Put your Celebration II stories here!!! Mine's a dooooozy!

Yep, just got back from Day 3 and boy..are my arms heavy...from carrying bags. I had so much fun and have tons of pictures to share with everyone here. They are in the editing process now.

I won't bore you with all the details just yet, but get this....I only got one autograph at Celebration II, but it was the biggest one in my opinion...RICK MCCALLUM....

Before the long ass line in Indy on Friday he was out signing autographs before he went in. I was at the right place at the right time...got the autograph and 3 pictures with me next to him!

That was all before 10...if I died right then and there the whole thing would have been worth it. Little did I know it got better.

There were lots of venders selling star wars figures and I picked up a Shadows of the Empire Vader variation on a green card...for 5 bucks! Yep, the guy selling had NO IDEA what it was.

Since Charles (the president of toygrader.com/AFA) was onhand near the Toy Museum in the next big area I showed it to him to make sure it was the right figure....it was....Rick McCallum and a 300 dollar figure...total cost...5 bucks for both and this was all before lunch....color me F***ING stunned.

After picking up the Jorg figs my brain was fried. I was still in shock the whole day...then of course the "Yoda" and exclusive Episode II footage shown through a digital projector - I was in supreme heaven.

Day 2 and Today were good, but couldn't hold a candle to Day 1, though the whole experience was great. Met star wars fans from everywhere, got lots of pictures to share, and frankly..well....I just can't wait for the movie.

This evening we saw Spider-Man. It was decent, but won't be any kind of competition for Episode II.

So much to say in so little time. Just wanted to pass on the news and let you know lots of pics are coming!

I was extremely fortunate & privilaged enough to be able to sit with William Hootkins during part of the autograph sessions on Day 1 & 2. It was the best experience of my life. listening to him respond to all the fans (& other stars! lol) was just incredible! C2 was an amazing experience!

New guy here from the rpg group.

On friday, i got up at 5:40, went to my dads office for a while, and got there about 8. It was warm for a while, then we moved into the non sunny spot cause fan club people went the the other line, and it was freezing for and hour and a half. Anyways, i got in and got my pass a will call and started lookin around the exhibit hall. I found out there was an exclusive figure (yea,yea, so i didnt know about it) go look at the line, and decide not to get one. It was CRAZY long. I went back to the exhibit hall and saw a mountain dew young obi stand up for 10 bucks. I stood there for 10 minutes tryin to decide whether to get it, and finally i did. Only problem was i had to lug it around all day, but its still awesome! I went to the book giveaway and stood in line for an hour or so. I had my obi wan standing up the entier time =) i got to know the person in front of me and spent the rest of the day with her. i got some japanese books which is what i realllly wanted, so i was happy =) i got some food, and accidently ticked off some people on my new frieds walkie talkie =) We went to the c2 store, but they were out of figures. we spent the rest of the day in the exhibit hall. all in all a good day. i got a bunch of free stuff too =) i didnt see my new friend the rest of the convention. oh well =/

on saturday i went with one of my local friends and her dad. same deal with gettin up, but we parked really far away and had to walk. =/ we got to see all the troopers and whatnot marching, which was totally awesome, and i took a picture of anthony daniels. (i had found a camera at home in the morning) I got in before my friend cause she had to buy her pass, so i went to the rick mcallum/model dude/cg dude thing. It was pretty cool. If anyone else went, can you explain the greeto shooting first thing they talked about right at the begging? i guess people didnt like it or something. After that i hooked up with my friend, and we went to the exihbit hall. we walked around for a while, and she got inline for an autograph. i decided not too, and went around taking pictures and buying the old star wars ccg. i got 8 epps for 16 dollars. good stuff. i opened them while my friend stood in line and got some awesome cards (2 tarkins and a vader!) once she got up there, it had been about 2 hours. we looked around the toy museum thingy and went home cause we were really tired.

all in all, a great weekend, even if i didnt go on sunday. Wow, that was pretty long. Didnt mean for it to be, hehe. Oh well, i just hope someone can explain the problem with greedo shooting first. laterz

dan0

I had a terrible time I will never again volunteer to help at a Convention again. I think it is an absolute waist if I get treated as if I'm a 3 day pass holder with a Fan Club lanyard. I guess I expected too much.

hey, camoseven, wats up? have you seen the padawan knights thread yet? the padawan knights are just all us IK teens who wanted our own little group, so we made one and now we're the paddies!

alright, ill go check it out.

