Post Otakon Post #2
My week of Otakon....
WEEKEND BEFORE OTAKON
Shopping, shopping, and prep. About four separate runs, staging stuff in the storage room. Help from my drivers and some coordination with Lee's crew. Cases of soda and water, booze, snacks, miscellaneous consumables.....basically we throw a party every night for a week.
TUESDAY
Got out of work later than I'd hoped. Kaveman arrived and we spent the evening getting a few things done. We ran up to check into the hotel and start moving a load in, but ended up getting moving so late that we just had time to do that and have dinner. I had laundry to do and papers to prepare, while Kaveman prepped the guest badges for me.
WEDNESDAY
Up early to finish packing, supply staging, etc. Kaveman whipped up some egg sandwiches while I frantically packed and prepped. Driver Bob showed up and we relocated him to my car. We loaded up the car and were about to get moving when I checked my email and found a note from our travel agent, Akira, noting that my drivers license (which had been needed for a credit card thing) had expired. Suddenly I had an urgent item to squeeze into an already full agenda!
We met up at the airport to get two of my drivers into their vans (just in case my card was needed), then I sent them off to collect the stuff at the storage room, and take it up to the hotel. While they did that, I went to the MVA for a few hours of Not Fun Time. Grabbed lunch. Then it was back up to the Harbor, where the vans were already pretty much unloaded.
The rest of Wednesday was spent finishing setup and organizing our work environment. We laminated a few hundred badges, completed some signage, set up our party environment, and started checking folks in. One early guest was Mr Maruyama and our other Madhouse friends, who'd come in early (mostly from ComicCon) because staying an extra night cut OUR costs by a few thousand dollars. Many of our staffers wound up having some fun over at Hooters, but I honestly can't remember what we did for dinner.
Finally, everyone was here and checked in and everything was as ready as we could make it.
THURSDAY
A decent night's sleep -- the last I'd get for a week -- and it was time to get cracking. Some of my drivers had early runs to Dulles for the Japanese guests, about 25 people and a LOT of baggage. We continued with the prep, sending staffers over to the BCC with supplies to stage everything. Then the fun started...
Imagine, if you will, a series of nonstop phone calls between me, three drivers (mostly via Driver Bob), and Travel Agent Akira. A computer outage at Narita Airport meant our main flights were 2-3 hours late. A few people missed flights. Then the storms started and got worse. It didn't stop all day. In fact, aside from some time spent getting badges, the rest of the day was spent getting guests in and settled.
Thursday night's our guest and industry reception, held this year in the old Pisces -- formerly a high-end bar/dining space atop the Hyatt, now a special events space. We'd worked hard to get a good deal on the space and it wasn't wasted -- the view is spectacular and the food and drink were pleasant. I had time for a quick shirt change (sweat -- ewww!) and then it was 3-4 hours of meet-and-greet, with me as social butterfly. I wound up in a conversation with some reps of the Japanese Consul -- another good tie into the diplomatic end of Japan's US presence -- and located a possible source for cultural program funding. They were apparently impressed enough to show up with their boss the next day -- win! Meanwhile, our staff, guests, industry, and some friends from other cons all had a chance to mingle.
But the lateness continued. Our last guests arrived sometime near 3 in the morning. Once they were all in, I finally went to bed.
FRIDAY
I room with my mother, who runs our green room, and she was there early to get things running in the BCC. Lots of additional coordination ensued, and thankfully our drivers had no pickups or dropoffs scheduled -- so they became much-appreciated runners for the weekend, filling in the gaps and having occasional runs back and forth with guests. Then suddenly it was time for Opening Ceremonies, for which I was required. It went reasonably well.
Once again the afternoon zoomed by in a blur, and I had to run over with an updated count for Morton's, where we often host the dinner for our Japanese guests. Whenever I go there, they *know* me, which is also very nice.
