Staffing/Volunteering for Conventions

[smashking]

Anybody ever staff for a convention?  What did you do? How did you like it? Would you doing it again?

Anime Expo '09 is coming up real soon, I'm very excited    Last year I did volunteer work as a staffer for the Merchandise Booth where I sold official AX Merchandise.  It was lots of fun and also lots of work.

This year I'll be staffing as the assistant manager for the merchandise department.  It's more responsibility but I know I'll enjoy it just as much as I did last year.

You would think just selling stuff at a convention would be easy, but it gets hectic when you have dozens of frantic otaku bombarding you with demands...

Attendee: "Yo, can I get that shirt in XXL?"
Me: "Sorry dude, we sold out of that size"
Attendee: "Can you check if you have any in the back?"
Me:  "Nah man, we have all our inventory up here in front"
Attendee: "Can you ask somebody then?"
Me: (After asking the manager) "I'm being told the only alternative sizes we have left is XL or 3XL"
Attendee: "Fine, give me 3XL"
Me: "That'll be $20 dollars"
Attendee: "Oh, never mind...  I don't have enough to get it"
Me: 

Staffers receive plenty of benefits and perks, but you have to decide what means more to you... enjoying the con freely or helping out Anime Expo.

[SauloA]

Doing customer service at Anime Expo sounds like a pain in the ass.  The only thing that makes the job at Anime Expo better than a job like at Burger King is being surrounded by anime.  Well, sometimes you are surrounded by anime at Burger King because they recently had Pokemon toys.

I like to make sure that I treat customer service people with respect because they pretty much determine whether you'll get what you want.

The benefits of staffing for AX sound worthwhile and you can still enjoy the con.  Overall it's probably a good experience and I'm sure you can put that on a resume.  You also have some power as a staffer because you can sometimes control how things go down.

[vere03]

It definitely seems like volunteering would be a great experience as long as you don't let the attendees get to you! (No spitting in their shirts!!!)  You guys get free admission and probably additional perks that we don't know about! Another bonus, as stated previously by SauloA, gaining manager experience doing something you actually like! You know how rare that is! Imagine working at Blockbuster...! LOL! Take advantage while you can!!!

[MannyBebop]

i was staffing with SmashKing this year and i must say it was pretty friggin easy, but as a manager i could see how it would be BAWLS being a manager because poor smashking was there all day with hardly any time for pannels or exibit hall shoppping poooooor smashking.. I TOTALLY WENT COVERT OPS THOUGH! they asked me to spy on Hentai booths to see who was checking ID or not... the horrors of hentai @_@... *trembles*

[smashking]

Yeah, No doubt staffing was a lot more intense this year.  But I'd say that overall I was well taken care of... except for the prison food they served, the long hours, and the fact that I had to share a bed with a dude that probably had restless leg syndrome o_o LOL.

I'll most likely staff again next year, assuming I get the opportunity.  What about you MannyB, You plan on staffing again?!

i was staffing with SmashKing this year and i must say it was pretty friggin easy, but as a manager i could see how it would be BAWLS being a manager because poor smashking was there all day with hardly any time for pannels or exibit hall shoppping poooooor smashking.. I TOTALLY WENT COVERT OPS THOUGH! they asked me to spy on Hentai booths to see who was checking ID or not... the horrors of hentai @_@... *trembles*