totient: (Default)
phi ([personal profile] totient) wrote2008-01-21 11:12 pm

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.
ext_100364: (Default)

[identity profile] whuffle.livejournal.com 2008-01-22 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
For the majority, the vendors certainly seemed to like the extra day too!

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?