Chocfest 3: York Convention - A rob replies ..... 24 Jan was the York one day convention we have asked for feedback on the event (http://www.york.ac.uk/~rfs1/yjf/feedback.html) which has drawn little interest, and I know lots of attenders were wired. So in response to some of the things that we felt went ell/badly here is a quick report to explain som of the decision and what e can try for next year. The feedback form is till up and running so please feel free to chip in with ideas. Venue: Numerous complaints about the size of the venue. We expected 220 people (we only had 300 chocholate bars!) and we booked 2 halls to cater for this number. We had moved to a sat and imported a major star for the show. First off 320 ish people turned up which was *TOO MANY* and secondly they dont want to walk to another venue even if it is a nice day and its only 100 yards away. There is a mentality that people will come in dump there stuff and sit around the hall (we actually loose quite a large area due to this, but we are not about to start policing that!). The Halls are very cheap to rent as they are dining rooms, but therefore are spread around the colleges. Cure: next year ( i dont know how many people we will attract) but we will book another hall as well quite close to the main one. People wil have to walk to another venue or be crowded. If we were to book the university sports centre it would add about 3 quid to the cost of the ticket, and that would be even more unpopular. ------------ Show: - technical lots of debate over this. 1st off lets explain the delay. for 2 years we have had no problem setting up the lights (thanks to Sarah who wasn't here this year). This year the SU did it (they had subcontracted before) they brought the wrong set up with them and after a while realised they needed to go back and get more lights. this would have been ok but Jason Garfield wanted a run thrugh with the lights to get his cues , so we couldnt let people in till that had been done (we didnt want them seeing his routine). Also it ran on too long in the second half. people quoted times for their acts but didnt factor in the encore part ! Also venure debate. Cure We should have anticipated all these problems and given fuller instructions to the SU and made sure they knew what they wer doing. IMHO they were unprofessional and quite poor and the lighting wasnt any good either. We should have been mnore realistic about timing. booking a proper theathre (if we can get it) has been much debated and would add 2 pounds to the ticket price- need to be more thought out. ------------ Show Content. some debate over Jason vs rest of the show, was it too organised, too "slick" all these are fair comments, We wanted to do something different, the rationalle behind the show was to orginally to have Jason and whatever else we could afford. It turned out what we could manage was to have an international star, a nationally known act (Ben J), local acts (Colin E, Way laid back jugglers) and some up and coming acts (chicks with sticks, Guy). We (the Yorkies) have debated it quite a bit and there is no great concensus but I felt the show wasnt what I'd hope for. Sure Jason was brilliant, and Guy was another top act, but Chicks with Sticks were not what I expected and some of the other stuff was a bit slow. I think the "Jim and Anna thang" worked ok as it was convention led and short ! We needed some more comedy to liven it up, it was too technical and next year we will do something different. But im glad we did it, we have learnt from it. ------------- workshops: i ddnt get much involved this year with workshops, but my impression was that they were pretty lax and laid back, which sort of reflects Tim (the organisers approach). Id like to see more people volunteering and being pressed nto giving workshops and a more formal set up. Look out for this next year, maybe even a pre planned programme of workshops, but that require people to volunteer before hand ad turn up! -------------- games.. always a hit and miss thing at York as there are a few plans and much chaos. so i forgot 3 club gladiators and some other didnt work, but I felt it was good natured and enjhoyed by most people. They were scheduked for an hour and lasted 28 mins! We deliberatley have the other halls open during the games for people that want to practice some more which is cool. the devil stick thing went great - well done sam. I forgot to play the other new game - but you can buy it off me for your convention if you like :-) ------------------ Food n drink. complaints that the bar was understaffed and food queues too long. cure: we needed to speak to the Burser to make sure that the appropriate number of people are on the bar at the correct times. On a normal night nothing happens till 8, of course it all happened at 7 just before the show started. It was daft and we will need to cure that. On the food side we should get the snalcks open from 10 not 11. Tea was great all day. They werent supposed to sell main meals! we were trying to direct people to Vanbrugh for main meals but it all sort of worked out. maybe next year we will ask for more veggie options. ---------------- Muni: minor complaints about the course and stragglers. I heard lots of good things about the muni and it was well sorted by colin and the durham crew. Maybe next year we can get some course markers or a little more organised with maps etc. --------------------------
YJF, Rob Stone, Dept Psychology, Univerity of York, York, YO1 2DD
email address: yjf@psych.york.ac.uk