Arisia

[msmemory_archive]

(If you're associated with the ConComm and want to share these remarks with Arisia folks, go ahead.)

I was really happy with the speed and ease of Registration. (And also with the traffic-control gopher just at the point where the line needed to fork.)

For the whole time I was there, all the elevators worked. I tried to minimalize my use of them, but since my room was on 12 there were some unavoidable times. I encountered no incidents of elevator rudeness, and only a vanishingly small amount of line-jumping. And the hotel staff have clearly adjusted to us - they were unfailingly courteous every time I encountered them.

I am not a mundane. But sometimes I felt a little socially outlying for wearing clothes that were not obviously weird. (Dendarii Covert Ops shirt) Arisia seems to go overboard in the opposite direction as far as affirming alternate lifestyles. I felt like a misfit some of the time since I was not wearing club clothes, bondage gear, hall costume, or garb. Maybe it's just generation gappy.

No offense meant to Ms. Gilman or the other special guests, whose work I am unfamiliar with, but I tend to choose panels based on the panelists, with emphasis on writers. This year's writer panelists didn't grab me.

I wonder about the long-term viability of Clear Ether, in a facility where there is free building-wide wifi. The issues of Clear Ether were not especially well circulated (I know of only two places where they were put for distribution), and it seems to me that in future years, the committee might consider electronic publication for announcements, panel changes, party flyers, and masquerade pics. I wasn't the only one reading LJ in a panel room, and could easily have checked a blog or a static pdf file with the same contents as Clear Ether. A website won't be a 100% substitute, esp not right away, but I heard that CE printed 1000 700 copies of each issue. Where did they all go? (That said -- it was a nice, clear, newsletter.)

The Labyrinth was a nice feature. Having it set up for more hours would be even nicer.

Requests:
More movies, films, and trailers, on a bigger screen, please!
Better publicity for Arisia TV (I found out it had existed after I got home).
More places to sit and socialize and read.
More booksellers. (And if possible, some more functional room adaptations for the dealers on Dealers' Row.)
Can we do anything with recycling? Or get the hotel to do so? All those Pepsi cans and 2-L Coke bottles seemed to have gone in the mixed trash.

ETA: Kudos to Jim, Kate and other Viable Paradise people for bagel breakfast on Sunday. (It was amusing to find archipelagean overlap, as Kate turned out to be another Eastern Star member, from Melrose.)
A bummer that the con seems to have been blown off by the food truck(s) we had expected to find out front. I hope they realize how much revenue they didn't get, nyah.

Comments

[tpau]

the CE - it was availibe at hte info table and in the consuite, the staff den, and on floors 1,2,3,4,5,14,16 in front of the elevators.

booksellers- i knwo several said they disliked a lack of flat space sicnethere was no dealer's room and thus did nto come. though these were gamign books people, but still

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

OK. I saw CE only in front of the elevators on floor 3, and in the Freebie racks.

Seems like with enough advance work, we could get more dealers' rooms set up without beds, or with beds that could be stood on end out of the way when not in use. Larry Smith told me he'd asked for his King bed to be taken out and a rollaway cot provided but the hotel couldn't accommodate that - maybe next time?

[tpau]

there is a web eddition of CE, but i do not knwo when it gets wedbbed...

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

I think the lack of bookdealers is at least partially an Arisia/Boskone differentiation thing.

A bigger screen would sure be nice, as would be doing things to rake the space - low-lying back support in front, then maybe a series of gradually taller platforms would go a long way to maximizing viewing pleasure.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I might attempt Boskone again this year - but will check on the Boat Show and the weather forecast in advance this time.

[asdr83.livejournal.com]

I felt like a misfit some of the time since I was not wearing club clothes, bondage gear, hall costume, or garb. Maybe it's just generation gappy.

It's not a generation thing. The two times I've been to Arisia I've felt the same way.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I figure that I stand out more by dressing in fairly mundane clothes than they do by dressing in their subculture clothes. After all, when you've seen 10 people walk by with crazy hair and leather clothes, isn't the lady in jeans and a nice black blouse a refreshing change of scenery?

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

True, true. At best, I'll get taken for a pro (writer/editor). At worst, for somebody's mother.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

On Sunday, I really felt like I should have been wearing a pin that read, "I are serious writer. This are serious blouse." With a cat in a blouse on it, of course.

[fibro-witch.livejournal.com]

Well as a member of Con Com, consider it read, and passed along. When did you do registration? I spent so much time behind the registration desk that I saw very few of the people I wanted to see. Much squee for the happy registration comments.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I came through Reg around 6:45-7:00 pm Friday. You were standing behind the desk, talking with someone, but I recognized you by your badge :)

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I used to go for more "festive" outfits, but more recently I use Arisia as an excuse to wear all the nice things I don't normally have any occasion for. Especially the ones it's normally too cold to wear in the middle of winter.

[laurion]

You and I have much in common here. I too had mostly positive elevator experience, hotel staff experience, etc. I dressed a little more socially than I do normally, but by no means do I dress 'fen'. If there's a generation gap there, then either you and I are part of the new generation, or I'm older than people my age (and I suspect there's a woman sitting next to me who would agree with that last part.. heehee). I only went to one panel that I wasn't on, and that was the LJ+Community panel, mostly because I knew every panelist. And it was a good one.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

FYI, a couple of notes:

A number of staffers complained that I wanted newsletter submissions sent via email whenever possible, because they hadn't brought their laptop. We did put the issues of Clear Ether up online as they were completed, but we couldn't count on that as primary distribution.

The Labyrinth sounded nifty. It was set up 3 times (once unscheduled), and will probably get longer blocks of time next year.

Arisia TV didn't get their schedule in until the Saturday of con. You can guess how well that went over.

The hotel didn't advertise it (but we will next year), but they have their staff sort the recycling after housekeeping collects it. They're doing a major green push. :)

The food trucks didn't mean to blow us off -- MIT campus police decided to throw a snit fit about the parking situation because MIT housing had given us permission to park in their lot, from what I can tell. The MIT policeman who came around scared off the food trucks on the Thursday of con. :(