Magnet #1005 - BAM!All of geekdom wasted another two hours going after the SD Comic-Con badges that their registration vendor, EPIC, couldn't make happen. Again. Making this BAM!
I had nothing to do but ride a train and hit refresh, so I sat back and watched the #sdcc hashtag fly by, laughing as each hatetweet and #EPICfail Tweet and Cafe Press shirt went by. But, it's not really funny.
On the business side, there's absolutely nothing funny about a vendor who doesn't deliver, twice. There's also nothing funny about slow PR crisis response, waiting too long to communicate with the pissed-off masses, and waiting even longer to call Time of Death on the registration proceedings.
I do feel terrible for the folks that were running around trying to fix the bad situation. But that time lapse allowed so much #sdcc vitriol to spew that it would make any and all corporate reputation experts' heads spin. So much goodwill was lost in those two hours, it's impossible to gauge. Will anyone boycott? No, of course not. Will people continue to mock the SDCC and EPIC brands? Most likely.
Now we wait for the next TBD reg date. In the meantime, the below post is from DC Sister, who was one of the lucky ones who got a golden ticket.
Take it away, Charlie!
- joy
____________________________________
So if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that Joy and I went to the San Diego Comic-Con this past summer. Yeah. Cool, right?
She and I (and maybe SaveTheWorldCouple) were supposed to have bought our tickets for the 2011 Comic-Con yesterday. You would think that after the big registration fail two weeks ago, the organizers would’ve come up with some solutions before they reopened registration yesterday. Too bad that didn’t happen.
Once again, I was obsessively pressing the Refresh button for more than an hour only to get server errors. Sigh. Oh well.
In the end, I got my badge at least before they closed registration once more for technical difficulties. Sadly, I have a feeling that one more fail means none of my group will want to go and I’ll have to sell my ticket back.
Oh, but I do so want to go!
Why? you ask. Why venture back into the fray of the great, graphic-T-wearing unwashed? Here goes:
- The stars. How often do you get to see/hear your favorite stars talk about their shows/movies? In D.C. it doesn’t happen often. I don’t like New York much, but I do get jealous when Joy gets to see someone like Colin Firth speak at a screening. (To brag, though, I’ve been on the set of The West Wing and met the cast when they filmed in D.C., so ... holla!)
- The spectacle. Dudes, a lot of people go to this shindig. Like a lot, a lot. And I hate lines; I like to blame the three-hour wait at Bloomingdale’s to meet Santa when we were kids. [This way to Santa! This way to Santa! - joy] But at this place? I don’t mind so much. Because, really, where else can you sit down for an hour or two in line and see Wonder Woman, Mal Reynolds, Chewbacca and a TARDIS pass you by in a matter of minutes? Best. People watching. Ever.
- The possibilities. The $64,000 question: Is it better to go in 2011 or 2012? Much of this hinges on what movies are coming out next year. Captain America had a panel this summer, but the film is scheduled to open Comic-Con weekend in 2011! Will the cast be there again? Will they have, like, surprise screenings? Because if so, I’m there. Richard Armitage is in this movie. It may be a bit part, but who cares. He’s. In. A. Movie. Like a big movie. What if he’s there???
Also, he’s gonna be in The Hobbit. I don’t even like that book! All I remember from reading it in sixth grade is the vocabulary word “fortnight.” I don’t really know who his character is either. But I do know I’ll be seein’ that ish. But will Richard, Peter Jackson et al. be at Comic-Con in 2011?
Presumably they’d still be filming in New Zealand, but could one or two of them - preferably someone whose initials are brought to you by the letters R and A - give an early sneak peek at footage, maybe to raise awareness? Or would they come in 2012, a few months before the movie releases in December? Bah. These are important questions!
They likely won’t be answered until well after we decide to give up our tickets. Alls I know is I’ll be kicking myself if I’m at home that week in July and there’s some YouTube video of Richard Armitage playing Just Dance with Zachary Levi on the Comic-Con show floor in San Diego or something.
*TM @NathanFillion, who *needs* to call me when we’re in San Diego...if anyone can successfully register, that is.
She and I (and maybe SaveTheWorldCouple) were supposed to have bought our tickets for the 2011 Comic-Con yesterday. You would think that after the big registration fail two weeks ago, the organizers would’ve come up with some solutions before they reopened registration yesterday. Too bad that didn’t happen.
Once again, I was obsessively pressing the Refresh button for more than an hour only to get server errors. Sigh. Oh well.
In the end, I got my badge at least before they closed registration once more for technical difficulties. Sadly, I have a feeling that one more fail means none of my group will want to go and I’ll have to sell my ticket back.
Oh, but I do so want to go!
Why? you ask. Why venture back into the fray of the great, graphic-T-wearing unwashed? Here goes:
- The stars. How often do you get to see/hear your favorite stars talk about their shows/movies? In D.C. it doesn’t happen often. I don’t like New York much, but I do get jealous when Joy gets to see someone like Colin Firth speak at a screening. (To brag, though, I’ve been on the set of The West Wing and met the cast when they filmed in D.C., so ... holla!)
- The spectacle. Dudes, a lot of people go to this shindig. Like a lot, a lot. And I hate lines; I like to blame the three-hour wait at Bloomingdale’s to meet Santa when we were kids. [This way to Santa! This way to Santa! - joy] But at this place? I don’t mind so much. Because, really, where else can you sit down for an hour or two in line and see Wonder Woman, Mal Reynolds, Chewbacca and a TARDIS pass you by in a matter of minutes? Best. People watching. Ever.
- The possibilities. The $64,000 question: Is it better to go in 2011 or 2012? Much of this hinges on what movies are coming out next year. Captain America had a panel this summer, but the film is scheduled to open Comic-Con weekend in 2011! Will the cast be there again? Will they have, like, surprise screenings? Because if so, I’m there. Richard Armitage is in this movie. It may be a bit part, but who cares. He’s. In. A. Movie. Like a big movie. What if he’s there???
Also, he’s gonna be in The Hobbit. I don’t even like that book! All I remember from reading it in sixth grade is the vocabulary word “fortnight.” I don’t really know who his character is either. But I do know I’ll be seein’ that ish. But will Richard, Peter Jackson et al. be at Comic-Con in 2011?
Presumably they’d still be filming in New Zealand, but could one or two of them - preferably someone whose initials are brought to you by the letters R and A - give an early sneak peek at footage, maybe to raise awareness? Or would they come in 2012, a few months before the movie releases in December? Bah. These are important questions!
They likely won’t be answered until well after we decide to give up our tickets. Alls I know is I’ll be kicking myself if I’m at home that week in July and there’s some YouTube video of Richard Armitage playing Just Dance with Zachary Levi on the Comic-Con show floor in San Diego or something.
*TM @NathanFillion, who *needs* to call me when we’re in San Diego...if anyone can successfully register, that is.
