hey i was just wondering how much money should i bring to pax i just wanna get a shirt or two and maybe some memrobilla and does anyone play psp at pax?
hey i was just wondering how much money should i bring to pax i just wanna get a shirt or two and maybe some memrobilla and does anyone play psp at pax?
Expect non-free tee shirts to be anywhere between $15-$20, and hoodies closer to $40-$50. Not knowing who all the exhibitors will be and what goods they'll offer, try estimating by imagining it as a giant candy store and you have a sweet tooth.
Re: the PSP. There will be a crowd of 60,000 NERDS. You're bound to find at least one PSP other than yours.
Liger on
CUSTOM LANYARDS FOR PAX
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratorMod Emeritus
edited February 2010
don't be pessimistic, Liger, I'm sure there will be at least four PSPs
I am wondering if anyone knows when I should receive my PAX badge? I live in Canada and I paid the extra money to get it shipped via FedEx or whichever company it was. Thanks in advance.
Back with another disability-related question. Are there any areas that will have limited access for a wheelchair (like one of the concerts, for example) and will there be a special section for those who are disabled (because I'd like to see the concerts, but not stand through them or have to because 5k people in front of me are)?
I heard from an unconfirmed source that, in the past, there's been a disabled pass of sorts for certain parts of the event. How might I get one of these, if so?
Bumping this in hopes of some word on this. Thanks!
gilby123 on
"Where would we be without the agitators of the
world attaching the electrodes of knowledge to the nipples
of ignorance?" - John Lithgow, 3rd Rock from the Sun
I am wondering if anyone knows when I should receive my PAX badge? I live in Canada and I paid the extra money to get it shipped via FedEx or whichever company it was. Thanks in advance.
I asked about this the other day in chat, not canada specifically, but I was told that at least in the US to expect passes to be shipped 2-3 weeks prior to PAX East
So all 3 day passes are sold out and now there are only one day passes left.
BUT there is no event schedule posted!
How do I know what day to buy a pass for if I don't know what events are occurring each day?
I want to see MC Frontalot, is he performing every day? Only one day? We have NO IDEA.
I mean really, PA? You set up an expo whereby anyone not attending the full 3 days basically has to guess which day to go? As your giant countdown timer points out, we are now 45 days until the expo and yet we still have no idea what will be going on. Brilliant.
So all 3 day passes are sold out and now there are only one day passes left.
BUT there is no event schedule posted!
How do I know what day to buy a pass for if I don't know what events are occurring each day?
I want to see MC Frontalot, is he performing every day? Only one day? We have NO IDEA.
I mean really, PA? You set up an expo whereby anyone not attending the full 3 days basically has to guess which day to go? As your giant countdown timer points out, we are now 45 days until the expo and yet we still have no idea what will be going on. Brilliant.
Moe was posting about this in another thread, but is it really their fault that they literally filled the convention center already with people who pre-purchased tickets? It's not like the PA crew intended you to have to guess which single day to go.
You really can't blame these guys for having an event that was so popular that over 60,000 people bought tickets before even knowing who would show up, and PAX has historically not had announcements on schedules until 6ish weeks beforehand.
EDIT: I do feel your pain, though. My advice to you would be to check the Have Ticket/Need Ticket thread to see if you can still get a 3 day pass at a decent price, instead of buying 3 single day passes or waiting for the announcements and risking that day already being sold out.
How do I know what day to buy a pass for if I don't know what events are occurring each day?
I want to see MC Frontalot, is he performing every day? Only one day? We have NO IDEA.
If you look at his upcoming schedule from his website you'll see:
Fri. Mar 26, '10 Boston, MA PAX East :: Hynes Convention Center 11:00 PM
If you had to pick one random day to go, you should probably make it Friday
Well, not everyone has the time or money to attend all three days, regardless of 3-day pass availability.
I understand it's a complex and huge event, and that performer schedules may not be solidified until the last minute. But go look at the schedule page right now, there is NOTHING posted. When is the Omega gaming competition, is there even going to be one? Are bands playing Friday and Sunday but there is some other social event Saturday? No way to tell.
Yes, not all details will be available this far out but there is ZERO information posted now.
And yes, I also recognize there are a lot of things to do each day that will be the same, thus I would like to make my limited attendance choice based on some of the other cool one-time events. I'm certain there are plenty of other people in the same boat.
I'm sorry but when your event reaches 60,000 attendees you are very much in the professional realm. It's really not too much to ask to have at least a schedule framework posted before you sell tickets.
