Forum - View topicNEWS: Otakon 2005 Announced
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
 Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Actually, we DO use professional lighting and sound techs. We use the same folks for most of our events, but last year's L'Arc concert used a different group, I think, because they were requested by the band or its management.
Is it the convention's fault that the person couldn't make it? Look at it this way: If you buy tickets to see a rock band and then miss the concert, your ticket is not refunded. Nor for a movie or a broadway show. Or more appropriately, if you become a member of your local public television station, and then decide you couldn't afford it, you can't get a refund. Few conventions offer refunds at all. If you tell us you're coming, we have to plan for it and pay for it, whether you show up or not. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Factual correction: We were at 20,899 last year, so we're only leaving room for about a thousand more people -- that's about a quarter of the number of people we ADDED last year. (And despite the huge draw, we grew last year by our smallest percentage since coming to Baltimore, even though we grew by about 4,000 people.) There were even some who wanted to DECREASE the number of attendees we'd allow, down to 20k or lower. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Competition from other large events sometimes means that's the only weekend we could get. A bit of perspective: Most conventions just need to secure one whole hotel. Otakon eats an entire million-plus square foot convention center and about seven hotels, and takes a serious bite out of at least five more. (Last year we also ate the Arena.) Otakon reserves more hotel rooms for staff and guests than most conventions use for their entire membership. So if, say, a key hotel is booked solid on our preferred weekend, we have to look for other options. |
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Justin
Posts: 16 Location: Newport Beach, CA |
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Sorry about that, I got my years mixed. |
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hikura
Posts: 565 |
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Actually, we DO use professional lighting and sound techs. We use the same folks for most of our events, but last year's L'Arc concert used a different group, I think, because they were requested by the band or its management.
Is it the convention's fault that the person couldn't make it? Look at it this way: If you buy tickets to see a rock band and then miss the concert, your ticket is not refunded. Nor for a movie or a broadway show. Or more appropriately, if you become a member of your local public television station, and then decide you couldn't afford it, you can't get a refund. Few conventions offer refunds at all. If you tell us you're coming, we have to plan for it and pay for it, whether you show up or not.[/quote] To approach your comment about the sound and light problems.What was with all the problem during the masquerade? Second,The refund rule.It is not fair to your attendees to shell out hard earned money to unfortuney not to go due to some sort of misfortune(death or similiar) beyond their control.Someone before mentioned that airlines not refunding.In all acutality you can either get a reschedule at no cost(i know this all to well i fly alot).Broadway shows and rock concerts are different then airlines.It is true you might not acutally able to get a refund but most times you can easily have a friend of some sort use them and they can pay you for them.You have to understand your fans made you what you are today.The biggest and best con out there.If you going to put major restrictions on them,they will simply no longer be there for you. |
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Hotaru
Posts: 481 Location: NY |
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i guess it's a first come first serve thing. we always register and book our hotel early so it ain't no big thing to us.
the only sucky thing is for the people who don't pre-reg and spend money of air fare or travel fees or whatever. but hey, if you're gonna spend money on a plane ticket, why the hell wouldn't you pre-reg? so what's the likely hood of L'Arc returning sometime in the next few years? 
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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I'm not sure what you're referring to, but keep in mind that technical glitches affect professionals, too.
Again, several things. 1. Most conventions simply do not offer refunds, period. 2. Most similar events do not offer refunds. If you don't show up, it's a problem to resell your space to someone else. It's a problem to get you your money back, after we've verified you didn't actually show up. As for airline flights, it might be helpful to know that I have coordinated travel for Otakon guests for the past few years, and did so for the government for almost five years in the 1990s. You cannot always transfer tickets to other individuals or get refunds, unless you buy certain types of tickets. And there is almost always a fee involved unless you are part of a very high-volume buying program. Keep in mind, too, that the plane has to make the trip regardless....and that most airlines in the US are *failing*because the expenses involved in running them are so astronomically high. I certainly don't want that to be a model for Otakon! 
