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The Con rant
Ivy convinced me to go to the NY Comic Con with her on Saturday. Oh, if I'd only known...
Worst. Organized. Con. Ever.
So I didn't get advance tickets. Ordinarily, there's a price break if you pre-register, but I didn't decide to go until the night before. I figured I'd probably be in line for 10 minutes, but that didn't seem so bad.
Whoops.
We get to the Javits Center (which is in the ass-end of nowhere), and find the ticket booths. There are people in the back and forth line. And then there is this huge line extending into the building. We ask what the line is for. "Everything." Huh? Where do you go to buy tickets? "Get in the line." What if you preregistered? "Get in the line." Wait, you've got a press pass - why are you in the line? "The line is for everything. Tickets. Special events. Signings. Everything."
Oh, shit.
We try to walk to the back of the line. We then realize that the line extends all the way around the entire building.
Oh, shit.
Well, we get in the line. And we stand on the line. They periodically come around with scanners - if you preregistered, then they'll scan you and you can get out of the line, unless you want to go to a signing or a "special" panel (which panels are "special" seems to have been designated arbitrarily). Then you have to stay in the line.
Ivy stayed with me for an hour and a half, and then left to go to the panel she'd come to go to. Feiran showed up an hour late, due to miscommunications, and stood with me awhile. But she had Ivy's press pass, and eventually left to go to the next panel. I ended up standing with some of Feiran's friends. We were just about to scrap the whole thing and leave when we suddenly were allowed to get into the back and forth lines. Where we have to fill out a bunch of paperwork to get the tickets. (WTF?!!? No wonder this is taking so long.)
A side note - the poor guy behind us wasn't there for the Comic Con at all. He was there for the Travel Con in the same building. He stood in line for hours, and then was told to go get into the other line. He looked like he was going to cry.
So, all told - two and a half hours. Of standing in line.
And about 40 people back from us, they started telling them they weren't selling any more tickets and to go home.
This is not mentioning the panels that were labeled as "special" (requiring standing in line for tickets) at the panels, but not in the programs, so you showed up two minutes before a panel only to not be able to get in. The line for the exhibitors. The line to get into the dealer's room, which was packed to fire limits. The panels that started 20 minutes late because the guests couldn't get there. The bad moderation. The lame cosplay competition in a random corner with a badly echoing mic and a totally unprepared announcer. The Dreamworks "previews" which consisted of four previews - Over the Hedge, something presumably about the Temptations or something, Match Point, and Wallace and Gromit. Four previews in total, shown in a never ending rotation, two of whom are for movies that came out months ago. Whee.
It was just astounding. Apparently they've never done this before, and they got many times the number of walkins as there were preregistered tickets. And they apparently did not expect this. (They ran out of badges, and switched randomly to wristbands.) Ok, so they're inexperienced. But this is NYC - of course there are going to be mostly walkins! Duh! And other major cities have incredibly well attended cons - couldn't they project attendance levels?
I suspect that next year, they will go to try to set this up, and while the fans may come, the guests won't. All the guests (and some of the press) were sounding tired and pissed off by the end of the day. (Apparently there were more goofs on their side as well, plus a total lack of information.) No one is going to want to come back to work this con again.
And I am not going back next year.
End rant.
Worst. Organized. Con. Ever.
So I didn't get advance tickets. Ordinarily, there's a price break if you pre-register, but I didn't decide to go until the night before. I figured I'd probably be in line for 10 minutes, but that didn't seem so bad.
Whoops.
We get to the Javits Center (which is in the ass-end of nowhere), and find the ticket booths. There are people in the back and forth line. And then there is this huge line extending into the building. We ask what the line is for. "Everything." Huh? Where do you go to buy tickets? "Get in the line." What if you preregistered? "Get in the line." Wait, you've got a press pass - why are you in the line? "The line is for everything. Tickets. Special events. Signings. Everything."
Oh, shit.
We try to walk to the back of the line. We then realize that the line extends all the way around the entire building.
Oh, shit.
Well, we get in the line. And we stand on the line. They periodically come around with scanners - if you preregistered, then they'll scan you and you can get out of the line, unless you want to go to a signing or a "special" panel (which panels are "special" seems to have been designated arbitrarily). Then you have to stay in the line.
Ivy stayed with me for an hour and a half, and then left to go to the panel she'd come to go to. Feiran showed up an hour late, due to miscommunications, and stood with me awhile. But she had Ivy's press pass, and eventually left to go to the next panel. I ended up standing with some of Feiran's friends. We were just about to scrap the whole thing and leave when we suddenly were allowed to get into the back and forth lines. Where we have to fill out a bunch of paperwork to get the tickets. (WTF?!!? No wonder this is taking so long.)
A side note - the poor guy behind us wasn't there for the Comic Con at all. He was there for the Travel Con in the same building. He stood in line for hours, and then was told to go get into the other line. He looked like he was going to cry.
So, all told - two and a half hours. Of standing in line.
And about 40 people back from us, they started telling them they weren't selling any more tickets and to go home.
This is not mentioning the panels that were labeled as "special" (requiring standing in line for tickets) at the panels, but not in the programs, so you showed up two minutes before a panel only to not be able to get in. The line for the exhibitors. The line to get into the dealer's room, which was packed to fire limits. The panels that started 20 minutes late because the guests couldn't get there. The bad moderation. The lame cosplay competition in a random corner with a badly echoing mic and a totally unprepared announcer. The Dreamworks "previews" which consisted of four previews - Over the Hedge, something presumably about the Temptations or something, Match Point, and Wallace and Gromit. Four previews in total, shown in a never ending rotation, two of whom are for movies that came out months ago. Whee.
It was just astounding. Apparently they've never done this before, and they got many times the number of walkins as there were preregistered tickets. And they apparently did not expect this. (They ran out of badges, and switched randomly to wristbands.) Ok, so they're inexperienced. But this is NYC - of course there are going to be mostly walkins! Duh! And other major cities have incredibly well attended cons - couldn't they project attendance levels?
I suspect that next year, they will go to try to set this up, and while the fans may come, the guests won't. All the guests (and some of the press) were sounding tired and pissed off by the end of the day. (Apparently there were more goofs on their side as well, plus a total lack of information.) No one is going to want to come back to work this con again.
And I am not going back next year.
End rant.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2006-02-27 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
This was put on by Reed Business, who know how to do cons - they do the BEA every year. What they don't know how to do is comic cons, and it's the ravening comic fans that caught them off guard.
They've already said next year they'll rent the whole place.
I suspect that people will come back - apparently, the trade part of the show was really great, and it was fantastic networking, despite all the inconveniences.
We shall see.
no subject
I got wary when I found out from someone in line at the dental clinic when they mentioned there was a Travel Show at the Javitz center. Part of my brain went "Isn't Comic Con there?" and that made for ugly math.
Well, at least you can look forward to Icon!
no subject
(Anonymous) 2006-02-28 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)