Advanstar - International Motorcycle Show

And even more Pictures...

Advanstar - International Motorcycle Show

More Pictures...

Advanstar - International Motorcycle Show

This is one of the fun events that come to the WCC. If you love bikes this is the show for you. I do have pictures to post on this.

Now to the show...
Everything went smooth, there were some things that took place like some bikers almost got into it with one of the vendors and the police was called, one of the vendors was scalping tickets and got caught (ha, ha, ha), on the last day (Sunday, Jan. 14) someone stole a black leather jacket of the rack and got away with it (that's very sad, especialy when you have show security at the doors, WCC security, and and Contract Security and no one could catch the guy.

Now to the pictures...

NBC 4 Health & Fitness Expo

A 2 day show (Jan. 13 & 14) A fun and exciting event for the entire family. To top it all off it was free! Children's Hospital, eye exams, and the fun part... giving blood (sorry bad joke) there were dance teams, Washington Wizards Dance Team, allot of stuff for the kids. Now to the show. The Show Manager was very pickey, this is a good thing not a bad thing, she really kept us on our toues. The only thing was the vendors trash cans, the Show Manager should have had a contractor to specificaly take care of this but, we sucked it up and not only pulled the cans on the floor but from every booth they had... I hope next time the take batter action and prepair.

Fenty Inaugural Ball

This picture was taken around 8:30 p.m. I don't have the best camera but you can see the crowd of people in the grand lobby, to the left is East Registration which was crowded with people, you can't see the the crowed of people outside of the doors but you can see the people coming in the doors (Chaos!)





I'll will attempt to look at this from 4 different point of views.

• DC
• People that attended the event
• Security
• Behind the scenes
  

First let me give an overview leading up to the event. It was very hard to guess how many people were going to attend this event, I believe they tried to gauge this event by the turn out for Fenty's Inaugural held on Wed., Jan 3, 2007, which had lower numbers than expected. At first the Ball was expecting a turn out of around 15,000 people, because the date was changed from Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007 to Saturday, Jan. 6, 2007 the estimated count was dropped to around 9,000 people. As you can see from news reports the amount of people that showed up almost tripled this expected number. With that said lets look at how this effected everyone involved.

1) The city:

• I'll start with this one because it's the easiest. If I could paraphrase what the Mayor said when he took the stage: You don't know how happy I am to look out and see a sea of faces as far as the eye can stretch. And that's exactly what it was, a sea of people as far as the eye could see. Great support for the new Mayor, a beautiful night, and to top it all off... it was free (with a cash bar of course).

2) People that attended the event:

• I was not in the crowd of people waiting to get into the event but I observed the crowed of people. It was more like a Mob of people. Lines were long (what lines it was just a mass of bodies), very limited seating, very crowded to get into the halls. I saw the mass of people in the ABC concourse, Grand lobby, East Registration, out front on Mt. Vernon Street wrapped around the building. Now when I say out front of Mt. Vernon Street I mean there was a huge mass of people waiting to get into the building blocking the entrance doors. From someone looking at the sea of people it was sheer madness.

3) Security:

• Before I get into what I saw let me tell you how it was set up before the event started. It looked very nice! there was to be a line formed from Mt. Vernon, people were to be taken to a staging area located in East Registration where there was seating, from East registration groups of people were to be filed in an orderly fashion through the grand lobby, down the escalators that lead to ABC concourse to a line in front of A or B Hall, at that point they were to go through a security check point then into the halls. All this looked good but it did not work. It started out fine till everyone showed up. A mob of people were at the front doors spilling into the grand lobby, a line of people went up 7th and 9th street, East registration was packed, AB concourse was packed and getting worse, security screeners could not keep up with the masses, the fire marshal stepped in and tried to bring order to the chaos, at different times entrance to the building and also to the halls was temporarily shut down till some type of action plan was put in place to bring order to the chaos. Around 8:30 p.m. security to get into the halls was eliminated and anyone could get in. Around 9:30 p.m. no one could get into Halls A & B so C hall had to be opened up. Now take into account that the event started at 7:00 p.m. and it's now 9:30 p.m. and there still was a massive amount of people trying to get into the event.