Suddenly, midway through the upgrade (they had set up for 28 people and had to redo the room with about 20 minutes notice!), I got a phone call that the Japanese Consul was there and could i please come and talk to him on the opposite end of the convention center? Confident in the restaurant, I powerwalked back to Con Ops and met with the Japanese Consul, once again explaining our mission and making nice, but angling to hand him off to our convention chairman -- blessedly, Sean was available. We pledged to follow up later, and I sped back to Morton's just in time to sneak into the back of a group photo and some applause. Whew!
Morton's has been our go-to place for years because they understand how to deal with us; they even have Japanese menus. However, this year, we had a time crunch -- many of our guests wanted to go to the Yoshida Bros concert at 8:30, so we had just 6-8pm to get 38 people through a full-course dinner. I'd arranged with them to cut their normal portions in half, in deference to the smaller Japanese appetite, and in an effort to save money; however, it was still a lavish meal by any stretch of the imagination.
Mortons got us through appetizers, salads, main course, and desserts -- along with drinks, introductions, and plenty of pleasant conversation -- in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I love those guys -- we were able to go right into Hall D and get seated in time for the Yoshida Bros concert.
The concert...it was AMAZING. Those guys are so talented, so masterful. It's a privilege to be in the room when they perform, and they guys themselves are so un-jaded by their success. And why not? They do what they love for a living. The 2600-seat Hall D was *packed*, and possibly pushing the limits for the fire marshal. The crowd was utterly enchanted, completely in sync in a way I've seldom seen *anywhere*. I'm not ashamed to say I was brought to tears by the beauty of the performance.
It took two years of effort to get them, and it was worth it. All our fears of people not responding to the traditional music were blown away -- people LOVED this show.
At night, our first full night of "Battle Bridge" (the night time green room) was underway, and didn't wrap up until well after 3; in fact, it took until nearly 5 before everyone was gone and I could get to bed.
SATURDAY
A few short hours of sleep, then a brief scone in the green room, before the day was really underway. As is usually the case, I spent a lot of time trying, but failing, to see my guests in action, and most of the day on various phones or answering questions. My big push and panic was to get people their prizes -- the guaranteed autographs and seating passes, primarily. And then, just as I was eyeing some lunch, the fire alarm went off.
I remember the whole thing pretty clearly -- almost eerily calm, honestly. The alarm went, I immediately tried to reach Con Ops to find out what was up. No response after two attempts, so I grabbed Terry and said "Terry, you take lead, Mom, you take rear, drivers on the sides. Everyone else, follow the large asian man to safety." I sent them off, and went down to con ops. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get back to the Autographs area for hte bullhorns I knew we had there; they'd have been a huge help.
I quickly touched base with any available staffers and had them space out about 30-40 feet apart, established contact with a staffer with a radio and one of the BCC operators. I reminded every staffer I saw to say please and thank you -- it makes SUCH a difference. Moving more than 25,000 people is a challenge under normal circumstances but even more so when it was hot and humid and noisy. I tied in with my staff to find out where everyone was, and knowing my staff and guests were okay meant I could help out with crowd control -- I'm a big, visible guy with an air of authority and a big voice when needed, and I was needed.
It was a blessing to finally hear the return call -- but hard to keep things on track because the vendors and artists had to come in first. I helped get that process started, but then quickly joined key staff in Ops to get things underway and figure out how to make up the lost time. The stress was UNBELIEVABLE -- it had taken weeks to arrive at that schedule and suddenly we had to rebuild our busiest day in less than an hour and get back up and running right away.
And we DID it.
And about three breaths after that, someone came into ops and said "we've just been told that ours was the smoothest evacuation the BCC has had in recent memory, and there were no injuries". And suddenly the dam broke and I kinda lost it a bit -- I was so proud and so wrenched, and the adrenaline suddenly wore off. I realized I hadn't had anything but a scone all day, and I was fed some gatorade and a half a tuna wrap. Things were back on track.
