Ways to improve for NDK 2009?

[Greg Hines]

Lunara covered it all pretty well, with no inaccuracies that I can spot. There are a couple of points upon which I'd like to expound:

While we do have a contract with a Marriott, that's only one of a few reasons we've stuck with this hotel. As Lunara mentioned, the hotel treats us very well; that alone is worth a lot to the convention. There's nothing worse than having the hosting hotel staff being antagonistic toward convention attendees.

More than that, though, there simply isn't a better in-hotel location in which to hold the convention in the greater Denver area. There's only one hotel of which I know that has more space than the Marriott, but it's not well suited for an event like NDK. There are also a few other drawbacks to the hotel as well. I won't enumerate those reasons here, however.

There's also the option of moving to somewhere like the Colorado Convention Center, but I'm personally dead-set against the idea. Things just don't feel the same in convention centers. It's hard for me to explain, but I think NDK would lose something intangible by moving to such a location. It just wouldn't be the same con.

We are aware of the congestion and we're actively trying to figure out ways to help relieve some of that stress. There are a few options on the table that we're currently exploring. I can't say if anything will happen this year, but we're definitely not ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away. (The attendance numbers continuing to grow makes that a rather unlikely possibility.)

Regarding the costumes being "run into or trampled on," I haven't heard any complaints along those lines. Is this something that's happened to you or someone you know? Or are you assuming that it's an inevitability that people's costumes get ruined because there are so many other people around? Based on my own observations, most people at NDK seem to give cosplayers a little extra space to avoid causing any costume damage.

And even though I haven't spoken to the other members of the board about it, I'm going to put the kibosh on the idea that people "16 and under" should have adult supervision at all times. While we strongly suggest any young children be accompanied by their parents or guardians, requiring supervision for most teenagers would be impossible to enforce, be completely unnecessary, and add far more problems than it would solve. Most attendees at NDK, regardless of their age, are very well behaved and don't get into any kind of trouble. There are a few bad apples in every large group of people but that doesn't mean the majority needs to pay the price for the behavior of a few miscreants. (We deal those people directly.) And adding a couple thousand chaperons into the mix sure wouldn't help the congestion issues you complained about earlier.

I'm sorry your experiences with younger people have put you off so much, but I think you'll find that few people at NDK share your general opinions of them. And we're certainly not going to go to such great lengths to solve problems that, frankly, haven't proven themselves to be problems at all.

The best advice I could give is the advice that Lunara already gave: if you have a problem at NDK, go to the Ops window and report it. If another attendee is giving you trouble, your property has been mistreated, or you're having any other issues, there's someone there to listen to your problem and do what they can to help solve the problem. For more immediate help, just ask anyone wearing a Staff shirt for help and they can at least direct you to the right person or place.

We can't solve all problems, but we try our best to make sure that all attendees have a good time at the convention. But sometimes that requires your help by reporting any problems as soon as you can.

[xGacktx]

I know very, very well where the "little window" is.
I definitely reported the problem immediately after it happened and basically got a shrug in response to it. Which really pissed me off and made me never want to come back.

So apparently I'm supposed to be able to remember what 1 kid out of more than 1600 people looks like and report it to you? I'd probably just get another shrug in response.

[Pestilence]

So apparently I'm supposed to be able to remember what 1 kid out of more than 1600 people looks like and report it to you?

Yes.  How else can a person help you without that kind of pertinent information? 

[Greg Hines]

I know very, very well where the "little window" is.
I definitely reported the problem immediately after it happened and basically got a shrug in response to it. Which really pissed me off and made me never want to come back.

That honestly doesn't sound like the Ops I know...

So apparently I'm supposed to be able to remember what 1 kid out of more than 1600 people looks like and report it to you? I'd probably just get another shrug in response.

I'm not really sure what you were expecting of our staff, but the less information our staff has about a given problem, the less likely it is that they can help resolve said problem. It's hard to find someone amongst a crowd of 6,000+ without having a description of them.


But we're getting off topic. This thread is about ways to improve NDK, not about this incident in particular. If you'd like to continue that discussion in private, xGacktx, please send me a PM and I'd be happy to discuss it with you further.

[Sarge]

One quick add to what Greg has said about what to do in those uncomfortable situations.  Report it to us.  I know he said this, but I can't stress it enough.  My entire job at the con is to tackle those reports, watch for incidents like that happening, and to prevent them in the first place.  I sleep perhaps 6 hours out of about 60 at the con doing nothing but that, non-stop, and so does Rex, the department head.  And I'll tell you right now, very little escapes us.  We have eyes everywhere.

If something happens, try to remember everything about the incident, and tell us.  YES, we can sometimes find that 1 out of 6000 people.  Also, I love our attendees.  Despite any issues you may have had, I guarantee we have a very very well-behaved crowd.

