Author Topic: 2022 Talkback  (Read 3172 times)

Offline perc2100

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2022 Talkback
« on: July 24, 2022, 07:25:49 PM »
Did anyone happen to go to the panel this year?  I was unable to, but _really_ curious to hear anything from CCI regarding the Saturday Hall H line (or anything else), which was a MONSTER cluster bus this year.  It seemed like logistically Hall H was problematic all week, or at least Saturday & Sunday.  Having the metal detectors at the beginning of the tents seem to REALLY create a massive bottleneck in the line, particularly crossing the street from Bayfront Harbor. 
Hopefully CCI will look into improving this greatly for 2023 and beyond; I never had many problems with Hall H lines before (besides the reality that they are indeed unwieldy, they are manageable with planning and friends - this year they were seemingly borderline unmanageable), but this year felt incredibly problematic - almost like CCI and whomever completely forgot how to manage a huge line.  Did they change companies and the new company just dropped the ball; does anyone have any information from the Talkback panel?

Offline debster

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2022, 07:30:28 PM »
We only caught the last 15 minutes, but it sounded like the bulk of the complaints were about Saturday’s Hall H NDL and the ADA line for Saturday Hall H. It seems logical to me to cap the ADA line (with maybe a small handful of standby) because they know how many wristbands they are going to give out. I don’t know how they can figure out the Hall H stuff because people will game the system no matter what they do.

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #2 on: Today at 06:26:08 AM »

Offline perc2100

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2022, 08:36:26 PM »
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We only caught the last 15 minutes, but it sounded like the bulk of the complaints were about Saturday’s Hall H NDL and the ADA line for Saturday Hall H. It seems logical to me to cap the ADA line (with maybe a small handful of standby) because they know how many wristbands they are going to give out. I don’t know how they can figure out the Hall H stuff because people will game the system no matter what they do.
Yeah the ADA thing is perplexing to me.  If CCI is going to adhere to the legal minimum, then it seems easy to cap it so folks aren't waiting around all day(s) for no wristband: or cap whatever number they decide is max for ADA.

The thing about Hall H lineup in general was more logistical issues than anything this year.  They had lines in different spots, and the metal detectors at the very front of the tents complicated letting people into the tents post-wristbands: they were only allowing a handful (50ish estimated by folks I talked to) of folks to cross the street & enter the detectors after handing out wristbands.
And also, starting the wristbands at 9:15 is a terrible idea: why not 7:45/8 or whatnot?  And I'm not even going to get into the fact they actually started nearly 60 mins late, and didn't finish until after 1am Sat. morning.

I know there won't ever be a perfect solution, and I'm not complaining a ton (heck, I got into Hall H, my seats were fine, and I had a blast).  I just think it's inarguable that this year wasn't great and could be much improved for next year with a few tweaks and better communication.  It still blows my mind that CCI doesn't utilize social media for constant updates on things like that so attendees don't have to rely on 3rd party tweeters & gossipy hearsay.  If CCI doesn't employee a full-time social media team for convention weekends, I think that's a pretty integral investment that would REALLY help inform attendees and quickly resolve relatively minor complaints

Offline alyssa

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2022, 10:04:56 PM »
I got the entire audio  recording
I'll post it tomorrow

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Offline susanml10881

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2022, 10:05:28 PM »
I didn’t go to this panel as I was busy but they did change companies. Forget the name but it starts with a and has three letters. It’s the same one they used for special edition and their sister company has the wondercon contract.

The wristband pick up for lotto was a cluster too. It’s like they forgot how to run a con. And/or were understaffed.

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Did anyone happen to go to the panel this year?  I was unable to, but _really_ curious to hear anything from CCI regarding the Saturday Hall H line (or anything else), which was a MONSTER cluster bus this year.  It seemed like logistically Hall H was problematic all week, or at least Saturday & Sunday.  Having the metal detectors at the beginning of the tents seem to REALLY create a massive bottleneck in the line, particularly crossing the street from Bayfront Harbor. 
Hopefully CCI will look into improving this greatly for 2023 and beyond; I never had many problems with Hall H lines before (besides the reality that they are indeed unwieldy, they are manageable with planning and friends - this year they were seemingly borderline unmanageable), but this year felt incredibly problematic - almost like CCI and whomever completely forgot how to manage a huge line.  Did they change companies and the new company just dropped the ball; does anyone have any information from the Talkback panel?

Offline AzT

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2022, 11:10:13 PM »
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Quote
After a two-year pause for the pandemic, Comic-Con wrapped up its return as in-person extravaganza on Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center.

And based on the feedback from attendees, there was some rust in the gears after the hiatus.