4) I saved the best for last... Behind the Scenes:

• I was part of behind the scenes so believe me when I say we did our best given what we had to work with. so you ask, could the WCC have done a better job? The answer is yes. In many areas we fell short but we did our best to accommodate everyone. After this night I asked myself many questions. I had to wear many hats this night, Not only taking care of the housekeeping end but helping with security, meeting services, and show management. Because of this I must touch on each area. This event was to be a standing event with designated seating for senior citizens... this did not happen and it was not enforced, once people started sitting down everyone wanted to sit down, it put meeting services in a bad position because they were trying to bring out more tables and chairs during the event and when hall C was opened tables were still being set up and people were actually fighting over chairs (no joke on this). Security was understaffed and being pulled all over the place to handle crowed control and different situations, one situation that I observed was when airwalls C were opened up a mad rush of people ran (have you ever seen ladies in high heels and nice evening gowns run and fight over chairs?) to get chairs that were in storage, security had to be called because they actually pushed past the doors and went back into storage and began to take chairs for themselves... madness! Now for my job, housekeeping... We got no complaints and we did out best even though we were stretched thin like all other departments.
  

I mentioned earlier that after the event I had to think on what happened and here are some of my thoughts.

1. What could have been done to handle the crowds of people better?
2. What could have show management done to make this event run smoother given the budget we had to work with?
3. What would have happened if the building needed to be evacuated during this event? (This one is big on my mind!)
4. When the security screeners stopped checking people for weapons and allowed anyone to enter the hall what would have happened if someone had a firearm or even worse... explosives? with 20,000 - 25,000 people in the halls it would have been a major disaster.
5. Seating was a mess... for future events, how could show management do a better job in enforcing this? It is my understanding that the fire marshal got involved in seating (among many other things.) I felt sorry for the senior citizens that were left standing when the priority seating should have been enforced for senior citizens.

A lot went wrong behind the scenes, but I have to say overall they did a decent job. No one got hurt and there were no injuries or incidences. To me that's amazing considering the number of people that attended the event! After this event my legs and body were burned out. We all learned something from this and will be better prepared if we are to host another event like this. On a heads up we will have to be better prepared, the presidents functions will be taking place and we don't want what happened during this event to take place during the presidents events.

I could probably write all day about this event and I touched on a few things that were running through my head. I'm sure many more people behind the scenes could bring up more items of discussion like Centerplate, with the number of people present they only had enough food to last till 9:30 p.m. after that it was slim pickings. But that's not my area of expertise so I'll leave that alone. On my end... great job housekeeping!

T.D. Jakes Wed. Night

After the Fenty Inaugural and the 2 meeting following, I got a chance to go to halls D and E to listen to Martha Munizzi practice (Do a sound check). If I had my camera I would have taken a picture (I really need to get a smaller digital camera). She is preforming tonight, I will not be working so I hope all goes well. For those that do not know who Martha Munizzi is, she is a prominent Christian Praise and Worship leader. The first time I hear of her was when she preformed at Joel Osteen's Church (Lakewood Church in Huston Texas). If you love Praise and Worship Music then you will love her music, I know one of her songs was featured in the movie called The Gospel.

Fenty swearing in

From Examiner.com

Adrian M. Fenty took office Tuesday as mayor of the District of Columbia, even though his public inauguration ceremony was postponed because of former President Gerald R. Ford's funeral.

Fenty was sworn in at a private morning ceremony at D.C. Superior Court, spokeswoman Mafara Hobson confirmed. The federal law granting home rule to the city requires the mayor to officially take office by noon on Jan. 2.

A public swearing-in is scheduled for Wednesday, and an inaugural ball will be held Saturday night.

Fenty, a 36-year-old Democrat who previously served on the D.C. Council, was chosen overwhelmingly in the Nov. 7 election after beating longtime council Chairman Linda W. Cropp in September's Democratic primary.

Now to what I have to say...

the event was good, they did not get the turn out that was expected and I only saw 2 people sitting in the overflow area. The event started about 30-45min. behind schedule. Over all the WCC did a great job handling the event, I look forward in seeing what Saturday, 6 Jan. 2007 has in store for us. The Inaugural ball should be fun, I'll be here working and I'll see if I can get some pictures posted.