Now then, back on-topic, before Greg hurts me (he fights dirty).

[meredithgk]

I am new here, a friend just sent me here, but I have been to 4 of the NDK conventions.

It is hard in cons to report anything because of all the people in costume, other than an RFID tag system for all people, (They were selling them at the Virgin going out of Business Sale ).   

Volunteers who keep an eye on things are nice, but a camera cell phone is very helpful if you spot something.   Now I don't want to start a whole "civilian spy ring" but maybe have a reward for evidence provided and a "police" blotter board maybe....

Other than that the other suggestion I have is rather silly:    AMV Hell Karaoke.........

 

[Greg Hines]

Regarding RFID: Ignoring the budgetary and logistical problems of RFID tagging every one of our attendees, it would do nothing to solve this problem. Unless the person witnessing the event had an RFID reader and could thus convey the specific RFID number to our staff, they still wouldn't know who to look for. (Besides, trying to track down an RFID among thousands of people would be difficult in its own right.)

That said, the ethical issues alone are reason enough that this would never happen. I, for one, would be staunchly opposed to such an idea. I care too much about people's privacy to allow such a thing to happen, even if I'm the system's gatekeeper.

Regarding cameras: That's a great idea. Most every cell phone has a camera in it these days, even if it's a pretty crappy one. Still, it would go a long way to helping us identify someone. And if you were to actually take a picture of said person in the act, it might be something that could be used as evidence (if it comes to that). Granted, not everyone has a camera on them at all times, but still, if you see something you think is fishy, go ahead and snap a pic... you can always delete it later if it turns out to be nothing.

[meredithgk]

Regarding cameras: That's a great idea. Most every cell phone has a camera in it these days, even if it's a pretty crappy one. Still, it would go a long way to helping us identify someone. And if you were to actually take a picture of said person in the act, it might be something that could be used as evidence (if it comes to that). Granted, not everyone has a camera on them at all times, but still, if you see something you think is fishy, go ahead and snap a pic... you can always delete it later if it turns out to be nothing.

Now that I finally own a decent Digital Camera with a bazillion mega pixels thingies, i can take a zillion pics and I will take pics if I see something suspicious.   

[Alitain]

You know, I'll say this about the lines last year.  Yeah they were bad, but really compared to previous years at the marriott, last year was the worse but otherwise the lines have been okay.  I hate to say it, but truly what contributed to the horrendous lines were the guests.  Not speaking bad about them, I loved the guests last year Vic, and Monica especially, and Chris, etc.  But having many real big named guests definitely brought on a complication.

Actually I think it was mainly Vic that did it, but again not saying anything against the great guests, just I think that's part of the problem last year.  I've never had a problem with the lines in previous years, yeah they could get kinda long but no longer than what I expected.

[Alitain]

I think someone mentioned on another topic on the forums(can't remember who or where), about getting something going on one of the TV hotel channels for the schedule for the day or con, and maybe doing something like linking the major events like award ceremonies and cosplay contest to show on the TV if possible.  I really liked this idea, don't know if it's at all possible, but it's a good idea.

I mean it would maybe help people who can't get into the major events to still see them.  And plus if you could do something like a highlight of the con to show during Sundays when people are cleaning up their rooms and packing up, to kind of just have on, might be nice.  And while it's very easy to grab a paper schedule maybe having it on the TV wouldn't be so bad either for some people, and could cut down on the number of paper schedules?  Just a thought.

[Greg Hines]

I think someone mentioned on another topic on the forums(can't remember who or where), about getting something going on one of the TV hotel channels for the schedule for the day or con, and maybe doing something like linking the major events like award ceremonies and cosplay contest to show on the TV if possible.  I really liked this idea, don't know if it's at all possible, but it's a good idea.

Unfortunately, this just isn't possible. The hotel doesn't give us access to those screens.

[Rumor]

Unfortunately, this just isn't possible. The hotel doesn't give us access to those screens.

Haxor!

I'm just kidding. Hacking is illegal, kiddies.

[Shareece]

You know, it would be kinda nice to have tvs in the cosplay green rooms so that the people at th end of the cosplay line, like the skits, could see and watch all of the other costumes on stage.   I was talking to Taffy and she told me that when they used to have the Kan at the Holiday Inn, they had tvs in the green rooms for the cospalyers then and I thought that sounded like a good idea!

[GimmeAnime]

Something I want to add to Greg about moving NDK to the Colorado Convention Center. We've been going around to a lot of conventions recently of all sizes and venues. And I must say there are some problems with conventions that are held at convention centers:

1) The entire convention couldn't be actually held in the Center. Most Centers will not stay open 24 hours, which is why most cons will only put events in that don't need to be open all con, like Dealer's Room. And if the Artist's Alley ends up there, they will have to close at a certain time and not be potentially open all night like now.

