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[Ralesk]

I had a little discussion about this with Gyroplast on the last day while they were removing the disco ball, but even though his reasoning was sound and valid (and I totally understand his points) I thought I'd reiterate this here, to see people's (and con crew) reactions.


Issue: Whether you live in the hotel or somewhere nearby (and as the con gets larger, the "somewhere nearby" will become true for a substantial percentage of con-goers), you probably have a few things on you that you cannot bring to certain events of the con.  The Art Show for example doesn't allow any kind of picture taking equipment, and doesn't look kindly at bag type stuff either.  Some stage events ban cameras too.

So, so far the solution has been simply to drop said stuff outside the event's room and go in without them.  This is fine as long as there are no outsiders (we wouldn't steal from each other, would we?), but even so, usually the only place you can put them is on the ground, into a disorganised pile.  If you live in the hotel, you can go up to your room, drop them stuff, get back down to the event and hope by the time you come back you haven't missed out on anything.  If you're nearby, you can do the same, it's just less comfortable, though getting stuff up to the hostel and come back might sometimes be faster than going up to the 7th floor of the Maritim and back   And after your visit to said event, do the same again to pick stuff up.

In short it's uncomfortable and it doesn't feel good to leave your camera among a pile of other stuff on the ground, outside, completely out of sight.  At least I feel this way.  It would be nicer if there was a table to put stuff on (bags are just fine on the ground, eg. under said table), and it would be even nicer if said table was inside the room.  There seemed to be plenty of space next to the Art Show regdesk for example.

[MartinRJ]

You can leave/deposit your stuff at the reception, they give you a receipt with a number, and with that you can come back later to pick up your stuff.

I've done that a couple of times and it worked well:3

[edit: you don't have to have a room there either]

[Ralesk]

You can leave/deposit your stuff at the reception, they give you a receipt with a number, and with that you can come back later to pick up your stuff.

I've done that a couple of times and it worked well:3

[edit: you don't have to have a room there either]

And that's exactly what I avoided mentioning because Gyroplast told me it isn't really publicised because they simply don't have enough capacity to deal with even 500 people leaving their stuff there   (Even if that's stretching the numbers a bit)  I know now that I can try them and will do so next year.

[Kiantis]

For the stealing issue, maybe a deterrent, but still.
What about putting one of those small cheap cameras recording 24h what's happening? Eventually in digital format.
And then publish (internally to the con) the recorded file, so that the staff doesn't have to deal with catching people, and leaving that to people?

It's automatic, and no additional work should be required.

(oops, I'm realizing now though how much big that file can become --- maybe just a few hours straight not all the day)

[Token]

A video camera? Erm, no!? Seriously, forget about such ideas quickly :-P

Anyhow, the ArtShow and ConStaff team is aware of the problem and it is being internally discussed. After all, even without someone itentionally stealing something, leaving it on the ground infront of the ArtShow still posed some dangers to expensive equipment. We try to figure out a sensable solution for next year!

Best wishes,
Token

[Keidran]

For the stealing issue, maybe a deterrent, but still.
What about putting one of those small cheap cameras recording 24h what's happening? Eventually in digital format.
And then publish (internally to the con) the recorded file, so that the staff doesn't have to deal with catching people, and leaving that to people?

It's automatic, and no additional work should be required.

(oops, I'm realizing now though how much big that file can become --- maybe just a few hours straight not all the day)

No additional work?
I'm sorry but who puts up the video cam, connects it with a storage device (I don't think that you wanna hang an ordinary camcorder there), looks through the footage, maintain it and so on.
It is a lot of work, not counting the legally issues in this which add to it too.
I'd suggest everyone to take their stuff and put into their room/car/reception etc or give it a person you can trust directly.

[Kiantis]

Oh sorry, I just often come up with crazy ideas, eh eh.

[davuu]

mayby im not seeing it in the same way, but I dont see it as a problem? when I went to the art show I didnt see a pile of 500 cameras piled outside? or any of the shows?

Alot of things it is known and publicised you cant take your cameras in, being it is known, if you want to go there leave it in your room? esp if you know your show starts at a certain time, leave it behind.  You can get it afterwards? If you dont want to leave it behind cant a friend look after it for a short time? or the reception?

