Chances of PAX East going 4 days?

natedoggcata

So we know that PAX Prime will be going 4 days this year. What was the reason for this? Was it cause it kept getting bigger every year? Seemed like PAX East this year was the biggest yet. What are the chances that East could go 4 days in the future?

aikoe

They answered this at one of the Q and As. Prime is only 4 days because they're at max capacity and want more people to be able to attend. East has plenty of room to expand and doesn't need 4 days.

natedoggcata

East has plenty of room to expand? Christ what is the maximum capacity in that building? It was crowded enough as it is this year

nbcaffeine

25k is the max capacity. It's written on some of the areas near doors.

natedoggcata

nbcaffeine wrote: »

25k is the max capacity. It's written on some of the areas near doors.

wow I couldnt even imagine what it would look like with that many people there

zerzhul

Actually if you go here: http://www.massconvention.com/download/EventGuide_v5/BCEC/BCEC_Guide_I.pdf

You will see that the combined capacities for the expo halls alone are much larger than 25k, depending on their configurations.

Also there is still planned expansion to the building as far as I know, and pax didn't sell out completely until only a few weeks before the con.

miker525

Yeah as zerzhul said I don't think East will go 4 days any time soon. BCEC is supposedly expanding over the next few years as it is, so seems to have plenty of room

zerzhul

Well, I didn't opine one way or the other about 4 days, just explaining the part about capacity.

MidnyghtChilde

I did some hunting online last night out of curiosity, and found estimates for capacity - for the ground 0 exhibit halls only - of 15k for "A", 25k for "b" and 10k for "c", which is how they break it up for floorplans (cite: http://www.advantageboston.com/bcec/floor-plans-and-specs/exhibit-space.aspx) . I also saw the plans to almost double the size of the BCEC in the next few years, after additional hotels are built (Cite: http://www.advantageboston.com/bcec/bcec-expansion-plans.aspx) . So I can't imagine PAXEast ever going to 4 days with those kind of numbers. I also can't imagine what the place would look like if it were really, truly near capacity, as those numbers don't take into consideration all of the 3 floors of meeting rooms.

Lindsay Lohan

I would rather see Pax East actually stay open Sunday night and not shut down so early. It really doesn't seem equitable that Sunday costs the same as the other two days when buying individual tickets yet you have little chance at the official merchandise being in stock, a lot of booths run out swag (Popcap ran out mid-Sunday for example) and there are no concerts. Find a unique hook for Sunday evening/night and at least give us three full days.

Krag123

Wow, that is some nice planned expansion there. up to 7 more hotels in walking distance.

LesStewart

This exact question was posed at one of the Q&As I believe. Mike said that there are no plans to expand PAX East as the larger capacity of BCEC allows more people to attend over the three days when compared to Seattle with the current configuration. It also seems that the larger demand for PAX Prime tickets would actually make a four-day event feasible.

zerzhul wrote: »

PAX [East] didn't sell out completely until only a few weeks before the con.

nevermore13

Correct me if I am wrong but almost every year prime is able to run Labor Day weekend. I know most people travel to pax east but it still is easier to hit 4 days when that Monday counts as a holiday.

That being said if east manages to hit capacity they could decide to add a day just seems unlikely at this point.

LesStewart

If PAX East were to hit capacity and there was the requisite demand for badges, I guess that they would expand to meet the opportunity. Since Good Friday is a civic holiday in most jurisdictions, I would imagine they would have it Easter weekend to allow for a four-day event. Either that, or they could find (invent?) a long-weekend that would allow more people to attend.
Barring that, you could always tell your workplace you need Easter Monday to attend an important religious pilgrimage. If the GameChurch organised a service, we'd all be covered.

Schmulki

Who cares about hitting max capacity? The point of a 4th day for the majority of people would be to do a longer weekend. The minority would be going for just that one extra day.

DaNicka

I think 3 days is more then enuff for PaX. A 4th day would be pushing it and besides after the 2nd day you kinda get sick of it!!!

Drowning Rabbit

I thought the reasoning for PAX Prime going to 4 days was more to do with the configuration of it. They have so much stuff to show off and such, Seattle is REALLY pressed for space. As is it's a multiple building excursion, and to make it bigger would be either renting out more buildings, or doing the extra day. For the space available, an extra day was an extremely easy way to increase their square footage significantly so they can entertain more exibitors/panels.

ilta

Yeah, I don't know about you guys but I was pretty much a zombie by Sunday. I can't imagine trying to squeeze 33% more con into it.

I do wish it went longer into the evening though on Sunday. It felt weird and unnecessary that everyone was shutting things down as early as 6:00, and the tabletop area closed down at 7 -- why? It's just a bunch of tables!

VegaObscura

DaNicka wrote: »

I think 3 days is more then enuff for PaX. A 4th day would be pushing it and besides after the 2nd day you kinda get sick of it!!!

Sick? Never.

Exhausted? Yes.

Gvaz

Yeah we have a ton of space at BCEC right now, and they're adding a fourth "wing" and iirc more hotels too.

Prime is getting the fourth day because of increased space and we can't add more hours in a day onto expo assistants. I mean unless you wanted to overload them past the breaking point, and we wont do that. That's what I heard anyways.

natedoggcata

ilta wrote: »

Yeah, I don't know about you guys but I was pretty much a zombie by Sunday. I can't imagine trying to squeeze 33% more con into it.

I do wish it went longer into the evening though on Sunday. It felt weird and unnecessary that everyone was shutting things down as early as 6:00, and the tabletop area closed down at 7 -- why? It's just a bunch of tables!

Pretty much because of what you just said. By 6PM Sunday everyone just wants to go home.

Le_Goat

DaNicka wrote: »

I think 3 days is more then enuff for PaX. A 4th day would be pushing it and besides after the 2nd day you kinda get sick of it!!!

I definitely did not get sick of PAX. As @VegaObscura stated, I was definitely exhausted by mid-Sunday, but bummed that PAX was over. Having 3 days allows you the time to browse the Expo hall properly instead of bum-rushing it to jam everything into a single day; even after 3 days, I still missed a few things I wanted to check out. While it would be nice to have more hours on the floor, I can't image how burned out that would make the enforcers and exhibitors; they're people, too.

The only reason I would even consider expanding to 4 days would be to allow for more panels or to sparse them out so that schedules don't overlap as much. I only got to go to less than half of the ones I really wanted to attend, not to mention that I completely missed some because of the TT area (can't leave mid-game).

Regardless, I think they did an awesome job this year with everything at PAX. But I do agree with @ilta about shutting down early on Sunday only because those with just a Sunday pass kind of get the short end of the stick.

taumeson

I don't know if anybody official is going to answer this, so take this with a grain of salt, but there aren't currently plans to go to 4 days for PAX East. It's not out of the realm of possibility, but with PAX AUS on the horizon, a longer PAX Prime coming, and an officially 3-day PAX East 2014, nobody is doing any planning on it.

NickTheNewbie

I don't know if my knees could take a fourth day....

Apreche

Unlikely. The reason PAX Prime is going 4 days is because it can't get more space. So for more people to experience it, the only choice is more days. PAX East has more space it can expand to if need be, so it doesn't need to add days.

YET

zerzhul

Yeah I'm actually going to close this, just because it's the same thing posted over and over If someone from PA wants to comment, they can post in closed threads

Geth, close this thread.

Geth

Affirmative zerzhul. Closing thread...