[ST] [SA] Signshop Debrief Report

[Joanne McLernon]

Signshop went much better this year than last, but there are still things
I'd like to improve.

What worked:
- Getting the word out earlier (hey, more than two weeks notice!) by sending
out message to div-heads in December a couple of times.
- The form for sign requests made things crystal clear for us most of the
time. Getting people to *use* the form took a little more work.
- My splendid volunteers KK and Pat, on Thursday night, helped us mount all
the signs and get them ready for pickup. Pat was invaluable during the
Sunday night sign inventory.
- Using Kinko's new Print to File feature ... this allowed me to send
requests directly to Kinko's from my computer. Thus, all 11x17 color signs
were perfectly printed on time. (Although it wasn't cheap.)
- Generally anticipating sign needs. Y'all did a fabulous job. The only real
at-con work was stuff that couldn't be anticipated, things like the Art Show
shutdown and the escalator breaking down.
- Taking the time *last* year to inventory all the signs as they returned.
This really paid off, as people re-used signs they identified, and I think
it helped remind folks what signs they needed, so sign anticipation
improved.
- Not having to worry about easels, because the hotel had so many!
- Last year, I had about 100 requests by the deadline. This year, there were
more than 250 by the same deadline. Thank you all SO much for getting your
requests in on time.

What didn't work and suggestions for next year:
- Doing all the mounting work on Thursday night. It took until well into the
wee hours, because there's no way to do this work until the supplies are
delivered to the hotel. It would be nice if we could have our room by
Wednesday night next year, to give us more time.
- Staffing numbers: Once again I didn't get to see any of the con, mostly
due to the constant inflow of emergency signs on Saturday. If signshop needs
to be a 24/7 service, then we need a couple more people to keep it open.
Alternatively, we need a better way to do emergency signs. We're tinkering
with the idea of setting up a web service to allow people to design and
print simple emergency signs themselves (because we're big ol' geeks, so
that would be cool).
- Static cling mounting apparently didn't work very well on the walls of the
Hyatt. I really like Ben's Post-It Note glue stick idea, and I'm going to
acquire some of those for next year. Also, large post-it sheets can be
useful as a standard space for attaching multiple signs (Rick's idea). Will
acquire.
- The room: too small, by a long shot. It was really difficult to squeeze
four working people, mounting supplies, tables to work at, and places to put
piles of signs for pickup in that small room. Need more space.
- Only having the room till 6 pm Sunday, officially. Nobody told me this
until *multiple* people came by Sunday to say "Hey, are you still in here?"
We needed time to get all the signs returned (many of which we went round
and collected ourselves), then inventoried before putting back in storage.
- Having half my supplies not get delivered. I didn't receive the wire cart
labeled "signshop" that had a lot of foam core in it that I was counting on.
Had to go buy a lot more foam core.
- Rick has already mentioned willingness to provide a printer capable of
doing black and white 11x17s for next year, so that will improve at-con
printing capabilities.
- Using the NESFA printer for $3 was not that convenient or quick, mainly
because the Adobe PageMaker program is difficult to troubleshoot. For $4.50
we can print on demand to Kinko's but we need to confirm pricing ($4.50 was
for the B&W Dealer's Map).
- With a bit more design effort, we could create more durable permanent
signs for major program areas and reduce costs
- Didn't have a clear idea of available budget so we simply designed and
printed everything as requested, including mounting choices. I imagine we'll
find out tomorrow if we spent too much!

I don't know yet if I'm going to do Signshop next year or not. I'd really
like to see the con, after two years of being unable to do so! I think if I
get mounting volunteers like this year, more people to work signshop hours
during the con, and can get some kind of web printing service set up, I'll
consider it.

Jo (and Marty)
Signshop '07
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