Jtheletter on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratorMod Emeritus
edited February 2010
This exact argument was presented in this thread. Here's a breakdown of why things are done the way they are. They open up ticket sales 8 months before the event. They don't post a schedule until everything is finalized, which is about 6 weeks out.
Unfortunately there are the tens of thousands of people who are willing to buy tickets with no information at all, and they've snapped them up faster than usual with this long-anticipated east coast PAX.
edit: Also, San Diego Comic Con 2010 sold out of four days passes in november
I'm sorry but when your event reaches 60,000 attendees you are very much in the professional realm. It's really not too much to ask to have at least a schedule framework posted before you sell tickets.
I didn't mean to say it wasn't a professional event, I meant it wasn't PA's fault for selling out early. Putting up pre-purchase tickets is a way to get them sold to devotees who know they're going early and get the ball rolling on funding (which they need to line up the events) before they get started. How can you blame them if they convention center won't hold any more people?
Maybe they should have saved some passes for sales at the doors, but why would they do that if they can sell them all out ahead of time? They may not all sell when it comes time to sell them at the doors and it's a guaranteed sale if the just offer them all up for pre-sale.
Sorry about this, prior to PAX 2009 the show did not sell out of tickets, and even in 2009 it only sold out after the schedule of events had been posted. We honestly were expecting a smaller show this year, but the overall popularity has presented us with...unique challenges. I'm sorry that you were not able to purchase a three day pass before we had any content online, we tend to release information very close to the show so as not to disappoint anyone if it changes.
I'm sorry that you were not able to purchase a three day pass before we had any content online, we tend to release information very close to the show so as not to disappoint anyone if it changes.
First - I have a lot of respect for the expo organizers. As someone who has attended and worked Anime Boston for 6 years I know there's more going on behind the scenes than most people realize and that every decision impacts a lot of people. I sympathize that you cannot solve everything and there will be compromise.
Now, to be clear - my problem does not stem directly from the fact that 3 day passes are sold out. It is irrelevant to me because I could not attend all 3 days even if they were available. So let's stop predicating everything upon that. I thought I had been clear but apparently not.
The problem is that there is ZERO schedule information on the main expo schedule page guys. ZERO.
This is being held on the opposite coast of PAX West so it's not really valid to say "just assume it will be the same." Clearly there will be differences across the board in events, shows, and guests simply because of the location change.
And yes, it will be awesome, I know. But look, not all of us are in HS/college/rich and can just block off 3 days to guarantee we'll see everything. We have to ration and maximize our fun, this is a sad fact of life called opportunity cost.
PAX - you guys have become successful enough that you need to handle this sort of event in a much more professional manner. You can't invite 60,000 people and shoot from the hip and expect it to continue to work in the future.
What people have done so far on this board is just reiterate the current state of affairs and say "too bad, you should have as much free time as me" instead of recognizing there is a problem.
Not posting any event information at all until the last minute is a problem. You are alienating fans who can't commit to the whole 3 days months ahead of when they even know what will be going on.
So far you've gotten enough people to make that work, I guess that's your choice.
But rest assured, you are alienating and pissing off fans whose only crime is they can't blindly commit 100%.
For the record, I read PA when it was "The Bench" and I own a signed copy of the original book that the first publisher screwed them on. So yeah, long time fan of PA, not so much PAX thus far.
Jtheletter: "The problem is that there is ZERO schedule information on the main expo schedule page guys. ZERO. "
This is something we end up talking quite a bit about...it's a problem. We wish we could announce everything we've got planned...really, there's some sweet stuff we've been working on, but one of the unfortunate facts of working on a show like this (as you may know based on your experience at Anime Boston) is that things change. They change for the better, they change for the worse, but they always change.
Even when we do announce everything there will be a good chance that -something- won't pan out. Hopefully that won't happen often, and hopefully you guys won't mind because there's so much other cool stuff, but the chances are good it will happen.
But the worst case scenario, and hopefully you agree, is if we announce something cool on Friday and people get excited and buy Friday tickets - and then it ends up getting moved or not happening. We really, really want to avoid that scenario for obvious reasons, and generally speaking we think that no information is better than misinformation.
If you disagree, I can respect that position. I just hope you can respect ours.
David Coffman on
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MagnifiedX[E] PC SecurityBoston, MARegistered Userregular
edited February 2010
You could have also just spent an extra 20 bucks for a 3-day pass and then only used it for one or two days.