Except now it was time for dinner, and we couldn't make that happen. There just wasn't time; I had to meet up with the folks at Masquerade for the Yoshiki & Sugizo show. I arrived just as Yoshiki was entering the building and took the pulse of the show. Our folks were worried; the skits were running long and (despite my fears and expectations) it wasn't our notoriously late-running guests' fault! But all was well, eventually -- they went on and had a great little set (beautiful stuff), and basked in the crowd's adoration for a while.
After the press conference, I was asked to find someplace suitable for dinner, then drinks, and then in the confusion didn't wind up getting any dinner myself -- but then it was "can you join Yoshiki for drinks?" and after a quick stop by Ops to try to find some better options for late night boozing, I soon found myself sitting at a restaurant with Yoshiki and Scott and Yaz and a few other folks, drinking excellent wine and toasting our success.
Yoshiki himself was very entertaining. After he claimed that he'd had crab cakes for every meal since he got there, I suggested he have a crab omelet for breakfast for a change of pace. I think we actually hit it off pretty well, and I think we kind of got each other's sense of humor. It was a nice atmosphere, and despite a little weirdness with a fan who got invited to drink with us, it went well. To his surprise and amusement, *I* even got recognized by passing convention-goers who had no clue who he was. :)
He was also keen to thank me for the opportunity in 2006 and again in 2010, and to thank our staff for taking good care of him and keeping the love alive. Rounds of shots were drunk, and he kept saying "If I had not come to Otakon and felt that love, I would not have reformed X-Japan. We will conquer America because of you guys, because of the fans."
I gotta tell ya, that is NOT hard to hear, and it's not hard to have a huge rock star hanging (literally) on you and buying you drinks. At some point I promised to bring him crab cakes next February, but by 230am I was glad he was ready to go see the harbor and then go back to his room. I thanked him, wished him luck, and headed back to the Battle Bridge to visit with my OTHER guests.
Most of whom were still there and a few of whom didn't leave until after 5....
WEEKEND BEFORE OTAKON
Shopping, shopping, and prep. About four separate runs, staging stuff in the storage room. Help from my drivers and some coordination with Lee's crew. Cases of soda and water, booze, snacks, miscellaneous consumables.....basically we throw a party every night for a week.
TUESDAY
Got out of work later than I'd hoped. Kaveman arrived and we spent the evening getting a few things done. We ran up to check into the hotel and start moving a load in, but ended up getting moving so late that we just had time to do that and have dinner. I had laundry to do and papers to prepare, while Kaveman prepped the guest badges for me.
WEDNESDAY
Up early to finish packing, supply staging, etc. Kaveman whipped up some egg sandwiches while I frantically packed and prepped. Driver Bob showed up and we relocated him to my car. We loaded up the car and were about to get moving when I checked my email and found a note from our travel agent, Akira, noting that my drivers license (which had been needed for a credit card thing) had expired. Suddenly I had an urgent item to squeeze into an already full agenda!
We met up at the airport to get two of my drivers into their vans (just in case my card was needed), then I sent them off to collect the stuff at the storage room, and take it up to the hotel. While they did that, I went to the MVA for a few hours of Not Fun Time. Grabbed lunch. Then it was back up to the Harbor, where the vans were already pretty much unloaded.
The rest of Wednesday was spent finishing setup and organizing our work environment. We laminated a few hundred badges, completed some signage, set up our party environment, and started checking folks in. One early guest was Mr Maruyama and our other Madhouse friends, who'd come in early (mostly from ComicCon) because staying an extra night cut OUR costs by a few thousand dollars. Many of our staffers wound up having some fun over at Hooters, but I honestly can't remember what we did for dinner.
Finally, everyone was here and checked in and everything was as ready as we could make it.