Fans are our primary reason for existing. Frankly I'm a bit sick of people assuming that we've gotten too big to care about that, or that we're earning big bucks on their meagre convention fees. It just ain't so, and if you ask people who've been part of the effort to run the show (even gofers) you'll know better. These aren't major restrictions. These are changes that bring us in line with the rest of the industry (among other things), but more importantly, changes that allow us to continue to offer the best value for the buck that we can. Furthermore, most of the folks who wanted refunds last year simply changed their mind; one person got grounded and wanted a refund. We had to buy materials, and lay plans, based on their attendence. This year, with a cap, there won't be another person there to take their spot if they don't show up. So by backing out, they've cost the convention their share, plus prevented us from recouping it by having someone else take their place. We run on a shoestring -- a very big shoestring, but one with very little fat to trim. You seem concerned by whose "fault" it is that someone didn't make it. That doesn't matter to me, because it's certainly not Otakon's fault that that person didn't show up. It's not our fault that someone got grounded, or ran out of cash, or got sick, but we still had to buy materials and prepare for him to be there, since he said he would be. Handling such requests was eating up way too much time, as well. One or two requests is one thing. Dozens is another. If 1% of Otakon attendees backed out and asked for a refund, that's about 200 people. The alternative is to hire full-time, year-round staff to handle that, and frankly we can't afford it right now -- all your bucks go right into the show already, and it's more costly than you realize to hire people. |
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Probably pretty low. You don't wanna know how expensive that show was, or how much effort went into making it happen. (At this point, we're probably looking at smaller, more intimate acts that would NOT require the level of resources we needed last year. Nothing's set in stone yet, of course, but two years of major acts and first-time-ever concerts has definitely made many of us ready for a slightly less stressful approach this year. ) But who knows what the future will hold? Maybe L'Arc will do some US shows, as TMR has done. |
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hikura
Posts: 565 |
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jvowles In all acutality i know just much about the airlines as you.Insurance for airline tickets is relatively inexpensive.Less then a 100 dollars.This way if you need to tranfer or reshcedule your flight it is easily done.I am not blaming anyone for anything but i am saying the more restrictions that are in place is unfair to your people trying to service.Plus i have done more then a few cons myself(i have been going and helping one type of con or another for roughly 20 years) so i know what goes on in the background.I am not saying that you guys are making huge profits but you guys are making a profit year to year overall.I personally think you could hire out a small full time staff or have people who are dedicated to such things help you out.I am talking about cases that would be approate for refunds not such peity cases for refunds.Plus i am talking not just spefically with otakon but most cons.
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jvowles
Otakon Representative
Posts: 219 Location: Maryland |
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Every convention works differently. Any "profit" you think Otakorp is making off Otakon has fed into the budget for the next year. There are no paid positions or bonuses, no massive perks like some organizations run. There have been many years that we have lost money. Yes, there is an emergency fund. Some years we've had to use it. It's there so that if they shut down Baltimore for a terrorist incident, or a storm wipes out half the BCC, Otakorp can survive (barely).
Even if you have worked with other conventions, you haven't worked with Otakon or anything our size before. There are things we have to worry about that smaller conventions, or those without corporate backing, don't have to consider. As for the other point, I did *say* that it costs more money to get transferrable tickets. Otakon paid for quite a few tickets last year, so I'm well aware of the option. Typically the option adds about 10-20% to the cost of the ticket. But we're just bandying semantics here. Perhaps we could adopt a similar policy --- charge you an extra fee for the option to transfer your membership. But you seem to have missed the point about it being a bad model to follow (the airlines are collapsing into bankruptcy), or being an inappropriate analogy for how we work (we don't run several conventions a day and we aren't interrupting commerce by failing to get you to your destination). And again, Otakon memberships are more like becoming a member of your local public television station than they are like airline tickets. Look, I'm not going to get into a pissing match about this. We've provided our rationale, and our policy is reasonable and consistent with most similar events and organizations. I'm sorry you disagree with it, but you don't know enough about how the decision was reached and you don't enough specifics about what it takes to run Otakon to override the decision reached by those who have invested time, money, and sweat equity into the convention. And it seems a bit odd to argue so strenuously about the alleged unfairness of a policy that hasn't yet affected a single person, ignore the very reasonable logic behind that reason, and ignore the fact that it is unfair to the organization to refund money already spent on behalf of the person requesting a refund. |
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hikura
Posts: 565 |
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Yes i have worked a bigger cons then otakon.I have woked with Gencon which had averaged 25000 plus people making it bigger then otakon and ax.So i do know what goes on in cons bigger and better then both.So do not make assumptions of my past please.
Plus it usually doesn't cost 10 to 20 percent vaule of the airline ticket cause i fly and have flown frequently.Plus it is not a bad policy for the airline.The problem with airlines that their overhead with dealing such things as salary for the execs,unions among other things.Not with most consumers. Plus i am not trying to get into pissing match either.But suggesting that some rules could modified fit for most circumatances. Plus i am not suggesting anything of the sort of giving perks or befints spent by corpations for hired personel.Where did my statement say that?I saying that you could hire personel for regristration or have dedicated staff members to work on regristration excusively.I know lots of cons have dedicated staff that would glad work such areas at little or no cost that could do this a good chunk of when you start and end the regristration periods for the con time. |
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