What this means is that other events, such as Video Rooms, will have to be in a nearby hotel, which spreads out the con quite a bit. Worse if there is no direct connection and it happens to rain or snow that weekend.

2) Many Centers have unions and very iron clad rules. It is possible we could lose the ability to sell Pocky and Ramune and all of the other Japanese snacks you love because the Center may say that only they can sell food and no outside food will be allowed in the Convention Center.

3) Price. Not to NDK, but to you. Even if they manage to avoid the Convention Center, the only hotels I know of in Denver large enough to hold NDK are downtown. The prices I heard for various cons that have been downtown meant hotel rooms will cost over $100 per night. Plus there will be parking fees on top of that, unless you want to risk your costume & luggage on Light Rail. If you want the larger venue, you'll have to be willing to put more money to your personal overhead.

That said, there are supposed to be more convention-ready hotels going up in Denver soon. It may mean moving from DTC out to DIA, but they are supposed to be coming.

Also, I do definitely support parents at least being on the premises during a con. While I know I would have loved it if my parents were to drop me off at a con when I was a teenager, NDK is no longer a small, intimate, everyone-knows-each-other con and that makes it harder to control and harder to make safe. Even though I know most parents have no interest slugging around a convention all day, a few cons I've been at have set aside either hotel rooms or a suite as a "Parent's Lounge" for parents that want to be around, but not necessarily to attend.

[mastergods]

More Interactive panels. I am happy cosplay chess is at NDK again but I wish Cosplay battle(the ones with the die) was there as well.

[Katie]

I'd like to say something about the convention center as well. Last month I was a exhibitor there for AAPG for my work and they charge for everything. I mean everything!

Here are some examples:
A small trash box (not can box, about 12x12x12 inches) was $12 for the weekend
Each chair at each booth cost $70 for the weekend
An electrical outlet cost $200 for the weekend
An internet connection cost $2000 for a weekend.

Outrageous? Why yes it is!

Not only that but because of the unions we weren't allowed to carry anything into the convention that wouldn't fit in our hands, we had to pay the union guys to do it. Even if you did put only dealers and Artists in there it would probably break a lot of them with the extra charges that get incured for literally everything little thing. Oil companies have a lot of money to spend on these kinds of things but anime dealers usually do not.

[Greg Hines]

You know, it would be kinda nice to have tvs in the cosplay green rooms so that the people at th end of the cosplay line, like the skits, could see and watch all of the other costumes on stage.  I was talking to Taffy and she told me that when they used to have the Kan at the Holiday Inn, they had tvs in the green rooms for the cospalyers then and I thought that sounded like a good idea!

Unfortunately, there's just no convenient way for us to get a video signal to those other rooms. It's too great a distance to snake a video cable along (there'd be no signal left by the time it got to the green rooms), and there are too many walls in the way for any kind of wireless signal to pass through. Again, it's just not feasible for technical reasons. Sorry.

Also, to echo what Roger and Katie said about convention centers, the costs to attendees would rise tremendously. Because of the factors Roger mentioned, hotel rooms would be much more expensive than what we can help arrange at the Marriott. That's the first problem.

The second problem would be related to what Katie mentioned: convention centers charge ridiculously huge prices for everything. Now, NDK doesn't have some financier digging into deep pockets to pay for the con's expenses. That's why we have to charge admission. And if our costs suddenly tripled because we ended up in a convention center, we'd have to charge a lot more for admission. This is a self-reinforcing problem as well, because the more expensive the passes are, the fewer people would show up and the less money the con would have to pay for those expenses.

No, we have no plans to go to a convention center any time soon. It's been discussed, of course, and dismissed as completely impractical for NDK. We just can't afford it.

[Alitain]

Wow, didn't know the convention center was so crazy expensive.  Me and my friends always figured NDK would be moving there when it got big enough out of necessity, but now I'm glad that ain't gonna happen, not for all those crazy rules and prices.

Shame on not being able to use the TVs, but eh no big deal.

[Shareece]

Unfortunately, there's just no convenient way for us to get a video signal to those other rooms. It's too great a distance to snake a video cable along (there'd be no signal left by the time it got to the green rooms), and there are too many walls in the way for any kind of wireless signal to pass through. Again, it's just not feasible for technical reasons. Sorry.

Thanks for answering me Greg! I pretty much guessed that would be the problem with something like that, but I just threw it out as an idea and to see from a different pint of view. But thanks for answering me, I appreciate it very much!:D

[Rumor]

It'd be cool for the Kan to be in a convention center, but being able to walk out of the elevator into the convention is really nice :]