Dragoncon... What I would change.

[nachtwulf.livejournal.com]

This was my 10th Dragoncon, and I was thinking about the con and it's future, and it just seems to me that with the level of growth (and cost) that the Con experiances. It seems to me that several things really do need to be addressed if Dragoncon is going to continue to grow. (and I promise to be short and sweet with them)

1) Pre-Reg... this gets worse each year, with this year the line being stretched out the door and arround the hotel.

How would I fix it? Well first... no more non-Pre-Reg sales of memberships on Thursdays. Nothing really pisses me off worse that to have to stand in line for an hour or two, just to hear some guy walk in and say "Heck... I didn;t pre-reg and I was in and out in 5 minutes.. Instead devote all those resoruces to processing the badge of those loyal con goers that purchased thier memberships ahead of time. Those that didn't pre-reg should step ito line at Friday morning, and perhaps think about pre-regging the following year.

Secondly... longer pre-reg hours. 12 to 12 might be a good idea on Thursday.

Thirdly... reign in the 'tudes. I personally didn;t appreciate hearing a very snotty "Well for $20 bucks we'll fix it" when responding to the fact that Dragoncon had mis-spelled my tag (third year in a row as well). You might be tired, but we paid an average of $75 bucks to be there... show a little accuracy, take a llittle responsibility, and sh*tc*n the tude.

2) Underestimating size of event rooms. Alright... some more thought needs to be involved in this. Every talk I went to this con was crammed into an inapropreatly-sized room. Ladt year it was the same with talks involving stars like Virginia Hey. Come on... you guys can;t possibly believe that 10 people will show up for a 4 hour seminar on anime drawing ?

How would I fix it? A little more forethough, and when in doubt... upsize the event room. It;s going to be much easier to move an even to a smaller room, then try to find a larger one..

3) Band Wrangling... The schedules get worse each year. and This year is seems that another  wa sput off because "a band wanted to play longer?"

How would I fix it? Well I come from a famly of professional musicisans, so I see the right way to do this in an "open concert" enviroment. You get "X"amount of time to set up, your get "X" amount of time to play and you get "X" amount of time to break down to let the next band do the same process. The bands are told this... in advance... so there's no excuse for them not to plan to adhere to the scheduling. The band needs to be professional about this. At five minutes at the end of the performance, there should be a "wrangler" that flashes the "five" symbol" to let the band know to wrap up. In five minutes... kill the power. Simple.. If the band get's pissed off about this, perhaps they need to remeber that they are supposed to be professionals.

4) Impropmtu Moshing and Mosh Pits...

How would I fix it? Ban them... period. I attended several concerts this year and watched as the... pardon the expresion... "arseholes"... would explode into slaming and thrashing about at a moments notice... regardless of the music or apporpreateness (come on... moshing to Goth? Pullease) and with complete disregard to the surronding people that were't even remotly interested in this... including **children**. I also watched several of the drunken little posures get "clocked" by slamming into the wrong people. If Dragoncon wants to allow this, then they need to designate areas for this... if not, ban  it and kick these guys. They have absolutly no regard for anyone else and were responsible for droves of people leaving these concerts

5) Dragoncon TV... why is it not broadcasted at the Marriot?

How would I fix it? Simple... broadcast it there as well. After all... half the convention is there, we should start treating it as the sister hotel.

These are the top five... there will be more

Comments

[developer.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I was watching dragoncon TV in the Marriot -- either that or there was a wicked cool station showing commercial free anime and the masquarade in the Marriot.

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

We saw Anime at Marriott, but not the Masquerade or any of that programming, at least when we tried to look.

[tk0667.livejournal.com]

*Sigh* i just typed out a nice looong response to this but as usual LiveSuck ate it.

So here is a short version

Since i am the TEchnical Operations Director for Dragon*Con this falls into my area.

1. I agree with you totaly, pre reg should be the quickest line teher as all the info is done already.

2. I have sat through many of the programing meetings while everyone tried to juggle the 200+ events, panals, etc etc...its not that easy i assure you especially when guest drop out a week before the con and everything has to be worked around. We try to judge what the crowd will be like but sometimes events that are expected to have a huge turnout get nothing while what is expected to be a small event is packed and than there are times that it is simpley a goof.

