[ST] Internal report on the Masquerade

[Jill Eastlake]

Internal report on the Arisia '07 Masquerade

We had a great time.  A few of us were totally consumed by running this
Masquerade.  And, it was worth every minute of it.

The final, public report on the Masquerade will be/has been published on the
Arisia website.  Look there for some of the details.  This report is to
outline what should be considered to be altered next year.

Missing - a staff member whose sole job would be to get every name of every
person working on the Masquerade during it, and to record with complete
certainty who all the winners were, and then to work with the Newsletter
staff over Saturday night to get the photo edition and the winners' edition
correct.  They could also collect the things to deliver or hand back to
contestants, and be there on Sunday to do so.

Automation - needs some tweaks in the input, some in the output.  I'll be
working with John Francini to adjust these things over the next couple of
months (before the ideas go stale).

It would be great if the website could support a back-end database so that
entrants could update their information online instead of waiting to be on
site to do it.

Green Room - there was confusion about when the room change would happen
with the hotel and when we could set up.  As it was, we ended up doing the
room change, setting up for ourselves and our photographer, and having the
entrants all come in AT THE SAME TIME.  This was chaos and should be avoided
at all costs next time.  There needs to be a 15-30 minute window for the
hotel to do the room change, then we need to set up, and THEN invite the
contestants in.  If we need the contestants in at 6pm, then the room change
must be at 5pm.

Having the Crispus Attucks room made all the difference between being tight
and being impossible.  We should definitely plan that in advance for next
time.

If we can figure out how to make a tv in both rooms happen so that
contestants can see the Masquerade, that would be dandy.

House - Big cheers for the security team in the lobby!

Our ahead-of-con volunteers for ushers didn't ush, but the three people who
came in on site, I think recruited by Sharon, were great.

Someone placed some Hilary Scott artwork (read big, 3-D) in the lobby to
amuse people on line.  This was a surprise and clogged up a bit of the
lobby.  If there is to be anything but line in the lobby - some warning
would be nice.

All people waiting in line were seated and no one was turned away.  This
went really well.

Some light needs to be available on the release of the kids into the
audience so they can find their parents.  This is before the adults'
masquerade entries start.
 
Kamikaze Kids - this was a miracle and I have no idea how Persis pulled it
off.  Great job.
 
Tech - yup - no panicking.  Other than that, great job.
 
The Masquerade Director should not volunteer for anything outside direct
masquerade duties.

There should be a personal assistant trailing the MD throughout the
convention.

There was some controversy about Masquerade Staff ribbons pre-con.  Well,
there were no Masquerade Staff ribbons.  I did hand out about a half dozen
regular staff ribbons and wore a Department Head ribbon myself.

We ran out of award ribbons - by 3-6.  I've asked for more to be printed so
that I can mail them to the winners.

The roses were a big hit.

Jill Eastlake
Masquerade Director