[zgumby85]

Well i am one of those ones who was pretty ticked that they had to wait in line for several (8) hourse to get their badge even after pre-reg. My suggestion would simply be this... Besides mailing off the badges, why dont you have an option that can let you print out your badge after you purchase it online (much like ticket master).. that way all you have to do is let people in at the con after they show your badge.. if for some reason your worried about copied badges maybe get a scanner ( i work at best buy and i know those scanners can be a little expensive (100-200 dollars each) but a couple of them would help greatly) and scan a barcode that prints off of them. Overall, i had a great time even though i was only able to go for 1 day, and am just providing suggestions that will hopefully improve the con.. Any opinions?

[Unka Josh]

The scanner idea would be pretty cool, but we'd need more than a couple of them-- I'd either need five or six for my department alone, or else I'd have to lock some doors shut and restrict entry into the video room area to people going through a single door. It would slow down entry into pretty much everywhere, too-- my team can glance at you and spot your badge, and know by the color whether or not it's current, but a scanner requires closer work and takes more time.

If we can find a way to do it, though, that would be pretty cool.

[toyletduck]

Unka Josh, on May 19 2008, 01:31 PM, said:

The scanner idea would be pretty cool, but we'd need more than a couple of them-- I'd either need five or six for my department alone, or else I'd have to lock some doors shut and restrict entry into the video room area to people going through a single door. It would slow down entry into pretty much everywhere, too-- my team can glance at you and spot your badge, and know by the color whether or not it's current, but a scanner requires closer work and takes more time.

If we can find a way to do it, though, that would be pretty cool.

Print the badges at home, than have a line like pre-reg where you go up tell them your name-are you paid? yes? go on in. takes 5 seconds if you make a computer database.

[Unka Josh]

I'm not sure that I understand your idea, here-- how would that let us detect a duplicate badge?

Or were you suggesting that we have a computer database at the video rooms, panel rooms, etc? That might be cool, but it would be even slower than the barcode scanners. As it was, my team was fast and often discrete about checking badges-- at most, we had to tell people to flip their badges so that we could see the back. At other times, that wasn't even necessary, since they could see the badge clearly.

[RaDragon76]

I have different suggestion along these lines. How about you print out all the pre reg badges before hand and then have a set of boxes at each reg station lettered from A-D according to the first letter of the attendees' last names and so forth, have attendees go to the appropriate line once inside the actual reg area, the reg staffer asks to see ID to confirm identity and then hands the attendee their badge. Akon does it this way and it works fine, plus then the staff and attendees don't have to worry about computer snafus. For the at con regs you could have a bunch of blank badges and have the at con attendee go through the same process only they have to put their own name on the badge after paying.

[Opalwench]

RaDragon76, on May 19 2008, 05:01 PM, said:

I have different suggestion along these lines. How about you print out all the pre reg badges before hand and then have a set of boxes at each reg station lettered from A-D according to the first letter of the attendees' last names and so forth, have attendees go to the appropriate line once inside the actual reg area, the reg staffer asks to see ID to confirm identity and then hands the attendee their badge.

Actually this was done for most people who had pre-reg'ed and pre-paid.

[chibitwolf]

RaDragon76, on May 19 2008, 03:01 PM, said:

I have different suggestion along these lines. How about you print out all the pre reg badges before hand and then have a set of boxes at each reg station lettered from A-D according to the first letter of the attendees' last names and so forth, have attendees go to the appropriate line once inside the actual reg area, the reg staffer asks to see ID to confirm identity and then hands the attendee their badge. Akon does it this way and it works fine, plus then the staff and attendees don't have to worry about computer snafus. For the at con regs you could have a bunch of blank badges and have the at con attendee go through the same process only they have to put their own name on the badge after paying.

Maybe not just a line for each letter of the alphabet sorted by last name, but also you could have a line for groups where the badges are grouped in a way and one person can get the pack of badges, take it to their group, and then pass the appropriate badge to the correct person. This would prevent groups from being separated just because they have different last names. (Ex. I'm going with two people who have a last name starting with 'S' and mine starts with 'B'. The S and B lines would be pretty far apart that way.

[Kitana_Matsuri]

It's one thing to provide ideas for personal convenience, but we also have to think of the staffers. Not to mention, if someone doesn't show up in time for the 'group pick up' and said friend loses that person's badge before they show up, who's fault will it be? The staffer's for handing that badge to you, or you for losing it? Not everyone is going to say "Oh, so-and-so isn't here, so can you keep that for now?"

That's liability both ways with no solving factor.

[zgumby85]

Well if you couldnt afford scanners.. you could have a couple of people sit in front of computers. What I mean by that is have the ability to pre-print the badge with a id number on it and type it into a database and either print another "official" badge for them, stamp "paid" or something on it, or let them go through. Of course computers cost money too but just a fund suggestion