Nov 03 2009
Oni-Con 2009 Convention Report
Convention Fans is fortunate enough to have some dedicated volunteers who go out and write reports about conventions when we can’t get there ourselves. One such volunteer is Elle, who recently attended Oni-Con 2009 in Houston, Texas. Below is her convention report. If you attend a convention and would like to write a report for Convention Fans, send us an e-mail (dreadpiraterose[at]gmail[dot]com).
Oni-Con 2009 Convention Report
written exclusively for Convention Fans by Elle Velie
Note: These are not only the opinions of myself, but others who attended the con as well. For the most part, everyone was unhappy.
Convention:
- I have been to this convention before. Last year was fun and exciting… this year however it was horrible. There was no organization at all, and if I’m mistaken and there was, then I don’t know what sort of organization method was used. Everything from registration, to basic opening times for the dealers rooms, to events, were a half hour late if not more. The entire weekend was full of mass confusion about not only the start and end times of events, but of the LOCATION of certain events.
- Last year, (I think maybe because of the location) at this con we were able to procure food and drink right there at the convention… albeit expensive [food/drink]. At this con the water fountains didn’t work, and the hotel gift shop and restaurant (both much more expensive the food vendor last year) were the only food and drink unless you wanted to leave the hotel in your full costume. Lets just say I survived on crackers till dinner both days I attended because of this problem. The first day I didn’t bring a water bottle, how foolish of me to think that somewhere somehow in a hotel I would be able to find liquid.
Hotel:
- I believe that a convention should never be held in a hotel, unless the convention space is well away from the main parts of the hotel. This allows for space away from the general public where we can be loud, disruptive, and weird, without hurting the hotel’s image. This con had no such agenda. The convention basically took up the entire hotel, causing many a stick up to arise from the business professionals sharing the hotel with us at that time. Con goers were often in the way, as we had no real place to be other then the hotel lobby.
- The hotel advertised a $99 dollar a night rate for those going to the con. We paid in advance. The hotel failed to mention that there was a $100 deposit due for paying for the room in advance. We were totally scammed and screwed over.
- Parking was free.
- Internet in the hotel was shoddy at best. Logins didn’t always work, and when they did some websites were blocked from use: like YouTube.
Events:
- I didn’t attend any events because the amount of frustration that was involved with trying to go. I took part in one event however: the Halloween costume contest. They had the contestants arrive an hour and a half early to line us up. I thought they were crazy for having us show up so early… there were only 20 of us there to compete. It shouldn’t have taken that long, yet they used every second of that hour and a half, trying to figure out a way to organize us. It should have been OBVIOUS. But they spent that long just scratching their heads wondering what to do. I don’t know who put those kids in charge, but I was not pleased that that much of my time was wasted because they were left to their own devices.
Artist Alley/Dealer rooms:
- The organization for the rooms was TERRIBLE. They had two dealers rooms on complete opposite sides of the hotel, when the arcade was in a huge room and took up very little space. What they should have done is put the entire dealers room where they had the arcade (all of the dealers would have fit EASILY) and should have put the arcade on the other side of the hotel, as it is generally a place of lesser interest, and is over all a calmer atmosphere.
- They didn’t open [the artist alley and second dealers room] to let the dealers and artists set up until 1:00. By two o’clock some of the artists still had not been assigned a table to set up at.
- Sunday morning, several dealers and artists had been stolen from. Including an artist I am often buying from. The thing that was stolen from them? A gift for me for helping them so much during the past year. You can see why I am thoroughly annoyed at that development.
- Because of the space issue some artists and vendors were shoved into back corners and all cramped dark hallways. This caused for massive drops in sales. One artist in such a situation made almost no sales at all until he moved to a vacated table on Sunday. He made several sales within the first few minutes after moving. Some vendors drove from all over Texas to be told there was no booth for them, and had to make due in places where due could not be made.
Attendees:
- Despite all the problems, attendance was good, and some costumes were awesome. Many con goers I spoke to said they would not be returning next year.
- Even though I personally thought it was neat that the hotel had glass elevators that over looked the lobby, to catch such an elevator was nearly impossible. Hoards of young con goers, with nothing else to do, decided to ride the elevators up and down while dancing. It was not only annoying, but made the hotel look very unattractive.
- In addition to the glass elevators over looking the lobby, there were hotel windows that looked over the lobby as well. These windows had signs of all different types, and there was very inappropriate dancing by girls who could not have been out of their teens yet. What were the Oni-Con officials thinking when they picked this venue!?
Security:
- They didn’t have those involved in the con clearly marked. (a.k.a., with a shirt, or a badge) so they looked just like all the other con goers. Meaning if you wanted to find security, or someone to direct you to the other dealers room, you were SOL.