3. Dont even get me started on bands, While we have many bands that are very easy to work with and we LOVE them like Voltaire, CruxShadows, MISFITS, GWAR etc... many of the "Big Name" bands we get IE Clutch, Chick Corea.. are the biggest pains in the ass i have ever had to deal with, they do not understand this is a Sci fi convention not a show at the fox, or the lake wood ampetheater, they do not seem to understand that they can not get a 4 hour soundcheck, that they will have to linecheck and such WHILE there is something else going on on the other side of the airwall, etc etc....and these guys DEMAND there amount of time on stage, proffesional or not we are tied to there damn contracts.
5. DCTV was played in the marriott, the only 2 things we did not show was the Dawn contest and that because due to its "Adult" nature we never broadcast it, and the masqurade was not broadcast live just like last year because the cost of the fiber between the civic center and the hyatt is too friggin expensive. As soon as we where able to we broadcast it on DCTV that nite as well as the next day, for more info on DCTV please go to www.dragoncontv.com

And one last note that seems to always be so easily forgotten, remember the next time you are in the face of a security guy on a door, or a tech ops person trying to get a stage reset, or a info booth person or a registration person trying to move things as quickly as possible, we do this for FREE. We are not paid to be there, to have you guys yelling at us to be up in our face because you where late and could not get into a packed cenntinnal ballroom for the firefly panal. we are doing all of this for FREE working 20 hours a day to keep this convention running everyone happy and safe. PLEASE remember this.

[eruditeviking.livejournal.com]

I was on the registration door a lot both Thursday and Friday, and I can honestly say that part of the problem with the pre-registration time was perception. The other part was "waves". People came in heavily Thursday night, but were light Friday morning. Getting in and out around 10 AM on Friday was a breeze, but messing with it after about noon was going to get you locked in a line for a long time.

I thought Hangface was relatively pleasant to deal with actually, and your techies made a dull evening a lot more interesting. Darker, well, it could have been worse, but lets say they didn't leave the nice reaction with me that Hangface did.

[nachtwulf.livejournal.com]

Meant no offense against the volunteers, and for the most part, DC personnel are pretty helpful and greatly underappreciated. However the woman at reg was very matter-of-fact and quite rude. A simple "sorry bout that, come back by later and we'll reprint the label." would have surficed.

DC-TV. I see the anime on there. I was talking the convention channel stuff that ever-present in the Hyatt (such as the changes, room moves, etc... sorry if I confused the issue). I think that that stuuf would be gretly appreciated in the Marriot as well as the Hyatt

Lastly... noticed there was no mention about the moshing issues :)

[tk0667.livejournal.com]

Hmmm thats actually a good idea that i never really thought about before because its not something we handle, but i will make a note of it to look into about showing room changes etc etc on the marriotts in house system.

And as for the moshing that was in my original post that was eaten, there is no standing rule against moshing as long as its not out of place or too out of hand, security was on hand for this no more than 3 feet away if it where to get out of hand. I fully understand that a "Pit" is certainly not for everyones taste.

from brian @ dragoncontv.com

[(Anonymous)]

The Marriott & Hyatt run their in-house "info channels". The DC staff have no access to these. Often the hotel info was very wrong (one day the drum circle was shown as starting 11:30AM instead of 11:30PM).

DCTV was on the air on Marriott Ch. 36. See tk0667's explaination for why we no longer broadcast the Masquerade live.

DCTV did try an info channel one year, but we couldn't keep it updated fast enough. The folks at the Daily Dragon do a great job of publishing schedule changes, so that's the best place to look for schedule modifications.

[tyrus.livejournal.com]

Can I ask a clarification on the broadcasting of the Dawn contest?

You stated you never broadcast it. Is this a new policy, and is that communicated?

