FFXIV Fanfest 2023 North America safety/security/disability support issues discussion

A little late to the discussion, but I've been mulling things over during the last few weeks since FanFest.

For context, I can't stand for very long periods of time and use a stick because of it. I came from Europe to attend this FanFest in Vegas, the only other I've been to in the past being FanFest Paris in 2019.

I got my ADA wristband on pre-reg day, as a backup in case I needed it, and didn't earnestly use it until Day 2. The queue hall on Day 1 ended up too much for me, so I enquired about the ADA line on Day 2 in order to not have to stand so packed together for 2+ hours. Seemed good enough at first, until... they made us stand in the ADA line for 2+ hours. We were told we could sit on the floor if needed, but as others have mentioned, the line was placed in the entry/exit point for staff members, so it was not particularly safe (nor would it have done my crumbling bones, or many other disabled individuals, any favours).

The majority of my negative experiences (which I tried to brush aside, but are still on my mind) honestly came from other attendees more than anything. People without ADA wristbands using ADA seating, using the ADA line without a wristband and loudly discussing how they were using it to skip the merch line, asking several groups nearer the back who had been holding multiple empty chairs for 30+ mins if I could use one just until their friends got back, only to be aggressively told no*... I feel like I should have been a little more proactive in these situations, but I was so stunned I had no idea what to say.

*My thanks to someone who saw their friend say no, spotted my cane, then ran over with their own chair... I felt embarrassed, but very grateful LOL

There was this feeling that everybody was in it for themselves, and I couldn't work out if this was a post-pandemic thing, an American event thing, or something else. There was a vicious cycle of not being able to get seats because people were saving them for friends, which made you want to save seats too, leading to having to plan your entire day around trying to sit down for the evening event. And in most case, still failing. The standing area situation for the PRIMALS concert was genuinely scary to me, and I spent my youth going to a large variety of rock gigs, to say nothing of the ADA situation there either! The size of FanFest in Paris 2019 was not terribly different, with the same layout, and had none of the issues I encountered at Las Vegas, so it doesn't seem like the format of the event was neccessarily an issue. (Though, I would argue that having events with the intent that everyone attends, such as the keynote and concerts, and only seating room for maybe half the attendees, is a structural issue)

Was this event a fluke? Did I pick the one bad time to attend from overseas? I'm curious to see how this year's EU event goes, to see if any of the same issues are prevalent.

I just want to circle back on this to close the loop on my fact finding effort.

I managed to get a copy of the actual lease contract signed by SQEX with the LVCVA. As LVCVA is a government agency, it is a matter of public record, and NV law requires that public records are available to the public on request, with a response back to the requester due within 5 days of the request being made.

On that contract is the following statement: "The Lessee shall be responsible to provide readily achievable access to the show and provide auxiliary aids to anyone in accordance with the Americans With Disabilities Act."

This should put to rest any question about who was supposed to do what to provide appropriate accommodation--it's right in the contract that any organization that rents hall space is responsible for making sure special accommodations are provided inside the hall.

I am not a lawyer. That said, I think the practical implications of this is that event staff contracted by SQEX should have been directed to ensure the integrity of areas set up to accommodate handicapped folks. If general attendees are going to show up and take reserved seating away, then staff should have just straight up thrown those attendees out, and there should be language prior to purchasing a ticket saying something like "those not following instructions of event staff during the event will be subject to removal from the premises" or something.

More generally, I think there should have been better communication throughout the event staff and security teams. I would expect to have seen more radios among staff members. Maybe not one for each staff member, but one per specific area. I think a lot of the confusion as to how to organize folks could have been avoided if staff members could get a question to their chain of command quickly, and have the answer relayed through their command structure in a prompt manner.

-Nacl

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Originally Posted by Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej

I would expect to have seen more radios among staff members. Maybe not one for each staff member, but one per specific area. I think a lot of the confusion as to how to organize folks could have been avoided if staff members could get a question to their chain of command quickly, and have the answer relayed through their command structure in a prompt manner.

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One of my friends actually asked a loporrit about the staffing and who works for whom, and we were told something along the lines of "those with radios/earpieces are SE employees and those without work for the convention center."

(Of course I can't verify whether that's actually true or not, but it's what we were told.)

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

I do hope the English side of the company has a lot more involvement with future English fanfests. Its quite clear there is a barrier preventing as much oversight to the fanfests. I wouldn't be surprised if Japans fanfest is much smoother, and doesn't have as many problems.

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Even if it weren't communicated better, it's being held in Tokyo Dome -- the capacity of that place is over double what NA attendance was.

Late to the thread, but something I've considered that hasn't been talked about - I attended Fanfest, I should note - is that, not that misbehaving attendees are without fault, but Square Enix has really done a number with manufacturing a sense of scarcity when it comes to FFXIV merchandise. Things sell out so quickly or get discontinued so quickly when--this is wholly my opinion--it doesn't make a lot of sense.

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Originally Posted by Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej

I just want to circle back on this to close the loop on my fact finding effort.

I managed to get a copy of the actual lease contract signed by SQEX with the LVCVA. As LVCVA is a government agency, it is a matter of public record, and NV law requires that public records are available to the public on request, with a response back to the requester due within 5 days of the request being made.

On that contract is the following statement: "The Lessee shall be responsible to provide readily achievable access to the show and provide auxiliary aids to anyone in accordance with the Americans With Disabilities Act."

This should put to rest any question about who was supposed to do what to provide appropriate accommodation--it's right in the contract that any organization that rents hall space is responsible for making sure special accommodations are provided inside the hall.

