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So, as some of you know, I make polymer clay charms and chainmail jewelry, and sell them at craft shows and nerdy cons. This weekend was an anime convention that I vended at, and it was probably the worst show I've ever done...for a number of reasons.
Location and Lighting
The con was at a hotel, which is pretty typical of anime conventions. The Artist Alley, which is where I was located, was in a hallway outside of a large ballroom that was acting at the Dealer's Room. The way the tables were set up was very cramped. I've dealt with this before so I didn't complain at first. The biggest problem was that they had shoved so many tables so close to each other that we had to walk around about 5 other booths to get out from behind our table. Again, I didn't complain, we were sort of in a corner so we at least had room to shove our stuff and maneuver around the other tables. The lighting was awful, too. The only lighting was the lighting that the hotel had provided, which was very ambient light. It was fine during the day, since we were in front of a window and it was sunny all weekend so we had plenty of sunlight. But once the sun started going down, it was so dark I could hardly see to work on commissions. We could have brought our own lights, but there was so little room around and behind our tables that we would have just been tripping all over them.
We need to move your table right now while you're dealing with customers
So, as I said, we were pretty crowded around our table. To my left was my good friend, Lea, whose table was butted end to end up against mine. To her left was another table but there was just enough room for her to get out that way. To my right was another table that made an "L" with mine, with no room to get between our two tables, but we could go around them and the tables next to them to get out. A little annoying but not a big deal.
Well, Saturday afternoon (the con started Friday morning, for reference) the direct of Artist Alley, (we'll call her AA), came up to my table and the following conversation took place.
AA: Why isn't there a space here? *indicates between my table and the table on my right*
Me: Um...
AA: There needs to be a space here. Did you move your table to block it?
Me: Uh, no.
AA: Wasn't there a space here yesterday when you checked in?
Me: No, there was no space here. We didn't move the tables at all.
AA: Well, there needs to be a space here. We're going to move your table.
Me: Are you kidding?
AA: There needs to be a space here for you and them *indicates people to my right* to get out here.
She then made the two tables to my left (Lea and the people on her other side) move their tables (all full of displays and merchandise, by the way) over, butting Lea's table on the left up against the people next to her and blocking HER exit. Then AA came back to my table.
AA: Okay, you need to move your table now. Do you need help?
Note that I was alone at my table at this point (my husband was looking around the con) and that I have 2 wire frame towers sitting on either end of my table, each about 4ft tall (so standing about 6-7ft tall while sitting on the table) and each loaded with tons of merchandise.
Me: *looks at my large displays and my delicate items* Yes, I'm going to need help, and if anything breaks in the process, you will be paying for it.
AA: ... I'll go find a couple of guys to help move it.
Me: You do that.
So the guys show up and we shuffle my table over to the left, opening up...a whopping 10 inches of space between my table and the one to my right. Yes, I got out my tape measure and measured it. 10 inches. It was barely enough for a person to squeeze through, let alone get any merchandise through, and they blocked Lea in completely (she either had to climb over us, or the people on her left to get out) in the process.
Might I also add that both times AA approached my table to talk to me, and when the guys came to move my table, I was talking to customers and trying to answer questions, and I got interrupted each time. It was a slow con, it was not like my booth was swamped, but they had to pick the exact times that I was dealing with customers. Not like they could have waited 5 minutes for me to finish answering questions or finalize a sale.
THIEF.
Saturday afternoon, I sold something to a teenage girl whose name I later found out was Holly. While she was at my booth, Holly accidentally left a little pouch on my table. It was made out of clear plastic, so I could see what was inside of it without opening it: A toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a $20 bill. I hung on to it behind my table, hoping she'd come back when she realized the $20 was gone.
Unfortunately, she hadn't come back by the time we started breaking down for the night. I was torn as to what to do; I didn't want to hang on to it, in case Holly didn't know where she left it or wasn't going to be back on Sunday, yet I didn't really want to turn it in to anyone working the con incase they decided to pocket the money. I decided to turn it in to the con's Lost&Found and then follow up with one of the higher ups on con staff the next day to make sure the money was either still in the pouch, or had been returned to the owner.
So I make my way down to Lost&Found (which doubles as the safety/security desk so you'd think it'd be...ya know...secure.) There was a youngish looking blond haired girl sitting at the desk. I introduced myself, told her what happened, then handed her the pouch. She looked it over, said, "ooh, there's money in it," then set it behind the table. I should have demanded it back right there, or at least gotten her to write me some kind of receipt, but I was incredibly tired, starting to get sick (full-blown sick now) and was still pissed at the table moving incident from earlier in the day, so I just left. I did make a mental note of the time and what the girl looked like, at least.
