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As much extra space as the new location gives us, it seems to come at a fairly high price. Last year it was growing pains, they were getting used to us, and vice versa, so I can understand things going amiss. The fire marshal going though things with a fine tooth comb, and such.
At first I thought that I was the only one who wasn't happy with how the hotel handled things, but I quickly found out otherwise. The beef I have with management is that I got stuck in the elevator (hey, it happens) but not only did it take them over an hour to get me out, they refused to open the doors and just let me out. Furthermore they actively prevented a friend of mine from getting me out and told him to leave, as if witnesses weren't allowed. When they finally did get me out they videotaped me, wanted identification, had me fill out a report and all the typical paperwork. But they didn't even bother to apologize. When I asked why there wasn't anything in the inside of the elevator indicating when the elevator was last inspected the security guard chuckled and said he didn't know how often they inspected them. I understand there's the liability factor, and that the Riveria isn't responsible for their own elevators (apparently they contract it out to a company called "Otis"). I spoke with the head of risk management and was informed that the response I got was the best they could do.
I'm not going to go into details about how/why the top of the riv party got shut down. If you were there, you know what happened and what didn't happen. And if you were there a little bit before it got shut down, you saw the foreshadowing.
That being said, I think it's the best we can do for now. The convention itself was good, as usual. We had a lot of fun hosting aCTF and all the players I spoke with said they had a blast. I didn't really get to any talks, but the contest area was fun. The vendors had cool stuff as attractive prices and were really cool about hooking us up with prizes at the last minute. We couldn't ask anything more from anyone who was part of defcon, be they a goon, speaker, vendor, or a mere human.
As for me, I'll just look into staying at Circus Circus next year and that should solve the problem I have with how the hotel responded to my incident. And I stick to the parties that are off-site I think all should be well.
At first I thought that I was the only one who wasn't happy with how the hotel handled things, but I quickly found out otherwise. The beef I have with management is that I got stuck in the elevator (hey, it happens) but not only did it take them over an hour to get me out, they refused to open the doors and just let me out. Furthermore they actively prevented a friend of mine from getting me out and told him to leave, as if witnesses weren't allowed. When they finally did get me out they videotaped me, wanted identification, had me fill out a report and all the typical paperwork. But they didn't even bother to apologize. When I asked why there wasn't anything in the inside of the elevator indicating when the elevator was last inspected the security guard chuckled and said he didn't know how often they inspected them. I understand there's the liability factor, and that the Riveria isn't responsible for their own elevators (apparently they contract it out to a company called "Otis"). I spoke with the head of risk management and was informed that the response I got was the best they could do.
I'm not going to go into details about how/why the top of the riv party got shut down. If you were there, you know what happened and what didn't happen. And if you were there a little bit before it got shut down, you saw the foreshadowing.
That being said, I think it's the best we can do for now. The convention itself was good, as usual. We had a lot of fun hosting aCTF and all the players I spoke with said they had a blast. I didn't really get to any talks, but the contest area was fun. The vendors had cool stuff as attractive prices and were really cool about hooking us up with prizes at the last minute. We couldn't ask anything more from anyone who was part of defcon, be they a goon, speaker, vendor, or a mere human.
As for me, I'll just look into staying at Circus Circus next year and that should solve the problem I have with how the hotel responded to my incident. And I stick to the parties that are off-site I think all should be well.
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