(Warning: This Journal may contain language not suitable for minors or people easily offended. You have been warned. Stop reading now if you fall into such categories.)
A-kon 19 - @_@ Where to start…?
Rarely do I feel the need to write something negative about conventions but I felt that this was the time to do it. A-Kon 19 will be my last A-Kon. I am through with this convention. For 15 years I have attended A-Kon and enjoyed it most of the time up until number 15. Steadily I have watched it decline from that point into the disorganized scrap heap that it has become. Some of you will disagree but I think many of you don’t get to see the behind the scenes nor have to deal with the level of utter and complete *Bullshit* a photographer like me has to go through just to snap a cosplayer’s picture. Let me just touch on some points of why this con sucks giant ass more than ever. I feel, after giving this convention thousands of my dollars and years of my life I am entitled to my ranting opinion.
1 - I preregistered months in advance and stood in line for 3 hours to be handed a badge the size of a credit card made of flimsy ass material. It is the kind of badge I’d expect from a first year con but not a giant old con like this. Besides that wimpy cheap 10 cent badge, the wait to get it was something of legend that will be spoken by con goers for weeks to come. I should have just bought a ticket at the door. The people with me that did so were in and out of their line in 20 minutes. Three hours? This is the price one pays for being an early bird? The time cost can be translated into monetary loss. In that three hours I stood there I lost almost a hundred bucks based on my pay. For ten bucks extra on my badge I could have saved that lost time and had an equally CRAPPY badge. Lesson learned; Don’t pre-reg. It’s not worth the wait for a piece of plastic and bag full of stuff you’ll just throw in the trash ten minutes later anyway.
2 – How many years has this con been going? Nineteen! Why… oh why, after 19 years can they not run a Cosplay contest worth a damn still? Delayed starts again plagued the contest. A disorganized half time show and a level of video/audio quality seen in ones basement or garage also made for a hilariously BAD contest experience. I am glad that everyone watching the contest from their rooms were able to enjoy a blue screen with the epic words “EJECT” on the screen through out. To add to the hilarity of this fiasco, the con hasn’t moved hotels in years! You should know how to wire up the contest by now to avoid technical malfunctions at this con location! RTFM!
3 – I am quite amazed that no Security Staff members where shived in the halls and left for dead. Never in my years of A-Kon or at any other convention have I seen staff be so callously rude and negative in their approach to everything they did. And here’s the problem and why it is allowed to happen in my opinion. Security really doesn’t give a shit about security. They volunteered because they wanted their badge and room paid for and for the chance to flex some power at the helpless masses. You are not drill instructors. Get out of peoples’ faces and you don’t need to yell 5 feet from people either to be heard. The security and other various personnel need a serious attitude adjustment. I will go into more detail on that at the end of this journal because the four incidents I had with these assholes, the kindest word I could come up with, is what has removed this con from my schedule list permanently.
4 – You can’t shoot there. You can’t shoot over there. You can’t shoot there. You’re in the way! Move it else where! We don’t have a place for you to shoot. This is what I heard all weekend. Just a thought but stop trying to shove 18000+ people into a space made for half that number? I have learned that Phoenix Entertainment has signed a contract to keep the con at the Sheraton until 2012. @_@ 2012!? WTF? Where are you going to put the ten thousand extra people that will attend the con in those years (that number is conservative. It will probably be much higher.)? MOVE THE DAMN CONVENTION. It is too big where it is. Preferably OUT of Dallas because you can’t even hold a water gun in your hand without someone up in your ass.
5 – You need a press pass or you can’t shoot here and if you don’t like it you can get out of the convention. This last sentence sums up the incident that set me off the most. While deciding on what to get to drink I was suddenly jumped by the ‘Head of Press’. I was asked to show my press badge. What press badge? I’ve been going to A-kon for 15 years and never have I had to wear a press badge. There are no rules on A-Kon’s website forbidding photography other than the usual common knowledge; Don’t shoot the con guests. Apparently, me wanting to know why I suddenly have to wear a ring around my wrist was considered a Hostile Attitude and I was informed I can leave the convention right now if I wanted. I don’t do something blindly when it’s outside the posted rules. I wanted answers and I wasn’t going to do anything until they were forthcoming, especially from someone who had no ID on her showing she truly was Head of Press. She finally, after 3 minutes of attitude and power tripping told me that the rules had been changed due to illegal filming at the con. I can respect that but the manner in which this ‘Head of Press’ handled the entire incident put the icing on the shitcake. To rub a little salt in the wound, 3 hours after the incident I was stopped again by press managers, during a photoshoot, and told they screwed up and I’d have to stop what I was doing and go get a new press band. =_= So apparently, at A-Kon, you have to be press to take good photos. Which I found funny because the eight other high end shooters walking around the con had no such press bands on them. The only shooters other than myself I saw with a band was Skypirate and Photobloke (who is on A-kon staff). So here’s a suggestion to you Miss ‘Head of Press’. If you’re going to make up rules on the fly that limits photographers from giving you free publicity, how about you enforce them equally across the con and not annoy legitimate photographers trying to do good work for the cosplay community?
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Now for a footnote on security:
The security personnel at A-Kon this year were the rudest pack of ill dressed bad tempered powermongering jerk offs I’ve ever seen at any con I have attended over the last 20 years. Two particular incidents stand out among all that I saw.
1 – While conducting private shoots inside the hotel itself in the rock garden I was jumped by a security staff member. He was immediately hostile in his attitude and tone of voice. When I informed him that I had been shooting at this location for the last two days with no problems from hotel management (Who had approached me already about shooting in the location and did not mind) he upped his Asshole Factor to level 6. Direct quote; “I am the liaison between A-kon and the hotel and I am telling you to get out of there right now.” (I cannot inflect his tone of voice that dripped witih contempt for me). By the way, I returned to shooting at this location the next day with no problems from the hotel once again. Eat it. Go pick on someone that is actually causing problems at the con next time.
2 – While shooting two blocks from the convention with the Trigun group a rather obnoxiously loud and ill dressed security staff woman jumped on the group while trying to get our last shot of the day. Her rudeness and tone were WELL beyond acceptable limits. She was very lucky to have not started a riot with her yelling and endangerment of one of our beloved cosplay sisters. Due to a medical condition she cannot tolerate cigarette smoke which this staff member was puffing up a storm with and blowing it in her general direction. After being told to back off several times she did not comply, claiming she was a medical professional and a little bit of smoke wasn’t going to hurt her from 30 feet away. She finally backed off when the entire Trigun cast approached her in unison yelling her to back the hell up. The incident set me off again but made me proud too to see a unified defense against unlawful harassment. In case you don’t understand lady, we are not part of the con anymore outside the con grounds. We are now on Dallas public property and it is the Police department’s judgment to decide if we are doing anything unlawful. You are not our mother’s and you are right, ‘We are not children.’ We are adults, capable of making decisions for ourselves and understanding our own consequences. Next time, back the hell off and don’t try to toss your illusionary power around.
The head of press incident that sealed this shitty deal has already been explained above.
A huge suggestion for A-Kon staff: If you’re going to play the part of an authority figure then dress the part. It is impossible to tell who security is at A-kon. They are all either dressed like goth punks or just slobs in general. How about a uniform for your security? I think you’d have far less problems if your security team looked and acted professional in the future and were visible. Deterrents work wonders. Getting into shouting matches with your paying customers isn’t a good idea. Ultimately, your customer is right because without their dollars your con collapses into dirt.
Rant concluded. Thanks for your time. You may have had the best time ever and you should feel lucky. But from my perspective this con can go swirling down the toilet. I’ll be taking my con dollars elsewhere in the future.
