Thursday, August 07, 2008
Hard Rock Really Cares
Staying at the
Hard Rock in San Diego during
my trip to Comic-Con was really nice. The hotel was very Hard Rockish [posters, guitars, outfits, ect] and the staff was great. After my stay there, I was sent an email for an online survey. I completed the survey and gave the hotel and staff high remakes. The only thing I pointed out as less then satisfied with, which I prefaced with some level of understanding, was being asked to wait outside the elevator bank while a large group was waiting for an elevator. Now I was not able to see who was there, but I can say that there were as many as 6 people with 3 or 4 security folks, so it totally screams big-time personality. Anyway, I commented on the survey that being guests and adults, I thought this type of extra security was unnecessary. I didn't think much of this comment at the time, expect that was how I felt [especially giving the people we were going to meet over the next few days], but this morning I received an email for the hotel manager, which read in part:
"As Hotel Manager, I take total responsibility of what transpired and personally apologize. I am saddened that your stay was not flawless. We take tremendous pride in delivering Service Excellence to every guest, and in this case, it is apparent we failed.
I have communicated your concerns to the Director of Security, to ensure this issue does not re-occur in the future. I apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused with the added security during the Comic Con Convention. It is this type of honest feedback that allows us to examine our current training and procedures and make the necessary changes to not only meet, but also exceed our guests’ expectations."It is refreshing to see a company listen to the customers and I think it is this kind of attention that will help the Hard Rock Hotel chain to grow in the US.
Labels: Business, Comic-Con
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Create your very own superhero
Marvel Kids has launched a slick
Create Your Own Superhero area on their website. Go on over and see if you can create someone cooler than my own Eagle Eye.
Labels: Comic-Con, Internet
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Comic-Con Day 4: Celebrities everywhere
Yeah it was another busy day in the booth and we never stopped ringing all morning but in the early afternoon, the booth got a surprise visitor. In through the back door walks in this guy wearing a V for Vendetta mask and it's none other then
The Method Man.
My main man Steve's absolute favorite hip hop artist and he got to briefly chat with him and get his John Hancock. That was cool. While The Method was in the booth we went down to 1 register. It was kinda of funny to see so little being purchased for those 10 minutes. After that I got a chance to really walk the floor and that's where I saw
Hayden "Save the cheerleader..." Panettiere,
Jonathan "Number 1" Frakes,
Don "Hollywood" Yates, and
John "Harold" Cho & Kal "Kumar" Penn.
Having to catch a plane home, we got out of the show early for a quick dinner at Dick's Last Resort and then returned to the hotel to fetch our bags. I noticed the Entertainment Weekly backdrop at the entrance to our hotel, where they were hosting a party later that night. On the way up to the room, I held open the elevator for a few people who were waiting behinds us. With my back to them I asked what floor they were headed to. When the gentleman said 4, I noticed he has a British accent and to his request for floor 4 I replied that with his accent he must be a local. He laughed and said that this was his first time in San Diego. It was at the moment that I released he was no other than
Bill "Davy Jones" Nighy to which I casually commented that I was a fan of his films. He stepped forward and said thank you and shook my hand. As he and his party exited the elevator, who did I spot walking over [and obviously waiting for a car down] was Mr. Comic Book himself, Stan Lee. Once we retrieved our luggage we returned tot he lobby where we ran into
Zachary "Chuck" Levi who was kind enough to talk with us for several minutes about his show and the up coming season.
He was genuinely a very nice person and came off as oh so thankful to be an actor on a popular show. Thanks for the picture Zach! On the way out the Hard Rock front door, who was walking in but none other than
Seth "Knocked Up" Rogan who stopped and said a quick hello as we walked out. Mind blowing - I met more actors in the last 10 minutes of Comic-Con than I have in my whole life. Very cool way to end the trip.
Labels: Comic-Con
Friday, July 25, 2008
Comic-Con Day 3: Will it ever end?
If I had thought the first full day was full, I had no idea how busy we could really be. The line, of course, did not relent for a 3rd straight day but today the orders began to get smaller, more families and less resellers and hardcore collectors. Today is the day we began to run out of items and specifically the
Comic-Con Exclusive Blue Suited Cobra Commander. Working the register next to the line that wrapped into our queue had it's pluses and minuses. On the down side, we were constantly asked by people waiting in line [who were alt east 20 minutes from actually purchasing] if we had something in stock or is we had any worksheets or how much things cost. Usually this was fine except for those who insisted on interrupting us while we tried to complete a purchase. On the up side we got to talk to people as they waited, which was cool, and in one case see a person who really wanted the Blue Cobra and genuinely wanted it for himself. I told him that we had some but not sure how long they would last. Well wouldn't you know it, 20 minutes later I see the same gentlemen waiting just 3 people beyond the front of the line when we finally ran out of the Blue Cobra's for the entire show. Knowing had badly this man wanted his toy, I grabbed the last one of the shelf and held it at my register. He didn't end up at my station but as he walked to register 3, I handed my buddy the last one and asked him to sell it to this guy. All I can say is he left our booth with a big smile and a misty look in his eyes. That made the day worthwhile. For the day my register processes 714 orders. A whopping of 71 per hour - a new customer every 50.4 seconds!
