Open Complaint to Peter Adkison

[mythusmage]

For a contrast: I got into line for my badge at the San Diego Comi Con Wednesday July 16th. at about 5:10 pm. By 5:35 I had my badge and was prowling the exhibit hall.

The San Diego Convention Center is huge. During the show one fellow I met talked about people walking a quarter mile to reach a lavatory (They're actually only an eighth of a mile apart, but if you don't know the place.). Whenever I joked about holding marathons inside the exhibit hall people thought it wasn't such a silly idea.

The Wednesday evening line when I arrived (finally) at the end was three fourths of the way around the building. But it only took 20 minutes to get to the head of the line. For those who were there to purchase a badge it was, maybe, another 30 minutes to make the transaction.

Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games) was pleasantly surprised at the professionalism of the convention staff. Thought it was something other conventions he could name should pick up on.

I managed to overhear a bit from the gaming staff about certain volunteers. Apparently somebody or somebodies did not behave up to Comic Con standards. And so faced sanctions

A national show like GenCon must be run professionally. If people can't handle that level of responsibility, then they shouldn't volunteer. Running it on an amateur basis hurts the show, and could kill it in the long run.

I suspect a number of GenCon staff won't be back next year. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Peter made a few changes for GenCon SoCal. Staff behavior at admissions was inexcusable, and were it my show the folks running admissions this year would not be allowed back for next year.

Now for a bit of advice for folks running admissions at most any convention:

1. When your plan fails, have a back-up.

2: When your back-up fails, be prepared to improvise. (You won't be damned to Hell for improvising. Believe me, I know)

3. Be courteous, you blithering child of a ditz and a frat jock. If you can't be courteous, let somebody else handle public relations. Never insult, attack, bully, annoy, or harass the customers, it could cost you your job.

4. Pick admissions staff that can think for themselves. Give them the freedom to improvise when the system falls apart. Your goal is not to follow procedure blindly, it's to get people inside the doors as fast as possible. If everything has to be done on Post-it Notes, then it gets done on Post-it Notes. Keep the lines moving, you can always fix it after the show.

5. In short, the attendees come first. Nothing impedes their access to the show. Should some member of the species Homo officialous give you grief about what you're doing, take the twerp out to the line and tell him to tell them they have to suffer because things must be done "according to the rules".

Nothing excuses the display of rudeness and amateurish behavior Joe recounted in his postings to this thread. Do exactly the opposite of what GenCon Admissions did, and you should have a whole different experience.

 

[Buttercup]

I preregistered, so I was able to breeze right through, but I agree with you folks that the lines were way too long. I don't blame you for being angry.

However, I did want to point out that Peter Adkinson was there. He spoke at the ENnie Awards, where he commented about the problem with the long lines, and assured everyone that he would do better next year. I saw him wandering around the next morning too. He had a walkie-talkie and was checking to see if things were running smoothly. Most things were, from what I could see, but the line to get in was the huge, ugly exception.

 

[Mark Chance]

4. Pick admissions staff that can think for themselves. Give them the freedom to improvise when the system falls apart. Your goal is not to follow procedure blindly, it's to get people inside the doors as fast as possible. If everything has to be done on Post-it Notes, then it gets done on Post-it Notes. Keep the lines moving, you can always fix it after the show.

While I wasn't a GenCon, I have seen "system" failures at other conventions as well as many times while in the Army. This suggestion above is key. It also is a good idea to include 4a.

4a. No staff functions as well as it can without a knowledgable, decisive leader on hand to deal with crises.

Looking at the pictures posted, what I see is no one in charge, or no one in charge that deserves to be. I'm relatively confident that I could have hopped over a counter, had a 10 minute meeting, and then got those lines moving somehow, and that's without even knowing exactly what had to be done.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

I wonder if the businesses paying for space in the venders' hall will get some financial compensation for the loss of business as people (with money buring in their pockets) waited outside?

I would be demanding recompense.

