Fadamor

I'm guessing they'll wait until the current recommendations from the CDC draw to a close (end of April) before re-evaluating whether Otakon remains a "Go". They (Otakorp) will have a much better idea of which way the pandemic is moving by then.

Currently, the word is the Dulles Airport extension of the Metro is scheduled to open July 16, leaving only a week or so before Otakon. Because of "best-laid plans" and all, it's probably better to assume more delays in the opening will happen and Metro will not be running to/from IAD during Otakon. If I'm wrong, it will be a pleasantly surprised "wrong". 😊

All of the 2018 threads are locked, I believe. Perhaps post it in the General Discussions area? https://board.otakon.com/index.php?/forum/19-general-discussions/ That's just a suggestion. It's where I probably would have put the question once the particular year's threads were locked. The board mods may have a better suggestion.

Yeah. I'm already having trouble remembering Otakon 2019! Otakon 2018 has completely slipped into the cobwebs of my mind!

The Good: Once again, WEWCC scores highly for the S P A C E ! It's so nice not to be feeling like you're in a slow-moving line when you're just walking down the hall. The Membership! Every year I'm amazed at the awesome people that attend Otakon. Your patience when things don't work like oiled gears is inspiring! The Bad: (and not Otakon's fault at all) $21 for a "meh" gyudon bowl and a 20 oz Diet Pepsi in the food court. I realize the concession has bills to pay, but for that amount of money I expect more than a bowl of thinly shaved fatty beef and pickled veggie over steamed rice

I did, sir. Your props approached CGI quality when viewed from the distance I initially saw you at (~30 feet). I momentarily forgot what I was supposed to be doing (directing people into Registration to pick up their badges) while I had a "WTF! How is he doing that?" moment. For just a second... I truly believed in magic! Domo arigatou gozaimasu!

I had to get this topic started because I saw a Dr. Strange cosplay Friday morning that literally (yes, the correct term for it) made my jaw drop. He said he was going to be rocking Dr. Strange all weekend so I'm sure many got to see him. His costume, coif, and props were all top-notch. A spell book with green-glowing pages and other lighted props brought his ensemble over the top! I hope he won some award during the weekend.

I see they're going to be showing Tensi Shitara Slime Datta Ken ("That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime"). That's my current favorite series, so... I've got to go change my Gofer schedule availability.

Gomenasai I'm always more than fashionably late to the party.

The preliminary (you KNOW it will change on a regular basis) schedule is up on the website: https://hiroko.otakon.com/events_schedule.asp

Weather forecast for Otakon 2019: :-D

Touché! Also, there's "Gateway - The Official Stargate Convention" http://creationentertainment859.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=59f51fd6937412b7e56ded1ea2470c25.1576

Currently the edit window is ~5 minutes, then it gets locked. Matt is looking at whether there is interest in extending the edit window. https://board.otakon.com/index.php?showtopic=26779

It sounds to me like the address of your friend that you had the badge mailed to is incorrect. Checking that the address is correct isn't going to help much if YOU have the address incorrectly recorded.

It's a highly protected secret. Thursday is probably not possible, but for Friday... the sheet of paper that came with your badge explains how to pick up your swag bag. To wit:

I see. Our letter carrier spends many days stopped at our mailboxes and chatting on his cell rather than delivering mail, so... I could see him playing free and easy with the rules.

Hmm... received my tracking number yesterday and tracking indicated that it would be delivered today. Problem was that there would be no one home today to sign for it so I expected to go pick it up from the Post Office on Monday. When I got home this evening, the badge was waiting for me in my mailbox. Perhaps they are allowed to leave "signature required" items in mailboxes that require a key to access and not need a signature? My mailbox needs a key to get into.

It's the 10th. No badge. No tracking number. Let's just call this whole "tracking number" experiment a huge failure. Why bother when people aren't even given the tracking number until AFTER they've received the badge? Are we now to assume that if we get a tracking number but haven't received the badge yet, that something horribly wrong has happened to the badge? The holiday was six business days ago for the USPS AND the company Otakorp paid to get the badges out. Sorry, I can't accept that the USPS would still be in "holiday mode" a week later. I think we can all agree t

Well, if they used any sort of standard database format for the membership database, once they had a text file with the member ID/tracking number pairs, it WOULD be like magic because all they would need to do is add the tracking number field to the database, then perform a merge based on the member ID. Most computers these days can perform an 8,000 record merge in about 5 -10 minutes. The hardest part of all that would be updating the member web page to show the tracking info.

The registration write-up says they EXPECT to have the badges arrive at our doors with 2 to 3 weeks remaining. Three weeks remaining has come and gone and two weeks remaining will be this Friday. Because they said "expect" and not "guarantee", they can let the self-imposed deadline expire without having technically "lied". There's an integrity issue here, though. Unlike the network issues last year - which happened suddenly, this mailing process has been an on-going "thing" for months now. Anywhere along the process there could have been a snag that delayed the mailing date. An honorable org

I'm alright with a delay, but letting us know about the delay would be the honorable thing to do. When they say the badges will be at your house by July 10 and it's July 5 with no word on things actually going out their door, you have to start wondering. If it gets mailed on Monday then the badges should still arrive on time, but if Monday comes and goes...

I could have sworn that I read about this somewhere previously. I also recall reading that the badges will be mailed priority and will require a signature but I don't remember where I read that either. It was probably here that you read it: https://www.otakon.com/registration_updates.asp#Mail

"Badges will be mailed to arrive at your house 2 to 3 weeks before the start of Otakon"... We JUST reached 3 weeks, so there's still another week before you can start to legitimately get concerned. As far as I know, NOBODY has received notification that their badge is in the mail yet, so I have to assume they haven't yet been mailed.

They're going to mail it so that you get it 2 to 3 weeks before Otakon. You still have a couple of weeks before you should start worrying.