Open Complaint to Peter Adkison

[Ysgarran]

One of the friends I attended the con with has a broken foot. (Third metatarsal, if I remember correctly). It isn't set in a cast but is visibly swollen to about 1.5 times the size of his other foot.

He had taken a couple of chairs down from a cart so he could keep it elevated and hopefully keep the swelling down. He was politely informed that he couldn't do that because the convention center would levy a 3000$ fine if anyone else besides a union member set up chairs. Being a rather stoic gentlemen he didn't make a fuss about it although he did pay (in terms of swelling and pain) for it later in the convention.

To be fair, he should have made his condition know but didn't. So I can't say if the staff would have been more accommodating if they had known.

Just my story from the convention,
Ysgarran.

{I suspect a number of GenCon staff won't be back next year.}
I can see some Indy "staff" not working the show next year due to incompetence,...
<SNIP>

 

[kingpaul]

I have to agree on the line issue. I got to GenCon on Friday @ 3:00. My primary purpose was to go to the ENnies, as the Nebook of NPCs and PCGen were up for awards (they didn't win, but the nominations are great). I entered a door not near the registration line. I found a hall captain and asked where registration was. He told me where it was, but then told me that the line was so long that I wouldn't be able to get into the hall today because of it. Peter did apologize at the ENnies and said that the registration would be better next year.

 

[kingpaul]

With any luck they will just cancel it next year and blaime something stupid like low attendence (based on the fact they were all in a line outside). Then you won't have anything to complain about.

Actually (and I know your post is facetious), Peter said at the ENnies that by Fridy this year they had already broken the attendance number of last year.

 

[Berandor]

I don't get it.

The experience is horrible, but I would never have waited such a long time to enter the facility.

After three hours at most, I would either
a) have gone home if I lived nearby
b) have utilized oratory skills to incite a revolt and storm the building if I had driven up there for many hours.

That's the problem today: people are treated like s**t, but don't do anything about it (and this letter is at least something; I don't wanna know how many just went home annoyed).

 

[Bagpuss]

Less facetious and more bitter and twisted by my experience with Euro GenCon actually.

Still I'm glad to see that at least you will be having Gencon and its getting bigger. Gencon in the UK was getting bigger until the year Peter took over...

 

[Shadow145]

Re:

I arrived friday night, got my passes on Saturday Morning. I was third in line because I got to the line at 5 AM, after being forewarned by a friend. It took me about 30 seconds of interaction with people at the registration to realize the nightmare they were going to have the rest of the day. Seriously, they seemed not to have a clue what was going on.

It took me about 15 minutes to get Saturday and Sunday passes for myself and two friends. It involved them taking information from a form we filled out ahead of time and them entering it into the computer (hunt and peck on the keyboard), swiping my credit card, waiting about 5 minutes for the system to process and print the passes (which printed two copies of each pass, one of which a person tore in half and threw away), having someone read off the name on the pass, someone printing a receipt and giving it to me, and them doing it all over again when I realized they only gave me a saturday pass. I still fear for what they might have done with my credit card.

The Airlines have really been working hard to find ways to speed up lines and ticketing, maybe they could take an example from them?

On a side note, I thoroughly enjoyed my first GENCON, and next year will attend all week and definitely preregister.

 

[Poet22]

This is my 12th year attending GenCon, with two years spent as a vendor, and I agree with many of the reviews. It was in a bigger, better facility. The city itself is MUCH better for a convention such as this: better food, hotels, parking, nightlife(as much as one can get in the midwest!). I had a blast.

The registration was a disaster. It must be better - completely better - or people will stop coming or Peter Adkinson will be selling the rights back to WoTC.

And as much as I miss the shorter drive (for me) to Milwaukee, Indy wasn't that bad. I DO hope we don't paint too rosy a picture of the past few years in Milwaukee. I spent up to two hours in line once up there, too. Granted, it wasn't the unparalleled disaster this was, there were problems there, too. It was unacceptable then, just as it is unacceptable today.

Fix it or those record numbers will disappear.

 

[jaerdaph]

They shoulda picked NYC @ The Javitts Center

Having worked one convention at the Javitts Center, let me just say that adding the Teamsters into the GenCon equation is NOT a good idea if they seriously want to improve things...

Also, there's no hotels nearby or in reasonable walking distance, and it costs an arm and a leg to get a hotel room in this city anyway.

 

[Coreyartus]

I don't want to wait until next year for them to fix the problem.

I want them to fix it by GenConSocal.

And wasn't GenCon LLC put togther expressly to do these conventions? If any other company in any other kind of industry had a division that apparently performed so poorly, heads would roll. Hardly sounds like professional calliber, I'd say. My faith is a bit shaken... I hope they know how to fix the problem better than they knew how to anticipate it...

 

[Cog]

The only bad thing is, those guests are usually there to sign things and charge about what, $20?

That was the Star Wars lot. The main guests like Sean Astin and John Rhys Davies were free, although the queue for John on Saturday was as bad as the line to get in...

That said, diaglo could've got Sean Astin's autograph for free, when Sean kicked diaglo off an X-Box....