Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

I'm up early because I can't get the 221B numbers out of my head. Particularly two numbers:

400 attendee cap, including at the door people.
60 minutes between start of registration and start of con.

I may not be going to MediaWest in reality this year, but I'm certainly going to be there in spirit, because this calls for an early breakfast and a long sit in the registration line, chatting and knitting. Guess I won't be at the Friday tea past my usual bedtime.

There is also pushback starting from people who are used to professional cons (as in attendees and market; Malice and Bouchercon are primarily for authors) instead of the SF "everything all the time" model, as people are realizing that there is no built-in time to talk, shop, or eat, much less actually get from panel to panel. It's a model I'm used to, but for those who aren't, it's a bit of a nasty shock to realize that missing things is part of the experience.

After the first rush of "OW!" and the flurry to catch up on what was *really* going on at the convention, some welcome news is rattling loose.

1) I have been reassured by the person running the "sold out" event that there will be tickets at the door. What has sold out is apparently not seats themselves, but attendee goodie bags. Which, yeah, I still would have gone for, but there's no longer the jr-high vibe of "We're throwing a party and you're not invited" that I was reacting to.

2) I squeaked in under the wire to register for another event, which is REALLY lucky, considering that the way to get in was to check the con tumblr which sent you to *another* tumblr that had the clock ticking down. (The people running this one have a fair amount of event experience and not only have an announcement but a timeline and a FAQ that covers a lot of territory; the con runners really need to talk to them about thinking things through in my opinion.)

Most importantly,

3) I've figured out a way to frame the feedback in a manner that doesn't boil down to "You hurt my fee-fees!" True, but subjective. On the other hand, it's perfectly objective and legitimate to point out that the convention needs to present a consistent message across public media, and has not, specifically:
- The schedule grid - a pdf downloadable from the web page - mentions event II but does not mention that it requires pre-registration with a third party
- The web page is still telling attendees how to sign up at a hotel that the tumblr says is sold out.

It's not that tumblr was the wrong choice (without being on tumblr myself I can read the convention stream and it turns out that Pulse will read a tumblr feed), it's that the concom assumed that members were reading the tumblr feed and thus did not present a consistent message. And the cure for that is pretty darn simple, actually - next time, have a big banner on the web page saying "for up to the minute information, see our tumblr at (clickable address)."

That strips all emotion out of the feedback, and puts it where it can be handled without me (or them) getting defensive: definition of problem, illustration of issues, no-sweat solution.

I've got some other feedback I want to give them - I think that there are some ideas they might want to steal from other conventions (such as the MediaWest panel suggestion/selection process). But those are "would likes" whereas the inconsistent communication is a MUST FIX.