Denvention Registration
Aug. 5th, 2008 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeAfter leaving the museum, we drove downtown, and with only a slight glitch, found the hotel. We were surprised when we pulled into the forecourt and weren't set upon by bellmen, although we didn't mind that. Lisa stayed with the van while I went and checked in. Although we were slightly early, our room was available for us, and the front desk manager brought a cart and took our stuff up to the room with Lisa while I parked.
After minimal unpacking, we headed down to the Convention Center to register. To get to "our" part of the convention center, we had to pass through another convention happening in another part of the center. This ought to be interesting.
As I expected, the desk staff were routinely demanding photo ID even if you had your convention PR with you. Anticipating this, I had caught the attention of John Sapienza, who was supervising, and had him vouch that Lisa and I were who we said we were. Thank goodness "identified by management" was acceptable, unlike one convention I attended where, even though the person registering me knew me personally, he demanded photo ID "because it's required to register." (Long time readers will know why they shouldn't get me started on this subject.) Other than this, registration was relatively painless, although they could have used signs over the tables telling people which line to stand in.
The only way they provide for attaching badges is by lanyard. That by itself is not a problem, but they are the single-point lanyards that have a 50% chance of being rotated the wrong-way around. Fortunately, Lisa and I brought clips so we can wear our badges without worrying that they will be flopped.
We started back to our hotel when something Lisa said reminded me that we were program participants, so we turned around to go do our program participant check-in. This was very quick. I'm impressed that between my ordinary member package and my program participant package, I have my Former Worldcon Chairman ribbon and program participant ribbon, as well as my invitation to the Old Pharts' Party and other things specific to me. The logistics of getting those things to the right people are not always easy, so congratulations to D3 for getting them right.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the van to collect things we hadn't brought up on the first trip, like a partial case of bottled water. After having four elevators stop with full loads not suitable for adding us and a hand-cart, we took a down elevator so we could go back up -- something that makes me feel a bit guilty, but there was no real alternative to getting back upstairs. I'm glad this isn't the party hotel, but I must remember to add a lot more time to get up and down to my room during the convention. There is no access by stairs, and I don't fancy taking 18 flights of stairs anyway.
After registering and moving the rest of our stuff upstairs, we were both feeling the need for dinner, so we walked a few blocks to the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall, where there are plenty of places to eat and even a few other things of use, such as a Walgreens and a 7-Eleven, and -- one block off the mall -- a 24-hour restaurant (filed for future reference). But instead of eating on the 16th Street Mall, we walked to the local Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, where we ate too much dinner (as shown by my blood sugar reading later). We then picked up a few small things, including some milk, for our breakfast tomorrow. Having brought the electric ice chest, we can keep the milk in the room, after all.
Finally it was back to the room, where I've spent the last few hours working on e-mail, photos, and video. Also, I took a shot at reformatting some of the WSFS Business Meeting agenda, sent to me by Pat McMurray before he left to fly to D3 from the UK. (He'll be here tomorrow.)
I hope to get to bed relatively early, because tomorrow is actually my busiest day of the convention, and I need the rest. However, Lisa and I do have some work that needs doing tonight, including some last-minute research for her First Worldcon Panel. And we do need to make up our minds about what tourism we're going to do post-con, particularly if it requires changing any of our hotel reservations. I've already canceled the return reservation at Wells -- the less time we spend there, the better -- and have a couple of extra vacation days with which to play if we can decide how to spend them.
After minimal unpacking, we headed down to the Convention Center to register. To get to "our" part of the convention center, we had to pass through another convention happening in another part of the center. This ought to be interesting.
As I expected, the desk staff were routinely demanding photo ID even if you had your convention PR with you. Anticipating this, I had caught the attention of John Sapienza, who was supervising, and had him vouch that Lisa and I were who we said we were. Thank goodness "identified by management" was acceptable, unlike one convention I attended where, even though the person registering me knew me personally, he demanded photo ID "because it's required to register." (Long time readers will know why they shouldn't get me started on this subject.) Other than this, registration was relatively painless, although they could have used signs over the tables telling people which line to stand in.
The only way they provide for attaching badges is by lanyard. That by itself is not a problem, but they are the single-point lanyards that have a 50% chance of being rotated the wrong-way around. Fortunately, Lisa and I brought clips so we can wear our badges without worrying that they will be flopped.
We started back to our hotel when something Lisa said reminded me that we were program participants, so we turned around to go do our program participant check-in. This was very quick. I'm impressed that between my ordinary member package and my program participant package, I have my Former Worldcon Chairman ribbon and program participant ribbon, as well as my invitation to the Old Pharts' Party and other things specific to me. The logistics of getting those things to the right people are not always easy, so congratulations to D3 for getting them right.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the van to collect things we hadn't brought up on the first trip, like a partial case of bottled water. After having four elevators stop with full loads not suitable for adding us and a hand-cart, we took a down elevator so we could go back up -- something that makes me feel a bit guilty, but there was no real alternative to getting back upstairs. I'm glad this isn't the party hotel, but I must remember to add a lot more time to get up and down to my room during the convention. There is no access by stairs, and I don't fancy taking 18 flights of stairs anyway.
After registering and moving the rest of our stuff upstairs, we were both feeling the need for dinner, so we walked a few blocks to the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall, where there are plenty of places to eat and even a few other things of use, such as a Walgreens and a 7-Eleven, and -- one block off the mall -- a 24-hour restaurant (filed for future reference). But instead of eating on the 16th Street Mall, we walked to the local Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, where we ate too much dinner (as shown by my blood sugar reading later). We then picked up a few small things, including some milk, for our breakfast tomorrow. Having brought the electric ice chest, we can keep the milk in the room, after all.
Finally it was back to the room, where I've spent the last few hours working on e-mail, photos, and video. Also, I took a shot at reformatting some of the WSFS Business Meeting agenda, sent to me by Pat McMurray before he left to fly to D3 from the UK. (He'll be here tomorrow.)
I hope to get to bed relatively early, because tomorrow is actually my busiest day of the convention, and I need the rest. However, Lisa and I do have some work that needs doing tonight, including some last-minute research for her First Worldcon Panel. And we do need to make up our minds about what tourism we're going to do post-con, particularly if it requires changing any of our hotel reservations. I've already canceled the return reservation at Wells -- the less time we spend there, the better -- and have a couple of extra vacation days with which to play if we can decide how to spend them.
