How to make a better Celebration (as a fan)

Three folks in our group got sick also. It's cool tho, we're better. I love Vitamin C

Ok, officail addons
Rule 11. Check Illness at the door. Spare fellow fans the horrors of Krytos, and they will (hopefully), do likewise.
Rule 12. Bring your own food/drink stash. No point paying $2.50 for a soda when you can buy cases of them at the local Target for much cheaper overall, and it's circulates your cash to the local economy better. Besides, money saved that you can more adequately spend at the Celebration itself (if they actually had stuff for you to buy that is).

Another suggestion: costume contestants should design their costumes for comfort as well as for looks. Shoes especially.

I hadn't considered that one, but a valid point never the less. I've gotta say, alot of the costumes I saw during the weekend were outstanding. Probably wouldn't hurt to get some Dr. Sholes pads or something, or just a nice comfy pair of boots, depending on the costumes. After all, there's alot of standing and walking to be done!

The illness came from the mini-marathoners that kept traipsing thru the place. Bunch of anorexic freaks..

I am a local Indy person, and I was just as screwed by the closed off downtown area. I had to park where I work, a 20 minute hike across downtown. Sure, it was nice weather and all, but it did kinda suck.

SIGNS! Big, informative, directional signs on the walls. Call me nutty, but it is a heck of a lot easier to get around with good signage.

MAPS! Actual large, easy to read EVENT SPECIFIC maps of the convention center.

SCHEDULE!! A schedule that is easy to read, folks.. Not something that requires advanced stereo-instruction training to decipher.

COMMUNICATION! WotC folks, ya gotta tell your little people what is going on, also! There was no chain of communication to be had. And, there was no information session prior to the event to give volunteers a handle on what was going on. Hats off to all the yellow shirts who busted their humps trying to please surly crowds.

I heartily agree with getting food outside of the convention vendor space. The mall has a great food court, and there is virtually everything one could want within a 10 minute walk from the Convention Center, from White Castle to Ruth's Chris. Sushi, Greek, Indian, brewpubs, oh, and lest I forget, Hooter's!!
You think soda prices were bad in the convention center? You should've been buying $4.50 domestic beers at the Hyatt bar.. lessee.... that makes a case cost something like, um.. $108.00!!!!!!!!! (local beer prices are +/- $13 a case, cold.)

Anyway, I'm glad that you all could come to my town, and have at least a little bit of a good time. For me, the best part of the convention was all the Star Wars fans together. Such a rare occurance. And, oh my god, so MANY beautiful women! This sure beat ANY other convention I've been to in the last 15 years!

R2-B9

Tremaniac, that was about the best, most reasonable advice I've seen on numerous boards. I wish I'd had that before May 2. I'll definitely be taking that advice for Celeb III, along with my own observations. Thank you!

Thanks. As a survivor of the fiasco that was Celebration 1, I realized that as a fan, I had to take certain measures into my own hands. My group had plenty of time to start planning (our first Invasion Indiana emails were started in January, but we had minor things planned way before then), and we had a game plan. As a result, we all had a blast. Hopefully for next time, more fans will get involved with thier own preplanning and get as much out of C3 as they possibly can. After all, we are the greatest fans in the universe, might as well show people why. I'm glad you enjoyed, hopefully I can revive this thread (if it's still around) sometime in early 2005.

I just ran across this thread this morning, and I must say that after reading through it all, I'm again reminded of just how cool a Sith Lord Tremaniac is.

Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen.

The fact that the attendance count at Celebration II keeps changing when mentioned from different sources -- THIS points to the foundational problem:

Wizards of the Coast and Lucasfilm DROPPED THE BALL with poor planning, poor training of staff, poor crowd control, poor use of space, and the GREEDY, UNSCRUPULOUS over-selling of event tickets.

WotC and LflmLtd. dropped the ball ON THE FANS.

I find it an insult that the Official SW Site and Wizards of the Coast CII site call the event a "success." I liked seeing the little I was able to see, and it was great to have lots of Star Wars "stuff" under one roof -- but I expected to receive that based on the high price, effort to drive there and money spent for lodging.

I DID NOT expect crowds way beyond fire-code limits, ticketed events limiting what I could see, confusing and hidden signage, an empty Fan Club lounge, scalper opportunities with exclusive figures (no organized way of selling them), and I could go on and on.

THEY FAILED. The Fans saved the day by tolerating this convention planning abuse and negligence. The fans saved CII, just like Luke saved Yavin IV from being destroyed by the Death Star.


I'd like to see Wizards of the Coast and Lucasfilm admit their failure and issue an apology -- and do something nice for the fans that doesn't steal more money from our empty pocketbooks after the "mass mugging" at Celebration II.

Thank you, El Moffo Grande for the posative words. Of course, you were part of said greatest group of SW fans ever.
Ep3Jedi, while I won't deny your gripe (I don't agree personally, but you do have certain points), you are missing the whole point of this thread. I know WotC wasn't perfect. I know things were flawed. But seriously man, you didn't think this was better than the original Celebration?
I digress, that isn't even the original point of this thread. The point was, what can we do, not WotC, not Lucasfilm, not even Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. We as fans, to make things more bearable for ourselves. After Celebration 1, the smart alec in me said "stay home". No doubt some people are thinking that now after C2. But I'm glad I didn't stay home. I'm just hoping any words of wisdom I share can help someone else have a worthwhile time next time out. Because in the end, do you really want to trust someone else with your fun? I sure don't.