Minor Arisia problem

[jbsegal]

It's been striking me in the past week just how many people I _didn't_ see, or didn't see in more than just passing (and that passing only once), at Arisia.

Some of this is due to some social choices I made, I know. Some is certainly due to those people's similar choices, and some, I suspect, is due to the layout of the hotel.

Hm.
I wonder if there's anything that can be done about that 3rd factor.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

party floor, not party suites, i feel. parties were dispersed and felt random and unfocused.

[nacht_musik]

I agree that it felt like parties were too far apart, and/or their probable locations were not documented well enough.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, that's not really up to us because the suites are where they are, and all but the small parties do need them. If the con consolidated the party areas more, it would just mean a lot of them wouldn't happen due to lack of space.

The documentation was indeed an issue, though. The pocket program declared 15 (I think) to be "the" party floor, which seemed odd.

[nacht_musik]

15 may have been "the" party floor, but there were also (semi)public parties on 7, 8, 11, 14, and 16. It would be nice if all the party suites were on adjacent floors, or else if the floors of the potential party suites had been documented somewhere aside from individual posters.

And I realize this may simply not be possible - I'm just brainstorming for ideas I think might help, if they're feasible.

[jostajam.livejournal.com]

You're right. the suites are located on every floor.
Closed parties aren't allowed to advertise and the open parties were advertised as usual on the Party Board and in the Newsletter. The open party block was on the 16th floor along with Dealers Row and the Con Suite.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

well, the lobby and mezz were really the only places you could be guaranteed to see people (unless you went to a panel someone was on) and those places were usually Way Too Cold to hang out in the hopes of seeing someone.

[nacht_musik]

Ditto. And, if anything, aside from the con suite it felt like the potential social sit-around hang-out spaces were too sprawling -- there was no clear focus area to swing through in an attempt to find people. Instead, there was the too-cold lobby plus maybe a dozen smaller seating areas strewn across the basement, mezz, and lobby floors.

It's nice having so much space and so many options, but it the lobby can't be made any warmer, it might be nice to have a single clear social/hangout nexus aside from the con suite (which is lovely in itself but sometimes uncomfortably loud/crowded/faraway).

I'm not sure what the right answer here would be, but I'm pondering things as simple and silly as a big sign saying "Designated Lobby Equivalent" (also advertised in the con program).

[blk]

Clearly everybody needs to come hang out in my room more.

(Glad I got to see you. Several times even. Yay.)

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

I figure it'll take a couple years to figure out how to make the best use of the new hotel. Still, I like it much better than the Hyatt!

[dalesql.livejournal.com]

The lack I see is there is kind of subtle. In the ziggurat, the convention was crowded into the hotel so there was many opportunities to see other folks. The new hotel is much more spacious, and there were six different centers to the convention. (16th floor con suite and dealers row; galleria with dealers and art show; Grand ballroom with big events and game room; upstairs ballroom with dance and bigger program items; first floor program rooms; second floor program rooms)
The lobby was the only area that everyone crossed with any frequency. It had lots of comfy seating, and the lobby bar, but it was uncomfortably chilly to stay in for long. So the convention didn't really have a social center. The con suite was overcrowded every time I visited, making it a bit uncomfortable for me, and it was physically the furthest away from everything else on the top floor and at the end of the gauntlet of dealers row.