The shooting thing:

In the original release of ep4 'A New Hope' in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene where Han is talking with Greedo, Han shoots first & Greedo doesn't even get off a shot. In the 'Special Edition' it was changed (& rather poorly)so that Greedo shoots first. This was supposedly changed to help preserve Han's 'good guy' image created by the rest of the movies. Personally, I liked it as it was & think they should have left it alone.

Ahhh, i see. I agree, it was quite bad. i only saw the original ones(as in, not SE) a few times (ok, so maybe 10 or 20) so i never really noticed it.

I agree with ya E_G

I'll second the motion, E_G.
In Star Wars: A New Hope, Han is confronted by someone bent on putting him in his place at point-blank range no less. It's either kill or be killed. In the Special Edition, Han was not allowed to evolve in the person he will become in the later years in his life (in ESB, RotJ, and in the novels).
In short, they should have left it alone.

I don't like to complain and I am very quiet when I attend meetings. I love Star Wars and always will. I missed the last day of Celebration II because of illness the night of the concert. I am sorry to not show up for my shift of volunteering but I was sick after all the whole night. Anyway, the first two days pretty much below average for me. I volunteered the first day and the first day Wizards placed me in an information booth. I just got there, I did not have a map. So it was like the blind leading the blind. Luckily, Alex a fellow indy knights member gave me his map. I tried the best that I could to direct people. I was yelled to many times after Alex and the so-called security officer left. Then the guy from Wizards told me to prepare tickets for dispersement so I did and someone in charge came up told me that I was doing it all wrong. Someone else told me I needed to be more multi-tasked in answering questions at the sametime. After that I tried to buy the figures and stood in line for an hour before they told me they were sold out for the day. The second day what can I say to sum it up in a nut shell: LINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I waited in line to purchase things at the store for 2-3 hours to find up when you get up there that they are sold out and would have to ship the rest. I would have to agree with skylafett that my pass got me turned away so many times that it made me feel like I was a criminal. At the fan force party, one of the stars bumped my wife while she was drinking and did not apologize. I really enjoyed the concert but my wife and I had some kid sitting directly behind us screaming to go home through most of the program. Then to top it all off I got sick when I went home and the rest of the night. So this will probably my last post as an Indy Knight. I will never volunteer for something like this ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have mixed feelings about volunteering. i never had any problems with my pass. i got into every room (including a few i probably shouldn't have been in; but am not certain about). the only bad things for me were a general feel that the wotc people were not very organized and very contradictory. i even got ushered rather rudely out of the tear down area even though i showed them my badge and the yellow shirt i was putting on over my other one. regardless, she told me to get out and that i wasn't needed. oh well, i did my 12+ hours.

volunteer again? maybe. i just want in writing what the job description/benefits are before hand.

all in all, it was vastly a better experience for me than denver was.

Hi, can a visitor from Chicago put in her
2 cents here?
I was at C2 for all 3 days. And here's
what I got: pictures 0, autographs 0,
sessions attended 0, sore feet 2. I worked
the Chicago Force table on Friday, the
Rebel Legion table on Saturday, and the Rebel Legion table on Sunday while wearing a Chicago Force t-shirt. But I had a great time. I got to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen in awhile, meet face to face with people I had met online, and talk to people from all over the world.

I'm sorry to hear that some of you who volunteered had such a rotten experience. Don't blame the Indy Knight for it tho.
I have to say (and a lot of others were saying it all weekend) that the organizers of C2 didn't plan it out very well. They obviously underestimated what the turnout would be and they didn't spend time planning on the best way to utilize (and appreciate) the people who volunteered. A good organization takes the time to train its volunteers exactly what to do & how to do it. And also does something extra and/or special for these unpaid workers. I can imagine how insulting it must have been to put in hours of hard work & be treated exactly like someone who just walks in. I ended up wondering what the advantage was in being a SW fan club member since I didn't see any difference in our line compared to the none fan club members. If they do have a C3 I hope they have learned from their mistakes on this one.

