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Back from IFC
10 years ago
General
Hey everybody, just giving a brief overview of my time at IFC this weekend.
Thankfully, due to some convenient scheduling, Vici was able to have the weekend off from work, which allowed us to travel to Indy for Saturday and Sunday. The trip was rather uneventful, Vici driving instead of me (as I usually drive), and we were lucky enough to check in early to our hotel room (by about five hours). Registration was easy to navigate as well, but that's probably due to the fact that IFC is ultimately a small convention (less than 1000 attendees). It was great to see Lyenuv there, who was also the Guest of Honor, and pick up some art that she did for us. We went to a few panels, including Uncle Kage's "Science, Psuedoscience and Crap" panel and his story hour, and also got to play some Lupus in Tabula. We also hung out a little bit with Crimsonred77 as he works at the same place as Vici (and we need to make more friends). Ultimately, it wasn't a bad time.
But, it wasn't the best. Here's some stuff that I want to point out.
The dealer's den was...tiny. I've been to a convention held at the same hotel before and the space for the dealer's den is what was normally used for larger panels. Now, I can understand not having a HUGE dealer's den for a convention of about 500 people, but it felt incredibly cramped. In fact, IFC wasn't even using the space that the other convention used as the dealer room, a room that could have easily been for main events and hold every attendee. Another reason why I state this is because the space used for main events was adjacent to other panel rooms and the music from the dance was incredibly loud, making those panels nearly impossible to run.
Also, artist's alley was a ghost town. We saw, at most, seven artists in there. Not only that, but artist's alley was kind of off in a corner and you wouldn't really be able to figure that out unless you saw the one sign pointing you that way.
So, my suggestion to fix that is two-fold:
- Put main events in the larger space (Liberty Hall).
- Put the dealer's den and artist alley into Grand Ballroom 4 & 5.
Now, I do want to say that as I looked at the schedule in print versus what I saw online a couple months ago, there were things missing in the print copies of the program. This included the fact that Lupus in Tabula was online and even printed on the door for the tabletop gaming room, but not in the printed programming guide. Also, putting Lupus in Tabula, a big game that requires a lot of room and that can sometimes be loud or distracting to others around, to be put in the tabletop gaming room was kind of a mistake on programming's part.
The last thing I will bring up is the general failure of programming and tech to have panel rooms ready for certain panels, notably Lyenuv's "Adventures in Fetlife" panel. Upon arrival, there was no projector and the room was located next to main events. While the dance was going on. A shock, I know. After about 15 minutes, it was decided that the panel would be moved to secondary main events (which is not adjacent to main events) and would happen after the Match Game. I went into the Match game when there was supposed to be 15 minutes left and it went on for about 20-25 minutes, meaning that Lyenuv's panel was delayed again. Then tech (or whoever it was from con staff) tried to get the projector working and everything ready for the panel. By the time midnight was rolling around (half an hour from when Match Game was scheduled to end) Lyenuv's panel had not started and I was starting to feel a sharp pain from where I had recently had surgery. I couldn't sit there any longer and had to leave.
So, what was that rant about? Programming and the rest of staff need to be more aware of time management when it comes to panels. I don't care if someone from staff has to got to whoever is running a panel when there is 10-15 minutes before it's supposed to end and say, "wrap it up," but they have to do something. In order for people to be engaged in the programming, it has to be handled with professionalism and timeliness.
Now, I could say something about who is in charge of programming, but I won't be jumping in on that drama llama (#DramaLlama).
NOTE: I will be forwarding some of my concerns and suggestions to whatever email address IFC has for such comments.
Thankfully, due to some convenient scheduling, Vici was able to have the weekend off from work, which allowed us to travel to Indy for Saturday and Sunday. The trip was rather uneventful, Vici driving instead of me (as I usually drive), and we were lucky enough to check in early to our hotel room (by about five hours). Registration was easy to navigate as well, but that's probably due to the fact that IFC is ultimately a small convention (less than 1000 attendees). It was great to see Lyenuv there, who was also the Guest of Honor, and pick up some art that she did for us. We went to a few panels, including Uncle Kage's "Science, Psuedoscience and Crap" panel and his story hour, and also got to play some Lupus in Tabula. We also hung out a little bit with Crimsonred77 as he works at the same place as Vici (and we need to make more friends). Ultimately, it wasn't a bad time.
But, it wasn't the best. Here's some stuff that I want to point out.
The dealer's den was...tiny. I've been to a convention held at the same hotel before and the space for the dealer's den is what was normally used for larger panels. Now, I can understand not having a HUGE dealer's den for a convention of about 500 people, but it felt incredibly cramped. In fact, IFC wasn't even using the space that the other convention used as the dealer room, a room that could have easily been for main events and hold every attendee. Another reason why I state this is because the space used for main events was adjacent to other panel rooms and the music from the dance was incredibly loud, making those panels nearly impossible to run.
Also, artist's alley was a ghost town. We saw, at most, seven artists in there. Not only that, but artist's alley was kind of off in a corner and you wouldn't really be able to figure that out unless you saw the one sign pointing you that way.
So, my suggestion to fix that is two-fold:
- Put main events in the larger space (Liberty Hall).
- Put the dealer's den and artist alley into Grand Ballroom 4 & 5.
Now, I do want to say that as I looked at the schedule in print versus what I saw online a couple months ago, there were things missing in the print copies of the program. This included the fact that Lupus in Tabula was online and even printed on the door for the tabletop gaming room, but not in the printed programming guide. Also, putting Lupus in Tabula, a big game that requires a lot of room and that can sometimes be loud or distracting to others around, to be put in the tabletop gaming room was kind of a mistake on programming's part.
The last thing I will bring up is the general failure of programming and tech to have panel rooms ready for certain panels, notably Lyenuv's "Adventures in Fetlife" panel. Upon arrival, there was no projector and the room was located next to main events. While the dance was going on. A shock, I know. After about 15 minutes, it was decided that the panel would be moved to secondary main events (which is not adjacent to main events) and would happen after the Match Game. I went into the Match game when there was supposed to be 15 minutes left and it went on for about 20-25 minutes, meaning that Lyenuv's panel was delayed again. Then tech (or whoever it was from con staff) tried to get the projector working and everything ready for the panel. By the time midnight was rolling around (half an hour from when Match Game was scheduled to end) Lyenuv's panel had not started and I was starting to feel a sharp pain from where I had recently had surgery. I couldn't sit there any longer and had to leave.
So, what was that rant about? Programming and the rest of staff need to be more aware of time management when it comes to panels. I don't care if someone from staff has to got to whoever is running a panel when there is 10-15 minutes before it's supposed to end and say, "wrap it up," but they have to do something. In order for people to be engaged in the programming, it has to be handled with professionalism and timeliness.
Now, I could say something about who is in charge of programming, but I won't be jumping in on that drama llama (#DramaLlama).
NOTE: I will be forwarding some of my concerns and suggestions to whatever email address IFC has for such comments.