I am not a lawyer. That said, I think the practical implications of this is that event staff contracted by SQEX should have been directed to ensure the integrity of areas set up to accommodate handicapped folks. If general attendees are going to show up and take reserved seating away, then staff should have just straight up thrown those attendees out, and there should be language prior to purchasing a ticket saying something like "those not following instructions of event staff during the event will be subject to removal from the premises" or something.

More generally, I think there should have been better communication throughout the event staff and security teams. I would expect to have seen more radios among staff members. Maybe not one for each staff member, but one per specific area. I think a lot of the confusion as to how to organize folks could have been avoided if staff members could get a question to their chain of command quickly, and have the answer relayed through their command structure in a prompt manner.

-Nacl

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Does this mean there is grounds for a lawsuit? I'm trying to stay in the loop as well. Literally the worst experience I've had as a fellow ADA attendee.

I'm a little late to this party, but I have been looking for some place to leave feedback for the LV Fanfest. My kid and I were fortunate to go, and there were a lot of great things there, but there definitely were some concerns.

As lots of people pointed out, security was mostly non-existent I didn't see a single person checked for a wrist band, and the way they were conducting security screens was inconsistent. They just herded people through as fast as they could, even people with huge bags and props. However, I was stopped when I only brought in the souvenir bag that had my eyeglasses in it.

ADA accommodations were not clearly communicated at all. We could have benefited from the ADA wristband that we only found out about at the end of the Fanfest. There were not nearly enough seats, and I saw people taking the disability banner off of chairs and throwing them off so they could sit. Forcing ADA people to give up their seats to make an unregulated pit area was a ridiculous move. Although I will give credit that on Day 2, the staff was very protectively creating a merch line exclusively for ADA people first thing in the morning.

Staff kept saying there were 14000 attendees, but there were only like 5 or 6 food booths that you waited in line for 30+ minutes just to place your order, and then you had to wait 30+ minutes more depending on your food.

Staff communication and knowledge were mostly non-existent. We were told at least 5 different locations for the merch lines. By the time I finally got the correct info, they had already shut down the merch line like 2 hours into day one, and half of the stuff was sold out by the time I got in on day two. I get that there was a pre-order, but it wasn't something we were able to do at the time it came out.

I am also not a fan of having Fanfest return to LV, or ever personally returning to LV for that matter. There were so many extra costs and resort fees that made even trying to eat simple extremely expensive. The heat in the summer was incredibly oppressive, especially for people with ADA concerns. And that's not to even get into having to deal with all of the other shenanigans that normally go on in Vegas.

I've been to conventions in other parts of the country that seem to have very similar sized facilities that could have held this event comfortably. The locations could have had milder weather, been less costly to attendees, have a positive ADA accommodation history, and not have had to compete with other events and activities in the area.

Sure would be nice if SE would consider an east coast location for Fanfest for once.

NYC, Washington DC, Charlotte, and Atlanta are all prime locations for an event of that scale, and have the advantage of relatively inexpensive flights for about 80% of the population of the US and Canada (LV is probably cheaper for Mexico, though.)

Heck, Toronto is a better location if it's going to be in July again. Much better odds of being in the 80-90s instead of the 110s.

All those cities also have convention centers capable of hosting huge crowds, and event staffing agencies they could contract with who are used to handling giant anime and comic conventions.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

Sure would be nice if SE would consider an east coast location for Fanfest for once.

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The big advantage Vegas has is that it's much cheaper to hold a convention there, and has enough cheap(ish), nearby hotels to accommodate everyone. Personally I'd also love to see them hold the next one literally anywhere else, but I also understand why Vegas is so appealing from the host's perspective.

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

The big advantage Vegas has is that it's much cheaper to hold a convention there, and has enough cheap(ish), nearby hotels to accommodate everyone. Personally I'd also love to see them hold the next one literally anywhere else, but I also understand why Vegas is so appealing from the host's perspective.

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That's the thing though. The hotels aren't cheap compared to where I've stayed in other cities. There were like two extra tourism taxes that we got blindsided with, plus some of the bigger hotels near the CC had "resort fees" on top of that. And as I said, even simple foods were crazy expensive (as in even more expensive then Disney parks food).

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

The big advantage Vegas has is that it's much cheaper to hold a convention there, and has enough cheap(ish), nearby hotels to accommodate everyone. Personally I'd also love to see them hold the next one literally anywhere else, but I also understand why Vegas is so appealing from the host's perspective.

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Again, this is something that the other host cities I tossed out are used to handling as well. Vegas has no advantage any more. Atlanta hosts Dragon*Con every year, with 75,000 people spread across five hotels. The other big cities also have the advantage of mass transit being readily available, so if someone wants to have a cheaper hotel a bit further out, they can do so without needing to walk or drive their car. It's one thing I hated about Vegas when I was there for FF in 2014- either you paid out the nose for the host hotel, or you had to get a tax/Uber from where you were staying to where the con was. (It was weirdly in the Rio that first year iirc.)

I just got an official email asking for feedback regarding Fanfest. Hopefully other people get it to and are able to share their thoughts.

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

The big advantage Vegas has is that it's much cheaper to hold a convention there, and has enough cheap(ish), nearby hotels to accommodate everyone. Personally I'd also love to see them hold the next one literally anywhere else, but I also understand why Vegas is so appealing from the host's perspective.

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Your take makes me wonder if thats really the case though. If Vegas is cheap to hold cons at that means they'd have extra funds that can be allotted elsewhere right? Meaning we could've gotten better goodie bag trinkets or better prizes for the minigames, free bottled water for attendees to reduce water fountain lines and prevent heatstroke outside, more chairs could've been purchased, etc. I could literally go on but it boils down to either SE was being extremely stingy or Vegas isn't as cheap as you may think for organizers. Ijs.