Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
"Don't waste any time mourning. Organize!"
-Joe Hill
My brother texted the family group chat this quote before he went to work today. I'm not in a good place this morning, but we can't lose ourselves to despair. I know I have a lot of anger right now, but getting into whose fault that is won't help anyone.
Dwelling on the people I will never forgive won't help anyone.
I'm not that optimistic, but hope is a choice we can still make. It's a hard one to make this morning, but I'm still going to do my best. We are where we are, and focusing on yesterday won't change that. We can only move forward, and save as many as we can along the way.
There will be a tomorrow because we're going to make sure there's a tomorrow.
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I’m assuming the question is ?
Looks like Jasper was named .
Curse my stupid ineptitude with tags!
Probable question: http://www.unconventional-comic.com/2010/10/closing-confusion/
Jasper named: http://www.unconventional-comic.com/2013/10/the-final-question/
Had to search the archive to find his question, though I then have to ask if it’s been a repeat issue, why not get the contract updated?
That said, I sorta hate Q&A sessions, because 90% is the same stuff that gets asked every single year. And of that, 90% is something the convention can’t do anything about.
‘The vendor hall was crowded.’ ‘So don’t go there. Then at least others don’t have to squeeze past your fat ass.’
‘You didn’t have the panel I wanted.’ ‘So run it yourself.’
‘There were two panels I wanted to see at the same time.’ ‘Join staff, set the schedule yourself.’
‘This event wasn’t run right.’ ‘Join staff, run it yourself.’
‘Parking was bad.’ ‘Ride the bus.’
‘I didn’t get to spend time with the Special Guest.’ ‘Neither did 2000 other attendees. You are not special.’
…..I might be a little bitter…
I look at the Q & A part of the closing ceremony to be the part where you make a request and the staff tells you why they can’t do that. Like you said only 10% of that is something and maybe among that, on 5% of that can get implemented. I said this a long time ago but with that said I still see the closing ceremony to be rather unproductive and to a huge extent, depressing.
Sometimes it isn’t as simple as just updating the contract. Some hotels put very specific restrictions on serving food to the public and abiding to those rules can be costly, especially if the hotel requires the con to purchase the food through its own catering services. Hotel food is usually not cheap and when push comes to shove, it makes a con suite kinda frivolous financial-wise because those funds are better spent on equipment, con space, security measures, guest fees, and other expenses.
Note, there is a huge difference between a con suite and a staff lounge. I’ve been to cons that feed staff, volunteers, and guests, but not attendees. The guest get fed via their contract and the staff/volunteers as part of a bartering system, which is a legal form of payment for services in the state I live in.
Regarding the comic though, it sounds more like this one person asking the same question every year rather than it being a repeated issue. You can’t please everyone, so sometimes it’s not realistic or doable to cater to a small group who want a specific thing.
Anthrocon did away with the Q&A in closing ceremonies years ago. It had become long, drawn-out and unproductive, and it was evident many of the people were just grabbing a moment of our chairman’s attention (he’s a popular guy).
Instead we developed an online survey to collect feedback, and keep the closing ceremony brief and positive: thanking the Guests of Honor and other notables, announcing the total amount collected for charity, total attendance and fursuit parade numbers, etc. Takes about half an hour.
Great Idea. Also by that point, everyone is tired and ready to go home. Also almost everyone is gone by then that sounds more productive.
As y’said. There were also a share of ‘I love this con *snif* *bawl*” that were sweet to hear but took up valuable time.