You could have also just spent an extra 20 bucks for a 3-day pass and then only used it for one or two days.
Genius, so he should pay more just so that he can be sure he'll be able to go to what he wants. I also don't know why he can't go to all 3 days, but if it's because of work, he has to know which days to take off.
Be realistic here.
For the record, I completely agree with Jtheletter grievances. It sucks if you're only able to go for one day, but you don't know which day to go for because there's no info available. But I think Dave's explanation was also pretty good at pointing out why it's difficult to work it both ways. Is it better to have potentially wrong information earlier, or 100% correct information later, or even just start selling tickets later? I don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of business reasons for why they start selling tickets at a certain point that we aren't aware of.
Also, there's some basic information available on the website. But if you want specific information on panels earlier then I can guarantee that won't happen, I know that panel decisions are sometimes down to the wire. I think every day will have panels that you'll want to go to, so I don't think that is that big of a deal. The only other big ticket thing is concerts, which may be a deciding factor on which day to go to.
I think it's reasonable to point out that going to PAX is a privilege. If there are tens of thousands of people who are willing to buy somewhat blindly, then that's how it is. It's also reasonable to say that there's always room for improvement in the process.
For the future, Im working on a blog compiling information and my personal experience at PAX East, since its my first pax, I hope that in some way it helps out future PAX Nubs.
This is something we end up talking quite a bit about...it's a problem. We wish we could announce everything we've got planned...really, there's some sweet stuff we've been working on, but one of the unfortunate facts of working on a show like this (as you may know based on your experience at Anime Boston) is that things change. They change for the better, they change for the worse, but they always change.
It is admirable that you don't want to disappoint people by promising something and then having to cancel, but I feel you have gone to the opposite extreme in attempting to avoid that problem.
I am sure it will still be one hell of a nerd party.
Jtheletter on
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GundabadPAX East & Unplugged Tabletop ManagerNJRegistered Userregular
edited February 2010
It really just sounds like there are two evils here:
1) Not providing enough information, causing fans with limited resources (time or money) to sit on the sidelines
2) Providing tentative information, causing potential fan backlash as schedule solidifies.
We can argue for days as to which is the lesser of two evils. What we can agree on is that they are both bad. It's a matter of opinion as to which is worse.
I am willing to give PA a pass on the fact that there really has been unprecedented demand for this convention. Even PAX Prime, an extremely popular show several years running, only sold out last year for the first time and in close proximity to the actual start of the show. If it is so commonly known that the schedule will be out approximately 6 week before the start of the event, then that SHOULD be up on the schedule page. In the future, a link to the previous year's PAX East schedule should be included so people know what sort of event to expect.
That would answer some of the people's questions to get some fans off the sidelines, but not all, and would likely be a good compromise.
It is admirable that you don't want to disappoint people by promising something and then having to cancel, but I feel you have gone to the opposite extreme in attempting to avoid that problem.
I definitely see where you're coming from, and I agree we can do better to get things finalized earlier next year.
Yeah Jtheletter I can see your point, I think it would probably have been best if some of the one day passes had been reserved for sale once the announcements are made. That way one-dayers like you can still get the right ticket for the day you want to go, you'll know which one to get, and I highly doubt with the popularity of PAX they'd have to worry about those one day passes not all being sold by the time of the actual convention. But I also see where David's coming from, and maybe it's something they can work into the planning for the next PAX.
Hmm, I'm not in HS or college and I definitely am not rich, yet I can still make all 3 days...2 of those days are the weekend after all...
Ok, that aside, even though this is my first PAX, all I had to know was, these are the 3 days we're holding the conference on the East Coast, just 4 hours away from your location, and bam, registered. To be honest though, I have little to no interest in the concert(s), panels, or specific vendors. Not to say that I won't be attending some of those events or participating in the swag rush, but I am going specifically to have fun, hopefully meet people, and hopefully meet people from near me in NJ that I can continue to hang out with long after PAX East 2010 is over.
The hard fact of life is that no one can please everyone all of the time. The people at PA have done what they could to make past info from PAX available as a look into what PAX East might be like. That is within their realm of control. How fast the schedule can be finalized, how quickly the passes are sold out, how many people are actually interested, these are all things that they can't control. I am surprised that Friday passes are selling out as fast as they are, but it seems that some resourceful buggers found out what night the concert would be and thus the rush on Friday passes. Now that the unofficial WOTC D&D 4e and tabletop games tournament schedules are out there will probably be a slower rush on Saturday and Sunday passes.
