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

[Avenger]

I watched attendees without ADA bands sit in ADA marked seats with no disregard or care in the world, even when confronted about it by other players.

Wow, I can't imagine taking an ADA seat when you didn't need it and then refusing to move for someone with an ADA wristband, or wheelchair, etc. If they weren't moving a lot, they might have been in shock (not necessarily easy to recognize) or had an invisible disability and not realized they needed a wristband.

Or they might have been that one toxic player and/or forum troll that we've occasionally met. At a previous fanfest someone removed a plush moogle from our PLD's merch bag during a panel session.

[Brightamethyst]

With how disastrous this fanfest was, with how much of a failure and breakdown in logistics as well a monetary damages caused by making people throw out their water bottles, SQEX should refund everyone their $200 to help compensate from this terrible experience.

"Disastrous" is a relative term. Yes, there were some large logistical issues, but despite the loud complaints about a few specific issues, most people still seemed to have enjoyed themselves. For every loud "I'm never going back" proclamation, how many silent "I'd go again in a heartbeat" do you think there are?

The fact the certain aspects weren't handled well doesn't mean the event itself was a failure.

[luciferbelmont]

Ain't no way this is real!? People just wanted to be treated like people. International company or not, that's not an excuse for how poorly it was run. SE is a multi-million dollar company.

SE doesn't own the venue they held Fan Fest at. There's only so much they can do. Yeah they can tell the security at the venue and the staff "Hey please treat these people right or we aren't coming back!" But at the end that's up to the security and staff at the venue. That's something a lot of you need to understand, you should be calling out the venue, but instead you are picking a fight with the wrong people. What you can tell SE to do is not use that venue again at Vegas or try another venue at a different state. That's if you guys actually care. Which you don't, you're all just performative and acting like you care.

[Dagny]

SE doesn't own the venue they held Fan Fest at. There's only so much they can do. Yeah they can tell the security at the venue and the staff "Hey please treat these people right or we aren't coming back!" But at the end that's up to the security and staff at the venue. That's something a lot of you need to understand, you should be calling out the venue, but instead you are picking a fight with the wrong people. What you can tell SE to do is not use that venue again at Vegas or try another venue at a different state. That's if you guys actually care. Which you don't, you're all just performative and acting like you care.

As someone that was in the disability sections at fanfest, I am going to repeat this until I'm blue in the face: all parties from the LVCC and SQEX are accountable. We've been able to identify a SQEX employee through LinkedIn. He did not control the crowd at the Primals concert, though he was a member of upper management. We have documentation of this and multiple witnesses.

Those that are concerned about what happened at fanfest are reaching out to all accountable parties. That includes Square Enix, the Las Vegas Convention Center and Clark County (where it's located). We have also filed reports with the ADA and Nevada's chapter of the ADA. But Square has responsibility here, too, and should own up to it.

[Koros]

Lmao you are rude to everyone else on this forum with your petty and offensive statements

why are you this defensive? did u steal an ADA seat for urself??

[luciferbelmont]

As someone that was in the disability sections at fanfest, I am going to repeat this until I'm blue in the face: all parties from the LVCC and SQEX are accountable. We've been able to identify a SQEX employee through LinkedIn. He did not control the crowd at the Primals concert, though he was a member of upper management. We have documentation of this and multiple witnesses.

Those that are concerned about what happened at fanfest are reaching out to all accountable parties. That includes Square Enix, the Las Vegas Convention Center and Clark County (where it's located). We have also filed reports with the ADA and Nevada's chapter of the ADA. But Square has responsibility here, too, and should own up to it.

Just because someone is upper management from one company, doesn't mean they get to tell other companies/venues what to do. I don't think you guys know how this works. If only it was that easy to control others then yeah you'd have a point. But welcome to the real world. not everyone is gonna listen to you.

[Dagny]

Just because someone is upper management from one company, doesn't mean they get to tell other companies/venues what to do. I don't think you guys know how this works. If only it was that easy to control others then yeah you'd have a point. But welcome to the real world. not everyone is gonna listen to you.

