Rhode Island Comic Con: Big Changes Fix Many Problems
This past weekend the 7th annual Rhode Island Comic Con was held at the Rhode Island Convention Center, the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and the Omni Hotel. And after 7 years, it finally looks like the explosive growth of the first 4 years and the subsequent crowding and space management problems have been fixed. Mostly. Below I will review this year’s event, and since I only took a handful of photos Friday evening, that small gallery will be at the end of the article.
For the first time in years, the convention center allowed RICC to have multiple re-entry points for people who either left the facility or moved from one of the three interconnected buildings to another. A big part of this came from the con taking over most of the panel and event rooms in the Omni, and moving many panels and events (like the Sunday costume contest) into the hotel. That freed up the big ballroom and the panel rooms on the 5th floor of the convention center, and that is where most of the celebrities were stationed, with some others in the hockey arena that is the Dunkin’ Donuts Center (yes, it still has the old brand name for now).
That also opened up the main showroom floor of the convention center, and even with Epic Photo Ops taking up about 25 percent of the space, that meant both more vendors and artists and more space in between rows for crowds to move about.
But the biggest change from last year was the opening up of the skybridge from the Dunks to the convention center to two-way traffic. Last year it went only one way — from the ticket stations at the Dunks to the convention center, which meant anyone in the center or the hotel wanting to get back to the arena had to go outside. Unlike this year’s warm temperatures, last year was cold and miserable all weekend.
Long lines that never moved and a crowd flow system that seemed designed to punish paying customers turned off many people last year, and may have contributed to the fact that the all-weekend passes did not sell out this year, despite the amazing celebrity guests — something RICC has always excelled at. This year that crowd flow structure was, by almost all reports I heard this weekend and my own experience, so much better than last year.
By mid-day Saturday the one complaint I was getting was long lines for photo ops (as is common with every large convention) and crowd flow stopping because of people stopping to chat in large groups or people taking pictures. I opined to someone making that complaint that the con staff needed more staffers wandering the halls asking people to keep moving. Within an hour of that observation I heard the first of many strong but polite voices asking to please keep the lanes of traffic clear — in this case because of a group of cosplayers getting photos taken. Later on I did hear some reports of less polite people, but most of those seemed to be about the Fire Marshall’s staff specifically.
To be clear, on Saturday morning to get into the building for the first time people still had to stand in a line that stretched around the back of the Dunks and the RI Convention Center, under the parking garage underpass and to the 1st floor entrance right across from the Omni Hotel entrance. But once the show floor opened at 10 a.m., that line was almost gone within 45 minutes. And long entry lines are common with every large convention, be it PAX East or New York Comic Con or you-name-it.
I also have to admit I’ve been remiss about giving RICC and its parent Altered Reality Entertainment the credit it deserves in how it has always handled people with disabilities or mobility issues. The convention has always been quick to give out ADA bracelets to those in need, and both convention and convention center staff have been quick to accommodate any special mobility needs — including last year when the skybridge was one way, stopping traffic completely to allow people in wheelchairs to go against the flow of traffic. This year I heard even more stories about how helpful everyone was.
Still work to be done
There is still room for improvement, and top of that list is how ill-informed many of the volunteers are about basic convention information, such as where certain celebrities, features or events are, or even about access points into the facilities. Nobody should be told by any volunteer to look at a program or app when asked about a location, and never should be told inaccurate information when the staffer simply doesn’t know an answer with certainty.
It didn’t help that some celebrities were moved mid-day to assist with traffic flow and either there was no staff-wide update, or if there was, no way to verify it was received by all. In addition, the entrances and skybridge traffic flow were reportedly altered at the height of the Saturday crowding, early afternoon. I haven’t heard who made that call, but my guess is the Fire Marshall’s staff, with an eye to restricting crowd sizes. While those unannounced changes were less jarring than the complete shutdown of re-entry that happened a few years ago, it still is troubling that the information printed in the program or on the website about access points can be made incorrect by the wave of an official’s hand.
One other complaint I heard this year — that likely can’t be changed by Rhode Island Comic Con — was the serious lack of vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free food options by the convention center itself. And no, the occasional salad or tater tots don’t count as legitimate food options. Or maybe the con can do something about it — like the exotic jerky booth this year for us meat eaters, maybe a gluten-free baked goods vendor and/or a vegetarian or vegan food vendor could be found and invited to set up a booth.
I had heard about the many changes to the layout and structure of Rhode Island Comic Con a few weeks ago, and had remained cautiously optimistic about how effective it all might be. Now after experiencing those changes and talking with many attendees about them, I can say that RICC has taken a huge step forward in fixing the biggest turn off it has consistently had — poor crowd flow and crowd management. Will the con continue to improve on its previous problems? And will that bring back people who have completely sworn off attending? Both remain to be seen, but the “biggest convention in the littlest state” seems to have finally been able to get ahead of the problems created by its explosive growth. Fingers crossed for even more improvements next year.
On to the Friday gallery: Among the cosplayers are Roxas Paige, dat_archer_cosplay, FaerunCosplay, loki_dark_world, zimmermanjoe21, justicejv2, wackaroni_and_cheese, and more.
Photo gallery tips: Once the page loads the images, you will see the Forward and Back navigation arrows above the image, in case you want to scroll faster than the preset. And to see the entire gallery as thumbnails, click on the gray four-box square next to the navigation arrows.
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