Anyway, I feel that PA made the right decision in this case. I'd rather not see a schedule than see a schedule that is changing daily or even hourly. True, I feel a lot of angst that nothing is posted, but this way you won't be an irate customer when the one event you absolutely positively had to go to gets moved to another day or completely cancelled after you bought a pass. Is it bad marketing on PA's part? Maybe. But what is bad marketing when all 60,000 three-day passes have sold out before the schedule is even out? Now is the time when they should be even more careful that incorrect information is not being leaked because it can lead to people buying one-day passes on wrong assumptions. And that would lose them more customers than not having the information before the passes sell out.
I'll take a shot from the other side having staffed at many conventions and even actually helping to organize and run the boardgame department at a Worldcon (1998 - Baltimore, so yes, I've been doing this for a little while).
Organizing and getting confirmations from some people are actually very tentative until 6-8 weeks ahead of time, and unless deadlines are made far in advance of that, it is impossible to guarantee who will be able to come, and even with the 6-8 week timeline, things can change drastically due to health or unexpected circumstances.
Extreme case in point, I was in discussions with Avalon Hill at the time, and we had set aside a whole room for the AH guys to come in to demonstrate their games for the whole weekend, including a very anticipated large scale Starship Troopers miniatures game that would need the whole room. I was in email discussions with them until I believe 2 weeks before the convention for our internal printing deadline, but when the Wed and Thurs of the convention arrived, nobody had seen nor heard from them. Since the Net was not as easily connected to back then, people who lived nearby started to spread the news that AH had gone bankrupt, and it was confirmed by that Saturday. We ended up apologizing to dozens of disappointed fans that their games in the schedule were cancelled.
Two other companies who I was discussing events with did not try to confirm their attendance until 3 weeks prior to the convention and I had to tell them we had no room for more events because our schedule was full, so they chose not to come as companies, though a couple of individuals had purchased attendee badges and would have brought demos to fill out that otherwise unused room with something official instead of open gaming (though at times, we needed every inch of tablespace we had).
This is an extreme example, but the organizing of these events with the extremely fast sellout of tickets was hoped for, but certainly not expected this soon, and if you work with enough conventions, you also know that even "guaranteed" guests a year in advance at many sci-fi cons can be forced to cancel, and refunds end up being given out to those disappointed presales who were looking specifically for a specific author or artist.
The one other part that is easily forgotten is that the organizers and staff are human and have day jobs too. We don't know if any problems or other real life events are taking precedence over certain internal deadlines, and faulting them over something they may not have any control of is not fair to them.
Sure, there are a lot of people who are unable to plan in advance to come, or wish to only come if certain guests or companies are scheduled are disappointed that they couldn't hold off and get tickets once that information is known, but can anyone really say that the first year of a convention that sold out of over 20,000 tickets in presales is something they truly could have budgeted and planned in advance for?
The fees for the convention center and hotel function rooms alone are quite high, and as ticket sales zoomed, I'm sure more effort was being made behind the scenes to add as many more guests and renegotiate for more space where possible. That's not something visible to us on the outside, and is a lot more stressful than anyone would believe if they haven't gone through this already.
Edit: clarifications and a couple of "speeling" fixes
Sorry if this has been asked before, but, this is my first time going to PAX and I decided to pick my badge up at will-call because I live outside the US.
Where is will-call? Is it at the same convention center? And how early should I show up to make sure I get my badge on time for the opening?
I have a question bout the various panels and stuff. Since Wil Weaton is doing the keynote I figured I would ask this now then wait and see.
How exactly does seating for panels work? I didnt think the convention center could hold everyone in one place so is it just first come first serve? Any help or advice would be great! First time going to PAX and I dont want to miss out on anything if I can help it.
I have a question bout the various panels and stuff. Since Wil Weaton is doing the keynote I figured I would ask this now then wait and see.
How exactly does seating for panels work? I didnt think the convention center could hold everyone in one place so is it just first come first serve? Any help or advice would be great! First time going to PAX and I dont want to miss out on anything if I can help it.
Seating is limited based on theater size. Line will form prior to event and yes its first in line till theater is full. I am assuming the enforcers will be using counters again for lines so that you wont be stuck in line just to find out you didn't get in.
