Quick post-con report
Jul. 31st, 2013 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetLet's get this taken care of.
The Good:
* The guests all loved their corn! I got some personal than-yous, a hug from Peter Pixie, and Samurai Dan and Samurai Jillian stopped to rave about them and swore they would be wearing them pinned to their clothes at future conventions where they get flack for being from Iowa. Didn't get a chance to talk to Greg Ayers about his, which made me slightly disappointed, but I was assured he loved it, so.
* I won some prizes at the art show! Tetris Blanket won third place overall (the prize was a set of really fancy markers and a ribbon) and fan favorite (the prize was a plush Buu-chan, the pig mascot of AI), and the Klingon Pony won second place in I'm-not-sure-what (the prize was a ribbon).
* I managed to delegate basically all registration-related responsibility to the actual head of registration and was much less stressed because of it.
* I made a fair number of sales at the AI staff art table; I took in less money than I did last year, but sold more items overall.
* Apparently my "Use The Mic" signs were a major hit with the general population (???), so I should be able to arrange for an actual print run of them for next year, rather than me sitting around with sticker paper, hot glue, foam, and popsicle sticks.
The Bad:
* I spent Thursday and Friday looking desperately for my large-print program books, only to find out that they hadn't been printed in the first place. Apparently we didn't get our stuff done on time! Color me pissed.
* I also spent Thursday and Friday regularly checking in at the Bridge for my blue gaffer's tape. No luck! Some tape did show up on Saturday (IIRC), but none of it was blue. This basically meant that the wheelchair spaces I organized in Main Programming vanished after a couple of larger events.
* After specifically requesting hand sanitizer for each water station, as well as the consweet[sic], I only got one personal-sized bottle that showed up at the reg desk. I reported this at the Bridge and to my immediate superior, and asked them to get someone to pick some up the next time we made a store run. After that, I saw one jumbo-sized bottle at the Bridge. And, aside from the personal bottle at Reg, that's it.
I probably could've nagged more about the latter two items, but I am still royally pissed about the first. I managed to let most of it go for the weekend, because there wasn't much I could do about it at that point, but I guess I'm just going to have to be more proactive with Accessibility needs in the future.
* Scheduling ended up a bit of an issue at the reg desk, but it turns out they didn't need me too much at the Info Desk, and I still managed to get time in at the staff art table, so we're mostly good.
* I didn't end up taking many pictures this year, which I may or may not end up regretting.
* Once things at the reg desk settled down, we ended up doing a lot of badge policing. It's been our policy that no one is allowed in convention space without a badge, and we rented basically all the space past a certain point in the hallway. I thoroughly expect at least three people to compare us to Nazis in the feedback forms. My opinion? People have had two years to follow the rules on their own; since not everyone seems willing to do so, it's time for us to help them out.
The Haul:
* $91 USD made at the staff art table. Minus $10 for the table fee makes $81.
* Finally sold Dr. Whooves, to a fellow staffer, for $85. I get to cash the check tomorrow. Between the two of those, I should have enough for my own 3DS! Woo-hoo!
* Found a DVD I was looking for in the Dealer's Room for $4; that was nice.
* Traded for the entire Saint Tail anime and my one missing book of the manga at the Swap Meet; sent a number of series to good homes, some in return for the promise of volunteering next year. (We were kinda short on volunteers this year.) Donated a lot of the "extra" to the Volunteers department as future volunteer prizes.
* Traded my white griffin for an absolutely beautiful leather mask made to resemble tree bark, with some leaves poking out by the left eye. I'll have to take a picture sometime.
* Also picked up a stylus modeled after a quill pen. Love it!
That's pretty much all for this year. Still looking forward to the next staff meeting and the next convention in general.
The Good:
* The guests all loved their corn! I got some personal than-yous, a hug from Peter Pixie, and Samurai Dan and Samurai Jillian stopped to rave about them and swore they would be wearing them pinned to their clothes at future conventions where they get flack for being from Iowa. Didn't get a chance to talk to Greg Ayers about his, which made me slightly disappointed, but I was assured he loved it, so.
* I won some prizes at the art show! Tetris Blanket won third place overall (the prize was a set of really fancy markers and a ribbon) and fan favorite (the prize was a plush Buu-chan, the pig mascot of AI), and the Klingon Pony won second place in I'm-not-sure-what (the prize was a ribbon).
* I managed to delegate basically all registration-related responsibility to the actual head of registration and was much less stressed because of it.
* I made a fair number of sales at the AI staff art table; I took in less money than I did last year, but sold more items overall.
* Apparently my "Use The Mic" signs were a major hit with the general population (???), so I should be able to arrange for an actual print run of them for next year, rather than me sitting around with sticker paper, hot glue, foam, and popsicle sticks.
The Bad:
* I spent Thursday and Friday looking desperately for my large-print program books, only to find out that they hadn't been printed in the first place. Apparently we didn't get our stuff done on time! Color me pissed.
* I also spent Thursday and Friday regularly checking in at the Bridge for my blue gaffer's tape. No luck! Some tape did show up on Saturday (IIRC), but none of it was blue. This basically meant that the wheelchair spaces I organized in Main Programming vanished after a couple of larger events.
* After specifically requesting hand sanitizer for each water station, as well as the consweet[sic], I only got one personal-sized bottle that showed up at the reg desk. I reported this at the Bridge and to my immediate superior, and asked them to get someone to pick some up the next time we made a store run. After that, I saw one jumbo-sized bottle at the Bridge. And, aside from the personal bottle at Reg, that's it.
I probably could've nagged more about the latter two items, but I am still royally pissed about the first. I managed to let most of it go for the weekend, because there wasn't much I could do about it at that point, but I guess I'm just going to have to be more proactive with Accessibility needs in the future.
* Scheduling ended up a bit of an issue at the reg desk, but it turns out they didn't need me too much at the Info Desk, and I still managed to get time in at the staff art table, so we're mostly good.
* I didn't end up taking many pictures this year, which I may or may not end up regretting.
* Once things at the reg desk settled down, we ended up doing a lot of badge policing. It's been our policy that no one is allowed in convention space without a badge, and we rented basically all the space past a certain point in the hallway. I thoroughly expect at least three people to compare us to Nazis in the feedback forms. My opinion? People have had two years to follow the rules on their own; since not everyone seems willing to do so, it's time for us to help them out.
The Haul:
* $91 USD made at the staff art table. Minus $10 for the table fee makes $81.
* Finally sold Dr. Whooves, to a fellow staffer, for $85. I get to cash the check tomorrow. Between the two of those, I should have enough for my own 3DS! Woo-hoo!
* Found a DVD I was looking for in the Dealer's Room for $4; that was nice.
* Traded for the entire Saint Tail anime and my one missing book of the manga at the Swap Meet; sent a number of series to good homes, some in return for the promise of volunteering next year. (We were kinda short on volunteers this year.) Donated a lot of the "extra" to the Volunteers department as future volunteer prizes.
* Traded my white griffin for an absolutely beautiful leather mask made to resemble tree bark, with some leaves poking out by the left eye. I'll have to take a picture sometime.
* Also picked up a stylus modeled after a quill pen. Love it!
That's pretty much all for this year. Still looking forward to the next staff meeting and the next convention in general.
