Convention Fans:
The PAX East 2010 Overall Convention Report

There is no doubt that PAX East 2010 was the convention to be at this past weekend if you are a gamer on the East coast. Those of us who haven't been able to make it out to the original Seattle based Penny Arcade Expo, known as PAX, have been eager for an East coast iteration. But did PAX East live up to expectation? Well, for the most part that answer is "yes."

Before I get into some of the problems we encountered at PAX East 2010, I do want to highlight the many aspects of the convention that went well.

Registration:

First of all, PAX mails badges out to attendees. This means there is no registration pick up line to content with. As I think back to the three hours I waited at Dragon*con 2009 for my pre-registered badge pick up, I can't help but applaud PAX organizers for their methods. Additionally, because there is an attendance cap (and it's always met) for PAX, there are no on-site badge purchases. As a result, there is only one table and a handful of staff needed to handle press, vendor, and speaker registration. We waited in line for less than 15 minutes to pick up our press badges. I really believe this is the secret to managing registration and badges for 30,000+ people at a convention. Trying to check in that many people on-site just doesn't make sense.

Staff Interaction:

In addition to handling registration beautifully, PAX East also manages their staff of volunteers well. Each PAX volunteer had a long-sleeve red shirt on that said ENFORCER on the back, and had the PAX East logo on the front. They were instantly recognizable, even from far away. And get this: there was a completely adequate amount of them at all times. There was always someone in the panel rooms (for the panel's entire duration). There was more than one managing lines outside. They had a fleet of them at the info desk. There were some at all major doorways. I was never in a place where a staffer wasn't within my sight. Not only were they plentiful, but they were knowledgeable and polite. They weren't copping an attitude with attendees. They weren't yelling. It was absolutely incredible. If every convention had staff like this, it would make for a much more pleasant experience. I was totally blown away. Kudos to the volunteers (a.k.a. "enforcers") of PAX East 2010!

Open Gaming:

One of the highlights of PAX East, at least for us, was the game checkout system for tabletop/board games and console/PC games. On the bottom floor was a room filled with all kinds of tabletop and board games. Attendees could go in, grab a game, give their ID to one of the room attendants, and then go play the game with friends in one of the numerous open gaming rooms. For PC and console games, you went upstairs to an equally impressive library. Only in these rooms there were rows and rows of nice flat screen monitors connected to consoles and PCs. It was a great way to give attendees access to titles and gaming platforms they had never had a chance to use.