After the long day, we grabbed a quick dinner and then I went back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap. Which was great because I'm not sure I could have handled the backed Basic club and the jumping dance music without it.
Labels: Comic-Con
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Comic-Con Day 2: Full Power
The first full day of the Con was just that - Full. Like yesterday, the line at the booth was full and it did not relent over the entire 10 hours the show was open. The morning continued to bring the collectors/resellers and orders so large, they couldn't be physically carried away by an individual. As the day went on, the orders began to get smaller but still continued briskly. It turned out to the busiest day of the whole show with very little downtime. Working a cash register, you get to meet lots of nice people and me and Jess [the one who handled the transaction while I picked products and bagged them up] had 418 customers. That's an average of 41 per hour - a new customer every 1 minute and 21.1 seconds. The oddest thing that happened was the last customer of the day offered me $100 to sell him the Cobra Commander - Blue Suit that was on our display shelf, which had run out of stock earlier in the day. I thought about it for a second but told him that I couldn't.
At 5 pm I did attempt to get to the Dexter panel, that was held at 5:45 however when I walked up to the ballroom, the line wrapped out of sight. I followed the line around the ballroom and into a queue when a Comic-Con rep told me [and the people walking in front of me or behind me] that the line was already too long and the room was full. I was bummed and I made another unsuccessful trip around the line looking for someone I could trade my shirt with for a spot in line but alas, no takers. Sorry I missed you Dexter, please don't kill me.
After this kind of day, we deserved a nice night out which consisted of Mexican food [unfortunately we were not seated in the famed Boom Boom Room] and a piano bar, which included a Wedding Singer medley which was awesome. What a day!
Labels: Comic-Con
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Comic-Con Day 1: Surviving The Flood
Having a booth with the largest allowable footprint at the Con does have it's disadvantages - Stocking. The back half of the booth is a stock room, which holds the products we have on hand for the day. We spent approximately 7 hours unloading pallets of boxes and restacking in the booth's stock room. The room was so full by the end of the day, you could hardly move around back there, but it was definitely needed.
Wednesday at the Con is called preview day - a 2 hour preview of the event - and only 4 day [entire show] pass holders are given preview night passes. Preview night starts at 7 pm and the exhibit hall closes down at 9 pm. As soon as the doors opened, there was a rush of people into the building and this is what our booth looked like at 7:05:
The line wrapped through our queue and around the booth. After 2 hours, it had not shrunk in length one bit. It was unbelievable to see the amount of products and money being exchanged with each customer. Show limits. Stacks of hundreds. So much product that 2 or 3 [or more] people had to help carry it away. Comic-Con allowed us to continue to sell until 9:30 pm and over the 2 and half hours, we processed 1/8th of our entire show sales revenue. I guess the slow economy has not yet effected the toy/collectible markets yet.
And that was just the first day...Labels: Comic-Con
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Comic-Con: The misadventures of Bluntman and Chronic
Today was supposed to be our travel day/booth set-up however things got a little delayed. The flight from Providence to Newark was delayed by 30 minutes, which meant our connection was going to very tight [we originally only had a 1 hour layover]. As a just in case, the Continental representative at the gate booked us on their next flight to San Diego. When we inquired as to the reason for the delay the agent said it was those things outside at which we asked if he was referring to the clouds. Later I would comment that the Rhode Island clouds must have been made of iron and that is why we couldn't fly through them. When we asked about the connecting flight he said it was also delayed and when we got to New Jersey we would just have to "pull an OJ" to make our flight. We looked at each other with a puzzled look and Steve asked him if we had to kill a couple of people in Newark to make our flight. We laughed but I'm not sure the agent understood what he had actually said to us. After leaving 30 minutes late and circling Newark for an additional 45 minutes we missed our original connection flight.
So our 1 hour layover suddenly became the 5 hour layover. We could have spent some extra company money and flow to Minneapolis and then to San Diego arriving at 7 but we thought better not chance further delays. So can you say Brewhouse? After our long delay - and maybe some help from Jack Bauer - we were able to watch a not so great film called Drillbit Taylor [save your money and time and skip this movie] finally get to San Diego, The Hard Rock Hotel and off to a local Aussie bar to meet up with the team. What a long day!
Labels: Comic-Con
Monday, July 14, 2008
Comic-Con Shedule
Next week I will be working at Comic-Con and while I am excited to be part of a team selling collectables to the 125,000 visitors that are expceted to attend, I think the people watching, seeing the other booths and maybe getting to a panel or two will make the trip worth while. I will bring my camera and try to capture some of - what I expect to be - outragious costumes. As for the panels, here is a short list of a few that I would like to attend [if I have some free time]:
Hasbro: GI Joe
20th Century Fox: The Day The Earth Stood Still and Max Payne
Showtime: Dexter
Warner Premiere and Warner Home Video: World Premiere of Lost Boys The Tribe
The Big Bang Theory Screening
Industrial Light & Magic and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment: The Spirit Preview
[adult swim]’s Robot Chicken
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Heroes: Exclusive First Look at “Villains”
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Screening
Lost
Exclusive Q&A with the writers of The Office
Dollhouse
Universal: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Death Race
Fringe Q&A and Trailer Screening
Sony: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Quarantine, Pineapple Express
It should be an
interesting trip no matter waht I see.
Labels: Comic-Con
