Its that time of year...we're all decompressing, recovering and trying to process our whole entire weekends into a few words.
Here's the official feedback thread. Here are my thoughts so far (and the range about into different territories).
Good:
Traffic flow was better, safer. People were able to move more easily. people with big costumes were able to come in, and my staffers and i didn't have to yell ourselves hoarse breaking up groups of people because now there was room to get around them (MOST of the time. I occasionally ran into a few knots. Yes. we still had knots and congestion even WITH all that aisle space)
We made less at con badges this year then in previous years - which means that you fine folks were able to keep me better updated on who was actually going to help you out this year before i ran the badge making party - this means less waste and less scrambling about (and i think, possibly, the fact that i had to go back in and fix the badge box after the badge making party because badges were placed in the wrong slots by someone may have helped in that.)
Pro Row seemed to go over well by most of those who participated and a few who didn't participate were interested in going that route as well. we're definitely interested in bringing that back, but perhaps with a few tweaks....
Multiple entrances on opposite sides of the room, shared elevators with the dealers room that were also on (and not the same walls as the other entrances) opposite sides of the room, i think also helped to spread OUT the traffic flow to even it out throughout the room - this probably helped the 'congestion of knots" certain areas got in previous years.
Bathrooms INSIDE the room....with water fountain right next to it.
We were able to get a couple other signs put up by Saturday morning to remind people of the new location of the room.
We had a microphone for announcements. that was very useful, and a lot less stressful, on the AA staff, and we were able to be heard throughout the room as needed. we tried to keep them to a minimum necessary for what was going on, and low key, but capable of being heard. with a bit of humor added in once in a while.
We seemed to have MUCH less trouble with getting artists INTO the hynes during the early setup hours, which i think had a lot to do with having your registration badges also saying artists on them. that experiment seemed to go over well. Anyone who did NOT have that on their badges meant that they did not pre-register at all, or i was told too late to change it OR the name i was given was incorrect in some way shape or form (misspelling, or a nickname)
Cement floors - clean ups for accidents were much easier on everyone. and we won't be charged for it.
New location had the perfect nook for the Art Show - it's presence didn't make it harder to plan a reasonable layout for the Alley.
Bad
No other Water Stations. (I did ask about 'em)
Cement floors. I'm bringing different shoes next year.
No electricity available unless you ordered it. At least, however, if you ordered it, you didn't need to worry about what part of the room you were in, it was very versatile since there were many power drop ready locations.
Part of the room had to deal with noise from the neighboring room. From where i was at, it seemed that it was only really an issue during concerts, which there weren't that many of, and even then, it could have been much worse, but we understand that it could be hard to deal with.
Sheraton cut through NOT open during Setup hours (this, i think, was an oversight. it hadn't been planned for)
People didn't read the program book to see that we had moved, and how to get there, so traffic this year probably could have been better. (hence the signs above)
There were still a fair number of assistants/fellow artists (who were not the artist who had signed up -and even a couple of those as well) who did not 'know' they had to check in. Please remember, it's in the FAQ that all people listed, no matter who they are, need to be checked in. It doesn't matter how you got listed, if you are listed and could be left alone at the table (even if you don't plan it, if it can happen) then you need to check in to get the second badge.
SOME folks are still getting upset when a badge check was run. REMEMBER, this is done for multiple reasons: A) because someone can just walk in and take your table before you get there, and how is that fair to you (or anyone else who didn't get in, for that matter?)? And yes, it has happened multiple times in just the last couple of years. B) by doing the badge checks, we caught several folks who 'didn't know' they had to check in. if we hadn't done a badge check, we could have sold their table right out from under them by Saturday morning because we'd have marked them as a no show. And its in our rules, that they'd have to vacate as a penalty for failure to follow our rules.
LASTLY (continuing the above point)- YOU may think you are memorable to every staffer at the con as being an artist. I'm sorry, but we have both a staff turnover AND an artist turnover rate to contend with. While some of us might recognize most of you, not all of us are going to recognize ALL (or any) of you - and some of you are here one year but not the next. For fresh eyes, we had different staffers run the checks at different parts of the day. that means we had old hands who knew you, and new folks who did not. That meant that some folks asked you for badges if they couldn't clearly see them without bothering you, and some didn't need to. There is no reason to get upset with the staff who are trying to protect your interests. thank you.
The Ugly
Bag checks on artists - normally wasn't an issue, but some artists were forced to open cash boxes before the admiring eyes of attendees. That is definitely an unsafe situation. we're aware of it. TRUST me. it's not going unnoticed. Something was said at con multiple times and will continue even after con is over. This is something that is going higher up.
safety scissors being first peace tied one day and confiscated the next. inconsistent policies hurt all of us (and, y'know, SAFETY scissors....). That's something else going before the higher ups.
Reports of 3 separate issues - from a multitude of people. some took longer to handle than others, but were handled after some investigation. another is still in investigation. names have been noted. Everyone we talked to DID seem to be willing to comply with any measures we took, and that is very much appreciated by the staff. Some of the issues fell on some VERY technical gray lines areas....which made a lot of the process for dealing with it very very difficult. My thanks to those who have had the patience in waiting for us to deal with the issues, and for those willing to discuss the finer points of legalities with the security staffer who was called in as fresh eyes for the situations.
STICKERS ON THE WALLS of the Sheraton cut through hallway coming into the Alley. We have established that it was not from an artists table in our alley, as nothing matched the sticker in question. However, this is a reminder of WHY stickers are not allowed to be physically given away or sold at con and we appreciate your cooperation in the matter. We were lucky to have had a staffer find them....and were able to remove them without harm to the premises. and that it wasn't the hynes staff finding them in the hynes who specifically requested us to make sure that stickers aren't available for JUST THIS REASON.
All in all, i know my sales were low, but i had a good time. We appreciate all your feedback if you would be kind enough to give us the good WITH the bad (and not just the bad). Please appreciate that not all issues may be possible to address, but we will do our best. Please also keep in mind that i may not respond right away - i may just allow discussions to take place and then clear up a few questions if there are specific things i can clear up...but we will be walking away with the feedback to discuss in length with other members of our team at a later date.
I HOPE i did not miss anything. i got home today and crashed for 2 1/2 hours because i was sooooo tired. But i wanted to get this up now, before a different thread was started. Once that happens, either i risk that my post won't be read by everyone if i just respond to the one that's already up, or i split the threads....which is confusing and i think all the feedback should be together (with one exception)
So yeah, other than those 3 things, and a few things outside of ANYONE'S control, i think we had a successful con and i hope everyone had as good a time as possible and thanks for coming!
you guys were good, you kept your areas cleaned, and you cleared out pretty fast on Sunday, and without leaving any sort of unreasonable mess behind (i had a moment of panic in one area till i realized that it looked like the hynes staff had spilled a garbage bag during their sweep through) and i didn't get any complaints from staff or attendees or artists about the behavior of another artist... I love having a community and thank you all!
Thank you so much guys!!
