After trying to use my cell phone as a communications tool at the Con and mostly failing, I was thinking. I have a set of 2 way radios. Maybe one could be left at the register and one could be carried by the designated stock monkey (I volunteer myself) so that stock runs or other errands could be requested via 2-way regardless of the monkey's location.
Just an idea.
Also, if I remember, I will try to get room 101 at the Courtyard Marriot, since that room is immediately across the street from the Con center, and offer it for use as a stock room. If we're gonna use a hotel room, it might as well be the closest one, yes?
I had a great time this year, I'm really glad I came despite the financial difficulties. I regret not spending more of my limited budget on Forge stuff this year.
Thanks for letting me hang out!
Dave.
How powerful are those radios? I've got a half-dozen sets or so lying around (Why? Uhm...) and I'd be happy to volunteer them for Forge use, but I've found that convention halls are the absolute worst place for wireless reception (radios, cell phones, whatever). If you have the standard 2-mile range sets, they probably won't work too well. You'd probably need something with a 7-mile range, so it'll have enough power to punch through the interference. That's just a guess based on personal experience trying to use radios in convention halls, of course, and it might turn out that they work just fine. It certainly can't hurt to try.
Oh, and of course, you need a license to use them. Everyone ignores that fact, but still...
Danielle and I brought a set of those radios to GenCon 2002 in Milwaukee. We found that all the channels were such constant chitchat by other attendees that having the radios turned on was incredibly irritating. They were more than useless.
Paul
Fair enough. It was just an idea. Maybe text messaging then? Making sense of voice over the hubbub is no picnic with cell phones... the one time I called Clinton to ask if anyone needed any stock on my way back from the hotel, and I don't think either of us had a clue what the other was talking about, finally we just hung up. *shrug*
My experience mirrors Paul's. The first year in Indy, I used fairly cheap two-way radios to keep track of my son when he was away from my side and the reception was fine but there were a trillion other people with the same idea which made it really unlikely that when we were actually calling the other, that we'd realize that this was the important time to be listening.
Text messaging worked great for the last two gencons. Mike and I started doing it so that we wouldn't interupt a game or demo, but we needed to send a message
Yeah - 2-way radios work fine at Origins, but at GenCon the chatter on every channel is insane. Even if you have the privacy channel options it isn't worth it.
You'd need a permit and a private channel.