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ConFuzzled Forums => Feedback => Topic started by: Cheetah on May 28, 2014, 18:03:19

Title: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Cheetah on May 28, 2014, 18:03:19
Hi!

You all know, I really love Confuzzled, and I really prefer to give positive feedback than negative. But this time, there was one thing that really ruined the experience for me at more than one occasion. I attended four "main stage" class events: The opening ceremonies, the pawpetshow, the dance contest and the closing ceremonies. And in three of those four events, there were no chairs for the audience, and I ended up sitting on the floor.

Now, you can make all the jokes about me being old and fat, but sitting on a cold concrete floor for an hour or longer is not just uncomfortable, but literally a pain in the ass. And my back. And my legs. I nearly walked out of the dance compo after the third act or so, because I just couldn't find a position that either didn't hurt after a minute, or made my legs go numb. Opening and Closing weren't much better.

Now, I've dealt with a couple of hotels myself, and usually, they'll be happy to set up any seating arrangement for any type of occasion, and they're usually also very quick - and unless you need to rearrange every room 10 times a day, they'll usually not even charge anything extra for it. So I really don't see why there wasn't any proper seating for so many seated events.

Really, guys, the fandom does not exclusively consist of 19 year old twinks practiced in the art of sucking their own ... toes ... and sitting cross-legged for hours :) I'm a 40 year old office nerd, and having a chair makes a big difference for me :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Rwylin on May 28, 2014, 18:32:57
The floor in the opening and closing ceremony's were not hard concrete... they were all carpeted as was the floor in the room used for the dance competition.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: yagfox on May 28, 2014, 18:46:33
Did you not do the EF bum hardening program? 3 hour puppet show sat on a hard wooden bench really toughens the buns! :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Rallicat on May 28, 2014, 18:47:32
I think the general idea for the opening and closing ceremonies was to allow a fast 'get in, get out' period at the beginning and end, but we'll certainly take on board the feedback.  We can either consider moving to deploying chairs, or alternatively consider having some of the room open space at the front, and a section of seating at the back.

Thank you for the feedback - I'll bring it to someone's attention and ensure it's taken into consideration (or, as many heads of department will review the feedback over the next few days, they may comment directly).

--
Rallicat
Communications.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Davuu on May 28, 2014, 19:10:17
 there was some chairs along the back wall for the dance competition that werent full and had a good view of what was going on.  I didnt mind sitting on the floor.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: torikabuto on May 29, 2014, 02:55:18
This is good feedback don't hold back on things that didn't work well. you can't fix something if no one points it out, no matter how bad or trivial you think the point is. It still needs to be said to be heard.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: aurora on May 29, 2014, 10:52:26
I attended the opening and closing ceremonies in my fursuit, my feet got a little numb from standing in the same spot but otherwise OK.

Maybe you could bring one of those fold-up deck chairs next year and take it with you to the events.


Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: lamar on May 29, 2014, 16:32:24
This is also of note for disabled attendees who walk with a cane and have problems getting back up from the floor. Luckily, I managed to get a chair for myself by asking before the event, but I'm pretty sure no one else got one.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Raven Luni on May 29, 2014, 16:43:47
I felt really awkward after saying I couldnt help move chairs because of my arthritis - sounds like a classic bad excuse lol  (100% truth though - my knees are wrecked and I refused to go easy on them during the con - totally worth the pain though)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: lamar on May 29, 2014, 17:14:39
I felt really awkward after saying I couldnt help move chairs because of my arthritis - sounds like a classic bad excuse lol  (100% truth though - my knees are wrecked and I refused to go easy on them during the con - totally worth the pain though)

Likewise, I can't really do a lot of moving of tables or chairs. But I did marshal people around to do the moving of chairs a couple of times. (For example the MtG Draft) I do think it's really is okay to ask for volunteers to do things you can't do yourself but you notice need to be done. Altho it got a bit confusing as to if we were or were not allowed to move tables in some rooms.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Cheetah on May 29, 2014, 23:19:55
Did you not do the EF bum hardening program? 3 hour puppet show sat on a hard wooden bench really toughens the buns! :)

If you'd prefer that, I'll be more than happy to ask security to remove a chair and reserve you a space on the floor at any stage event of your choice at EF :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Dhary Montecore on May 29, 2014, 23:27:13
Did you not do the EF bum hardening program? 3 hour puppet show sat on a hard wooden bench really toughens the buns! :)

The last time we had that was EF 13 if I remember correctly...
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Cheetah on May 29, 2014, 23:30:14
Maybe you could bring one of those fold-up deck chairs next year and take it with you to the events.

Of course I could. But that would be like, bringing my own table to a restaurant, just in case they don't have any. Are seats really such an unreasonable thing to expect at main stage events in your opinion?
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Cheetah on May 29, 2014, 23:33:20
The floor in the opening and closing ceremony's were not hard concrete... they were all carpeted as was the floor in the room used for the dance competition.

