The City of Pittsburgh asked Anthrocon to be hosted in Pittsburgh?
Posted by InsaneKangaroo (Insane Kangaroo) on Tue, 2008-04-22 16:49
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http://www.anthrocon.org/faq/pittsburgh Just for my own curiosity, who from the City of Pittsburgh asked AnthroCon? Thanks, |
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Location: Hainesville, IL
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I think his name was Bob.
(That's a joke, son.)
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permalinkWebsite: [Link]
The story is a good one and involves reps from the Pittsburgh CVB (Convention and Visitor's Bureau) bribing Kage with food, luxurious accommodations and large convention spaces.
I'm sure he'll tell it.
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permalinkMy dear bunny, don't you mean wine?
Or is wine food like beer is liquid bread? 
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permalinkThanks, I'm just trying to understand AnthroCon history. The Pittsburgh CVB is the official promotion agency for Allegheny County.
Also the lead tourist agency in Pittsburgh.
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permalinkLocation: Ardmore, PA
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Yes, the CVB did in fact ask if they could host our convention. We did our first official site visit back in September of 2004. I still have pictures from that somewhere...
The original plan was to move the convention there in 2007, but then the Adam's Mark closed suddenly in December of 2004, so we held AC 2005 at the Wyndham in Center City Philadelphia as a stopgap measure, then moved the con out to Pittsburgh a year early in 2006. Given our attendance in 2006 and onward, this turned out to be for the best.
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permalinko.o Wow giza! How much planning and work it must have took to do so much moving around. There is definitely fast and efficient staff at AnthroCon. ^_^
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permalinkIt was amusing because there was the whole 'union' thing. By 2007 the AC staff started to know 'what the hell was going on' I'm sure 2008 will be even smoother.
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permalinkLocation: Roseville, CA, USA
Amusing? In what way?
I was under the impression that the unions were treating us fairly - even liked us. Has there been some..."unpleasantness" here that I am not aware of?
I have seen an illustration - from one of the American Journal of Anthropomorphic Art volumes, I think - of a draft horse hefting a mallet. The illustration is by Jay Shell, and I have always thought that a Teamster would love to have a t-shirt with such an illustration on the front. I wonder if there are any anthro-themed modifications that could be done with the Teamsters or IBEW logos, to customise special shirts for the crews who have the privilege of working AnthroCon; Local members tend to eat that stuff up. Ah, well - too late to suggest such a thing now, I guess...
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permalinkPeople were almost scared to move a cardboard box without hearing from the union workers.
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As it turned out, the Union folks turned out to be not only very reasonable, but very furry-friendly. They were trotting around the dealer's room buying things, wandering through the art show, and a few of them snuck backstage (with my blessing) during my Story Hour.
We tend to ask for them by name now!
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permalinkYeah... I've actually just last month been researching the history of unions. It is a bloody mess, and people who I've spoken to in large companies like Boeing say its a mess. With stupid little things like union workers filing complaints when the manager does someone else's job when they're clearly too busy to do one task and the manager thinks it would be nice to lend a hand.
There are still some large companies with workers who aren't in a union, those companies treat their employees with respect and as a family, which is what they get in return. It remind of one of the stories where I think the company was a string/yarn factory, when the guy sold the business, he made every one of his workers rich by giving the money to them. :/ Now thats family.
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Due to driving a truck for years, I had direct experience with several unions. "Event" unions, stage hands, lighting, sound, etc. was nice to get along with. They had rules of course, but they got things done. And sometimes very well. "Factory" unions one the other paw was a whole different story. Long story short, one union plant was turning out 3 or less good engines for every 10 produced. Its gotten slightly better due to its competition. A new non-union plant down south that was turning engines good enough that they was shipped directly to the assembly plant. The "factory" union also had the attitude that went along with the quality problem.
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permalinkWell, even in non-factory settings, I've stories.
My dear friend who grew up in Detroit went to go work at a hospital, he is a doctor. He went to his office, unpacked his stuff, and hung his pictures up on the wall. Next week he comes in, the pictures are all leaning on the wall on the floor. He asked the nurse who went in to his office, "I did". He asked why, "Hanging up pictures is part of the maintainence guy's job, he is part of a union." He hung the pictures back up on the wall, they stayed up all week, but on the weekend they were in the same position like the previous week. This went on for about 11 weeks.
Do I even care about unions? No, I don't think I'll ever join or relate myself to a union with that type of activity which goes on. Thankfully I run my own little company and make money among all the other jobs.
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permalinkLocation: 12 scenic miles from Hell
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One staffer's experience:
The Teamsters we deal with at the Convention Center are wonderful. We found them to be very co-operative once we understood and abided by the contract. Most of the Teamsters we worked with the first year actually asked if they could come back and work with us again. The second year we were dealing with mostly the same folks. When one of the new ones had some issues, the union steward (or whatever the right term is) immediately took the situation in hand, straightened it all out, and got things moving smoothly in a matter of minutes. My understanding is that they've all asked to come back again this year, and have expressed hope that Anthrocon staffer Heathyr Lamb would would be their at-con interface again. She will be, which makes both us and them very happy.
I've not had as much experience with the union folks in the hotel, but the second-hand reports I've heard have been pretty positive.
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Indeed, what I have learned is that one cannot judge someone's attitude or quality of work simply because that person is "union." Union members are all different: some are reasonable, some are fun, some are fussy, some are just trying to do a good job.
Not unlike furries.
And also not unlike furries, all you ever hear are horror stories. Nobody ever bothers to tell you that "we had an event at this convention center and the union folks were really great." Maybe that's why they've taken to us so much!
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permalinkLocation: Mystic, CT
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We know what the hell's going on? (o_O)
Psst, Simba, do we know what the hell's going on?
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permalinkLocation: Chicago, IL
Sometimes I'm not sure >.<
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permalinkYou won't be sure when I come to anthrocon, let the insanity begin!
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permalinkLocation: Chicagoland
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Wait, something's going on? Hairy armpit of Hades, did I volunteer for this thing again?
I've been waiting for my orientation paperwork for five years now! Does ANYONE have one of these mythical "cloos" everyone tells me I need to get?
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permalinkLocation: Philadelphia, PA
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Wow! I didn't know that, but that's actually really cool of them.
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permalinkLocation: NJ
See, that's why I just remain a volunteer. I do the simple gruntwork and avoid the chaos. :3
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