Sorry if this has been asked before, but, this is my first time going to PAX and I decided to pick my badge up at will-call because I live outside the US.
Where is will-call? Is it at the same convention center? And how early should I show up to make sure I get my badge on time for the opening?
It will be at the convention center once they release the map and schedule you can look to see where registration is (registration = will call) Finally registration is open prior to the event starting and can be hit on your way to the que line
Singollo on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratorMod Emeritus
edited February 2010
Last year in Seattle will call was in one of the Hotels' banquet rooms. Not sure if it's going to be off-site at East, but if it is, it will still be very close to the convention center.
It will be inside the convention center...you won't be able to miss it if you wanted to.
David Coffman on
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GundabadPAX East & Unplugged Tabletop ManagerNJRegistered Userregular
edited February 2010
I can't speak directly for PAX East, but the way most convention centers are set up is that there is are reconfigurable walls used to set up large rooms for things such as panels and speakers. Usually for a keynote address, you will see all of the walls put to the side, opening up one hell of a massive room. I'm sure it wouldn't fit every single person at PAX (that would require a stadium), but I bet they'll fit enough so that it does not require some ridiculous amount of hours spend camping in line to guarantee admission.
Gundabad on
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dyaballiklPAX Main Theatre House & Security Manager • PAX Community CartographerGold Coast QLD AustraliaRegistered Userregular
I have a question bout the various panels and stuff. Since Wil Weaton is doing the keynote I figured I would ask this now then wait and see.
How exactly does seating for panels work? I didnt think the convention center could hold everyone in one place so is it just first come first serve? Any help or advice would be great! First time going to PAX and I dont want to miss out on anything if I can help it.
Seating is limited based on theater size. Line will form prior to event and yes its first in line till theater is full. I am assuming the enforcers will be using counters again for lines so that you wont be stuck in line just to find out you didn't get in.
This. Satellite theaters may have lines for some shows before the show. Though it is not yet confirmed, Main Theater has traditionally lined up in a separate "Queue Room" and let into the theater soon before the panel. Also, for crowded panels, you will need to exit/re-enter the line after each event, though there is always some time in between each. But this is subject to differ with the different layout of Hynes.
dyaballikl on
a.k.a. dya
"Riding a mongoose reminds me of having sex with a man, which is something I do frequently because I am gay!" -Gabe
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dyaballiklPAX Main Theatre House & Security Manager • PAX Community CartographerGold Coast QLD AustraliaRegistered Userregular
I can't speak directly for PAX East, but the way most convention centers are set up is that there is are reconfigurable walls used to set up large rooms for things such as panels and speakers. Usually for a keynote address, you will see all of the walls put to the side, opening up one hell of a massive room. I'm sure it wouldn't fit every single person at PAX (that would require a stadium), but I bet they'll fit enough so that it does not require some ridiculous amount of hours spend camping in line to guarantee admission.
This describes the WSCTC Main Theater, but Hynes actually has a functionally designed theater, balcony and all.
dyaballikl on
a.k.a. dya
"Riding a mongoose reminds me of having sex with a man, which is something I do frequently because I am gay!" -Gabe
Very true, but it would do well to keep in mind that there is a limit to how many people that room can hold. I don't know how PAX handles lines but I would bet on there being one for events in that room.
As far as the layout goes with the rooms, if you cut the Hynes in half (top and bottom with top being the side leading to the mall) the top half is made up of the large exibit halls and the bottom half are the smaller rooms. There are 3 massive hallways with one cutting the Hynes in half (top and bottom), one on the bottom edge, and one on the left side that goes from the bottom edge hall all the way to the mall entrence.
It's been a while since I was in there, though, and I don't know where the new restaurants are (I assume on the side across from the bowling place).
undead on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratorMod Emeritus
It will be inside the convention center...you won't be able to miss it if you wanted to.
Here's a question regarding will call, I'm assuming it's going to be open on Thursday night as per prior PAXs, any indication of how late it will stay open?
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Expect non-free tee shirts to be anywhere between $15-$20, and hoodies closer to $40-$50. Not knowing who all the exhibitors will be and what goods they'll offer, try estimating by imagining it as a giant candy store and you have a sweet tooth.
Re: the PSP. There will be a crowd of 60,000 NERDS. You're bound to find at least one PSP other than yours.
I am wondering if anyone knows when I should receive my PAX badge? I live in Canada and I paid the extra money to get it shipped via FedEx or whichever company it was. Thanks in advance.
