Just wanted to send out an update for the September 12 Comicon and let
you know where we are with the safety plan. The con is taking place a
day before vaccination passports are required, so I guess that’s
something to look at for November. There are a couple things that I need
to confirm/walk through with Heritage Hall when I’m at the building
next week; I’ll list them here with that caveat. Our safety plan was
created with the guidelines and restrictions provided by the province’s
Phase 3 reopening stage. (If we had moved to Phase 4, the only thing
that would have changed is the number of people in the room at any given
time.)
- Everybody in the big room needs to be wearing a mask. The mask has to cover your lower face and nose. If you don’t have a mask, we will have paper masks available at the front door. Because they’re at the show all day, the dealers and creators have been told they can remove their masks if they’re sitting behind plexiglass shields or behind the table far enough where they’re comfortable doing so, but if they walk out in front of the tables, they need to have a mask on.
- We are allowed a maximum of 100 people in the room at any given time. This includes the dealers and artists. What this means for you is we’re still stamping your hands, but if you leave the building, you may have to wait in line to get back in. Along with this, we’re probably going to change up the order we let people enter the room and focus on letting families in first because they don’t generally stay for most of the day.
- We’re avoiding doing door prizes this show, because of social distancing, and we don’t really want people hanging around all day (or if you leave and try to come back in time and get stuck in a lineup outside) to win some graphic novels, so we’re going to be giving out free comics to all kids under 14, and, while supplies last, all paid attendees will get a copy of King Spawn #1.
- I still need to confirm this, but the Hall will have hand sanitizer stations around the room, and someone to keep the washrooms and high-touch areas cleaned throughout the day.
- This also still needs to be confirmed, but the plan is to have everyone enter through the usual lobby side door area (and there will be tape on the floor and sidewalk outside to help with distancing) and exit through the front centre doors in the room. The latter currently have wood panelling covering them, as work on the building continues. If we can’t use the centre doors, exit will be through the lobby as usual.
If you have questions about any of this, feel free to email me at lswong@uniserve.com
Thanks, and I hope to see you at the show!