Well, the next day, Holly found us and told us she'd gotten her pouch back from Lost&Found, but the money was missing. She actually talked to my husband first, who was at our table while I was talking with one of the other artists. He told her where to find me and told her that I'd "take care of it for you." Or at least I'd try.
So I took Holly down to security/Lost&Found. I was not nice. In fact, I was in full-blown SC mode by the time I got there. I interrupted the two people talking behind the desk and said, very loudly and rather abrasively,
"I have an artist booth upstairs. Yesterday, this young lady *indicates Holly* left this *indicates pouch* on my table. It had $20 in it. I turned it in last night to the person sitting at this table before I left. Now the $20 is gone, and we need that money back now."
I think they were pretty scared of me, because one of them ran away immediately and came back about 2 minutes later with the head of con security.
Long story short (too late) I identified the girl who had taken the pouch from me, told security about the "ooh there's money in it" comment, and basically left it at that. They seemed pretty convinced that she had, in fact, taken it and that they believed my and Holly's story, but they weren't going to be able to force the blond girl to give it back so all they could do would be talk to her and try to "persuade" her to give it back. They said they'd let me know how it turned out, but they never did, and I didn't see Holly again for the rest of the day.
I feel really awful about it. I shouldn't have given the security girl the pouch, or I should have taken her name and a receipt, or I should have gotten a witness, or SOMETHING. I was going to give Holly half her money back if she couldn't get it back from security, but I didn't see her again after telling security my side of the story.
Icing on the Cake
After my husband and I packed everything up at the end of the day today, we took a load of stuff down to our car. I left him to pack up the car while I went back to get the rest of our stuff that was at our table. I got into the elevator and there was a lone little kid standing there, maybe 8 years old. He got off in the parking garage, ran out to look around, then ran back into the elevator with me. I asked him if he was okay and he said he'd lost his mom and dad. He was pretty freaked out and near tears. I told him I'd help him look around for his parents, or for someone to help him find his parents. So we went into the dealer's room to look for a member of staff who could get ahold of security for me again. Fortunately, while we were walking around the dealer's room, the boy found his dad.
A little while later, while we were finishing hauling our stuff down, the boy found me and thanked me and showed me a badge his dad had gotten for him. At least that story had a happy ending.
To top it all off, we didn't even make that much money. Yes, we made back our table fee and more, but not as much as we were hoping for, for the kind of crowd we had. It was a weird and not very good weekend.
Location and Lighting
The con was at a hotel, which is pretty typical of anime conventions. The Artist Alley, which is where I was located, was in a hallway outside of a large ballroom that was acting at the Dealer's Room. The way the tables were set up was very cramped. I've dealt with this before so I didn't complain at first. The biggest problem was that they had shoved so many tables so close to each other that we had to walk around about 5 other booths to get out from behind our table. Again, I didn't complain, we were sort of in a corner so we at least had room to shove our stuff and maneuver around the other tables. The lighting was awful, too. The only lighting was the lighting that the hotel had provided, which was very ambient light. It was fine during the day, since we were in front of a window and it was sunny all weekend so we had plenty of sunlight. But once the sun started going down, it was so dark I could hardly see to work on commissions. We could have brought our own lights, but there was so little room around and behind our tables that we would have just been tripping all over them.
We need to move your table right now while you're dealing with customers
So, as I said, we were pretty crowded around our table. To my left was my good friend, Lea, whose table was butted end to end up against mine. To her left was another table but there was just enough room for her to get out that way. To my right was another table that made an "L" with mine, with no room to get between our two tables, but we could go around them and the tables next to them to get out. A little annoying but not a big deal.
Well, Saturday afternoon (the con started Friday morning, for reference) the direct of Artist Alley, (we'll call her AA), came up to my table and the following conversation took place.
AA: Why isn't there a space here? *indicates between my table and the table on my right*
Me: Um...
AA: There needs to be a space here. Did you move your table to block it?
Me: Uh, no.
AA: Wasn't there a space here yesterday when you checked in?
Me: No, there was no space here. We didn't move the tables at all.
AA: Well, there needs to be a space here. We're going to move your table.
Me: Are you kidding?
AA: There needs to be a space here for you and them *indicates people to my right* to get out here.
She then made the two tables to my left (Lea and the people on her other side) move their tables (all full of displays and merchandise, by the way) over, butting Lea's table on the left up against the people next to her and blocking HER exit. Then AA came back to my table.
AA: Okay, you need to move your table now. Do you need help?
Note that I was alone at my table at this point (my husband was looking around the con) and that I have 2 wire frame towers sitting on either end of my table, each about 4ft tall (so standing about 6-7ft tall while sitting on the table) and each loaded with tons of merchandise.