Bumping this in hopes of some word on this. Thanks!
world attaching the electrodes of knowledge to the nipples
of ignorance?" - John Lithgow, 3rd Rock from the Sun
I asked about this the other day in chat, not canada specifically, but I was told that at least in the US to expect passes to be shipped 2-3 weeks prior to PAX East
Canadian: It will be shipped out in the next few weeks!
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Getting under that 8 weeks to go window now, and would hate to have to line up to pickup after shelling out the extra cash.
BUT there is no event schedule posted!
How do I know what day to buy a pass for if I don't know what events are occurring each day?
I want to see MC Frontalot, is he performing every day? Only one day? We have NO IDEA.
I mean really, PA? You set up an expo whereby anyone not attending the full 3 days basically has to guess which day to go? As your giant countdown timer points out, we are now 45 days until the expo and yet we still have no idea what will be going on. Brilliant.
Moe was posting about this in another thread, but is it really their fault that they literally filled the convention center already with people who pre-purchased tickets? It's not like the PA crew intended you to have to guess which single day to go.
You really can't blame these guys for having an event that was so popular that over 60,000 people bought tickets before even knowing who would show up, and PAX has historically not had announcements on schedules until 6ish weeks beforehand.
EDIT: I do feel your pain, though. My advice to you would be to check the Have Ticket/Need Ticket thread to see if you can still get a 3 day pass at a decent price, instead of buying 3 single day passes or waiting for the announcements and risking that day already being sold out.
If you look at his upcoming schedule from his website you'll see:
Fri. Mar 26, '10 Boston, MA PAX East :: Hynes Convention Center 11:00 PM
If you had to pick one random day to go, you should probably make it Friday
Irresponsible Random Chatter - The IRC Webcast | Toasty Corp. Productions presents Video Games of 2010
edit: beat'd by toast
I understand it's a complex and huge event, and that performer schedules may not be solidified until the last minute. But go look at the schedule page right now, there is NOTHING posted. When is the Omega gaming competition, is there even going to be one? Are bands playing Friday and Sunday but there is some other social event Saturday? No way to tell.
Yes, not all details will be available this far out but there is ZERO information posted now.
And yes, I also recognize there are a lot of things to do each day that will be the same, thus I would like to make my limited attendance choice based on some of the other cool one-time events. I'm certain there are plenty of other people in the same boat.
I'm sorry but when your event reaches 60,000 attendees you are very much in the professional realm. It's really not too much to ask to have at least a schedule framework posted before you sell tickets.
Unfortunately there are the tens of thousands of people who are willing to buy tickets with no information at all, and they've snapped them up faster than usual with this long-anticipated east coast PAX.
edit: Also, San Diego Comic Con 2010 sold out of four days passes in november
I didn't mean to say it wasn't a professional event, I meant it wasn't PA's fault for selling out early. Putting up pre-purchase tickets is a way to get them sold to devotees who know they're going early and get the ball rolling on funding (which they need to line up the events) before they get started. How can you blame them if they convention center won't hold any more people?
Maybe they should have saved some passes for sales at the doors, but why would they do that if they can sell them all out ahead of time? They may not all sell when it comes time to sell them at the doors and it's a guaranteed sale if the just offer them all up for pre-sale.
Sorry about this, prior to PAX 2009 the show did not sell out of tickets, and even in 2009 it only sold out after the schedule of events had been posted. We honestly were expecting a smaller show this year, but the overall popularity has presented us with...unique challenges. I'm sorry that you were not able to purchase a three day pass before we had any content online, we tend to release information very close to the show so as not to disappoint anyone if it changes.
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First - I have a lot of respect for the expo organizers. As someone who has attended and worked Anime Boston for 6 years I know there's more going on behind the scenes than most people realize and that every decision impacts a lot of people. I sympathize that you cannot solve everything and there will be compromise.
Now, to be clear - my problem does not stem directly from the fact that 3 day passes are sold out. It is irrelevant to me because I could not attend all 3 days even if they were available. So let's stop predicating everything upon that. I thought I had been clear but apparently not.
The problem is that there is ZERO schedule information on the main expo schedule page guys. ZERO.
This is being held on the opposite coast of PAX West so it's not really valid to say "just assume it will be the same." Clearly there will be differences across the board in events, shows, and guests simply because of the location change.
And yes, it will be awesome, I know. But look, not all of us are in HS/college/rich and can just block off 3 days to guarantee we'll see everything. We have to ration and maximize our fun, this is a sad fact of life called opportunity cost.
