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| Above, Charlotte was a nice city to hold a convention. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
As I have a few more hours to kill before I head to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, I thought I'd post a few more photos and add a few thoughts. The Nakajimas left the hotel to head back to Japan about two hours ago.
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| Above, the main entrance to the Blake Hotel. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Bearing in mind that this is the second convention the organizers put on, there are a few bugs that need to be addressed. People learn from experience. I've seen conventions improve over the years with fewer and fewer problems as organizers become more adept.
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| Above, the main building of the Blake Hotel. I had a top floor room with a balcony (second from left). The Nakajimas were in the room next to mine at left. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
There needs to be better communication between organizers and the guests. The guests need to have a printed schedule telling them where to be and at what time. The guests were left in the dark on different events and only found out about them when their helpers found flyers with printed schedules. Things need to be in writing and clearly communicated, especially for Japanese guests.
The V.I.P. room has to be solely for the guests and nobody else. The celebrities had to share the V.I.P. room with R.I.P. people (who paid $200 to be first in line at events, etc.) and had no reliable meals. They were left on their own. What food was there was gobbled up by non-celebrities. The celebrities are there to draw attendees, so it would be self-defeating for them to have to leave the hotel for a meal.
These are the main problems that immediately come to mind, which is a good thing since this is a young convention.
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| Above, the massive dealers room. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
As for the Blake Hotel, I was pleased with my room with a big balcony. I was in the original building and only the top (the 14th floor) had balconies. Unfortunately, despite advertising to the contrary, there were no coffee makers in the rooms. The hotel restaurant was only open for breakfast. The only other eating place was the bar with maybe ten food items to choose from. The prices were about the same as other hotels (a bit pricey). The maids started knocking on doors (or just entered) starting at eight in the morning. That is too early. There are no racks for towels in the bathrooms. It was annoying to try to find some place to put them. Some people complained of mildew or musty odors in their rooms.
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| Above, NASCAR headquarters view from my balcony. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, the backside of the distinctive stiff (staff) t-shirt worn by the volunteers. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
4 comments:
Hey Armand, I agree with you on the hotel problems. There are many but thats the hotels fault not the cons. I'm hoping it gets so big it has to move to a bigger (and better) hotel! As for the RIP room one of the things they rely on to sell those RIP tix is the fact that you might run into celebs in the RIP room so having seperate rooms would take that away. Personally I was yelled at when I went to get a piece of pizza from the celeb table (a pizza box was sitting on the sign that said "celebrity table" so how could I know?) I was told there was food on the other table for RIPs, there was carrots, celery and dip, thats not food. While I agree the celebs should have plenty of food the RIPs paid $200 for theirs, they should get more then rabbit food.
On another note it was nice to meet you at the elevators :) and an honor to meet Mr. Nakajima. I had a great time despite the hotel problems :)
Yes, I agree. The con has nothing to do with the hotel problems.
As to the problems with the con, a lot of people and celebs were voicing the same about the VIP room and having printed schedules. It is no secret. In the scheme of things, these were relatively minor issues that can be easily fixed. Those were the only two that I saw.
One thing the MMP might find useful in the future and other conventions do this: have a general "get acquainted meeting with the staff and the guests before the convention opens so that schedules can be presented and any questions can be addressed.
I was pleased to meet you, too. - A.
Hi Mr. Vaquer,
It was a pleasure meeting you and an honor to be able to meet Mr. Nakajima this past weekend.
I agree with you that a get acquainted meeting between the staff and guests would be a great idea. I was the "stiff" guarding the entrance to the RIP room for most of the convention. While I recognized you and the Nakajimas easily, there were some celebrity guests who I honestly did not know on sight. Celebrities did not have badges identifying themselves. I tried to turn a few away from the RIP room because I did not have any way of knowing they belonged there. They identified themselves to me and I gave them access but the experience is embarassing for both them and me. A meeting beforehand could help keep such a situation from happening. Celebrity badges would help, too.
As to the food, maybe the organizers need to stop making food a selling point to RIP customers. They could still have a room for celebrities and RIPs to relax, mingle and take a break without it needing to be a dining area. Food always needs to be available to the celebrity guests when they ask for it. Maybe the food could be kept in a seperate room where it could be brought to the celebrities by staff on demand.
Those are just my thoughts. I hope we meet again in the future, sir.
John Moore
Hickory, N. Carolina
Hi, John:
Another thing the convention should consider is a final post-convention meeting where the staff can discuss with the organizers the problems they encountered.
The ones you described are of the type that should be discussed. The final meeting doesn't have to be just on the problems, they can also point out the things that worked.
The point is to come up with plans for future conventions so they will run better. Airing everything will only aid this process. - A.
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