Entry tags:
well, that went well
A while ago I posted speculating that as conventions get larger it becomes harder to run them as three-day events and easier to run them as four-day events. But I was talking about conventions twice the size of Arisia, and so it took my by surprise how much easier this Arisia was to run than last year's three-day event.
We had 200 more badges picked up than last year, and yet traffic was easier and everyone was noticeably calmer. Everyone seemed to be having a genuinely good time. Some of it was having a chance to work out how to use the hotel well, and some of it was not getting as far behind on the schedule during the leadup. But I was expecting logistics to fall down hard because of the extra day and instead it worked *better*. Maybe people were getting some actual sleep instead of pushing themselves during the con trying to squeeze everything in.
We had 200 more badges picked up than last year, and yet traffic was easier and everyone was noticeably calmer. Everyone seemed to be having a genuinely good time. Some of it was having a chance to work out how to use the hotel well, and some of it was not getting as far behind on the schedule during the leadup. But I was expecting logistics to fall down hard because of the extra day and instead it worked *better*. Maybe people were getting some actual sleep instead of pushing themselves during the con trying to squeeze everything in.
no subject
Suggestion: Any way that you could negotiate a later Monday checkout time for the entire room block with the hotel? A whole lot of folks seemed to leave more because they had to get their stuff out of the hotel than because they actually wanted to go. Perhaps a 1pm checkout would ease the pressure and allow more people to attend Monday events before heading home?