- I went a few hours without my badge on, no one said anything to me until I tried to go into the dealers room. That scares me.
- If there was a weapons check table, I didn’t see it. I had to seek out the security headquarters to get our weapons checked personally. This is very unnerving on several levels, to know that there didn’t seem to be a single soul checking to see if the gun and blades coming into the con were real or not.
Website:
- The website was never ever changed from the 2008 design. The only updates posted on the actual site were where and when the con was. When no new updates had been posted by that Thursday night I was beginning to wonder about the con’s status. I later came to find out that instead of updating a website with information, the officials at Oni-Con had started a forum where they were posting announcements/guest/FAQs and were encouraging people to email them to find out information, when they clearly didn’t have the time to post it on the forum.
The con was bearable, despite my now very soiled opinion of it. When it comes time to go next year, I will seriously be reconsidering paying the $30+ to get in.
On the topic of weapons check: I went the entire convention without having my weapons checked. When I asked another person where the weapons check was….I was informed there was not one. That was Friday, and every day I went down from the hotel room and walked several times around the entire hotel from the far end dealers hall to the smallest one. With one small gun in a holster and a large one I carried, looking for a weapons check and being told there was indeed, not one yet available. I went the entire convention afraid of getting booted out for a weapons check that never seemed to exist.
On Friday no one was having their badges checked, and from my experience some people didn’t have any in the first place. This was my first year attending, and I had a good time…but I don’t go to panels and raves. Which seemed to have the biggest issues out of everything else, so perhaps I just narrowly escaped disaster.
There was a security head quarters that we found, and checked our weapons at.(a gutted all be it real chainsaw without the blades, and a toy shot gun that looks very very real) But like I said, we had to go to great lengths to find it. Once our weapons were officially given the o.k. there were no tags, or tape, or colored zip ties added. If the wrong security guard had seen us, he would have had no way of knowing we had been approved.
- The hotel advertised a $99 dollar a night rate for those going to the con. We paid in advance. The hotel failed to mention that there was a $100 deposit due for paying for the room in advance. We were totally scammed and screwed over.
Was that you had to pay an extra $100 for booking early or that you had to put the first $100 of the room down? Cause the latter is stardard produre for most hotels I’ve gone too.
This convention had more problems than any other that I have attended. As was mentioned, the website was barely updated from 2008. They did post some of the new guests but there were still sporadic pages showing the previous year’s guests instead.
Most importantly they never posted a schedule. It was impossible to plan out anything in advance. At the con itself every time I went by the registration booth I was told that they were out of schedules but you could probably get one if you got there early in the morning.
I never got to see the dealer’s room. The line was always incredibly long and stretched through already crowded hallways. At one point my wife and I did wait in it for about fifteen minutes but after not moving decided it wasn’t worth it. Sorry vendors, none of our money for you.
In addition to not having schedules the con staff didn’t seem knowledgable about the con. I ran into one of the con guests in a hall who told me he had a presentation coming up in panel room 2. It took three different staff members at the registration desk to figure out where that room was and this was already late in day two of the con.
The one saving grace for the con was the concerts. Satsuki gave a great performance as did Burandon and Echostream. The headlining band “born” though was nothing short of amazing. They had tremendous amounts of energy and charisma. Towards the end of their set they started stage diving across the bariers into the audience and crowd surfing their way back to the stage. The audience loved it and it was obviuos they were having a great time. So many of the Japanese bands seem timid about interacting with the audience but this one had no qualms at all.
In addition to the quality of the bands, the con had also obviously invested a good bit of money into a high quality sound system and lighting rig for the show. It rivaled many higher end concerts that I have attended.
I hope that for next year the con gets their act together. There were a few competent people on staff, I hope they take the reigns and get the con back on its feet. It doesn’t take a lot to please con goers but you do have to at least make a decent effort.
To answer the question: In the end the hotel was telling us we owed them $100 MORE. We paid everything in advance. The tax, the rate for the two nights. The only thing we didn’t pay in advance was for the internet, so that should have been the only few dollars on the bill in the end. They were charging us an extra $100 for the convenience of booking in advance.
The only thing I can excuse is the late start and the issues with the dealers room/arcade. The hotel had another event going on and it ran late. That’s why artist alley wasn’t set up, and most of the events started way after they were supposed to. Also, since the vendors need more time than the arcade to set up, the arcade had the bigger room. The hotel messed up the layout for the dealers room, and so some of the vendors were moved into the other room, while others were moved into artist alley.
There’s no real excuse for the lack of organization. It has been a common problem since the directors switched a few years back, and seriously affects some aspect of the convention every year.