by FurryCurry » Tue Aug 19, 2003 8:21 pm
Chris:
The mix-up, as I remember it, went something like this:
Either through looking in the schedule, and discovering it for myself, or being informed of it when receiving my tickets to the AMV contest, I learned of a room being set aside for an hour for an "AMV creators gathering" set for the hour immediately prior to the start of the contest. No problem, we reasoned. We have preferred seating, and they wouldn't have scheduled this meet if we couldn't waltz right in there to our seats right before the contest starts. (IIRC, even you hadn't been informed of this, and only found out "on the fly" because you were walking past the room where we were, and someone happened to recognize you.)
We find ourselves in posession of an an empty conference room, nobody in charge of anything, so zerophite and I toss a couple laptops up on the tables, and play some videos, and everybody BS's and greets each other. Twas cool enough.
Then it gets a little more interesting.
The gathering was set for the hour right before the contest, so we all pack up and leave 5-10 minutes before the start of the contest, relying on our "OMG, we're special" tickets to get us into the contest at the last minute.
The staffer at the only remaining open door informs us that the contest seating is full, and and is promptly forced to recoil from the virtual bouqet of preferred seating tickets thrust in his face by our little mob, and the cries of protest that we have reserved seating. A moment of ticket scrutinizing later, he lets us in. Some split off from the group to join their friends, and the rest of us make straight for the front two rows of seats on the side closest to the entry/exit doors, which we can clearly see are empty.
The moment we plant ourselves in the front row, we are accosted by Dr. Stephen Hawking Jr., elite special security forces, seating division. He informs us through a series of coded grunts that the two front rows of seats (half the front rows on the side away from the doors are also empty) are reserved for "Special Guests of Honor" and we are not allowed to sit there, and must move immediately, because the contest is starting. No amount of special ticket waving or protesting that we are the amv creators has any effect on his decision, and as the lights start dimming, we quickly scramble for a few vacant seats scattered near the edges of rows around 5-8, splitting up our group in the process. Jammed uncomfortably amongst random strangers and unable to easily communicate with each other, the lights go down, and the contest begins, with more than two full rows of seating at the very front of the room completely empty.
Those seats remained empty for the entire duration of the contest.
I have to say, it was pretty irritating to sit there jammed between two sweaty strangers for the entire contest with two full rows of empty seats in plain view a few rows in front of me. Maybe Dr. Hawking was misinformed, or maybe those seats really were for GoHs that chose not to attend. Nevertheless, being denied those seats literally 30 seconds before the lights went down really sucked, and it would have been nice to see a little common sense and personal initiative on the part of Dr. Hawking. I'm just glad that the guy at the door let us in, because being locked out of the contest entirely would have been completely unforgivable, given the circumstances.
Now for a few suggestions that may hopefully help things run smoother in 2004:
I love the idea of a gathering of some sort for the amv'ers. The chance to meet and talk with other creators is a strong draw for me to go to cons.
I'd suggest that the best time for it to start would be about a half hour after the end of the amv contest, to give people a chance to stretch their legs, take a bathroom break, find the room, etc. Hopefully, it would give you a chance to finish up your post-screening responsibilities and join us as well, Chris.
As for seating, I fully understand the need to reserve space for guests of honor, but perhaps you could think of doing something like have a second line for preferred tickets that lets in 5 minutes earlier than the main doors, or assemble the people in one of the adjoining rooms, and open one of the partitions to let the special guests/creators in first,m before the main doors open. I think they do some sort of "in through the side door" thing like that at AX, but I'm not certain of it.
As far as number of tickets reserved, think about maybe alloting 3 tickets per submitter/finalist/whatever, with 2 being standard, and any excess being alloted among those who request extras, in a sort of round robin fashion.
I hope this clears up a little about what some of the issues were last year, and that maybe one or more of these suggestions may prove useful to you in making 2004 the best Sakura Con amv contest yet.
My Eyes Are The Victim's Eyes.
My Hands Are The Assailant's Hands.