I ask because 2 years ago we watched it in the room. So this year I went to information and asked a few hours ahead "Will Dawn be broadcast" and I was told "Yes" Needless to say, being in our room in the Marriott when the contest started, we missed it. Its kinda frustrating when you get mis information on this stuff.

Perhaps next year something very clear could be posted and communicated out to the staff so we can plan accordingly. Had we been told no we could have made our way over to the contest and seen it.

[tk0667.livejournal.com]

Th ereason we do not show it is due to the "Adult" content of the show, i believe we showed it that on eyear and took some heat for it and have never shown it from that point on.

[kindofwhimsical.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's a good reason, but just out of curiousity: why can't pre-regs have their badges mailed to them?

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's a reason. I'm not sure it's good.

[broo2.livejournal.com]

i think they are worried about counterfeits- lots of people have access to color printers and lamination machines; i could invite along a few dozen of my friends next year if I had my badge a week before the con...

[9jack9.livejournal.com]

Bigger conventions than Dragon (GenCon for example) mail out badges.

[astralfire.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly This was the last year GenCon will be doing mail outs.

[9jack9.livejournal.com]

Wow that is really going to suck next year having to stand in lines longer that the ones at Dragon, if it's true.

[9jack9.livejournal.com]

Having months in advance makes no difference to making a fake badge when someone can get a badge Thursday, run to Kinko's and knock off a dozen or so that can pass the "glance to make sure they have a badge" level of verification present at the Con.

[astralfire.livejournal.com]

Several reasons.
- The USPS is not 100% error free. So what do we do with all the people that claim that they were never maild their badges? While it might be true for a few there would be lots of "lost in the mail" badges.
- Counterfeits. We already catch a lot of these from just the at the con badged. Could you imagen how much harder it would be if people had several pre-con days to really work on getting a better looking counterfeit?
- There is no con our size or larger that still does mail outs.

the continuing saga of devil's advocate

[9jack9.livejournal.com]

-What if the USPS loses someones yellow postcard?

-Better anti-counterfeiting measures. Can you imagine how hard it would be to counterfeit badges if they had holograms, or invisible ink that glowed under blacklight incorporated into them? Or if there was actual badge-checking instead of cursory glances?

-if GenCon is stopping then this is true AFAIK, unless things like ESSEN, or the big Japanese cons do it.

Re: the continuing saga of devil's advocate

[astralfire.livejournal.com]

-The yellow card is a conformation. You can show up without it and show some form of ID to get your badge.

-Counterfeiting is only one of the problems with mailing out badges. The fact that GenCon is in its last year of mailouts, must mean they are running into the same problems.

[tankfreak.livejournal.com]

As for pre-reg, I never pre-reg for that reason. I know the line is usually shorter if you don't. But instead of denying people the convenience of registering on the spot, perhaps they should just get some more staff. It's not like they can't afford to get a few more people. Especially if they offer a free badge or something.

Small rooms - I definitely agree. I spent most of this year in the Buffy Track and the room was extremely crammed. I guess they assumed that since there were no headliners like Marsters, that there wouldn't be as big of a crowd. Uh...guess again. People who go to the Buffy Track go because they're fans of the show and they enjoy the events, not because of the stars. And it's slammed every year. But for some reason, the room gets smaller and smaller every year. The LOTR Track room was also unbearable. Unless you got there 2 hours early or knew someone working the track, you weren't getting in.

As for the band problem, it would help greatly if D*C staff would just let the band set up their own equipment. Last year it was my understanding that Ghost Of The Robot was not allowed to set up their own instruments or tune up for more than 10 minutes before the show. My friends' band, who also played last year, had the same complaints.

[astralfire.livejournal.com]

Registration is always under its staff allotment. Feel free to show up at the next staff meeting and sign up for registration staff.

[tk0667.livejournal.com]

Ummmmmmm...As for Ghost in the robot, no any problem with them would have been there "Promoter" Julie Catlin Brown she claimed we where not allowed in teh same room with them as they did a soundcheck even though it was US that was doing teh soundcheck she claimed "james got nervous if people looked at him while on stage" so we had to try and do a soundcheck from behind a closed wall.