I agree with Amber, the WOTC staff really under-estimated the turnout. The lines were a joke.

I volunteered for both Wizards and the autograph area. I was able to see to sessions on Saturday and did my walking around Sunday afternoon. I took full advantage of my Associates badge, getting in a little early and getting a jump start on the lines.

I think for C3, they need to really plan for the worst. That way if the turnout is like it was this weekend, they will be ready for it.

I'm also sorry to hear about the less then happy volunteer experiences.

Volunteering is what helps people out, and I'm sure many of the fans from out of town appreciated the help. I'd think of it that way.

We met one guy from DC and another from Guatemala who were pretty impressed with Indy, and the help of all the people working around the clock.

Remember, when you volunteer, you're basically giving yourself up to help others, not get VIP treatment. I'm not saying anyone here expected it, but some people volunteer with the idea that they'll get some kind of pereferential treatment, and in most cases that's just not how it goes.

By mid-day Saturday the convention center was running at full capacity, at least that's what someone told McCallum during the show. As good as the convention center was...well, this is Star Wars folks...there were tens of thousands there so the lines, the wait, and the congestion should have been expected.

Believe me, there is NO convention center in the US that could have enough room for a Star Wars event like Celebration II. For what it's worth I think Indianapolis did a top notch job, and was better then the first.

I applaud the IndyKnights and the sacrifices many made during the day while others roamed the floor.

And don't worry, there's always Celebration III!

I wore a costume and some people took some pictures of me in it.

Now to rant on Wizards of the Coast...
I have never seen a more uncommunicating group in my life. I've been working conventions of various kinds since the late 1980s, and these people are fortunate to not have had a full scale riot on their hands. Their multi-tiered levels of authority were a joke, as none knew what was going on with the other. They treated the fan club people (in the autograph area) poorly, and I believe that this is from having no concept of how many were going to line up for autographs. I had one "fan", however, prove himself a total jerkoff, as he kept demanding to get around the line because he had his autograph coupon already (yeah, him and 2,000 other people). I was tempted to ask security to eject him from the convention for being such a dork.
The level of self-importance I saw displayed by some of the WotC people was unbelieveable. I'm not talking about the real people in charge, but underlings in their special little embroidered red shirts. They reflected poorly on the WotC name, but more importantly, on the Star Wars name. I don't blame fans and non-WotC volunteers for being pissed off.
One thing I am glad of--the ESG Security people there. The had no agenda other than to check badges at entry points, and from all that I saw, were no nonsense professionals. I am tempted to write their company and commend them for helping keep things flowing smoothly.

I do have one question... WHY THE HELL were the escalators off all weekend? Was it only because of people in costume? Were people turning them off to be funny? What?? I have a friend with Muscular Dystrophy who was severely inconvenienced by this, as I'm sure many many others were as well. Pain in the rear, too, for regular folks after a while when you consider that the staircase wasn't just one story, but two, and to use the airbridges to the hotels you had to be on the second floor.

So, bottom line... If Wizards of the Coast still has control of Celebration III by the time it rolls around, I will most assuredly NOT volunteer to work with them. I had some great "insider" perks, but unless they get their collective ducks in a row, I will be content to attend as a common citizen.

Oh, and I'll get a hotel room adjoining the convention center. That MiniMarathon really screwed things Saturday morning... Oh, yeah, I heard some chick with her special little MiniMarathon registration bag use the term "freaks" and rolling her eyes at some of the yellow shirt volunteers. It took everything inside of me not to go off on her like a Marine drill instructor, regarding who is the bigger freak, one who is a fan of a movie who can have an intelligent conversation with a stranger because of a shared interest, or someone who voluntarily runs 13.1 miles through some of the worst slums of Indianapolis, for no other reason than it being a social event strapped onto the beginning of a month of faux-socialite schmoozing and get-togethers of corporate back-stabbers trying to cleverly outdo each other's parties and other superfluous shows of being white trash with money, not really having anything to do with the actual race, the drivers, or their hard working support crews.... Hmm. I appear to be ranting in a different direction than I intended. Oops..

