Open Complaint to Peter Adkison

[ColonelHardisson]

Here is the site for the con; check out all the stuff that goes on:

http://www.gencon.com/indyhome.aspx?file=indy

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Okay but still a home and garden show has all of these things.

Sometimes I think they charge you just because you expect to be charged, and you don't seem to have a problem with it.

You are really paying for them to advertise to you.

Sorry didn't mean to go off topic or anything. I will go and relurk.

I've seen Home and Garden shows that charge admission, as well as Outdoors shows, Motorcycle shows, car shows, etc. Conventions of any kind charge admission. I don't have a problem with it because I don't usually go.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Also, I don't think anyone is complaining about being charged to get in; it's the wait to get in that caused the problem. This problem seems to be new, since GenCon just moved to Indy from Milwaukee.

 

[Azure Trance]

They shoulda picked NYC @ The Javitts Center

 

[William Ronald]

I think there was a strong desire to keep the convention in the middle of the country, so as not to deter people from either the West Coast or the East Coast. Many East Coast gamers might be reluctant to travel to the West Coast, and vice-versa. (I believe WotC did a demographic survey that strongly supported a Midwestern location.)

I hate to say it, but this thread makes me feel that maybe it was not a bad thing to miss Gen Con this year. Hopefully,

 

[pogre]

As many of you have stated the problem in the lines were related to two factors:

1. Printers failing and the system crashing; and

2. Convention and temporary employees from Indy.

BTW - They (PA) estimated that this was the best attended GenCon in history as of Saturday night. He stated they were way ahead on Friday night as well.

I know it does not alleviate the pain, but the issues discussed in this thread were THE topic of conversation/concern amongst the GenCon staff and management. They viewed it as utterly unacceptable as well.

I would not blame anyone for not going next year who suffered through it.

 

[Sholari]

Erm... Not to diss people who have such a degree, but i think that's hardly needed. In the past i have worked for a large wholesale store, 50+ cash registers devided over two parts of the store.

True, this does seem to be more of a floor operations/customer service issue. However, a little process improvement probably would improve things quite a bit as well. The reason companies like Dell and Walmart do so well in the market has a lot to do with supply chain managment. There are some fairly simple techniques like staging and multi-phase single-queue that probably would make for a better process. Additionally, identifying and devoting extra resources to any bottlenecks is also helpful. The best in the business is Disney. They have the art of expediting lines down to a finely tuned science. Anyway, I'm sure there are probably some students who would do it just for the experience.

I didn't need a degree to 'manage' that, and i don't think you need a degree to manage admission to GenCon. You just need someone who can think on his feed, is not afraid to take chances, and is good with customers and workers.

Yeah, I agree that you wouldn't need a degree to actually do the on-site managing. Where it would be applicable is fine tuning the process so that it runs more efficiently and estimating contigency resources/systems. In other, words there could have been some preventative steps taken ahead of time that might have prevented it. That would be more like the equivalent of the person that designed your store design not the actual onsite manager.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Okay but still a home and garden show has all of these things.

Sometimes I think they charge you just because you expect to be charged, and you don't seem to have a problem with it.

You are really paying for them to advertise to you.

Sorry didn't mean to go off topic or anything. I will go and relurk.

I don't know where you are from, but in the part of the U.S. where I live, all types of shows or conventions -- even home and garden shows -- charge some sort of admission, even it it's just a couple of dollars. The reason is that the people putting on the show or convention have to rent the facilities. So they charge an admission to help recoup that rental expense. And they charge the various vendors a booth rental fee.

They have to do this to not only make their expenses back, but to also make a profit. They aren't doing this out of the goodness of their heart -- they're running a business, and need to show a profit if they are going to continue.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Game conventions, as well as scifi conventions, usually have more than just vendors. They also have guests, seminars, and, in the case of game conventions, hundreds of games being run all day and night (but I believe you have to pay extra to play). It's not just a big flea market.

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

 

[thalmin]

My problem is with the early closing times of booths and food vendors. (snip)

I can't speak for the food vendors, but I know first-hand about the booths. Many of the dealers are very small companys and have to virtually (or completely) shut down their home operations to staff their booths at these conventions. They already put in 9 or more hours per day at the convention (8 hours of operation, set up, restock, straighten up, clean up) and they are frantic hours, too. Longer hours would mean either nearly doubling the staff (and hotel and travel expenses) or frazzled staff. (I know. Been there, done that.)
Just my 2 c.p.