I managed to attend both origins and gencon a few years ago ('97), and saw no big problems with lines, and I seem to recall some hiccups with the printers then.

Duncan

 

[JoeGKushner]

I preregistered, so I was able to breeze right through, but I agree with you folks that the lines were way too long. I don't blame you for being angry.

However, I did want to point out that Peter Adkinson was there. He spoke at the ENnie Awards, where he commented about the problem with the long lines, and assured everyone that he would do better next year. I saw him wandering around the next morning too. He had a walkie-talkie and was checking to see if things were running smoothly. Most things were, from what I could see, but the line to get in was the huge, ugly exception.

This just makes me even more angry that he didn't stop by the lines once during a four-five hour wait. I understand that running the business is important but apologizing and offering something useful to the customers, especially those that left, is another important thing that needs to be kept in mind here.

I feel bad for the exhibitors too because hell, I know I didn't spend as much as I wanted to and I know that there were hundreds of people who didn't get in.

Tell him to actually put batteries into that walkie-talking next year eh?

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Number One: I liked the pictures on the other thread.
Number Two: Honestly, what you went through was utter crap. It looks like the chain of command went down, and nobody wanted to take charge.

Personally, vendor/writer, average gamer, crippled shrew or what-not, if the guy had sent me to the end of the line, I'd have kept right on going to the house. There's other places besides GenCon.

The rudeness you guys ran into was unacceptable in any circumstances. It's not like you were rioting, prisoners, or draftees. One guy on a table "I'm not taking any crap!" and another sending people back the back of the line. What, is it gradeschool.

It's incompetance and rudeness like that that is hurting images, making people tired of going to conventions, and fun stuff like that.

Hopefully, at GenCon SoCal, things won't be this bad. I plan on volunteering, and luckily, my brain functions.
That, and if the line is too long, I'll take the kids to Disneyland.

Yes, I understand, untested and unstressed system.
That's no excuse.
Volunteers unfamiliar with what to do.
That's no excuse.
Were not expecting the biggest gamer's convention in North America to have that many people.
That's a crappy excuse.
Martian's landed and shot everyone with thier ray-guns, and took all the women back to Phobos to join thier leather clad armies.
That's an excuse.

Now I'm glad I didn't go. I'm all crippled up, my wife has bad hips, and if I had stood in line longer than an hour, I'd have been at Hooters swilling down Hefe Wiessen before you could say "Worst Con Ever!"

Personally, it sounds like it's a shame that a lot of people had what should have been a lot of enjoyment ruined by incompetance and rudeness.

And yes, I can talk crap. I've helped organize and run major events.

 

[Aeolius]

Yet another reason that, in 23+ years of playing D&D, I have yet to attend GenCon. Heck, I won't wait more than 20 minutes in a restaurant lobby, nevermind a few hours.

 

[Bagpuss]

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.

Its what they did in Europe.

 

[JoeGKushner]

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.

Its what they did in Europe.

With a different set of people though, I don't know if we'd have had this situation.

I hate to say it, but outside of a few people like myself, we're talking about sheep. I bet very few people even went and got their refunds back, but I hope I'm wrong. (I know that me and my three buddies got our money back the second we were thrown out of the Exhibitor's hall.)

 

[Eridanis]

You certainly have reason to be upset. That registration line was waaaay too long, and the workers that you pictured sitting around (I assume that was a picture of the staff at the Will-call booth, where I never saw a line) could have been reassigned to Registration, had there been working computers & a space for them to use.

I do have confidence in Peter's ability to improve for next year. He did show up in public (at the ENnies) and apologize sincerely for the troubles. He's a businessman, and wants to make money; and he's a gamer, and wants to see fellow gamers happy.

For the first time in a larger space, a new city, and probably new workers, I think the COn went extremely well - except for the glaring problem that everyone had to either partake in or walk past - the terrible wait for those who didn't pre-register.

Moral of the story for Con-goers: at least pre-register for your badge. Moral of the story for GenCon LLC: Make sure your computers, staff, and plan of execution are all working the way they should.