Daisho Con

Yes, charging full price for a replacement badge fee is a way to deter anyone trying to get two badges for the price of one, which is a problem at some conventions. As I understand it, Detour has had a problem with badge fraud in the past. It's a fairly common policy that just looks particularly bad on Detour given their exhorbitant at-con rate.

1stAgent wrote:

Sephiroth X wrote:In all honesty Cheesus, you really didnt miss much. It really was a C-grade Detour and there were alot of things that ticked me off about the con. Like seriously, Detour '06 was the first con i've ever gone to so the con holds a special place for me, but this con has made me almost consider not going to Detour again next year. It was really a lackluster con.

Plus it doesnt help that I personally like smaller anime cons, its more social and what not, and Detour the last couple years has really started to push away from that.

This was my first Detour and it gets an Incomplete from me. They were definitely hamstrung by an awful location, and even the staff realized it immediately. A better hotel, which they are moving to next year, solves half of their problems. There were a lot of plus marks that many conventions don't have- great registration processing (which ACen lacks), excellent AMV contest (which No Brand and Iowa lack), good room party support (which Daisho lacks), many surrounding food options (which No Brand and ACen lack) and the efficiency of their tech team was nothing short of inspirational (which everybody lacks). It was up there with No Brand as being one of the best-run conventions I've attended, so if they solve their location issues and work to improve their reputation of bad staff/congoer rapport, they'll be fine.

The full recap will probably be up Saturday.

I look forward to the recap Adam....aways a good read for me

Basically from what I've been hearing the main issues have to do with time getting to and from rooms to the con and this is a time issue due to trying to get to panels...those people that aren't into panels and enjoy random running around all weekend didn't have many issues and enjoyed themselves. As for me I enjoy panels so I think I would have been ripping out my hair by Sat.

But yeah I still like AD as a sponsor though, I can't see myself going to that con as a normal con goer ever again. The sponsor pass saves me many headaches in the end.

1stAgent wrote:Yes, charging full price for a replacement badge fee is a way to deter anyone trying to get two badges for the price of one, which is a problem at some conventions. As I understand it, Detour has had a problem with badge fraud in the past. It's a fairly common policy that just looks particularly bad on Detour given their exhorbitant at-con rate.

Yeah. I just dont like the policy because at the '07 Detour there was a huge problem of people stealing other peoples con badges. And the people who had their badges stolen right off of them had to pay the $60 dollar fee.

Sephiroth X wrote:
You sir, hit the nail on the head pretty much. Yeah, I dont want to sound too negative on Detour because you did point out that it has an ideal registration process and their AMV competition is bar none the best. But yeah, they need to fix the location and bring up the reputation of their staff. Also, I dont know if other cons do this, but am I the only person who thinks its poopy for them to charge you 60 bucks if your con badge is lost or stolen?

Did you have to buy a replacement badge too? That really sucked for me. There needs to be insurance policies for these things.

Sephiroth X wrote:

1stAgent wrote:Yes, charging full price for a replacement badge fee is a way to deter anyone trying to get two badges for the price of one, which is a problem at some conventions. As I understand it, Detour has had a problem with badge fraud in the past. It's a fairly common policy that just looks particularly bad on Detour given their exhorbitant at-con rate.

Yeah. I just dont like the policy because at the '07 Detour there was a huge problem of people stealing other peoples con badges. And the people who had their badges stolen right off of them had to pay the $60 dollar fee.

People "Borrowing" con badges was a rampant problem this year. I can tell you how many people i saw exchanging badges outside of the main convention area.. What's truly sad though is I am sure most of these people would have paid for admission had they been allowed. capacity is capacity though.

Liquid86 wrote:

Sephiroth X wrote:

1stAgent wrote:Yes, charging full price for a replacement badge fee is a way to deter anyone trying to get two badges for the price of one, which is a problem at some conventions. As I understand it, Detour has had a problem with badge fraud in the past. It's a fairly common policy that just looks particularly bad on Detour given their exhorbitant at-con rate.

Yeah. I just dont like the policy because at the '07 Detour there was a huge problem of people stealing other peoples con badges. And the people who had their badges stolen right off of them had to pay the $60 dollar fee.

People "Borrowing" con badges was a rampant problem this year. I can tell you how many people i saw exchanging badges outside of the main convention area.. What's truly sad though is I am sure most of these people would have paid for admission had they been allowed. capacity is capacity though.

