Convention Etiquette: Discussion and Advice on Do's and Don'ts

[Arctic Goddess]

I've just been reading through this thread and I wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the great input. Guess I have some familiarity with fan-type-things from working on the road selling merch for a band for a coupla years, but Chicago this August will be my first con EVER (eee!) and it's been great to get some idea of how all this works.
Still overwhelmed by it all but maybe a little less so, thanks to y'all.

Thank you!
-soul

ps. Guess since I'm a newbie here I should also say "hello!!"

Welcome to this crazy place, Soulshine. I recommend you attach yourself to the convention thread that you are attending and get to know some of the other attendees. You will then semi-know people when you get to the con. You will have a much better time since you will have people to hang with.

[Arctic Goddess]

I know the answer to that one!!!
Most of them don't mind people stopping for a sec or two at a small distance (the escorts will let you know 'no closer') to say 'hi' but then you should move along to another area. Sometimes (as with Jason) he is absorbed in who he is talking with, and dont really pay attention to say 'hi' to others. Adding chairs is right out as it can make them feel as tho they are being surrounded and trapped.

Jason sat where he wanted, the others followed, and thats that. Security stays with Jason (and a few of the others) always, otherwise the boy gets overwhelmed.
Security was not assigned by the event for that one, Jason told Mama "c'mon Mama we are going to the bar" then asked her what she was drinking, when she gave him a look, he said "Oh... yeah, thats right, YOU are still working" (course a bit later he talked her into doing a car bomb, but as one car bomb isn't likely to even make mama remotely buzzed no harm no foul) Jason was about making Jason happy at that time, and make no mistake Security would rather have had him NOT at the bar.

Colin never needs an escort when going to the hotel bar and such, sometimes (poor Anika) he needs help getting poured into a cab to go back to his hotel... or a steadying hand to get back to his room.

Sometimes you can look at the talent and say:
"you are SOOOOOO not going to the bar in this hotel" and they listen
Occasionally the Talent look at the Security Escort and say:
"Im going to the bar, and you are going with me"

and on occasion, when a well known Escort is at a convention and not working the event AT ALL they get grabbed by the talent to escort, or phone calls because they are needed for something

LOL! I love your information Sa!! Tell the Mama that I really respect her for being willing and available to work 24/7 at the cons so we can see our favorite actors when they are not officially working. Mama Duck is truly one in a million!!!

[soulshine]

Welcome to this crazy place, Soulshine. I recommend you attach yourself to the convention thread that you are attending and get to know some of the other attendees. You will then semi-know people when you get to the con. You will have a much better time since you will have people to hang with.

Thanks Arctic Goddess, happy to be here! And thanks for the great advice as well.

[Gate Geek]

LOL! I love your information Sa!! Tell the Mama that I really respect her for being willing and available to work 24/7 at the cons so we can see our favorite actors when they are not officially working. Mama Duck is truly one in a million!!!

I second that!! Mama is truly an amazing person!! In fact, I think I look forward to going to the cons just to say Hi to Mama (even if she doesn't know who the hell I am) more than some of the actors! I know I was on cloud nine when I finally got a pix of the two of us at the NJ Con last November! Although, I think I was more surprised there was two seconds in the day to actually get the pix!
.

[lindagagne]

I started reading the advice from the first page then skip a few. I haven't had a chance to get to any con's yet as I am a new comer to the whole Stargate experience, but am loving it. Some day I will make it to one and all the info is helpful. I don't think anyone would want me to throw my baby at them since she is 22 years old and she wouldn't appreciate it either lol. Looking forward to the experience you all have had. Thanks for the advice.

[lindagagne]

Alright, just to clarify, so I don't get in trouble by her, my baby is 21 years old lol.

[Arctic Goddess]

If she is a very pretty 21 year old, which I am sure she is, I know several of the male actors who would not mind at all if you tossed her at them.

[staley7580]

If she is a very pretty 21 year old, which I am sure she is, I know several of the male actors who would not mind at all if you tossed her at them.

That is too funny!

[Verona]

This actually raises a good point.

The gap between the higher end camera phones and the lower end digital cameras is getting smaller and smaller all the time.

In fact, there's times I get better results with my camera phone than I do with my proper digital camera.

Then of course there's the fact that most camera phones are also video capable.

How are cons legislating for this, if at all?

One result of this is as Chris Judge recently said (sure it was him if not I apologise),
That a growing number of the con guests are hyper aware that everything they say is likely to turn up on youtube resulting in them not being as open and sharing as in the past . (that is not a quote by the way) which is understandable but sad.