SQEX was the one running this event. This was their concert, not the LVCC's. Management could have put a stop to it at any point to filter out the crowds or make rearrangements to seating, or say 'for safety concerns we need to shut this down'. Would this have looked bad? Yes, absolutely, but the unsafe situation was brought to his attention by multiple attendees who feared for their safety. Many thought this employee was a temp worker over how passively he acted. If someone that is a key player in organizing the whole event isn't going to step up or isn't going to be listened to, then there is something wrong with the whole leadership structure and it needs to be seriously looked at.

I know not everyone may listen to me but I am not going to just sit idly by and let SQEX shrug off the blame for putting their fans in danger.

[Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej]

I just got back from meeting with Mr. Michael Naft, Clark County Commissioner for District A and my elected representative. Present at the meeting were myself, Mr. Naft, and Mr. Brian Yost, LVCVA Chief Operating Officer. (Shout out to my elected official for arranging LVCVA's presence at this meeting. I didn't ask for that to happen, so it was good to be able to look at an authority from LVCVA and get a direct response.)

I had requested a meeting for this morning to prepare for tomorrow, since tomorrow will be the monthly LVCVA board of directors meeting. I wanted to understand how LVCVA sees its responsibilities for providing safety, security, and ADA accomodations such that I could give an actual informed recommendation tomorrow.

The TLDR of it is that LVCVA's responsibilities for ensuring safety and accessibility end "at the wall". This is preliminary information as I have requested a BLANK copy of the standardized contract they use to rent out the convention center hall. I do not have that contract in hand yet--they are trying to find out if it's a public document, and if it is they will send me a blank contract. This is pretty much all we discussed; there were no lawyers present so we were just trying to understand each other today. It was described to me by the COO that any personnel employed in service of executing an expo at the convention center is contracted wholly by the hall renter (in this case, SQEX), and that LVCVA has no part in dictating what service providers a hall renter uses.

I am still trying to hammer down facts, such as what is on the rental agreement (hopefully I hear back from them in a timely manner), but this is where we're at today. From the Las Vegas gov't side, anything that happens inside the hall is squarely on the shoulders of the hall renter/expo planning team, to include hiring general and security services and giving everyone their marching orders for the day, and it's on the hall renter to comply with all local, state and federal regulations.

I hope this helps everyone understand better who's responsible for what, but this is increasingly looking like SQEX. We all need to learn from this going forward, because we really need to treat our disabled Warrior of Light comrades with the dignity and basic respect they deserve as whole human beings.

I will update this thread as developments occur. I will be attending tomorrow's Board of Directors meeting to give my recommendations to LVCVA requesting a comprehensive review of safety/security/ADA compliance measures during public comments since the meeting is open to the public.

-Nacl

[Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeej]

A small update from the Las Vegas area.

I attended the Board of Directors meeting this morning. During the meeting, they listed off the conventions that happened since the last meeting and FFXIV came up briefly, including a few pictures of folks in cosplay and what not. Basically they just said "this happened last month" as part of the agenda.

LVCVA is apparently involved with preparing the strip for F1 in November and planning security and safety for Super Bowl in 2024. I bring this up because it's the same set of people that need to allocate time and manpower to address the feedback I physically handed to them this morning and made public comment on at the end of the meeting, so please temper expectations accordingly. I'll do my best to remind them that folks want some acknowledgement of at least being seen and heard.

For their part, they've been pretty responsive to my question--that is, if I could get a copy of the contract template they use to lease out space at the convention center. Still standing by for a response, but I assume if the Chief Operating Officer is asking them to send it to me it'll probably get done.

-Nacl

[Hawkstar95]

IF I may....

The Fanfest back in 2017 had similar issues. Security was definitely lax for sure with the exception of the merch. The event was way past fire code to the point where the Merch Line was cut off on Saturday for many attendees. The merch line was also a nightmare, blocking off entrances and exits to the main hall. It was so bad the hotel even contacted me saying that none of the issues were their problem after I complained on social media. It was all on Square Enix. It's honestly why I didn't go this go round. I figured the event would be a **** show, yet here we are yet again and I'm glad I didn't go.

I am honestly very surprised that even the Convention Center couldn't even handle the issues.

Personally, I think other cities outside of Las Vegas, LA, and San Diego deserve the opportunity to host, especially since this is the third time the event in Las Vegas was given mixed reviews. Give Chicago or Toronto a try. How about Boston or Seattle, since PAX is well received each year in both locations?

It's not just about the event anymore. It's also about accommodations for all our fans. If those are not there, then things need to change for the better.