About 150 people let organizers of the pop culture extravaganza know what worked and what didn’t on Sunday at Comic-Con Talk Back, the convention’s traditional feedback session for fans.

There was a long line of speakers — so long that not everyone could be heard in full before time ran out. That mirrored what happened on the ground at times during the convention itself, especially as people lined up for popular events staged in Hall H.

Attendees were delighted with the return of an in-person convention but frustrated by line cutting, accessibility shortfalls and communications problems.
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Catherine Murray, who has been attending Comic-Con for 22 years, traveled from New Mexico this year and waited six hours in a line designated for people with disabilities before being turned away. She said others that she knew waited 10 hours or more.

“I think they didn’t have enough people who knew what was going on,” said Murray about the convention staff. She suffers from severe arthritis, making the long wait painful. She would like to see a system to reduce the necessity of waiting in line without a guarantee of getting in.

People with disabilities have long criticized Comic-Con for discourteous treatment and insensitivity. One speaker pointed out that operators of large venues such as Disney and Universal have figured out how to accommodate people with disabilities without subjecting them to long lines and other difficult situations.

Yoshi, a Los Angeles resident who didn’t want to give her last name, has been attending Comic-Con since 2010. She got in line early, with just 50 or so people ahead of her. But then hordes began showing up to join those in front of her who were apparently holding their places.

“Hundreds of people cut in front of us throughout the day, in addition to it being hot and miserable,” she said. “I have been to other conventions where they put up tents along the line area” but security would not allow individual pop-up tents brought by those waiting.

Mixed messages also frustrated convention attendees, particularly contradictions between Comic-Con staff, volunteers and contract security personnel.

“You can talk to three people within a 15-foot space and all three will tell you something different,” an attendee told the panel.

While there were plenty of gripes, nearly everyone who spoke Sunday prefaced any criticism with praise for the in-person return. Several cited the enforcement of mask requirements and use of an app to streamline proof of vaccination procedures. They were happy with the in-person content, with none complaining that the panel sessions or exhibit hall displays came up short.

Meanwhile, organizers were putting on an event where most of the tickets had been purchased in 2019, said David Glanzer, chief communications and strategy officer for the convention.

The 2020 and 2021 conventions weren’t held in person because of the coronavirus pandemic. A majority of the attendees purchased tickets for the 2020 show. About 135,000 tickets were sold. Organizers sought to put on a flashy return this year with a 2019 budget — at least in terms of ticket sales.

“It is not an excuse, but it is an explanation as to why this year was a little rougher than it has been in the past,” Glanzer said. “It really is like holding dough and when you squeeze it, there’s a hole here or a hole there, and we are trying to patch those things up.”

Even so, the feedback is important, he said. It keeps up a tradition at Comic-Con of giving attendees a microphone to say what they would like to see improved.

“What really helps with this is people bringing to our attention stuff we might not be aware of or wouldn’t be aware of until sometime afterward,” Glanzer said.

Offline perc2100

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2022, 01:02:45 PM »
There seems to always be a lot of talk about "line cutters," but I wonder how much of that is just "line groups."  Our group had 50 or so people for Saturday in Hall H, and there were 10-12 people in 3 hour(ish) line shifts: we came and went throughout the day.  Between 8-9pm everyone showed up waiting for wristbands, so to a casual observer the line grew from 10-50 pretty quick and might've looked like a bunch of line-cutting.  My observation was security was pretty tight (tighter than I recall in past years) when wristbands came around.  Individuals need to be vigilant to ensure at this time randos don't jump in with the group; I know ours was, and at one point some random came by and stopped next to me, and when I asked who they were, discord name, etc. they kind of panicked and walked away (I didn't see them pop in anywhere behind me, when they left, and never saw them again).
It's hard to tell from really broad, mostly passionate and upset accounts what happened, if anything, with line cutters.  I do appreciate it sounds like people who spoke at the panel were polite with their feedback and I sincerely hope CCI analyzes what did/didn't work so they can make 2023 better!

Offline MarvelGurl

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2022, 01:43:36 PM »
I can understand it. If I saw 50 people jump in front of me after I waited in line for a ridiculous amount of time I’d find that maddening. Yes while your group stuck to the 1 to 5 rule there are plenty of others who don’t. I’m sure there are even people who pay others to hold spots. I’m not part of the ADA community but I always get super annoyed for them when I see them in their designated Hall H line. They always seem to be stationed in the sun and treated as an afterthought. Correct me if I’m wrong but it also seems like they tend to have a crappy designated area inside as well. Just off the far side of the stage having to crane their neck to see the screen.