Yeah, I also have carpet on my floor in my flat at home, but I still haven't had that urge to throw out all of my chairs because of that :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: yagfox on May 30, 2014, 00:09:08
Did you not do the EF bum hardening program? 3 hour puppet show sat on a hard wooden bench really toughens the buns! :)

The last time we had that was EF 13 if I remember correctly...

And I congratulate you on 6 chair filled years! :) Though by that reckoning Confuzzled should be numbing bums for another 6 years yet! :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: yagfox on May 30, 2014, 00:10:25
Did you not do the EF bum hardening program? 3 hour puppet show sat on a hard wooden bench really toughens the buns! :)

If you'd prefer that, I'll be more than happy to ask security to remove a chair and reserve you a space on the floor at any stage event of your choice at EF :)

A reserved space at a Eurofurence event? Now I know I've hit the big time! :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Dhary Montecore on May 30, 2014, 00:21:01
Did you not do the EF bum hardening program? 3 hour puppet show sat on a hard wooden bench really toughens the buns! :)

The last time we had that was EF 13 if I remember correctly...

And I congratulate you on 6 chair filled years! :) Though by that reckoning Confuzzled should be numbing bums for another 6 years yet! :)

As forum moderator I gotta ask you to stay on topic and refrain from provocations like this. Please keep the discussion fair and objective.
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: yagfox on May 30, 2014, 00:25:22
As forum moderator I gotta ask you to stay on topic and refrain from provocations like this. Please keep the discussion fair and objective.

Fair enough.

I suspect the answer to the original question is simply logistics, and it will be easily fixed for next year! :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Swolf on May 30, 2014, 00:27:59
Indeed me and Cheetah talked briefly after the dance comp. on the day
Will be working on the logistics of improving the audience comfort as at the end of the day an event is only an event when people show up to either participate or spectate
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: RizzoRattie on May 30, 2014, 10:26:52
Hi Cheetah,

Thank you for the feedback, and of course apologies that it is something that has given you a little bit of a negative impression of the overall fantastic weekend experience.

As Ralli has already mentioned on one occasion, the main reason for there being no chairs in the opening or closing ceremony were to accommodate quick 'get in' and 'get out' turn abounds.  This year we were up against some logistical challenges in regards to vacating the room in time.  In the instance of getting out of the Monarch in time after the closing ceremony, and as was briefly mentioned by Matt during the event, we would face very heavy fines if we were late given that there was an inbound event the next day.  As this was our first year at the Hilton, and using a contractor to assist with build and deconstruction, we brought the closing ceremony forward as a trial.  Now that we know it went very well, and was very quick, next year we can reconsider the time of the event, as well as the set up.

With regards to the opening ceremony, the decision to not have seating was based on a very quick turnaround from Theatre to Cabaret for the pub quiz.  However again, now that we know how quickly we can turn a room around with all hands on deck, its once again something we can re-consider for the following year. 

As for the pawpet show, unfortunately I didn’t personally see this event, so am unsure how subscribed it was, but if you ended up sitting on the floor, it does sound like we need to look at addressing this issue for the following year.  Many thanks for feeding it back.

Thank you again, and sorry once more for the fact you ended up on the floor.  With bad knees and a back, I know exactly what you mean about being an old, fragile furry :D
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Cheetah on May 30, 2014, 13:11:22
As for the pawpet show, unfortunately I didn’t personally see this event, so am unsure how subscribed it was, but if you ended up sitting on the floor, it does sound like we need to look at addressing this issue for the following year.

No, the pawpetshow was the one event I attended that did have proper seating, and I enjoyed it very much :)

(The amount of nonsense answers kinda blew this a bit out of proportion -  I figured the reason behind the seating problem is logistical, just wanted to point out it can make a bigger difference for some audience members than might be obvious. That's all.)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Axle on May 30, 2014, 17:02:55
As it's not been mentioned yet, the limited chair availability in the nightclub for the dance competition was a capacity issue. It was either a choice of turning people away and having chairs, or working with the space we had, to try and get as many people as possible that wanted to see the competition in to the nightclub.
It was noted at the time and will undoubtedly be looked in to at how it can be improved it for next year.

Edit: And I was beaten to the answers as I was typing, hey-ho :)
Title: Re: What is it with the lack of chairs?
Post by: Bob Drake on May 31, 2014, 09:38:00
The funny thing is that when I went to the music jam and was looking for an improvised "drumkit", I opened a door and it was a storage room stacked with chairs! I have to agree with Cheetah, though I'm not in bad shape for someone of age 56, it was uncomfortable sitting on the floor at some events, given that we were all scrunched together so couldn't stretch my long legs out.

PS: I did find a great drumkit - a big rubbish bin :)