Positive things about the con? 99.9% of the fans were great, the stars that I came into contact with were incredibly friendly, and the look on people's faces when they saw me with my Jorg Sacul figure, out of the package. Priceless..

R2-B9
or, as **everyone** called me all weekend,

GEORGE!

*yawns* Here I am at work, "bright" and early monday morning. I'm exhausted and worn out, but I'm generally happy. Yes, I'm disappointed I didn't get to see everything I wanted to, but I knew that going in. Yes, I was very disappointed at the contradictory attitudes someof the Red Shirts had. It made things very confusing for us. Heck, no one knew what "PG" under the Program Team was, so Anthony and I were stuck in the oddest places.

What I do have to say is I had an awesome time. Despite being yelled at and getting a lot of people with bad attitudes, but for the most part people were polite and happy to be there. I met a lot of cool people I know from online, and hung out with Jedi Talk a lot too. I finally got to be a fan for 3 hours sunday, but hey that's fine with me. I sat with Femi Taylor(Oola), Rusty Goff (Gonk, a Jawa etc), Julian Glover (General Veers), and Ian Liston(Wes janson). I also got to chat with alan ruscoe (Plo Koon, Rune Haako) and Amy Allen (Aayla Secura) quite a bit.

The lines. Oh the lines. Just to let you know, these are the rumored numbers for the three days:
Friday - 20,000
Saturday - 50,000
Sunday 25,000

That's why the lines were so brutal. And they were. I worked on helping organizing them in the morning on Saturday. People lined up when they weren't supposed to and wouldn't move. People got really pissed that they couldn't buy Jorg Sacul. They took it out on the red Shirts, though, and not the yellow shirts. Actually, of those people who knew who most of the yellow shirts were, they had nothing bad to say. Many of the people I've talked to said we did an extremely great job and that we deserved a lot for all the hard work we did.

I used my pass rather confidently I might add. I didn't go any place I shouldn't have been. I got hassled a few times, but after a minute or so they gave in. Yes, I wish things could have been a little better, but I'm pretty satisfied.

I chose to NOT volunteer and to strictly attend and I can say that there were noticeable problems with the organization of the convention. Like R2-B9 I have worked at, and organized, MANY conventions since the 80's as well and WOTC was making mistakes that conventions with less than 1000 attendees make. Stupid little mistakes like no directional signs - Why post a guard on the inside of a door to tell people where the exit is when a SIGN would work just as well? Because it?s easier to throw a body at a problem than it is for someone in charge to actually DO something.

I saw the way volunteers were treated from the outside and the poo-doo was definitely rolling down hill. Each level of the hierarchy treated the level below like absolute crap. Anyone that didn?t have a cruddy volunteer experience was probably just lucky. The worst part though is that some, not ALL mind you ? just SOME, of the volunteers seemed to think the hierarchy of turd-flinging included the attendees as the lowest level. Some of them seriously needed to be reminded that they were employees for the weekend and needed to treat the customers with at least a little respect. I didn?t see a LOT of rude behavior, but I saw more than at the typical WalMart and THAT is not the kind of face that Indy should have shown to the international fan community.

Don?t get me wrong. I?m not blaming the low level volunteers. I?m blaming WOTC, who dumped on the red shirts who dumped on the yellow shirts who had no one to dump on but the other volunteers and the fans. If WOTC had a clue on how to organize things, most of the problems would have been solved before they began.

With all that said, it wasn?t organized any worse than any other WOTC event, so we need not be concerned that they singled out Indy or Star Wars fans. They treat all their volunteers like second hand droids.

for those of you who thought THIS was a nightmare, it was still more organized & better than denver.

"This bickering is pointless..." - Tarkin

I mean, let's face it, there are millions of Star Wars fans around the world, and they had to get to only one place - Indy.

Did you notice the weather today? (Monday, May 6...rain) It was rainy all week then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was beautiful for the convention. People got to walk around, and get some breathing room, costumes weren't mucked and rained on.