THURSDAY
A decent night's sleep -- the last I'd get for a week -- and it was time to get cracking. Some of my drivers had early runs to Dulles for the Japanese guests, about 25 people and a LOT of baggage. We continued with the prep, sending staffers over to the BCC with supplies to stage everything. Then the fun started...
Imagine, if you will, a series of nonstop phone calls between me, three drivers (mostly via Driver Bob), and Travel Agent Akira. A computer outage at Narita Airport meant our main flights were 2-3 hours late. A few people missed flights. Then the storms started and got worse. It didn't stop all day. In fact, aside from some time spent getting badges, the rest of the day was spent getting guests in and settled.
Thursday night's our guest and industry reception, held this year in the old Pisces -- formerly a high-end bar/dining space atop the Hyatt, now a special events space. We'd worked hard to get a good deal on the space and it wasn't wasted -- the view is spectacular and the food and drink were pleasant. I had time for a quick shirt change (sweat -- ewww!) and then it was 3-4 hours of meet-and-greet, with me as social butterfly. I wound up in a conversation with some reps of the Japanese Consul -- another good tie into the diplomatic end of Japan's US presence -- and located a possible source for cultural program funding. They were apparently impressed enough to show up with their boss the next day -- win! Meanwhile, our staff, guests, industry, and some friends from other cons all had a chance to mingle.
But the lateness continued. Our last guests arrived sometime near 3 in the morning. Once they were all in, I finally went to bed.
FRIDAY
I room with my mother, who runs our green room, and she was there early to get things running in the BCC. Lots of additional coordination ensued, and thankfully our drivers had no pickups or dropoffs scheduled -- so they became much-appreciated runners for the weekend, filling in the gaps and having occasional runs back and forth with guests. Then suddenly it was time for Opening Ceremonies, for which I was required. It went reasonably well.
Once again the afternoon zoomed by in a blur, and I had to run over with an updated count for Morton's, where we often host the dinner for our Japanese guests. Whenever I go there, they *know* me, which is also very nice.
Suddenly, midway through the upgrade (they had set up for 28 people and had to redo the room with about 20 minutes notice!), I got a phone call that the Japanese Consul was there and could i please come and talk to him on the opposite end of the convention center? Confident in the restaurant, I powerwalked back to Con Ops and met with the Japanese Consul, once again explaining our mission and making nice, but angling to hand him off to our convention chairman -- blessedly, Sean was available. We pledged to follow up later, and I sped back to Morton's just in time to sneak into the back of a group photo and some applause. Whew!
Morton's has been our go-to place for years because they understand how to deal with us; they even have Japanese menus. However, this year, we had a time crunch -- many of our guests wanted to go to the Yoshida Bros concert at 8:30, so we had just 6-8pm to get 38 people through a full-course dinner. I'd arranged with them to cut their normal portions in half, in deference to the smaller Japanese appetite, and in an effort to save money; however, it was still a lavish meal by any stretch of the imagination.
Mortons got us through appetizers, salads, main course, and desserts -- along with drinks, introductions, and plenty of pleasant conversation -- in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I love those guys -- we were able to go right into Hall D and get seated in time for the Yoshida Bros concert.
The concert...it was AMAZING. Those guys are so talented, so masterful. It's a privilege to be in the room when they perform, and they guys themselves are so un-jaded by their success. And why not? They do what they love for a living. The 2600-seat Hall D was *packed*, and possibly pushing the limits for the fire marshal. The crowd was utterly enchanted, completely in sync in a way I've seldom seen *anywhere*. I'm not ashamed to say I was brought to tears by the beauty of the performance.
It took two years of effort to get them, and it was worth it. All our fears of people not responding to the traditional music were blown away -- people LOVED this show.
At night, our first full night of "Battle Bridge" (the night time green room) was underway, and didn't wrap up until well after 3; in fact, it took until nearly 5 before everyone was gone and I could get to bed.
