There is no doubt that PAX East 2010 was the convention to be at this past weekend if you are a gamer on the East coast. Those of us who haven’t been able to make it out to the original Seattle based Penny Arcade Expo, known as  PAX, have been eager for an East coast iteration. But did PAX East live up to expectation? Well, for the most part that answer is “yes.”

Before I get into some of the problems we encountered at PAX East 2010, I do want to highlight the many aspects of the convention that went well.

Registration:

First of all, PAX mails badges out to attendees. This means there is no registration pick up line to content with. As I think back to the three hours I waited at Dragon*con 2009 for my pre-registered badge pick up, I can’t help but applaud PAX organizers for their methods. Additionally, because there is an attendance cap (and it’s always met) for PAX, there are no on-site badge purchases. As a result, there is only one table and a handful of staff needed to handle press, vendor, and speaker registration. We waited in line for less than 15 minutes to pick up our press badges. I really believe this is the secret to managing registration and badges for 30,000+ people at a convention. Trying to check in that many people on-site just doesn’t make sense.

-> Read More: The PAX East 2010 Overall Convention Report <-

About Kelly Rowles

The founder and creator of The Convention Fans Blog is Kelly Rowles. She created the blog back in the fall of 2008, and has been working on it ever since. She started attending fandom conventions back in Orlando, Florida when she was just a teenager. Now based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she’s exploring all the tri-state area has to offer. While she’ll attend just about any convention out of sheer curiosity, at heart she’s mostly a Star Trek fan looking to meet every major cast member from each series. She’s getting closer to that goal than she ever thought possible.

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