I attended Kin-Yoobi Con 2012 as a staff member, Friday, August 10th - Sunday, August 12th. The convention took place at the Hilton hotel in Newark/Fremont. Kin-Yoobi Con 2012 kind of hit me like a tornado. It snuck up on me, flipped me on my head, drove me insane, and then left. I'm not going to spill all the dirty little secrets of staffing this convention, here's a little insight into what went on.
On Day Zero, I was supposed to work in the morning, but I had a pretty high fever and felt dizzy. I work in the food service industry, so I called in sick. I was supposed to work until noon and miss the 11am pre-con staff meeting with the hotel, but even though I was no longer working, I intended to skip it because I was sick. I needed to go to the hotel to discuss the food for the cosplay cafe though, so I headed over around noon. Imagine my surprise when the meeting was still going on. I wasn't dressed for a business meeting, since I was told it'd be over by then, so I sat awkwardly, using my Link (Legend of Zelda) backpack to cover my cleavage, and keeping to myself so I wouldn't get anyone sick. It was an excruciating time and seemed to last forever, even though it was probably only a half an hour or so.
I was supposed to be meeting a friend at the hotel after I talked to staff, and my boyfriend was waiting to drive us to the mall to get the food for the cafe. I got a text from my friend and ducked out of the meeting to touch base with her for a second. When I went back, the meeting was over, and I hadn't gotten a chance to ask about the food. I asked another staff member who told me to just ask one of the hotel staff right there. I was told that as long as we weren't selling the food and everything was individually wrapped (including drinks) there was no problem.
My boyfriend took my friend and I to the mall and dropped us off (he had to go to work), and my friend and I shopped for food and small decorations for the cafe. I think we did spectacularly given our budget, time, and transportation restraints, and I owe that mostly to my friend and her miraculous ability to find exactly what we needed. My friend's mom picked us up and carted us over to Food Max to pick up a case of water, then it was back to the convention!
When we got there, all of the senior staff members (meaning anyone who knew what was going on) had mysteriously disappeared. We waited around until someone showed up and then stashed the food and decorations in the soon-to-be game room. I was really wary of leaving it there, I was afraid the food would get eaten, but everyone told me it would be fine.
The next couple of hours, we ran around moving small things like bags and badges, and I also assisted with sorting and handing out pre-reg badges. Around 7pm, things wound down and it was time for the pool party. The pool party was open to staff, volunteers, and any attendees who had reserved a hotel room. We hung out for a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed the hot tub, I think I managed to sweat out whatever was making me sick.
After the pool party, there was a staff meeting, during which I felt like my fever was coming back a little. As rude as it probably was, I tried to hurry the meeting along as much as I could, but that mostly consisted of being really quiet and waiting for it to be over.
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