That totally does not surprise me. People could have easily killed the weekend hanging out in Artists Alley, pool and room parties without a badge and borrowed one for critical events/dealers room. Some of my friends went without badges at Anime Iowa one year, totally legit (not borrowing or anything), and had a great time.

This is quite normal for this con..its well known people get a few badges and like 5 people share them...and all stay in the same room...

Honestly, I have to say myself Detour wasn't as high quality as normal--and a lot of the issues are already listed here. I can't comment on the hotel issues other to say that 1--most were out of our power to deal with and 2--we are moving starting with the 2010 con to the Sheraton in Bloomington. I've stayed at this hotel and I loved my stay, so I'm looking forward to next year. There's many reasons that the theme is "System Upgrade" and many of them were hit right on the head here in your comments.

If you go to Detour's website there is a form for stating issues/making complaints, and I strongly urge you to go over and use it so we can improve the issues that staff may not be aware of. Of course we know about most of what's been stated and much was out of our control, being in the control of the hotel instead, BUT issues that were not hotel-related really should be brought up so we can fix them. Any issues involving staff especially should be brought there--if you were treated badly by staff, that's completely unacceptable and if you have a name and department for that person be sure to put that on the form when you fill it out.

I don't know how many know, but I'm a department head for Detour and there were a few things here that were eye-openers because I hadn't heard about anyone bringing those issues to light, so please DO take the time to tell us where changes need to be made so we can make sure it never happens again. After all, why hold a convention if the attendees don't like what they've come to see and do? All our staff are volunteers and donate the time we put in, so we want to be sure that our time is put to the best use by giving attendees what they want and making sure they DON'T get what they don't want. We definitely DO want to know where things went wrong, so please do use the feedback forms at the website and let us know.

Thanks for reading the wall o'text,
Deb Lovely
Co-Head, Volunteers, Anime Detour

Well the one thing most con's need to realize, in my opinion, is that if someone wants to get another con badge and do it outside of the normal system then they're going to find a way to do it regardless. I mean, how hard is it for someone to bring a laptop scanner and printer and just make duplicate badges on some reinforced paper? The people checking badges at doors only give you a split second glance most of the time so its not like you couldnt get away with it.

I agree with an earlier post in this thread, cons just need to give you a $5-$10 dollar insurance option on your badge. If you pay for the insurance during your pre-con registration and lose your badge, you get a new badge free of cost (assuming you have your ID on you). If you lose your badge and dont have insurance, you have to pay full price for a second badge.

The only way you'd lose money off of this method (assuming insurance is $10 and an at the door badge is $60) is if in years past you average more than a 16% lost-badge rate. You'd be pooling a smaller amount of money from a larger base, instead of pooling an unnecessary amount of cash from a small base of people.

Sephiroth X wrote:Well the one thing most con's need to realize, in my opinion, is that if someone wants to get another con badge and do it outside of the normal system then they're going to find a way to do it regardless. I mean, how hard is it for someone to bring a laptop scanner and printer and just make duplicate badges on some reinforced paper? The people checking badges at doors only give you a split second glance most of the time so its not like you couldnt get away with it.

I agree with an earlier post in this thread, cons just need to give you a $5-$10 dollar insurance option on your badge. If you pay for the insurance during your pre-con registration and lose your badge, you get a new badge free of cost (assuming you have your ID on you). If you lose your badge and dont have insurance, you have to pay full price for a second badge.

The only way you'd lose money off of this method (assuming insurance is $10 and an at the door badge is $60) is if in years past you average more than a 16% lost-badge rate. You'd be pooling a smaller amount of money from a larger base, instead of pooling an unnecessary amount of cash from a small base of people.

Yeah but you could just use this "insurance policy" to get more badges for your buddies. Having to buy a new badge is the only sure method... It sucks.... but hey then don't lose your badge.. i have been to several cons and i have never lost my badge.

Sephiroth X wrote:Well the one thing most con's need to realize, in my opinion, is that if someone wants to get another con badge and do it outside of the normal system then they're going to find a way to do it regardless. I mean, how hard is it for someone to bring a laptop scanner and printer and just make duplicate badges on some reinforced paper? The people checking badges at doors only give you a split second glance most of the time so its not like you couldnt get away with it.

Hologram stickers beat most reproduction techniques.

Although, the best incident involving fake badges was when a con chair went back to check on the copy shop he owns and caught some fools copying their badges.