(I took this picture with my not so good digital camera.)

Closed on Jan. 1, 2007

Wow!!! we will be closed this day. I know to the government workers (do they really work, lol, don't take it personal!) but us non-government people do usually have to work on these days. So that makes for a 3 day weekend, can't complain about that.

But unlike the government, on Jan. 2, 2006 we will be up and running preparing for Fenty and T.D. Jakes.

For those that don't know Jan. 2, 2006 has been declared a day of morning for the death of President Ford. It will be hard to get in and out of DC this day.

On a heads up were going to have the car show coming... I'll post more on that later. We still have a few events to get through before this takes place (Like the motorcycle show).

Finally Up

finally got the blog space done (or have I?)! There are some other things that I want to add to it but for now I think I have the basic layout finished. There are some pictures that I want to post and I want to link my on line photo basket to this site.

I'm open to ideas to make the web page better so what every input you all give I'll check it out.

Dealing with personal issues in an mmo

One thing I have learned is that never let your personal issues get involved with gaming, especially in an mmorpg. Sure you can make great friends, sure you build relationships, sure you find a great guild with a great guild leader, but always remember it's a game. I have found that most people use gaming as an escape form the day to day grind to get away from what every it is they need to get away from and some people play for the fun of it and don't care who is on the other end. let's face it, if your in a guild (or not in one) you can be who ever you want to be and no one will know the difference (Unless there the FBI and can track you down, lol)... does this really matter? In all actuality no it does not as long as you maintain a consistent play/character style then no one will question you, but if your actions as a character reflect your actually life and you are having problems in your real life then everyone will take notice and start to ask questions, It's your decision if you wish, or not wish, to answer those questions. All I can say is be careful on how you answer those questions, it all depends on how much you want to put yourself out there to be scrutinized by others that you may know in game but truly you do not know. Trust me, I have been there and it sure can destroy some good friendships. You don't see them on a daily basis so you don't know what they are going through and they don't know what your going through. And by all means DO NOT put your business out there unless you are prepared to be scrutinized, questioned, poked and prodded. Everyone needs someone to talk too... so talk to your spouse, friend, pastor, councilor or loved one, make sure that person is tangible and willing to listen, do not dump your problems on someone you met on line in an mmorpg. Keep gaming to gaming and personal life to the real world.

Guilds can be fun,now the key word here is fun... don't destroy the fun and friendship of guild mates by including them in your business, If they notice something is wrong and they question you then it's up to you on how you want to answer, Just be careful and ask some simple questions to yourself. Can you really entrust your life's details with someone you met in a game? I'm sure you can but to what extent? Can that person truly understand what your going through? We all have different ways in dealing with problems/issues and what may apply to you may not apply to someone else. The people that play an mmorpg come from many different races, religions and backgrounds and everyone has there own baggage and deal with things differently. If you choose to give advice then be conscious of who you are talking with, ask yourself... how well do you know this person? How will I effect this persons life by giving that individual advice? Is it really worth my time to give advice? It's all up to you, so you make the call, just remember there is a human being on the other end of the keyboard reading every stroke of the keyboard you send. If you choose to enter that persons life on a personal level, just remember once actions are set in motion there's no turning back, what's done is done for better or for worse (Hopefully for the better). Also Never Ever pass judgment on someone, especially if you do not know them and there circumstances/background. Everyone lives separate lives, everyone makes choices, everyone deals with things differently, everyone has different backgrounds. What my apply to you may not apply to that person, what advice you give may not fit that person or may not be feasible for that person to accomplish...

THINK before speaking...

Remember people pay to play games and have fun, you dumping your personal life on individuals or a guild will make things worse for you and place other gamers in an uncomfortable position. The basic rule of thumb is keep the details to yourself.

There are some exceptions to this but overall I fell what I have written should apply.

MOST OF ALL... IT'S AN MMORPG YOU PAY TO HAVE FUN SO HAVE FUN!!! If you want to pay for advice then go elsware! Believe me an mmorpg is not the place to get personal/individual advice!