[cactusmomma]

Alright, guys. Remember these boxes? Gives great views for photos of large groups..awesome for resting your feet..right?

They are live voltage power boxes for the convention center.

I don't care if you think you're being as careful as you think you can be. All it takes is one Chicago-riffic weathery day or a static discharge from your camera/medical equipment and you might be on an ambulance ride for your life, literally.

I cannot stress this enough. Stay. Off. Them.

[Prayer Police]

Kinda late with the warning.

Also, question: Are cosplay shoots permitted in the parking garage (in or around) just to the left of the restaurant? (right across from Hyatt's own parking garage)
I don't think that lot is in service (at least to the public) because I don't see any many cars there or any in&out traffic.
https://maps.google....227.26,,0,-6.17

This post has been edited by Prayer Police: Yesterday, 01:43 PM

[JujuFox]

Question, if these pose such a serious threat then should we not do photo shoots in those loading dock areas anymore? Or maybe station IRT out there to keep people safe? Not everyone who attends reads the forums, so I'm sure many people don't realize how dangerous the loading dock areas are. :/

[cactusmomma]

Prayer Police, on 23 May 2013 - 01:36 PM, said:

Kinda late with the warning.

Also, question: Are cosplay shoots permitted in the parking garage (in or around) just to the left of the restaurant? (right across from Hyatt's own parking garage)
I don't think that lot is in service (at least to the public) because I don't see any many cars there or any in&out traffic.
https://maps.google....227.26,,0,-6.17

Yeah, as long as people aren't messing with anyone's cars or property. That's fine. It is in service, but it's generally filled by the time Thursday rolls in. Try to stick to the first level where the yellow police barriers are and open areas are the most.

We were having to pull people off of the boxes all weekend. (I hated getting looked at like I had three head, seriously..) Also remember that our cosplay staff had 3 people the whole weekend. We had hoped people would have a bit more common sense with all of the tags that stated that they were live power boxes on the actual boxes. Guess not, hm?

As for not doing the shoots there, as long as people stick to the actual docks, it's not a problem. The big issue was that people were mistaking dock A for the space between the Expoteria and the power boxes, when it should have been in front of the actual big loading door. As long as people stay out of that area and off the power boxes, they'll be fine. I've been trying for the last 4 years to garner more and more staff and/or volunteers to man the area so we can ensure safety of everyone, but it is still a slowly growing process. Until then, I'm still having to rely heavily on the groups and group leaders themselves to police their own people to keep folks in line and off those areas. Unfortunately, and say.. in the case of the Dirk cosplayer from Saturday's Homestuck meet (singling you out for this example), people have been making excuses to justify using them as props over using common sense. It's dangerous and I am currently playing email pong with my department head to see what can be done for next year.

[kahad]

cactusmomma, on 23 May 2013 - 02:26 PM, said:

We had hoped people would have a bit more common sense with all of the tags that stated that they were live power boxes on the actual boxes. Guess not, hm?

Common sense seems to be so rare that those who can properly use it deserve a superhero outfit and a secret identity.

Who was that masked man?

It was *in loud superhero voice* COMMONNNNNNN SENSEEEEEEEEEEEE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post has been edited by kahad: Yesterday, 03:36 PM

[rondo]

Sounds like you may need to dedicate a couple of IRT members to cover this area specifically and break up any gatherings.

Having the notice here is good but unfortunately will not reach the larger amount of people who rarely come here.

This post has been edited by rondo: Yesterday, 09:49 PM