And the bands do set up there own equipment, its kind of required.

[eviloompa.livejournal.com]

My director shared his thoughts quite well...and now let me throw mine on on the bands and the panels. I am the stage manager for the Centennial ballroom and NOBODY feels the pain of bands running late more than me.

A lot of the bands are very easygoing and laid back and understand this event is unlike ANYTHING else they play. Think about it for a second...we are a sci-fi convention...we are throwing concerts in rooms that are most definately NOT designed to carry concert quality sound. We do our best to make up for that with equipment and personnel but there is one thing that we cannot ever control.

That is the guests at the convention. Follow my logic here. Centennial II/III has a panel at 10:00am. The guests for that panel were out playing well into the night the previous evening. As a result...they really don't get started until 10:30am. They go their allotted time. The changeover happens quickly but again....a guest is 10 mintues late. That group also goes their allotted time. The band that is supposed to play that evening gets a flat tire coming to the Hyatt from their previous evening's gig. They get there 2 hours after they are supposed to load in.

Once they get there we rush to get them loaded in and up on stage...but whatever is going on in II/III mandates that we cannot make any noise. We are now 90 minutes behind schedule as a result of panels running late...and another hour behind schedule because we cannot sound/line check the band.

This little dance continues throughout the convention. NOTHING EVER STARTS ON TIME at Dragon*Con. It just ins't possible when you consider how many people/guests/events that we have.

Believe me...we bust our collective asses for 20 hours (OR MORE) a day for NO pay just to make sure that you have the best time that you possibly can. And nobody feels the pain more than our staff. We try to provide for the nuances of Con but you just can't. So remember that next time...also remember that after the concert is over and you are safely in room_party_001 we are still backstage working to make sure that the panels for the next morning will be waiting on the guests...not the other way around.

Enough soapbox...just please try to understand we do the absolute best we can in the given situation.

[eruditeviking.livejournal.com]

You folks were there until nearly 5 AM after Darker got off (and it was my understanding that Saturday and Sunday were both much more hectic for you), as I've said to Tom your techies are quite an impressive lot. Some thanks are definitely in order.

[broo2.livejournal.com]

i think you guys did a great job; the concerts sounded awesome, and the room setups were great. you have my thanks and my respect for all the hard work you people put in to make the con work; Cheers! :)

[caravankidd.livejournal.com]

1) Yea for some reason I feel like a sap every year because I save them a ton of work by doing the pre-reg thing, yet I end up spending a long time in line for the effort. I hope they look into the idea of getting more people for crush night.

2) A problem you might have missed is that to make panels easier to find they group all of one track into the same room except for the mega events. Not sure how you could find out ahead of time just how many Trekkies will show up to get the right sized room for the entire con. Switching around rooms all the time would just make getting to that must attend panel harder than it is now.

3) I don't think it would be quite so much of a problem if they did not have things planned right after the bands. If the bands were the last thing in the room each night then going over would be rough on the hard working tech guys but not a problem for people wondering if Rocky is going to start before 4:00am or not when the schedual said midnight.

4) Even in the best of enviroments you are going to get stupid people, really moshing to Goth, haven't these people seen South Park?

5) Don't know I was in the other hotel.

If I could add in one of my own it would be nice if the con could squeeze the hotels for a better rate. It's a pretty big chunk of change for a room you are hardly going to use and I think a lot of people have to pass up the con because of the sticker shock of the host hotels. I'm sure the dealers and artist would not mind either if almost all the average con goers money was not going to the hotel room bill.

[pdfunplugged.livejournal.com]

It all depends on timing my friend. If it makes you feel better... My friend Ben came in Saturday morning around 11AM the last two years. The first year he spent four hours in line. This year he pre-reged and spent 30 minutes in line.

[ladyfeathers.livejournal.com]

I always have good luck with pre reg. Usually we arrive Thursday night and have a bit of a wait. This time we arrived on Friday, and at about 3 pm on Friday afternoon, there was NO LINE AT ALL. We walked directly up to the pre-reg counter and were out of there within 10 minutes with our whole group.

