Autograph Room at BABSCon problems?

[greatmaul 17]

Hi!  I'm wondering if anyone else thought there maybe should have been a more efficient way to handle the autographs at BABSCon?  I don't know because I haven't been to any other conventions, but I felt bad that the room had only a certain number of people at a time, and most of them were in Ashleigh or Tara's line.  That meant that a lot of the other voice actors were just sitting there with nothing to do.

 

Maybe it's unfair, but it seems to me that if the voice actor wasn't one of the main characters of the show that the price of the autograph could maybe be lower?  I mean, $20 is a fair bit of money, especially if there are 7 or 8 people in the room.  If you add in a picture for $10, it would have cost $240 per person just to get them all.  Not that I'm cheap, but I had my 2 kids with me, and I just can't spend $750 on autographs.

 

In the end, my little one only wanted Andrea Libman, so I gave all my vouchers to my oldest and she got almost everyone she wanted and a photo with Brynna Drummond.

 

Also, the voucher system?  There was no one selling vouchers that I could find except a single person, and she went down that huge line and I never saw her again, so even if I did want to spend $750 on autographs, I couldn't because they only took vouchers (except Tara only took cash.)  This seemed very clunky to me.  Either make the vouchers available in the room, or online, or make them optional.  Really, why wouldn't someone take cash except for security reasons of course.

 

Maybe if some of the more minor characters were only charging $10 or even $5 they might have had a nice line too, and then instead of only a few people paying them $20, they could have had hundreds of people paying them $5 so it seems like a win-win to me.  They looked so bored and kind of sad.

Edited May 2, 2014 by greatmaul

[easymac 106]

Having been autograph rooms at two other cons, they always take vouchers, Tara doesn't because of what happened at LPU.

Usually they have a place you can buy vouchers at the door (from my experience at EqLA 2012 and Bronycon 2013).

The prices are set out as part of the VA's contract. 
Finally the lines for Tara and Ashleigh because they don't go to cons very much (there for a must get for all).

[Doc Slide 14]

There was a counter next to the registration desk that sold vouchers throughout the weekend. I made a couple of trips up there to reload after using up the stack I bought in the autograph line on Friday.

 

I can attest to the high demand for Tara's autograph, having seen the lines at BronyCon two summers ago. I believe this is the first con she's attended since LPU, and I'm not surprised at her reluctance to sign on and/or work on any basis other than cash. The length of the lines on Saturday and Sunday was due to two causes: the demand for autographs from Tara and Ashleigh, and the fact that they weren't present on Friday.

 

Having several tables in a fairly small room didn't do any favors for the acoustics in there, particularly for the people who wanted to talk with the guests a bit. Suggestions for next year: have fewer guests signing at a time and/or move the sessions to a larger room. As for the fees, that's primarily between the guest, their manager/agent, and the con organizers. Voice actors have bills to pay like everyone else, and fees from con appearances and autographs can make up a decent part of their yearly income. 

 

I'm not sure if this would have been allowed at BABSCon, but at the two BronyCons I've attended, people could go through the lines and just say hello to the guests if they wanted to, without having to pay for an autograph. Myself, I went in for all the ink I could get, and I carried along a load of small gifts to give to the guests as a way of thanking them for what they've done. You'd be surprised how far something like this can go in brightening someone's day.

[PiquoPie 28]

One thing that Everfree did that helped was that they would walk the line and get people who were interested in the signers that were not busy. Then they would walk them back. It got extra interest for the less popular signers and helped the line go faster.

 

Also, supposedly a volunteer's personal item, that they had signed was stored while on duty, with a note saying it was a personal item. It sounds like it had it removed without their permission and auctioned off. She got it back but only after it was reclaimed from the person who bought it.

 

I don't know if this happened as I heard about it second hand from a couple of friends, but if it did then hopefully learn from your mistakes so that this doesn't happen again.

Edited May 4, 2014 by PiquoPie

[Gretsch1962 0]

Even though BABScon was a blast, my only problem was the VA signing. My friend and I were looking forward to getting almost all the VA's autographs, but the line was REALLY SLOW. And when I mean slow, it's like we moved 5 inches every 10 minutes. Then something irritating happened. The staff finally broke us into groups. (Like one line for Mrs. Strong, one line for Miss Ball, etc.) Because before, there was one long line with people wanting different VA's autographs. 

 

I think for next year's BABScon, they should break us into groups earlier, so that everypony will have a chance to get an autograph.

[Doc Slide 14]

The system at this year's BronyCon was set up very much like that. You bought your vouchers at a counter outside the autograph room, then moved to a line of people waiting to get inside. Once you got in, the staff would check which autographs you wanted and route you into the line for one of the tables. They were fairly good about sending people into the shortest lines first.

 

I don't know how well that arrangement would work here, as the autograph room at BronyCon was maybe twice the size of the one at BABSCon; there was more space inside to get people lined up. I do remember getting stuck in that one monster line on Saturday, and only being able to skip ahead when the staff called for people who wanted autographs from guests other than Tara and Ashleigh.