AEE Field Report: You Too Can Be Made to Feel Like an Asshole!

Well, two days in, and there are some truths that are making themselves evident.

  1. The talent rules.  I am always amazed at the poise and grace that the talent exhibit when greeted with throngs of fans.
  2. The Hard Rock Event staff go out of their way to make you feel like an asshole.  They’re nice enough about it, but you still feel like an asshole.  Let me explain.  The main exhibit hall has doors around all the walls.  They’re identical and unmarked.  So when you go to leave the hall to visit another area, you invariably choose the wrong door, and you’re stopped by a guy in a Hard Rock jacket telling me I have to go down to the next door to exit.  Conversely, I found myself going into the main hall via an exit door, and AFTER I AM IN THE HALL the guy stops me and says that I’m entering through the exit door.  I look at him and he helpfully says, “Well, you’re already in, so you can keep going this time.”  He wasn’t being hostile, but I still ended up feeling like an asshole being scolded by the hall monitor.
  3. The traffic management is haphazard. Your goal is to manage foot traffic, and I get it, but when there’s no clear line or reason for what a line waaaay down the hall is, don’t be shocked when people congregate instead of getting in the line.  The Digital Playgound booth is in the main hallway with the rest of the Manwin properties, and there’s a line waaaay down at the start of it.  It is unclear what the line is for.  There doesn’t seem to be anyone at the head of the line parceling out where people want to go (“Do we have anyone for Selena Rose?”) so when there’s no one standing in front of Selena Rose, a crowd gathers thinking, maybe, this is where the line should be.  It ain’t.  I didn’t stick around to find out how one was supposed to see Selena Rose.  The lines inside the main convention center are just as bad… and in The Joint, there’s hardly any room for lines, so there’s just crowds.
  4. The Joint is a HORRIBLE place to have a booth.  The traffic flow is horrendous.  There’s this giant railing that runs thru it that really crowds everything together. I’m sure it makes sense when it’s being used as a performance venue, but as a convention space, I found it really lacking.  It felt as I was snaking around the place that I was constantly hitting myself up against the railing.

The Joint

Given all of this, it’s still good to see everyone; so we’ve got that going for us.

(I started the day with a quick segment on YouPorn where I got a big unsolicited hug from Ginger Lynn and then I got to slap Christy Canyon‘s tit a few times, so my 16 year old self had a boner all day.)