Credit card system down. 30 minute line wait. Register in advance on the website if you can. Still a 15-20 min line. Can’t imagine how bad ATL will be….

Appears they did not learn from last year .

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Appears they did not learn from last year .

The are too busy awarding themselves satchels

The line moved slowly. Talking to the gent that signed me in. He received about 10 minutes of training on the system being used and when he sat down he was using a different system to sign in attending parties.
So in i went.
I think attendance was off a little.

One way to avoid the registration fiasco is to volunteer for one of the many committees, only a couple of hours work earns you a name badge that gives entry every day. There are committees one can work during the show, store, coffee cart, etc. Based on what I saw during move in on Tuesday, there was definitely a shortage of volunteers.
I wasn’t at the show today but spoke with several folks that were (my wife being one) who all said that it looked like attendance was down. I think Sunday might be a really bad day, weather supposed to be bad and getting worse and, for the first time in a long time, the Cowboys are playing a playoff game at AT&T stadium. Those gates open at 10:00 am and I suspect lots of people will be either attending the game or a watch party. We will see!

Forgot a bit…I store a couple of exhibitor booths between conventions and deliver them to the convention center. When I arrived the first people to show up to help were DSC staff and Chair of the move in-move out committee. Even the director of operations and the CEO were helping unload and move exhibitors, credit where credit is due…

Just spent the day there. Good show, well attended. Everyone commenting on the slow registration process. Next time, I will buy my tickets in advance and hope they can process them quickly. This is just a slow process. At noon, no lines today, but I suspect this weekend will be slow...

i got there at 9:45 this morning. Pre-registered last night. I had no issues what so ever. Showed my QR code and smooth sailed through the badge process and walked onto the convention floor.

I'm not sure what issues the others had. I thought it was a huge improvement over previous years.

quote:

Originally posted by gsganzer:
i got there at 9:45 this morning. Pre-registered last night. I had no issues what so ever. Showed my QR code and smooth sailed through the badge process and walked onto the convention floor.

I'm not sure what issues the others had. I thought it was a huge improvement over previous years.

Yea
I didn't make it last year. We where in line and a volunteer told us about the online....we got out of line did the online thing quickly and we where in. Pretty neat.

The technology impaired won't like it.....

.

quote:

Originally posted by gsganzer:
i got there at 9:45 this morning. Pre-registered last night. I had no issues what so ever. Showed my QR code and smooth sailed through the badge process and walked onto the convention floor.

I'm not sure what issues the others had

I can confirm that

Sunday attendance should be interesting all right, with a wind chill in the teens all day -- warmer than here in west central TX.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Appears they did not learn from last year .

This year was a lot better than last year, if you pre-registered. Last year, there were long lines even if you pre-registered. Yesterday morning, around 8:55, there was no line to speak of; I walked right up to a scanner, scanned my QR code, waited 60 seconds for it to print my badge, and headed for the doors. It did take a few minutes right at 9 to get through the doors, but not long.

So as dogcat says... "Register in advance on the website if you can."

Well, I was not smart enough to preregister and had to wait in line but after that I thoroughly enjoyed it. People were friendly, amazing how many people I meet that had hunted or fished with the folks I was looking at. Over all very good time. LET'S FACE IT, WE WAIT IN LINE FOR ALMOST EVERYTHING WE DO. DOCTORS, ball games Wal Mart.

quote:

Originally posted by gsganzer:
i got there at 9:45 this morning. Pre-registered last night. I had no issues what so ever. Showed my QR code and smooth sailed through the badge process and walked onto the convention floor.

I'm not sure what issues the others had. I thought it was a huge improvement over previous years.

I agree 100%.

My experience was the same as yours. Pre-registered and then had my badge within 2 minutes at show opening on Thursday. It was way better than last year.

Had not been to Dallas in a couple years. Went Wednesday morning not knowing they are going the SCI route with badges. Line to register was very long. But walked to the side and did the online registration on my phone and got 4 of us through in less than 10 minutes. Was simple.

quote:

Originally posted by McKay:
Had not been to Dallas in a couple years. Went Wednesday morning not knowing they are going the SCI route with badges. Line to register was very long. But walked to the side and did the online registration on my phone and got 4 of us through in less than 10 minutes. Was simple.

It is when the system does not crash or the credit card system works. I did it today and it was quick! Must have fixed it!

I will echo what Gordon says above. While improvement can be made (as in any situation), it was WAY better than last year.

I went through the regular line on Thursday and was amazed at how quickly they processed people…it moved quickly.

On Saturday I brought a group of youth I hadn’t planned on and processed them electronically — got badges relatively quickly.

While I was super busy at the show this year with business…it did seem as attendance was down. However, the show floor was as spectacular as ever.