Me: *looks at my large displays and my delicate items* Yes, I'm going to need help, and if anything breaks in the process, you will be paying for it.
AA: ... I'll go find a couple of guys to help move it.
Me: You do that.
So the guys show up and we shuffle my table over to the left, opening up...a whopping 10 inches of space between my table and the one to my right. Yes, I got out my tape measure and measured it. 10 inches. It was barely enough for a person to squeeze through, let alone get any merchandise through, and they blocked Lea in completely (she either had to climb over us, or the people on her left to get out) in the process.
Might I also add that both times AA approached my table to talk to me, and when the guys came to move my table, I was talking to customers and trying to answer questions, and I got interrupted each time. It was a slow con, it was not like my booth was swamped, but they had to pick the exact times that I was dealing with customers. Not like they could have waited 5 minutes for me to finish answering questions or finalize a sale.
THIEF.
Saturday afternoon, I sold something to a teenage girl whose name I later found out was Holly. While she was at my booth, Holly accidentally left a little pouch on my table. It was made out of clear plastic, so I could see what was inside of it without opening it: A toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a $20 bill. I hung on to it behind my table, hoping she'd come back when she realized the $20 was gone.
Unfortunately, she hadn't come back by the time we started breaking down for the night. I was torn as to what to do; I didn't want to hang on to it, in case Holly didn't know where she left it or wasn't going to be back on Sunday, yet I didn't really want to turn it in to anyone working the con incase they decided to pocket the money. I decided to turn it in to the con's Lost&Found and then follow up with one of the higher ups on con staff the next day to make sure the money was either still in the pouch, or had been returned to the owner.
So I make my way down to Lost&Found (which doubles as the safety/security desk so you'd think it'd be...ya know...secure.) There was a youngish looking blond haired girl sitting at the desk. I introduced myself, told her what happened, then handed her the pouch. She looked it over, said, "ooh, there's money in it," then set it behind the table. I should have demanded it back right there, or at least gotten her to write me some kind of receipt, but I was incredibly tired, starting to get sick (full-blown sick now) and was still pissed at the table moving incident from earlier in the day, so I just left. I did make a mental note of the time and what the girl looked like, at least.
Well, the next day, Holly found us and told us she'd gotten her pouch back from Lost&Found, but the money was missing. She actually talked to my husband first, who was at our table while I was talking with one of the other artists. He told her where to find me and told her that I'd "take care of it for you." Or at least I'd try.
So I took Holly down to security/Lost&Found. I was not nice. In fact, I was in full-blown SC mode by the time I got there. I interrupted the two people talking behind the desk and said, very loudly and rather abrasively,
"I have an artist booth upstairs. Yesterday, this young lady *indicates Holly* left this *indicates pouch* on my table. It had $20 in it. I turned it in last night to the person sitting at this table before I left. Now the $20 is gone, and we need that money back now."
I think they were pretty scared of me, because one of them ran away immediately and came back about 2 minutes later with the head of con security.
Long story short (too late) I identified the girl who had taken the pouch from me, told security about the "ooh there's money in it" comment, and basically left it at that. They seemed pretty convinced that she had, in fact, taken it and that they believed my and Holly's story, but they weren't going to be able to force the blond girl to give it back so all they could do would be talk to her and try to "persuade" her to give it back. They said they'd let me know how it turned out, but they never did, and I didn't see Holly again for the rest of the day.
I feel really awful about it. I shouldn't have given the security girl the pouch, or I should have taken her name and a receipt, or I should have gotten a witness, or SOMETHING. I was going to give Holly half her money back if she couldn't get it back from security, but I didn't see her again after telling security my side of the story.
Icing on the Cake
After my husband and I packed everything up at the end of the day today, we took a load of stuff down to our car. I left him to pack up the car while I went back to get the rest of our stuff that was at our table. I got into the elevator and there was a lone little kid standing there, maybe 8 years old. He got off in the parking garage, ran out to look around, then ran back into the elevator with me. I asked him if he was okay and he said he'd lost his mom and dad. He was pretty freaked out and near tears. I told him I'd help him look around for his parents, or for someone to help him find his parents. So we went into the dealer's room to look for a member of staff who could get ahold of security for me again. Fortunately, while we were walking around the dealer's room, the boy found his dad.
A little while later, while we were finishing hauling our stuff down, the boy found me and thanked me and showed me a badge his dad had gotten for him. At least that story had a happy ending.
To top it all off, we didn't even make that much money. Yes, we made back our table fee and more, but not as much as we were hoping for, for the kind of crowd we had. It was a weird and not very good weekend.
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