[Arctic Goddess]

One result of this is as Chris Judge recently said (sure it was him if not I apologise),
That a growing number of the con guests are hyper aware that everything they say is likely to turn up on youtube resulting in them not being as open and sharing as in the past . (that is not a quote by the way) which is understandable but sad.

I think the best way to deal with this is to have a policy that cell phones remain in the hotel rooms. If a fan is caught using it, they would be escorted out of the auditorium.

[Skydiver]

most cons will have a 'no videoing' rule in effect in the auditorium. I know at AT3, some fans broke the rules and took video...they then - oh so wisely - let everyone on the net know what they'd done by posting links on forums.

needless to say, those videos were soon taken down and this year, there was a very strict ' no phones at all' rules, along with no video.

phones in auditoriums also create an interferance issue - especially blackberries and gps enabled phones. the gps and blackberries will interfere with the audio systems.

worst case scenario, those that break the rules and bring such tech into auditoriums, record stuff then post it, risk, at the least, having to take it down, at the worst, getting sued or black listed and could find themselves no longer welcome at conventions because of thier breaking of the rules

[BruTak]

I think the best way to deal with this is to have a policy that cell phones remain in the hotel rooms. If a fan is caught using it, they would be escorted out of the auditorium.

The problems with that is - what if the con organisers had to get hold of a First Aider in a hurry?

Ok, chances are that they would have walkie talkies, but some older hotels have radio blind spots.

[Arctic Goddess]

The problems with that is - what if the con organisers had to get hold of a First Aider in a hurry?

Ok, chances are that they would have walkie talkies, but some older hotels have radio blind spots.

The Con organizers do not have to follow the rules that the fans do. I'm sure there are lots of ways for the organizers and helpers to communicate with each other and still maintain the "no cellphone" rule.

[Kett1701]

The Con organizers do not have to follow the rules that the fans do. I'm sure there are lots of ways for the organizers and helpers to communicate with each other and still maintain the "no cellphone" rule.

It's really more of a manpower thing. How much manpower do you have to devote to policing the fans in the main room and still be able to cover all of the other areas of the convention that need help.
Now, at something like Creation - that's easy. The main room is the only place that has anything happening in it. So they have someone that watches the fans intently to see who's just snapping photos and who's really getting 60 secs worth of video.
Frankly, I was uncomfortable and I didn't even HAVE a camera. She was standing up and looking at the people and then was the only one moving around the room when she saw someone that might be taping. It was a distraction because some people stopped watching the actor on the stage to watch what this woman was doing.

In this day and age it's practically impossible to tell the difference between cameras and recorders and most cameras have the capability to record built in these days. We don't want to take away the tradition of taking photos at conventions - that's a very important thing to many of the fans. I would be firmly against removing cell phones/cameras from fans just because of the few that insist upon posting their video.
Another reason that I would hesitate to remove those items is that once you've taken it away from someone it's your responsibilty. What if you took their camera away and when you returned it they claimed that you broke it?

As for asking them to leave - well that's a nightmare scenario. Every fan knows ten more and they will tell their version of why they were "thown out". Meanwhile there were probably five other people in the room doing the same thing but they just didn't get caught. That whole thing is an ugly scene I'd rather avoid.

What we do at our convention is just to remind the fans that videotaping is not allowed and go on the honor system. Most fans obey the rules and there haven't been so many breaking them as to really cause us any problems.
We do tape the guests ourselves, but that's just for our own internal record of our event. We never sell those tapes to anyone or post them online.

Of course Creation does tape but they ARE doing it for sale. They make contractual arrangements with the actors that appear on the tapes that are being sold. I'd guess that it's also why they're super-vigilant to keep anyone else from taping.

Kett

[BlueJello]

I think the best way to deal with this is to have a policy that cell phones remain in the hotel rooms. If a fan is caught using it, they would be escorted out of the auditorium.

Banning cell phones outright is the wrong solution. This is just a convention -- not a school setting where it would interfere with learning and teaching or a courtroom in which it would interefere with the administration of justice.

Disallowing them would certainly hinder serious emergencies. What if family members need to reach relatives immediately?

It is the main responsibility of the organizers to maintain reasonable watchfulness assisted by the responsibility of fellow fans to report violators. Or better yet, it doesn't take much to just nudge your neighbor before an organizer catches them and kindly remind them that recording of any kind is prohibited.