel staff doesn't care and the con staff is too overwhelmed.

I don't mind that the hotels are in it for the money.... but yes, I do think they're encouraging the drunk behavior without increasing staffing to *deal* with the drunk behavior.

I can avoid the bars and be mindful of where I am but the only way to avoid the badge line (and I am trying hard to not harp because the badge line physically broke me last year to where I wasted the whole first day dealing with the drunks in the line and then recovering from the heat exhaustion for the rest of the day) is to not attend. If I have to risk heat exhaustion, I would like to do it without the hotel staff egging on the drunkeness by offering beer. Maybe they could charge 5 dollars for a bottle of water instead? Since its about profit?

Re: Expectations need to be managed.

[glasscannon.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the last two years I've taken a redeye flight from California, arriving in Atlanta about 4:30am Friday, in line for badges by 6am at the latest, and out and headed back to the Hyatt to check in by 8:30. At that time of the day, they have coffee carts near the line, and sometimes donuts. I've never once seen alcohol in the pre-dawn registration line. Yeah, the redeye sucks (not doing it this year), but if the alcohol sales in line bother you that much, why not go at a different time?

Re: Expectations need to be managed.

[rap541.livejournal.com]

Good advise - not always convienent but something I could try this year.

To be honest, I am not a huge "OMIGOD I CAN'T BE AROUND ALCOHOL!!" person. I drink. I enjoy drinking. The issue of alcohol sales in the registration line is that everyone is getting on their high horse with "ONLY YOU CAN PROTECT YOU - ITS NOT THE HOTEL'S JOB OR THE CON'S JOB TO STOP ADULTS FROM DRINKING!" - and my point is - If I am not not drinking, but I am forced to stand butthole to butthole in a line in a steaming hot room with no ventalation and increasingly angry shouting people who are being plied with alcohol - how is it *my* fault for not protecting myself?

I'm not a huge congoer, but I have never seen this at the other cons I have been to. The people getting crazy in their hotel rooms, or having too much in the bars, yes, but the beer stations in the registration line no....

And the whole tone here is "Don't like it, don't go" which fine, thats an option. I could be wrong... I don't think the getting drunk in the registration line from hell is a *standard* con going appearence since I've only seen it at D*con.

I thought I was making a reasonable suggestion, as opposed to suggesting the con go "dry" (unreasonable even if I did have a problem with alcohol) or that there be security guards every where... removing the beer carts from the registration line might tone down the party atmosphere a bit.

Re: Expectations need to be managed.

[glasscannon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, honestly I don't see the point of beer carts in a slow-moving line, overcrowded, hot line anyway. But it's legal, and if the demand is there why wouldn't the hotel respond to the demand? That said, I'm *really* hoping that the new barcode system this year will eliminate the several hour waits, and thus cut down on the demand for beer sales in line.

One of the best things about Dragon*Con is how much there is to see and do, for all different sorts of interests. Of course the other side of that coin is that there will often be things going on that someone doesn't like, whether it's drunken debauchery or panels/guests that aren't "genre" enough or whatever. I just tend to think that with an event this big, it's best to look for ways to work around what you don't like, rather than trying to get the con to change to what you do like. Yes, speaking out in threads like this ahead of time is important (and hopefully helpful, but that's up to the Powers That Be), but in the end you need to look out for yourself. If that means changing the time at which you usually do something -- whether that's when you go through pre-reg or how late you stay out in the evening or anything else -- or organizing a group of like-minded people to hang out with, or whatever it takes. The con is large enough for people to forge their own little pockets of what they want to do, without it affecting anyone else.

Anyhow, I agree with you about the beer in the registration line. For me it just seems easier to adjust myself than to try to adjust 40,000+ other people.

Re: Expectations need to be managed.

[dlorean.livejournal.com]

Actually, no, it's not legal to serve someone that's drunk off their ass. Bartenders have the right and OBLIGATION to cut people off who have had too much.