[seimaisin.livejournal.com]

I actually thought the pre-reg was much better organized this year - but, then again, I came Thursday this year, instead of Friday, so that might have made a difference. But, it seemed a lot less confusing, and once you made it into the building, it moved really quickly.

It is a bit frustrating to stand in line, only to have some Ticketmaster customer waltz right past you. I'm cheap enough, though, that I'll pay the $40 less and budget a little more time for the lines. The only thing I think would help the pre-reg lines would be to move the registration into a larger, more easily accessible space, which I'm not sure would be possible. A lot of time and energy is spent herding everyone into that rat's maze downstairs at the Hyatt. But, I'm not sure there's any other space that would work, so I have no constructive suggestions there.

As for staff attitudes at registration ... yeah, I saw a bit of that. I appreciate that everyone there is an unpaid volunteer, but geez, if your mood is that bad on Thursday, there's a problem. I do, however, in the spirit of fairness, have to give props to the folks working over by the door on Thursday, where everyone was taking the free posters. Nice, friendly, helpful folks!

[piraterogue.livejournal.com]

1) Pre-Reg went A LOT smoother and faster Thursday this year than thursday Last year. Last year there was still a big line at 11 when they closed, and people who were waiting in line had to go home without their badges. This year I didn't hear about anything like that, so things were alot smoother. Longer hours makes problems because of setting up for the con and getting the people to staff it. The staff needs a chance to check into their hotels Just as much as everyone else.

2) Everyone else said it already, Who can tell that hundreds of people are going to want to see someone. There is interest surveys that they could send out to help that a little but if a guest pulls out and anouther replaces them, the original survey doesn't help much.

3) I don't know the legal aspects of the bands contracts, But play time is often listed and if everything is behind then them getting their contracted 45 minutes still takes 45 minutes. Also, setting up and breaking down isn't done by magic, having worked as a tech for alot of concerts, stuff happens that has to be dealt with or the band Can't go on.

4) Mosh pits, some people are just stupid and will mosh to anything. it's annoying, but happens everywhere, and unless it's against the LAW the con could get sued for Infringing on someones rights.

5) covered already.


For the hotel stuff, The hotel looks at the Con like this, they make OK money for the convention space, they make their REAL from renting rooms. I found 3 blocks down the street, that runs between the Marriot and Hyatt, a Holiday Inn that had rates of $74 a night for two double beds. Half price for a three block walk, Certainly makes sense to me for the money concious.

[ro-dan.livejournal.com]

The biggest question still remaining to me is, what steps are being taken to track where everyone's interests lie? I mean, when I filled out my reg form, there was an area where I checked off a few of my interests, but that doesn't really cover enough ground IMO. Why not go a step further and ask, "Which of the following events are you likely to attend?" Tracking that data from all of the pre-reg's would surely paint a better picture about which events are gonna get mobbed.

[astralfire.livejournal.com]

Rooms are planned out starting in January up until the con. The formas you are filling out at the con are to give us an idea about next year. We also do room counts of ever room. We try very hard to give the panels that are over flowing a larger room. However, after you drop ing all the big events for main programming and add in set up and break down times, there really is not alot of space to move things too.

[domesticat.livejournal.com]

Something else worth noting, that I'm not sure Thomas (tk0667) or Jody (eviloompa) touched on:

There's no 'room to give' at the Hyatt or the Marriott, as far as track rooms are concerned. Meaning, there is no mythical Bigger Room to be given. If Track A gets a bigger room, it is at the expense of some other track, who will receive a smaller room as a result.

I know that crowd-size assessments are done, and the room assignments for tracks are evaluated yearly based off of those figures, but at this point I suspect room assignments are a prime example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

pre-reg

[9jack9.livejournal.com]

They could mail out the badges ahead of time like GenCon does.

Re: pre-reg

[lianlupin.livejournal.com]

prereg. is cheaper by 45$.. it was my 10th year as well!

Re: pre-reg

[closer2myself.livejournal.com]

This is the last year GenCon will be mailing out badges, from what I understand.