PAX - you guys have become successful enough that you need to handle this sort of event in a much more professional manner. You can't invite 60,000 people and shoot from the hip and expect it to continue to work in the future.
What people have done so far on this board is just reiterate the current state of affairs and say "too bad, you should have as much free time as me" instead of recognizing there is a problem.
Not posting any event information at all until the last minute is a problem. You are alienating fans who can't commit to the whole 3 days months ahead of when they even know what will be going on.
So far you've gotten enough people to make that work, I guess that's your choice.
But rest assured, you are alienating and pissing off fans whose only crime is they can't blindly commit 100%.
For the record, I read PA when it was "The Bench" and I own a signed copy of the original book that the first publisher screwed them on. So yeah, long time fan of PA, not so much PAX thus far.
This is something we end up talking quite a bit about...it's a problem. We wish we could announce everything we've got planned...really, there's some sweet stuff we've been working on, but one of the unfortunate facts of working on a show like this (as you may know based on your experience at Anime Boston) is that things change. They change for the better, they change for the worse, but they always change.
Even when we do announce everything there will be a good chance that -something- won't pan out. Hopefully that won't happen often, and hopefully you guys won't mind because there's so much other cool stuff, but the chances are good it will happen.
But the worst case scenario, and hopefully you agree, is if we announce something cool on Friday and people get excited and buy Friday tickets - and then it ends up getting moved or not happening. We really, really want to avoid that scenario for obvious reasons, and generally speaking we think that no information is better than misinformation.
If you disagree, I can respect that position. I just hope you can respect ours.
Genius, so he should pay more just so that he can be sure he'll be able to go to what he wants. I also don't know why he can't go to all 3 days, but if it's because of work, he has to know which days to take off.
Be realistic here.
For the record, I completely agree with Jtheletter grievances. It sucks if you're only able to go for one day, but you don't know which day to go for because there's no info available. But I think Dave's explanation was also pretty good at pointing out why it's difficult to work it both ways. Is it better to have potentially wrong information earlier, or 100% correct information later, or even just start selling tickets later? I don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of business reasons for why they start selling tickets at a certain point that we aren't aware of.
Also, there's some basic information available on the website. But if you want specific information on panels earlier then I can guarantee that won't happen, I know that panel decisions are sometimes down to the wire. I think every day will have panels that you'll want to go to, so I don't think that is that big of a deal. The only other big ticket thing is concerts, which may be a deciding factor on which day to go to.
I think it's reasonable to point out that going to PAX is a privilege. If there are tens of thousands of people who are willing to buy somewhat blindly, then that's how it is. It's also reasonable to say that there's always room for improvement in the process.
It is admirable that you don't want to disappoint people by promising something and then having to cancel, but I feel you have gone to the opposite extreme in attempting to avoid that problem.
I am sure it will still be one hell of a nerd party.
1) Not providing enough information, causing fans with limited resources (time or money) to sit on the sidelines
2) Providing tentative information, causing potential fan backlash as schedule solidifies.
We can argue for days as to which is the lesser of two evils. What we can agree on is that they are both bad. It's a matter of opinion as to which is worse.
I am willing to give PA a pass on the fact that there really has been unprecedented demand for this convention. Even PAX Prime, an extremely popular show several years running, only sold out last year for the first time and in close proximity to the actual start of the show. If it is so commonly known that the schedule will be out approximately 6 week before the start of the event, then that SHOULD be up on the schedule page. In the future, a link to the previous year's PAX East schedule should be included so people know what sort of event to expect.
That would answer some of the people's questions to get some fans off the sidelines, but not all, and would likely be a good compromise.
Ok, that aside, even though this is my first PAX, all I had to know was, these are the 3 days we're holding the conference on the East Coast, just 4 hours away from your location, and bam, registered. To be honest though, I have little to no interest in the concert(s), panels, or specific vendors. Not to say that I won't be attending some of those events or participating in the swag rush, but I am going specifically to have fun, hopefully meet people, and hopefully meet people from near me in NJ that I can continue to hang out with long after PAX East 2010 is over.
