So I'm all set to spend an afternoon with my nieces at the Anime Central 2008 Convention in the Rosemont Convention Center this past Friday. We got there decently early enough. The exhibitor floor opened at 10a and closed at 6p. We got there about 9:30a. You think that'd be plenty of time to register, peruse the showroom and buy what we needed/wanted. Heaven forbid!
Thanks to a possible hacker the ineptitude of the ACEN staff, me, my nieces and about 8.000 other people were still waiting in line
after 8 HOURS. Needless to say the show room, got to closing, which was our whole purpose for going, and we left.Now, they claimed at first that the printers were taken back by the Hyatt that's connected to them. Next was that the computers crashed. Next was that the computers crashed again, bringing the total eventually up to abouot 5 minimum crash incidents. Finally we got word that someone tried hacking the system and printing some registration badges off site somewhere, thereby causing this system to shut down and give headaches all around. Above is a picture of the computers which were constantly NOT being used by us, the victims, to register.
Now I will admit, sometimes thing happen that cannot be helped, but the fact they had no back up plans, no Plan B, no contingency plans to remedy the situation, that was just plain foolishness and ineptitude. By the time they got their heads outta their collective backsides, it was 5p and the line still went nowhere! NOT to mention the fact that when the line WAS moving, they only had about three registers running. Three. Forgot to mention it was not only for on site registerers, but for the pre-registerers as well. Poor setup, poor layout, crap planning. All around atrocious day.
Now their website isn't even loading, barring me from posting any scathing reports from my side. But that's okay, because I'm POSITIVE I'm not the only one with something to say about this.
LINE CON 2008 was just something I came up with and felt needed to be presented to the public. I wore that as a badge in lieu of an actual one that never seemed to get acquired.
6 comments:
OMG!! I can't believe it! I didn't know you got there that early. That is HORRIBLE!!! How did your nieces do?
that stinks!!!!! :O
They actually handled it very well. I have to give them credit. They seemed okay after we left, ate at Panda Express and found stuff for them at Toys R Us that they were looking for at the con anyway. I may go back Sunday to find the other things they wanted, then meet up with y'all after!
Hey Adrian, you can try going back on Sunday, but when I was there, the line was a good 4-5 hour wait. And with Sunday being the shortest day, it doesn't seem like it's worth it.
Frankly, the majority of the con has very low security. I spent my time with Neil and his friends who have run a couple panels. And I was able to practically get everywhere without much trouble (except the dealer room).
Hi Adrian,
If you ever plan on going to ACEN again you can try ordering your ticket/s in advance and have it mailed to you so that you can avoid those pesky lines and trauma.
I had a bad first experience with the ticket line too, but I didn't wait that long.
I would have gone to see a movie instead.
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