SATURDAY
A few short hours of sleep, then a brief scone in the green room, before the day was really underway. As is usually the case, I spent a lot of time trying, but failing, to see my guests in action, and most of the day on various phones or answering questions. My big push and panic was to get people their prizes -- the guaranteed autographs and seating passes, primarily. And then, just as I was eyeing some lunch, the fire alarm went off.
I remember the whole thing pretty clearly -- almost eerily calm, honestly. The alarm went, I immediately tried to reach Con Ops to find out what was up. No response after two attempts, so I grabbed Terry and said "Terry, you take lead, Mom, you take rear, drivers on the sides. Everyone else, follow the large asian man to safety." I sent them off, and went down to con ops. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get back to the Autographs area for hte bullhorns I knew we had there; they'd have been a huge help.
I quickly touched base with any available staffers and had them space out about 30-40 feet apart, established contact with a staffer with a radio and one of the BCC operators. I reminded every staffer I saw to say please and thank you -- it makes SUCH a difference. Moving more than 25,000 people is a challenge under normal circumstances but even more so when it was hot and humid and noisy. I tied in with my staff to find out where everyone was, and knowing my staff and guests were okay meant I could help out with crowd control -- I'm a big, visible guy with an air of authority and a big voice when needed, and I was needed.
It was a blessing to finally hear the return call -- but hard to keep things on track because the vendors and artists had to come in first. I helped get that process started, but then quickly joined key staff in Ops to get things underway and figure out how to make up the lost time. The stress was UNBELIEVABLE -- it had taken weeks to arrive at that schedule and suddenly we had to rebuild our busiest day in less than an hour and get back up and running right away.
And we DID it.
And about three breaths after that, someone came into ops and said "we've just been told that ours was the smoothest evacuation the BCC has had in recent memory, and there were no injuries". And suddenly the dam broke and I kinda lost it a bit -- I was so proud and so wrenched, and the adrenaline suddenly wore off. I realized I hadn't had anything but a scone all day, and I was fed some gatorade and a half a tuna wrap. Things were back on track.
Except now it was time for dinner, and we couldn't make that happen. There just wasn't time; I had to meet up with the folks at Masquerade for the Yoshiki & Sugizo show. I arrived just as Yoshiki was entering the building and took the pulse of the show. Our folks were worried; the skits were running long and (despite my fears and expectations) it wasn't our notoriously late-running guests' fault! But all was well, eventually -- they went on and had a great little set (beautiful stuff), and basked in the crowd's adoration for a while.
After the press conference, I was asked to find someplace suitable for dinner, then drinks, and then in the confusion didn't wind up getting any dinner myself -- but then it was "can you join Yoshiki for drinks?" and after a quick stop by Ops to try to find some better options for late night boozing, I soon found myself sitting at a restaurant with Yoshiki and Scott and Yaz and a few other folks, drinking excellent wine and toasting our success.
Yoshiki himself was very entertaining. After he claimed that he'd had crab cakes for every meal since he got there, I suggested he have a crab omelet for breakfast for a change of pace. I think we actually hit it off pretty well, and I think we kind of got each other's sense of humor. It was a nice atmosphere, and despite a little weirdness with a fan who got invited to drink with us, it went well. To his surprise and amusement, *I* even got recognized by passing convention-goers who had no clue who he was. :)
He was also keen to thank me for the opportunity in 2006 and again in 2010, and to thank our staff for taking good care of him and keeping the love alive. Rounds of shots were drunk, and he kept saying "If I had not come to Otakon and felt that love, I would not have reformed X-Japan. We will conquer America because of you guys, because of the fans."
I gotta tell ya, that is NOT hard to hear, and it's not hard to have a huge rock star hanging (literally) on you and buying you drinks. At some point I promised to bring him crab cakes next February, but by 230am I was glad he was ready to go see the harbor and then go back to his room. I thanked him, wished him luck, and headed back to the Battle Bridge to visit with my OTHER guests.
Most of whom were still there and a few of whom didn't leave until after 5....