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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 1032522" data-attributes="member: 571">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 sanctionsA 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<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)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.</blockquote>

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