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Redemption '09 - longer con report
Thursday
Richard hired a transit van to move all the stuff we were taking. Books for the charity book stall, bags for chaos costume, etc. in addition to our own bits and pieces. We picked up![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cu_sith (dropped off by Matt who was taking Kelvin and entorien up to the convention along with various bits of stuff for tech). Stopped off in Reading to collect cobrabay and loads of stuff for ops. Reached Coventry with no major problems and parked van just outside the hotel's loading bay (because it was full...).
Soon discovered that the hotel loading bay is positioned so as to get stuff into the main hall, but is very badly placed for getting stuff to the boardrooms - which was unfortunate as everything we had (and everything the dealers would be bringing) needed to get to the board rooms. Recruitedjulesjones as a helper as we realised we were going to need a guide for dealers to find their way through the maze of back passages.
Went and did some treasurer type stuff (giving people float money for reg desk and ops and cash for guest expenses).julesjones phoned to warn of traffic warden outside loading bay. Luckily, she did the sensible thing and went to talk to the traffic warden who was very understanding and agreed to let us finish unloading the van (which took another hour).
We soon realised that there were problems with hotel bookings. Richard had been struggling for most of the last few weeks to try and fit everyone into the hotel (there were about three bedrooms left that we weren't using...). Balancing all the conflicting requirements for rooms was a nightmare task, especially as we had far more people wanting double and non-smoking rooms than were actually available. A lot of rooms were individually assigned for specific reasons - eg. people who needed to be near lifts, people who needed to be next to the disabled friend they were assisting, family members in adjoining rooms because we'd run out of family rooms.
The reception desk staff were frequently ignoring Richard's specific assignments and just giving people the next free room of the type they'd been assigned. It took a long conversation of several hours to get the damage untangled as far as possible and to make sure that NO ONE changed a room assignment without checking with Richard first. The rest of the weekend (with the occasional glitch) seemed to work reasonably well on that score. We gave the hotel reception desk a con radio to use in case of need, so they could contact Richard.
We had the Thursday evening social meal - which went very well apart from someone having forgotten the correct number of vegetarian portions. (though, to the hotel's credit, they checked up on this and found their record of what we'd requested and went away and cooked some more, but it was a delay of 20 mins for the three of us who had to wait.) I'm not a vegetarian (just a semi-vegetarian), but I always eat a fair proportion of veggie food when I'm on a con com as it's the best way to spot potential problems.
In this case, I quickly uncovered a classic con hotel problem. A surprising number have chefs who believe that you can create a vegetarian dish by simply removing meat. I raised this at the meeting with the hotel staff the next morning, pointing out that vegetarian still need protein - eggs/cheese/nuts/pulses/mushrooms. It isn't rocket science... They'd cracked it by the end of the weekend - the Sunday carvery option included avocados stuffed with mushrooms and feta cheese (I didn't happen to like it, but that was personal taste - at least it had protein).
Chatted with loads of friends about things I have now totally forgotten, and generally enjoyed the evening.
Richard hired a transit van to move all the stuff we were taking. Books for the charity book stall, bags for chaos costume, etc. in addition to our own bits and pieces. We picked up
cu_sith (dropped off by Matt who was taking Kelvin and entorien up to the convention along with various bits of stuff for tech). Stopped off in Reading to collect cobrabay and loads of stuff for ops. Reached Coventry with no major problems and parked van just outside the hotel's loading bay (because it was full...).Soon discovered that the hotel loading bay is positioned so as to get stuff into the main hall, but is very badly placed for getting stuff to the boardrooms - which was unfortunate as everything we had (and everything the dealers would be bringing) needed to get to the board rooms. Recruited
julesjones as a helper as we realised we were going to need a guide for dealers to find their way through the maze of back passages.Went and did some treasurer type stuff (giving people float money for reg desk and ops and cash for guest expenses).
julesjones phoned to warn of traffic warden outside loading bay. Luckily, she did the sensible thing and went to talk to the traffic warden who was very understanding and agreed to let us finish unloading the van (which took another hour).We soon realised that there were problems with hotel bookings. Richard had been struggling for most of the last few weeks to try and fit everyone into the hotel (there were about three bedrooms left that we weren't using...). Balancing all the conflicting requirements for rooms was a nightmare task, especially as we had far more people wanting double and non-smoking rooms than were actually available. A lot of rooms were individually assigned for specific reasons - eg. people who needed to be near lifts, people who needed to be next to the disabled friend they were assisting, family members in adjoining rooms because we'd run out of family rooms.
The reception desk staff were frequently ignoring Richard's specific assignments and just giving people the next free room of the type they'd been assigned. It took a long conversation of several hours to get the damage untangled as far as possible and to make sure that NO ONE changed a room assignment without checking with Richard first. The rest of the weekend (with the occasional glitch) seemed to work reasonably well on that score. We gave the hotel reception desk a con radio to use in case of need, so they could contact Richard.
We had the Thursday evening social meal - which went very well apart from someone having forgotten the correct number of vegetarian portions. (though, to the hotel's credit, they checked up on this and found their record of what we'd requested and went away and cooked some more, but it was a delay of 20 mins for the three of us who had to wait.) I'm not a vegetarian (just a semi-vegetarian), but I always eat a fair proportion of veggie food when I'm on a con com as it's the best way to spot potential problems.
In this case, I quickly uncovered a classic con hotel problem. A surprising number have chefs who believe that you can create a vegetarian dish by simply removing meat. I raised this at the meeting with the hotel staff the next morning, pointing out that vegetarian still need protein - eggs/cheese/nuts/pulses/mushrooms. It isn't rocket science... They'd cracked it by the end of the weekend - the Sunday carvery option included avocados stuffed with mushrooms and feta cheese (I didn't happen to like it, but that was personal taste - at least it had protein).
Chatted with loads of friends about things I have now totally forgotten, and generally enjoyed the evening.
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Veggie food
I would have tried the avocado though - Love those
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no subject