As long, and hot, and sticky as the place might have been just imagine for a second if it had rained all 3 days.

The fact is, and I have a feeling I'll be repeating this till Celebration III, there just isn't a place big enough for the kind of Star Wars convention everyone wants - it just wasn't possible.

There were going to be thousands, and Saturday was by far the worst day to be there, but if you planned far enough ahead of time (and followed the maps) you could have seen what you wanted. Maps, and times were posted in a pamphlet that anyone could have picked up near the doors. We used it religiously and it was fine.

The message boards are lit today about people wanting Jorg Figures...and you know, I was kinda sympathetic for them but I think I'm going to take a stand and just say - SAVE IT.

The Jorg Figures were made especially for people coming to Indianapolis for the convention. Yea, we were close, but many came from all over the world. If you made it a priority to get them the first thing right after you came in you would have got some.

If you didn't you could still order them and have them delivered to your address. When we were in line someone mentioned the figures were sold out and the family of 5 behind us left. Of course when we got there, there were plenty of figures.

My point here is if you want the figure itself, you should have gone to the event and been a patron that the figure was meant for. If you couldn't get to Indy for some reason just watch Ebay.

I know Ebay is hated like the plague but lets be real, there are too many Star Wars fans to boycott buying from Scalpers. If you don't buy it someone else will end of story. If you want it bad enough - you have options to get it. If you want it for 10 bucks, you should have spend the cash to get to Indy. Either way the price is high and if you subtract the traveling costs, it might actually be cheaper for you to buy one on Ebay.




I think people just need to learn patience, and think before they walk around haphazardly.

If you had a bad time at Celebration II, I hate to say it, but you only have yourself to blame. Star Wars is popular folks. Didn't cha know? It's been around for like...25 years and stuff? Everyone is playing the blame game, but I believe everyone did what they could.

Celebration III wherever it is will be the same, probably even busier after this movie. Count on it. In the meantime be happy and appreciative about what you DID do, and what you DID see, and WHO you might have met. Tho 50,000 made it a slight pain on Saturday, that's nothing compared to the millions who would have killed to be in your unhappy places. Think about it!

Being a THREE DAY PASS holder, the only thing I have t complain about was unorganized fashion the tickets for the concert -- which, for those who were not able to attend, was outstanding. High praise goes to the members of the ISO and the two conductors for an wonderful experience. Back to complaint at hand -- the line was EXTREMELY unorganized. If there was someone "directing traffic," I may, just as well, have been one of the unfortunate. However, I managed to make my way up to the front without a "Hey! The line is that way." Once I got up close to the front, I was talking to people who have been waiting in line for up to 2 1/2 hours. The WotC "red shirts" (how Star Trek-like, go figure) were not sure how to manage the masses -- Come on! This was their show. I finally got my two tickets, after receiving a "voucher" -- I was hoping to put the tickets on plastic. I finally got the green I needed (off-site -- the ATM(s) in the convention center were all tapped).

Don't get me wrong. Not all of the WotC "red shirts" were prime canditates for personality transplants. Some of them were very helpful.

All-and-all, It was a fun weekend. I rate CELEBATION II 2 1/2 stars (out of 4 stars). I am biased, but I agree with WotC, and Steve Sansweet, in choosing Indianapolis as the host city.

OriginalBryGuy & Club_333, you seem to have confused the complaints about WOTC with complaints about Celebration II in general. For the most part I'd think people (myself included) would say that they had a good time in spite of the poor organizational skills of the WOTC event planning team. My only disappointment is that things could have went better had WOTC got their collective poodoo together. Celebration II was better than Celebration I. So maybe Celebration III will be better still. I?ll attend it and try to have fun despite whatever problems may arise.

As for the figures selling out, that?s fine and understandable. But the meager sign that was posted (that loverly cardboard box lid deal they taped to the door frame) could have at least MENTIONED the fact that you could ORDER anything that was sold out on sight. A lot of people walked away pissed off not knowing any better. Again, lack of communication and organization on the part of the planners pissed off a lot of people that would have been happier otherwise.