In terms of a more permenent soloution perhaps there could be a room dsignated and manned by conops(Just an idea!) whereby same as reception people get given a ticket, your stuff gets taken and stored when you want it back you show your ticket and reclaim your item?

[Fineas]

Well seeing people with expensive cameras with a long tele lens I can see you can't simple put it 'somewhere'. And even with the buffers we put in to the time schedule I can understand you would like to shoot some pictures before you enter the art show or auction. Or maybe even you find out to late for a show and have to run all the way back up.

I speak out of line to propose any solutions, I think this is a clear staff thing. Do we want to fix it and how.
For example, the conops office could be a way, but it was already busy this year. Even with 'just' lost & found as well as being an information desk to the con goers. So again, this is a staff thing.

[K9Primate]

Naturally it takes a bit of planning ahead, but I never really ran into these problems.
I know that if you have accommodation outside the hotel, this could be an issue though.
One solution I have used in some previous year (when I wasn't staying in the hotel), was a backpack.
I could put my camera and some other stuff in there, and that worked reasonably.

[Riffuchs]

I see that it was already mentioned that there's a staff internal discussion going on. We'll see how it turns out and what service we may offer. It  has to be reliable for the guest and the staff as well. Thing is that the best concept is designed to fail when all our guests want to make use of the service. Thinking about your activities and planning what to take along works best. I.e. leaving the cam on your room when you want to visit the artshow and go to dinner afterwards.

Another thought I'd like to voice is: ask your friend/mate to keep your camera for you. I assume that everyone got some friends running around on EF. So you can just ask your friend/mate to "just take your camera for 10..20 minutes while you're walking though the art show". Vice versa, you can offer the same to your friends. Of course, that doesn't work if you want to watch the art show together.

[Wolftale]

hm, at Confuzzled this year they had a table at the entrees for the Dealers Den where a security guy sat and watch over the bags/cameras while the attendees looked around in Dealers den.
Maybe a table like this could be something to add?
Mostly planing has worked for me this year, but understand that something it's too easy.

[BluePaw]

cheap little lockable boxes from IKEA or something? or boxes over all.
or possibly some kind of cabinet with cloeable doors, really doesn't need to be more then some temporary thing (screwed together from drift-wood xD) or even look good to keep expences down. put some numbertags on some small hooks, paint the number on corresponding spot, and you'll have pretty much the same system as maritim, and easier to survey then an open table space.
could at least work if you keep it to a fixed number of people inside the rooms (maritims problem is that too many people wants to drop it off at the same time), such as you did with the dealers dens, people drop off when going in, and pick up when going out.

short said, as long as it's survayable sqered up spaces, doesn't take up too much space, and is enough for maximum planed number of ppl in the room, it shouldn't be too hard, neither for art show or dealers dens. biggest problem is art auction, too many ppl, but problems are made to be soulved^^

[cosmo]

hm, at Confuzzled this year they had a table at the entrees for the Dealers Den where a security guy sat and watch over the bags/cameras while the attendees looked around in Dealers den.
Maybe a table like this could be something to add?
Mostly planing has worked for me this year, but understand that something it's too easy.

Just to add some detail, the way we work these tables at CFz (one in the dealers' den and one in the art show) is to have a member of staff (in our case, security) constantly manning the table.
They give a raffle ticket for each item that someone brings in (camera, camera-phone, bag etc.) to the item's owner and attach the corresponding ticket to item.
The owner is then not allowed to retrieve their item without security first checking that they have the ticket which corresponds to that item.
It's a system that seems to work well at CFz, though that doesn't necessarily mean that it would work for EF, being a much larger con, but if the table idea is one that gets looked at I thought I might as well give as much detail as possible.

[Furvan]

Just to add some detail, the way we work these tables at CFz (one in the dealers' den and one in the art show) is to have a member of staff (in our case, security) constantly manning the table.
They give a raffle ticket for each item that someone brings in (camera, camera-phone, bag etc.) to the item's owner and attach the corresponding ticket to item.
The owner is then not allowed to retrieve their item without security first checking that they have the ticket which corresponds to that item.
It's a system that seems to work well at CFz, though that doesn't necessarily mean that it would work for EF, being a much larger con, but if the table idea is one that gets looked at I thought I might as well give as much detail as possible.

AC Artshow Staff do it the same way, cards with numbers.
They using shelfs to store the goods.
Number ranges are related to ranges at the shelfs to lower search time.