18 Apr
2023
18 Apr
'23
6:04 p.m.
It shouldn't be "part of the
experience". It's poor planning and poor
management of the consignment area on the part of the organizers. This
same thing happened at VCF "West" last year and it was a catastrophe.
There was a line snaking down the hallway at least a fifty people deep and
they were waiting for 2-3 HOURS before it actually started moving. That
was 2-3 hours that attendees weren't in the exhibit/speaker hall engaging
with the exhibitors and their exhibits, and listening to the speakers. I'm
really disappointed to hear that, despite their prior experience, it seems
like they have not done anything to address this completely unacceptable
and entirely avoidable scenario.
Every bit of space that is currently available at InfoAge was used for the
event. Attendence jumped over prior years and the demand was
unpredictable. The weather in that area can be cold and rainy so outdoors
use is limited in planning. I figured there would be blowout attendence at
the 3pm streamer panel in Saturday, but crowd wasn't an issue. Meanwhile
at the dedicated swap meets at InfoAge attendence wasn't that crazy at the
last one. Maybe it's because it's tax return time?
If VCF could raise enough money to finish off their new space at InfoAge
and get a CO that would help a ton next year. But that is quite a bit of
money intertwined with government legal red tape.
Trust me there will be big discussions about how to try to fix it for the
future.
Also the event could use more volunteers for next year as well.
- Ethan