I agree, most everyone had a good, if not great, time. The weather was great. It was a blast seeing so many fans. I personally saw Indianapolis in a new light, from the eyes of a visitor, and I?ve LIVED here for the past 15 years. Just because there were a lot of GOOD things doesn?t mean we have to accept the BAD things. You don?t have to accept the bad with the good when you?re a paid customer. I encourage everyone to accept the good as given (considering you paid for it) and complain about the bad so that future customers (potentially yourself) don?t have to put up with it.

A volunteer is someone who works without any form of compensation. If you CHOOSE to be a volunteer and are unhappy, then you should not have CHOOSE to volunteer!

The fact of the matter is that I got to be a part of something very cool, and I loved every second that I worked. I love Star Wars and I'm glad that I got to meet some of my childhood heros and help other people who share an interest in these great movies. I would not change a thing. If all that I have to take home from this is memories, and a badge then I am MORE than thrilled!

If you find yourself whining about volunteering, then shut-up! You choose to help, no one forced you. Complaining comes across as whiny and makes Indy Knights look bad to anyone who reads this board.

Hey thraken76, take a pill. Who are YOU to tell people they can't complain and whine? If anything YOU make the Indy Knights look bad by posting this type of response. So far everyone has kept it civil until you decided to chime in.

No one has said they didn't appreciate the convention being here. They just that some things were handled poorly and need to be improved. I for one would like to see Celebration return to Indy and I'd also like to see improvements where they are needed.

Sitting back and accepting the poor treatment of volunteers and attendees will only assure that it is repeated. Don't you want the best possible experience for as many as possible the next time the event is held?

There are at least two people posting in this thread that have worked at, and help organize, other conventions, so our expectations might be a little higher than the first time volunteer. I?m sure that not every volunteer was treated like crap, but the goal should be that none are treated like crap. If one person is treated like garbage for doing nothing worse than wanting to help out in a event which is meant to entertain fans of a genre that they personally enjoy, then that?s one too many.

OK...... I will get off on a rant here. And I have to agree with Kevin (BTW a special Thanks to Kev and Scott with thier assist in getting 501st for aitograph control on sat!!!)

Now,

I spent two houyrs wuith my wife and kids sunday between 10:30 and 12:30. Could it have been more? No! Should it have been more YES! But that aside I Volunteered, in fact I volunteered to lead the volunteers. I have no complaints about any of US! I think we kicked collective Ass as far as getting thigs done. Even though we didn't have the information we needed starting with the lack of anyone Wizards at the meeting on Wednesday, to the fact that the "sked" was pretty much useless once the con actually got underway. However, as someone esle stated there were glimmers of light in all of the chaos. A good number of the "red shirt" guys in the exihbit hall were on the job. Dru, Alex, and John ( I think that right) chief among them. I think the real problem was that it got away from them really fast. They had NO real number to go from, from Denver. So it was a blind shot at how many people were going to attend. I'm sure that this is the largest con they have ever done, if not, I am surprised. I mean rough estimates put the attendance at nearly 100K for the w/e, even at a lower estiamte of 75K, that a big bunch of people ans tey were coming and going, they stayed and saw as much as they could. Lots of events you go to people stay for a few hours and leave. This was a camp out do it all till you drop be there or be square type of thing.

...And then there was the Autographs

The only real problem at the autograph area was the complete miss as far as how many people would go in and/or use the pull service. The space needed to be twice as big amongst a few other things that I saw that could have been set up and/or handled differently. Not to mention the b-line stars who got squeezed out by the lines of the bigger 5 or 6 and the stopping of selling tickets several times on sat and sun.

But that said..........

I will be the first in line to volunteer for C3 ( count on it!) in 2005. Let's see what Wizards can do with GenCon in 2003. Let's see if they can grow and learn. This past week end was all about the fans. I am a fan, I got to see fans having a good time for the most part. SO I didn't see much, So I didn't see the footage from E2. I get to see that in a week with ALL of my Fan Friends, that will be way more special than it would have been this week end.

Celebration Volunteer till the end!

Deron