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2022, 08:25:41 PM »
The ADA area is actually really nice. We sat right behind it on Sunday, at the far side next to the wall/curtain. It was easy to see the screen and it was pretty close to the stage. And right in front was a huge empty area for scooters/wheelchairs. There was another set of seats (2 rows) in the very front of the second section in the center. The ADA seats I saw were far better than 90% of the Hall H seating.

Offline omraged9

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2022, 08:58:27 PM »
They didn't seem to treat some ADA people well this year. It seems ridiculous to push out them in the sun in the overflow line for Hall H. It shouldn't be too hard set up a tent over where they are or just line them up under one of the normal tents.

Also on Saturday, they screwed up the ADA overflow line for the Everything Else line in the morning. A fellow group member went to join the regular Everything Else line in the early morning for Ballroom 20. A security guard noticed his ADA sticker and told him to join the ADA overflow line downstairs. Then some time later when the doors opened and they released the Everything Else line, they completely forgot about that ADA overflow line. He was stuck there when B20 already opened up and it became walk-in. I ended up going to B20 about 90 minutes after he arrived and was able to enter B20 easily while he was still stuck in that overflow line downstairs. Ridiculous.

Offline perc2100

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2022, 12:36:47 PM »
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They didn't seem to treat some ADA people well this year. It seems ridiculous to push out them in the sun in the overflow line for Hall H. It shouldn't be too hard set up a tent over where they are or just line them up under one of the normal tents.

Also on Saturday, they screwed up the ADA overflow line for the Everything Else line in the morning. A fellow group member went to join the regular Everything Else line in the early morning for Ballroom 20. A security guard noticed his ADA sticker and told him to join the ADA overflow line downstairs. Then some time later when the doors opened and they released the Everything Else line, they completely forgot about that ADA overflow line. He was stuck there when B20 already opened up and it became walk-in. I ended up going to B20 about 90 minutes after he arrived and was able to enter B20 easily while he was still stuck in that overflow line downstairs. Ridiculous.
Yeah from what I heard it definitely felt like there were MAJOR issues with ADA lines this year.  Obviously from the Talkback panel at least some of those were mentioned, and hopefully will be addressed/better in 2023.
Of course, CCI can always fall back on the fact that panel seating is NEVER a guarantee due to capacity issues, and yes there will always be folks who wait around for hours and never get into a panel room (as there were folks waiting alllll day to get into Hall H for Marvel and never got in).  Some of the issues, as talked about pre-Con in threads, have to do with attendees flat-out ignoring CCI policy and deciding "I'm lining up for Hall H Thursday afternoon here and I don't care what security tells me," and part of the issue is security ceding to sizable crowds and doing "fine, I'll drop the flag here and now THIS is indeed the Hall H Saturday line."  I think that type of thing will always exist, and CCI just has to plan as best they can to circumvent as much of that as they can.  Hopefully we never have a repeat of folks disobeying CCI policy, lining up early, panicking when the official line gets setup, sprinting across a street to get in line and getting killed by a car.  Obvs with Harbor closing for the most part that at least won't happen again, but it does feel like an injury or two could happen the way things were this year

Offline MarvelGurl

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2022, 12:46:24 PM »
True. Sorry to say, but a lot of these issues are bred from rude entitled attendees. That is never ever going to change. I don't blame volunteers or minimum wage workers for not wanting to deal with it after more than a directive and warning.

Offline perc2100

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2022, 04:17:37 PM »
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True. Sorry to say, but a lot of these issues are bred from rude entitled attendees. That is never ever going to change. I don't blame volunteers or minimum wage workers for not wanting to deal with it after more than a directive and warning.
yeah talking to both a security guy Friday evening, and a volunteer a bit later Friday night, they all said this is the shift no one wants: the Hall H Thursday or Friday evening/night shifts.  I can't blame them - I wouldn't want to deal with that mess either (and note - I'm a HS teacher who deals with children as part of my job!).  It's been going on since _at least_ the Twilight panel days, though I suspect prior to that & said behavior isn't exclusive to their fandom by any stretch.  It's unfortunate: it's not difficult to plan around guidelines and CCI rules & logistics to still get to see and do what you want to at SDCC.  But this insane escalation absolutely begins with selfish entitlement

Offline darqamin

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2022, 10:42:43 PM »
Did anyone talk about the lack of carpeting in the exhibitor hall?

Offline SamTurtledove

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Re: 2022 Talkback
« Reply #14 on: July 27, 2022, 12:27:03 AM »
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Did anyone talk about the lack of carpeting in the exhibitor hall?
Yes, in the other "Article about 2022 talk-back forum" thread!

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