Cons, Stairs, and Elevators

[soc_puppet]

The problem of there never being enough elevators at conventions for all the attendees who want to use them has existed since long before Covid, and will likely continue to exist until someone invents and manages to mass-market some sort of levitation or anti-gravity field. In the mean time, finding a way to encourage able-bodied attendees to use the stairs to make sure that disabled attendees have space on the elevator is an ongoing puzzle.

Taking a page or two from my time on AI's Environmental Enhancement Team, I decided that a good way to go about this would be to make something about using the stairs more fun. Of course, this approach comes with conditions of its own:

1) It cannot make using the stairs more dangerous
2) It should not make people who can't or shouldn't use the stairs feel left out

This immediately eliminated several options I was thinking of, but I may have finally landed on something workable:

For any con that can get their venue's permission, I think it would be fun to post rotating visual stuff on the landings between floors. (Like... when you take the stairs in most businesses, you go up half a flight, take a short walk, then go up another half a flight to get to the next floor? The short walk area.) Fun, short quotes in super large print, art (possibly by artist GOHs, possibly submitted by attendees?), logos or posters from various shows, that sort of thing. Change them out once or twice a day; say, one set for the morning, one set for the afternoon, maybe one set for the evening/night.

To make sure everyone gets access to the fun stuff being posted there, the con can share digital copies (with image descriptions, natch) of the images on their website after the event is over. Something more immediate might be sharing the images on the con's official social media accounts as they're taken down; so the morning signs would be shared online when the afternoon signs are put up, the afternoon signs are shared when the evening/night signs go up, etc. That would give some incentive for people who can take the stairs to do so (they get to see the new signs "early"), while also making sure that anyone who can't or shouldn't isn't left out of the loop for too long. Keeping the signage relatively simple, and/or making it available online later, can also help make sure that people don't spend too long on the stairs and end up blocking the way.

IDK, there's probably more kinks to work out of the idea, but I think it has promise!

Comments

[kalmn]

I love this!

[soc_puppet]

Thanks 😃 I'm definitely gonna bring it up for WisCon the next chance I get.

[jesse_the_k]

HOOOORAY!

Most excellent idea.

[alexseanchai]

oooo

I especially like the art submitted by attendees part of the idea; if any given print displayed there is also being sold in Artist Alley or on the artist's website or etc, that should definitely be noted alongside, and the people already planning to bring prints to Artist Alley are the first people I'd suggest approaching about please submit art for this, because that makes the advertising fairly convenient to the sales location and the returning the print after much simpler

[soc_puppet]

Honestly, depending on the con's demographic of attendees and the display options, I might just suggest the con buy the print(s) outright, or pay the artist to get a cheaper copy made. If you get a bad group, the print could end up stolen or vandalized, and then the artist is out the cost of the print. Heck, the attendees might not even do it maliciously! I remember a number of years ago that some of AI's signs were ...co-opted by some attendees at night, and had directions to a room party written on the back. But in general, this being a great opportunity for artists to advertise is right on the money.

[alexseanchai]

oh good points yes

[the_prettiest_star]

It definitely has promise!! Good luck getting it implemented

[soc_puppet]

Thanks! I found out yesterday that WisCon uses that exact space for advertisement already, so I'll probably have to tweak my approach a bit 😂 But I still might be able to come up with something workable!

[mistressofmuses]

I like it!

I'd be more interested in taking the stairs if it meant getting to see an interesting display or artwork.

I do like the idea of posting it once the next piece is put up. That way if someone misses it, they don't have to wonder what they missed.

[soc_puppet]

And then there's how many floors any given hotel might have, as well as where the convention activities take place. The hotel I work for has four, the hotel AnimeIowa has been at for twelve of the past fifteen years has eight, and the two times I went to ACen, their hotel had fourteen floors. I'm given to understand that the hotel that hosts WisCon has between twelve and fourteen floors, and most of the action takes place on the second and sixth floors.

I'd have to prioritize whether I want to do something different for every floor (definitely better for getting people to use the stairs, but potentially harder to organize), or to target the stairs that people use the most often. Especially for taller buildings, I wouldn't want to do the same thing for every floor, because then people would only have to go up or down one flight of stairs to see the cool stuff, and then might switch right back over to the elevator. On the other hand, if I did something different for every floor in a hotel that has fifteen floors, some people might take the stairs in one direction just to see everything, then take the elevator back to whichever floor they actually wanted to go to! Making sure that people can see the exhibited art right after it gets taken down would do a lot to eliminate that problem.

[mistressofmuses]

Hmm, I wasn't really thinking about how MANY flights you might have to plan for! But yes, I can see that having an impact, too. Like you mentioned, having *many* flights' worth of stuff could accidentally incentivize an extra elevator trip for people who take the stairs one way too see stuff, but don't want to walk back the same way. HMMM. So much to consider! But even if it just encourages SOME people to take the stairs and free up the elevators, it'll help!

[floweryhedgehog]

I love this idea! One of our local libraries has its children's area on a lower level than the main entrance, and there are interesting displays visible from the stairs. It definitely gets the kiddos hyped up for their library visit, so something similar could work for conference-goers too!

[soc_puppet]

Oho, evidence in favor of the idea! Excellent 😃

Yeah, I think there's a lot of potential for this idea; I hope I can make it work!