SDCC 2016: Open Badge Registration – Some Helpful Hints
So, Saturday’s the day – soon, the links that you have received in your inbox will go live and you will join the hundreds of thousands vying to attend San Diego Comic-Con 2016! First things first: let’s get those badges! Prepared is forewarned…
It’s always good to have as much preparation under your belt for such an occasion but, you have to remember, so much is out of your control. There’s a lot of fate, a lot of luck and a lot of determination that goes into taking part in these Badge Sales, especially in this Open Badge Sale. Sure, you can tip the odds a little in your favour by taking part in a Badge Team – a small collective of like-minded con buddies, all with each others details and buying for the team – but the randomness of the system introduced by CCI and EPIC in 2013 means that it’s probably best to adopt somewhat of a Zen attitude to the whole affair.
Ohmmmmmmmmmm. Now… breathe.
A little more relaxed? Probably not but, look, we had to try! Let’s quickly go through the essentials you have HAVE to do to even take part in the process at all
1. Have your Registration ID to hand.
The description of the Badge Sale process, as described by Comic-Con International in their Toucan Blog, rings incredibly like the system introduced a couple of years back with one or two minor changes – it worked for them so why change it? One important element is the method of making sure that only registered attendees with valid Member ID’s can take part with the allocation of a 15-digit Registration ID.
You can find this in your Member ID ‘Registration’ tab and, if you haven’t done already, it’s best to have that stored in a text document somewhere (along with the Member ID’s and Surnames of any Badge Team members you might be trying for). What, you don’t have a Notepad doc open? Well, that’s checklist point No. 2…
2. Have ALL your – and your mates – details to hand.
Member ID. Badge ID. (Surname? Maybe, if your name is rather convoluted and there’s a little too much stress blood in your head right now.) Your credit card details. If you’re taking part in a Badge Team (more on this in a bit), have the details of your compatriots to hand, too, such as their Surnames and Member ID’s. It’s good to have this in a doc you can easily refer to on screen, even copy-and-paste to make sure to don’t mistype a stray number. “But, how can I easily have these to hand if I’m using a mobile device?”, I hear you cry. And then you feel me clip you round the ear because CCI have advised that you use a laptop/desktop browser, instead of a tablet or phone. That’s leads us to the ideal choice of browser for you to use…
3. Check your browser is suitable for the job.
Comic-Con International says that you must ideally be trying for badges in these broswers, tested for the task:
- Firefox: Any version
- Google Chrome: Any version
- Internet Explorer: Version 8 or later
- Safari: Any version
- Microsoft EDGE: Any version
Now, they say they you can’t use mobile devices – and, yeah, they would never be the ideal solution – and that the process hasn’t been tested fully on mobile browsers. However, from personal experience, I will say that it IS possible to work your way through the Waiting Room and Badge Buying process with a tablet or phone. Just make sure you have the Sleep Mode turned off and you have it permanently attached to a power supply!
4. Badge Teaming – get it together.
‘Get it together.’ Get it? Because you’re coming together and you’re going to get badges – together. Go Team! But, to make the team work well, you need to have everything in place, such a credit card with available funds for all the rest of your teammates, along with all of theire details (and that’s where that Notepad doc comes in handy). Also, communication is key – either set up a Facebook Messenger Chat or a conference chat on mobile text. When a member gets in to the Badge Sale process, the rest of the team needs to know so that, if they get in too, they’re not going to put in your details for a second time, invalidating the form. And you don’t want that to happen, right? Keep everyone on the same page and things will run so much smoothly.
Good news, though: CCI have provided you with a useful page with which to test your browser to make completely sure you’re good to go: CLICK HERE
6. Keep your eyes open. You’re not alone.
Comic-Con are going to be updating their Twitter feed regularly over the hours of the Badge Sale. They’re going to be refreshing their ‘yellow box’ of info in the Waiting Room. There’s going to be plenty of us, doing our best to keep you up to date with our Twitters – including us! There’s the #SDCCPreReg hashtag to keep an eye on. Hell, if you’re confident with your bandwidth wherever you are, you can even check in with The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog’s live hangout which will run live during the whole she-bang (probably best to watch that on a different device than the one you’re doing your badge purchase on, yeah…? Yeah…!)
The point is: you’re not the only one going through this today and, while there isn’t a way to keep a track on how everyone’s doing in the ‘queue’ anymore, you can still find out how everything’s progressing, in real time. God knows, there’s going to be enough people talking about how things are going!
7. Don’t rush – you’ll only trip up over yourself.
You know when you’re at the airport check-in and everyone is crowding around the desk, jostling for position, kicking and punching? Maybe that is what happened with the Badge Sales, back when it was ‘first-come, first-in’. But now, with the random drawing and selection of groups into the Sale process, that’s all out of the window. You can sit there and watch the melee at the gate, knowing that – eventually – you’re getting on the plane, regardless. So, relax: the last thing you need to do is panic. No need to enter the Waiting Room bang on 9am – you’ve got twoi hours to do so and there’s no preference to when you click on that link. get a cup of tea. Toast some crumpets. Take a breath, until you’re entered into the badge buying process, after 9am PT/12 Midday ET/5pm GMT. Speaking of which…
8. You’re in! Now… Relax.
Once you’re in the Badge Sale process, you have fifteen minutes to get through all the forms and finish everything up. The badges that are available are locked in for that session, you’re not going to lose them. So, hey, think of it this way: what else can you do? Slow down, take a breath – there’s no need to rush through the forms anymore, thinking the badges are going to vanish in front of your very eyes. Even if you are the slowest typist on the planet, fifteen minutes should prove plenty of time for you to enter your details, check and double-check – hey, even triple-check if you’re impressively anal. Best get it right, yeah? Well, chill out for a spell – you have the time to do that.
9. An-nnnnnnnnnnd done – for better or worse.
By the time all the dust has settled, you’ll either have badges under your belt – or, regrettably, not. If it’s the latter, don’t throw yourself from the nearest bridge just yet. You still have the Open Online Registration sale to have a crack at, taking place ‘early next year’ and, even if that doesn’t pan out, I’d even recommend hitting San Diego anyway. The way that Comic-Con has evolved in recent years has meant that the entire city has become a full convention in its own right, there’s simply no way for you not to discover something exciting and fascinating to entice you in every corner of San Diego. Take a trip, have a blast.
Yeah, you not buying that last one either, right? Well, I tried!
Best of luck, everybody.