Austin Convention Center
I love Austin. The Austin Convention Center, not so much. Here is the official description of it:
The Austin Convention Center, a premier facility located in the heart of the capital city’s downtown business district, has emerged as a leader in the convention and meeting industry. It is one of the most practical, flexible, planner-friendly and technologically advanced meeting facilities in the country. We invite you to explore our facility and experience the unique ambiance of a city that celebrates its music, cultural treasures, the outdoors and cutting-edge technology with a sophisticated, yet laid-back approach.
Muse's description:
The Austin Convention Center, a maze-like contraption suited for mensas and sudoko champs, has a unique approach to floor planning. Want to go to the fourth floor? Well, good luck. Our escalators are designed to trick even those with the highest spacial IQ. We dare you to find an escalator that will whisk you to the fourth floor. Roam around on the third floor in wonderment. Need an elevator? Haha! Fooled you there, also. Yeah, there's an elevator that goes to the fourth floor. And, an outside stairway. But, shhh, we aren't telling you where those are. We beg you to bring your cell phone with you so you can discover for yourself that cell phones barely work in our huge, state of the art facility! Play "get lost" with your convention friends, as you try to call and text them all day long. Need extra meeting rooms? No problem! We can divide up our huge exhibit halls with flimsy red, white and blue cloths - and provide you with high powered microphones, so that multiple meetings can happen at the same time - and so that convention attendees flee your meetings due to migraines from the noise. Want a laid back convention experience? Better bring a flask, is all I can tell you, because we've got a floor plan like no other. And no, you cannot make a square or a circle to get from point A to point Z. It's a 6-block walk for you, my friend! Bring bandaids for your feet. Seriously, we do everything we can to keep you from attending your meetings. Plan on lots of hotel time sleeping off the head pain, foot pain and mental anguish.
6 comments:
Yes!! It's true!! My first day there I had a tight schedule - desiring to visit nine caucuses in less than 4 hours. No problem, I thought: "I can count to four, I have a reasonably good memory and I can assuredly find my way from room to room - and surely from floor to floor." Bwah ha ha ha!!
Friday, I was moving from caucus to caucus and was just dumbfounded by the stairs and elevators only serving certain floors. I did find a corner with what seemed to be all of the options, but I am still not sure.
They wanted to keep Austin weird.
Can you say dark and dreary? If you walked out of the exhibit hall close to a door that led outside, the light from outside was so bright, you realized you've actually been in cave. A floor plan displayed somewhere would have helped, but alas, they obviously didn't have any sort of plan.
It would also have been nice, when you were leaving the convention exhausted at midnight, if few of the hundreds of exits were marked with signs as to what street you were exiting on to, rather than flipping coins and finally ending up just walking out to walk around the outside of the building looking for the street leading back to the hotel. Which in our case was on Ceasar Chavez, the same street as one of the exits, but from inside, there was no clue.
OK--just a thought...what do we tell the Netroots Nation folks? How do we warn them...what do we do?
They are never going to let us live it down.
I did bring a flask...and it didn't help. The only way I got through the experience was by imagining that I was Theseus, chasing the Minotaur through the labyrinth.
I think for the Netroots Nations bloggers, we are going to have to give them maps to all the nearby bars. I really think that is our only hope.
Keep 'em liquored up so they think the convention facilities confusion is the result of their hangovers.
Plus, it will perhaps anesthetize their foot pain.
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