Mine is more something i signed up for years and years ago and they’ve never removed me from the list… I got birthday cards from McDonalds for something like 20 years.
I hated the thought of cons not printing out programs… until I finally got myself a smartphone. Now I get all weirded out any time I’m at a con that DOESN’T use Guidebook or some other online thing.
One of the things that cheeses me off about RI Comiccon is that while they PROVIDE a program book, it doesn’t have a schedule of events in it. You have to go to the lobby and copy down whatever it is you want to see that they’ve put up on a whiteboard!
Isn’t that the same con that had to have fire marshals step in because they oversold the event?
Paragons of effective management, really. 😛
Ed Rhodes
Yep, that’s them. I went to lunch early enough that I got back into the con before the hammer came down. A friend I met the next day told me HE’D been locked out because they were over crowded. It’s a thing. I remember Phil Foglio did a strip about a NY Star Trek con where Ticketron oversold the con and something like 14,000 people showed up. Last year they had to make refunds for the people who paid extra for the “Batman” section of the con. Yvonne Craig cancelled months before the event and Julie Newmar (who I’D been looking forward to seeing) had her flight cancelled because some one shot up LAX! Adam West and Burt Ward did the best they could, but they were bored and it showed.
I keep every program book from every con I have attended. Not having one at Otakon just felt weird… I wanted something physical I could bring back to show the staff here, but they were pretty much electronic-only (I heard later there WERE program books, but there were very few printed.)
Live with it – you print up a batch of schedules (one or two sheets generally does the trick), put them out for people to take as needed, and put up a big one as a poster behind the information desk for when you run out. Yes it’s a good idea to have an on-line schedule – be sure you can update it on the fly. But don’t dare Murphy by depending on it solely. The number of things that can go wrong is scary…
UnCONventional is a comic that ran from December 2009 to December 2019 about the staff of a small town anime convention and their lives. This is a complete online archive of the comic.
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11 thoughts on “Unforeseen Tangents”
Nick Schneider
Story of my life. “Wait, what am I doing here? When did I become staff?”
Geekfeast
Yeah, that happened to me too XD
Ray Dannelly
Mine is more something i signed up for years and years ago and they’ve never removed me from the list… I got birthday cards from McDonalds for something like 20 years.
Dessa
As someone who a) just got a smartphone, b) knows tons of people without smartphones, and c) uses paper schedules anyway, I want to punch Roy.
Blitzkrieg1701
I hated the thought of cons not printing out programs… until I finally got myself a smartphone. Now I get all weirded out any time I’m at a con that DOESN’T use Guidebook or some other online thing.
Ed Rhodes
One of the things that cheeses me off about RI Comiccon is that while they PROVIDE a program book, it doesn’t have a schedule of events in it. You have to go to the lobby and copy down whatever it is you want to see that they’ve put up on a whiteboard!
Trae Dorn
Isn’t that the same con that had to have fire marshals step in because they oversold the event?
Paragons of effective management, really. 😛
Ed Rhodes
Yep, that’s them. I went to lunch early enough that I got back into the con before the hammer came down. A friend I met the next day told me HE’D been locked out because they were over crowded. It’s a thing. I remember Phil Foglio did a strip about a NY Star Trek con where Ticketron oversold the con and something like 14,000 people showed up. Last year they had to make refunds for the people who paid extra for the “Batman” section of the con. Yvonne Craig cancelled months before the event and Julie Newmar (who I’D been looking forward to seeing) had her flight cancelled because some one shot up LAX! Adam West and Burt Ward did the best they could, but they were bored and it showed.
Vanessa M.
I keep every program book from every con I have attended. Not having one at Otakon just felt weird… I wanted something physical I could bring back to show the staff here, but they were pretty much electronic-only (I heard later there WERE program books, but there were very few printed.)
Chiaroscuro
Oh, we’ve had this debate many a time, but it comes down to this:
Everyone wants one. But most folks leave their pocket program guide in their hotel and asks for another one. We go through 500 extra every convention.
We made Conbooks an optional grab and cut printing of them by 20-30%, but people want the printed program guide, even if it’s online.
Kay Shapero
Live with it – you print up a batch of schedules (one or two sheets generally does the trick), put them out for people to take as needed, and put up a big one as a poster behind the information desk for when you run out. Yes it’s a good idea to have an on-line schedule – be sure you can update it on the fly. But don’t dare Murphy by depending on it solely. The number of things that can go wrong is scary…
About the Comic
UnCONventional is a comic that ran from December 2009 to December 2019 about the staff of a small town anime convention and their lives. This is a complete online archive of the comic.
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