Hi, my first and only twitchcon was this past year in vegas 2023, and while it was very fun, too many parts were putting people at risk or leading them on wild goose chases.
I would greatly appreciate if you would be willing to read this post about my experiences in its entirety. ♥
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To start off, there was actively no seating or shade provided to attendees during badge pickup on thursday (and from what i saw, also on the actual convention days) - this is a problem because I was nearly having an emergency because I was overheating, dehydrated, im physically disabled so walking a long long distance to get TO the badge pick up was far more than i could handle and the set up was doing me no favors.
- There should be shade covering all parts of the twitchcon badge pickup area
- There should be very clear and available water stations (i was shown water, and then cared for by, the staff member i do not know the name of but lovingly refer to as 'Water Guy') for attendees
- There should be some kind of seating/benches/something for people who are either needing a break from the walking they did to get to the convention before standing in the line, or are waiting on some friends. People are disabled, people are pregnant, people are old, and people can be pushed to their limits sometimes. Please offer seating im BEGGING you. (I was offered a chair that Water Guy had to go run and find in order to prevent me from passing out from heat exhaustion and trouble breathing, and he's my hero, but it shouldn't have to come to that)
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My next troubles were that the drop off and pick up area was not well established in the first few days, and ubers didnt know where to pick people up or drop them off (part of why my groups walking was far more than anticipated)
- More signage and con staff who know more specifically where things like that are.
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Which brings me to my next point: I was sent on an almost hour long goose chase only to be told on different parts of it that the people i asked were misinformed and that they cant help me/didnt know where i should go. Some context, I required an electric scooter because i wasnt about to risk what very nearly happened on thursday to happen during the convention itself. The front desk (you know, the people who should know all of these things), directed me to the completely opposite area that con-goers were allowed to go to because while yes it was physically near the scooter and wheelchair rentals, it was fenced off and attendees are not permitted to pass the fence, and instead have to go completely backwards, all the way through the long convention hall, back out front, back through badge pick up, and THEN can reach the rentals.
As you can imagine, doing all that while 1) sore from the previous day of pain and stress, 2) already needing something to use in order to avoid having to walk, and then walk all that way hopelessly, SUCKED. Every staff member i spoke to, and even a security cop, had no idea where i needed to go or who to talk to, until i spoke to the right guy. He said he didnt know, but could see i was not functioning well and was kind of barely physically and emotionally keeping it together, and promised he would find it out for me. He made sure to set me up in a chair in the shade of a sign while he radio'd and called and did everything he could to figure it out. He eventually finds out what I need to do, but that was still after a good while of waiting. And while i SUPER appreciate his help, it shouldnt have come down to one guy kind of in charge having to track down someone else electronically who might know who to talk to... not only does staff not knowing these things take up everyones time, i missed out on a bit of the start of my FIRST ever twitchcon, and it put a sour taste in my mouth about the whole convention, making me wonder if i should have even flown out and attended.. :(
- There should be communication to every member of staff where specific stations are, ESPECIALLY the scooter/wheelchair rentals for obvious reasons.
- Don't trust that your staff can remember? Make each of them carry a map showcasing the layout with specific things, so they have a clear understanding that just because something is 'close enough' to something else, that they know what people can actually gain access to as an attendee and a mortal being who cannot phase through metal and cannot read your mind.
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The information desk should house any and all information, and yet it had the first staff member i spoke to tell me to go in the completely wrong direction to get to the rentals, and when i explained that to her after, she didnt even apologize for all the extra strain and time it took for her mistake to get fixed just for me (she said she had been telling others to go there too). And while i do not fault her for this next thing, it was still not ideal.
There was another miscommunication as to where the accessibility stickers would be located for myself and my handler to get them, and it was really awkward to be told i have to go inside, make my way to the accessible entrance, and be stopped by a security guard asking where our stickers were, and then sigh and let us through because we 'weren't the first people to say that exact thing'. the front desk information booth said they dont have those and dont know where we go to get them, and that they contacted their higher up to bring some to us (adding to more of my wait to be able to actually experience the nice things of this convention).
- There needs to be a clear line of communication for the scooter/wheelchair rental people, the information booth, and the security, in order to understand exactly what it is staff members in need of accessibility need to do/actually go to, in order to continue the process.
- I think that the scooter/wheelchair rentals should be hosting the stickers in order to get them all at once and it go smoothly. The less people involved and less steps, the better and safer for everyone.
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Meet & greets. These were very fun, very nice, but I will comment that a staff member who was supposed to remove a metal bar from the adjacent path towards the meet and greet tables, and allow myself and my handler to drive towards the front (i did not know i would get to the front with my ADA sticker). The problem was the first staff member who was supposed to do that at our first meet and greet, instead ASKED THE ZIGZAG LINE OF PEOPLE WAITING, TO PLEASE MOVE TO THE LEFT SO I CAN SCOOT BESIDES THEM. IT WAS MORTIFYING.
- Please educate your meet and greet staff thoroughly on all the expectations and routines of their job ;-; i was so freaking embarrassed.
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- More clear visual distinctions on the map between gender neutral bathrooms, and elevators. I am nonbinary, so i am only comfortable inside of gender neutral bathrooms, and i had been tricked a few times going by the map visuals to go to the 'nearest' one.
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- Went to a panel, and while i definitely appreciated the easy in for my scooter, the getting out to go to the bathroom was awkward and i risked backing into either the jutting out corner of the wall, or the table that was just a little too close to it.
- The maps that were on the information desk for people to take pictures of were so hard to read, and most things weren't labelled directly (example: a booth space would be marked with letters and numbers and had a visual color), which made things a lot of back and forth to find out where one thing is. I don't know if there were individual pages for con-goers to see a layout of each color section or type of section (there were many colors for the non-artist booths/areas in the middle/bottom of the convention room), but maybe having those where the attendees dont have to cross reference a cypher would be great. it would also chop things up into more digestible pieces, and the print/pictures would be far easier to read (the pictures of the full convention room were extremely pixellated on my phone and i had to just kind of start guessing some of the letters and numbers to find specific shops/company booths)
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I'm sure you can understand just how frustrating parts of this were for someone who couldnt just walk around easily. In the end I hope you all agree that some of my experiences at twitchcon could be vastly improved by a bit more patience, understanding, and communication, as well as just a general care for the attendees (and staff, you deserve to feel safe, hydrated, and comfortable as well!).
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Thank you for taking the time to read! ♥