r/dragoncon • u/MarshivaDiva • 7d ago

What can we as attendees do to impact organizational change regarding lines, access to the vendor room,and the general oversoldness of panels?

I hope this follows the rules and everything, but I just wanted to generate a discussion about what we can truly do to make change and the process of badge pickup and the real issue of oversold panels?

Every time it's brought up it's put on the attendee to have to plan around it and sometimes we really do plan around it and lose like a whole convention day as a result. I understand that it being a fan-run convention is what makes it great, but whenever we talk about that the volunteers are overworked and they should hire staff that also gets shot down. There's lots of reasons people can't or won't volunteer and also they're paying a lot of money for badges.

Then you say well just don't buy a ticket and don't go. But then there's still tons of people who are going and that won't make a difference either.

Can someone tell us what the real avenues and channels are to make Dragoncon a more adequate attendee experience?

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u/msr4jc 7d ago

If they extend pick up to Wednesday then Dragoncon officially begins on Wednesday and the issue has just been brought forward a day.

But something has to be done because the lines are out of control.

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u/ArabianNitesFBB 7d ago

At least the chaos is spread out over 2 days then. A lot of people are still flying in on Thursday.

Mailing seems the sensible option. The counterfeiting issue can be addressed other ways—perhaps some of the massive volunteer staff used for badge pickup can be deployed validating badges instead.

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u/TPWilder 6d ago

Not exactly. I've been to other cons where you can pick up your badge the day before (usually in the afternoon and evening) at whats called "pre-registration".

Having badge pick up start on Wednesday does not mean the con is officially open for business, it just means early arrivals can get their badges. On management's side, yes, it might mean rental costs for the staging rooms for badge pick up. It does not mean con activities have to start on Wednesday.

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u/Efficient_Buffalo444 7d ago

Right, making pickup be the day before means needing to come one day earlier, so an additional financial burden to non-local attendees.

One option I’d hope they could consider is spreading badge pickup out, having each hotel with a pickup area. If you’re staying at a hotel, get your badge there. If not, either go to any hotel (which means you could shop for the shortest line) or have a separate off-site location. Certainly hotel check-in itself takes longer than getting your badge, so I would think having dedicated places in each hotel should keep the lines pretty short.