The hard fact of life is that no one can please everyone all of the time. The people at PA have done what they could to make past info from PAX available as a look into what PAX East might be like. That is within their realm of control. How fast the schedule can be finalized, how quickly the passes are sold out, how many people are actually interested, these are all things that they can't control. I am surprised that Friday passes are selling out as fast as they are, but it seems that some resourceful buggers found out what night the concert would be and thus the rush on Friday passes. Now that the unofficial WOTC D&D 4e and tabletop games tournament schedules are out there will probably be a slower rush on Saturday and Sunday passes.
Anyway, I feel that PA made the right decision in this case. I'd rather not see a schedule than see a schedule that is changing daily or even hourly. True, I feel a lot of angst that nothing is posted, but this way you won't be an irate customer when the one event you absolutely positively had to go to gets moved to another day or completely cancelled after you bought a pass. Is it bad marketing on PA's part? Maybe. But what is bad marketing when all 60,000 three-day passes have sold out before the schedule is even out? Now is the time when they should be even more careful that incorrect information is not being leaked because it can lead to people buying one-day passes on wrong assumptions. And that would lose them more customers than not having the information before the passes sell out.
Organizing and getting confirmations from some people are actually very tentative until 6-8 weeks ahead of time, and unless deadlines are made far in advance of that, it is impossible to guarantee who will be able to come, and even with the 6-8 week timeline, things can change drastically due to health or unexpected circumstances.
Extreme case in point, I was in discussions with Avalon Hill at the time, and we had set aside a whole room for the AH guys to come in to demonstrate their games for the whole weekend, including a very anticipated large scale Starship Troopers miniatures game that would need the whole room. I was in email discussions with them until I believe 2 weeks before the convention for our internal printing deadline, but when the Wed and Thurs of the convention arrived, nobody had seen nor heard from them. Since the Net was not as easily connected to back then, people who lived nearby started to spread the news that AH had gone bankrupt, and it was confirmed by that Saturday. We ended up apologizing to dozens of disappointed fans that their games in the schedule were cancelled.
Two other companies who I was discussing events with did not try to confirm their attendance until 3 weeks prior to the convention and I had to tell them we had no room for more events because our schedule was full, so they chose not to come as companies, though a couple of individuals had purchased attendee badges and would have brought demos to fill out that otherwise unused room with something official instead of open gaming (though at times, we needed every inch of tablespace we had).
This is an extreme example, but the organizing of these events with the extremely fast sellout of tickets was hoped for, but certainly not expected this soon, and if you work with enough conventions, you also know that even "guaranteed" guests a year in advance at many sci-fi cons can be forced to cancel, and refunds end up being given out to those disappointed presales who were looking specifically for a specific author or artist.
The one other part that is easily forgotten is that the organizers and staff are human and have day jobs too. We don't know if any problems or other real life events are taking precedence over certain internal deadlines, and faulting them over something they may not have any control of is not fair to them.
Sure, there are a lot of people who are unable to plan in advance to come, or wish to only come if certain guests or companies are scheduled are disappointed that they couldn't hold off and get tickets once that information is known, but can anyone really say that the first year of a convention that sold out of over 20,000 tickets in presales is something they truly could have budgeted and planned in advance for?
The fees for the convention center and hotel function rooms alone are quite high, and as ticket sales zoomed, I'm sure more effort was being made behind the scenes to add as many more guests and renegotiate for more space where possible. That's not something visible to us on the outside, and is a lot more stressful than anyone would believe if they haven't gone through this already.
Edit: clarifications and a couple of "speeling" fixes
Where is will-call? Is it at the same convention center? And how early should I show up to make sure I get my badge on time for the opening?
How exactly does seating for panels work? I didnt think the convention center could hold everyone in one place so is it just first come first serve? Any help or advice would be great! First time going to PAX and I dont want to miss out on anything if I can help it.
Seating is limited based on theater size. Line will form prior to event and yes its first in line till theater is full. I am assuming the enforcers will be using counters again for lines so that you wont be stuck in line just to find out you didn't get in.
It will be at the convention center once they release the map and schedule you can look to see where registration is (registration = will call) Finally registration is open prior to the event starting and can be hit on your way to the que line
As far as the layout goes with the rooms, if you cut the Hynes in half (top and bottom with top being the side leading to the mall) the top half is made up of the large exibit halls and the bottom half are the smaller rooms. There are 3 massive hallways with one cutting the Hynes in half (top and bottom), one on the bottom edge, and one on the left side that goes from the bottom edge hall all the way to the mall entrence.
It's been a while since I was in there, though, and I don't know where the new restaurants are (I assume on the side across from the bowling place).
Yahoo group GCIACST