We Interview Chris DeMoulin About LACC’s New COVID Safety Measures

We’ve already talked about the convention’s COVID safety guidelines recently, (See that article Here), but we had more questions, thankfully the amazing CEO Chris DeMoulin joined us to help us understand better.

Eric Bryan Seuthe II: Hey Chris! It’s been a couple of months since last we talked, but I wanted to thank you for giving us the chance to discuss these new changes to the rules. You said before that the sessions might become full-day tickets if things get better. I’ll be honest I thought that was wishful thinking, but I was happy to be wrong. Are you still planning on reducing the capacity of the convention to promote social distancing, or are you just relying on the expansion?

    Chris DeMoulin: HI Eric, great to be talking with you again! Expanding to the West Hall with the Tiltify Arena and all the eSports, Anime and Gaming content will certainly spread the attendees out over a lot more space – about 1,200,000 SqFt in all. The LA Department of Public health no longer has any reduced capacity limits in their guidelines, so we’re following their lead. Right now, they believe that all Mega-Event participants are fully safe if we make sure all attendees have proof of vaccination or a negative CV-19 test within the prior 3 days – plus everyone wears masks. So in addition to spreading out to accommodate our growth in content – almost doubling our space — that’s what we’re doing!

Eric: I’m sure you saw the pictures of people mocking GenCon with all the attendees bottlenecked into one place at the same time, what steps are the convention going to take to keep the crowds from being forced into one large place like that?

    Chris: We’re doing several things to avoid bottlenecks. First, about 10,000 people chose to get their badges sent in advance. That means they will proceed from the vaccine and bag check directly to the show, not need to go to Badge Redemption. Second, we’re going to have three entrances – two in West Hall and one in South Hall – so that people with and without badges – and our ADA guests – have more options. And third, we are more than doubling the number of magnetometers from last year, so our through-put capacity is greatly increased. If you come to the show at 10am Saturday morning, there will still be lines to get in — but they should be moving smoothly and quickly, and we estimate the total time in line to be 20-30 minutes at peak. We’ve thought hard to identify and solve for all the potential bottlenecks.

Eric: I know the convention is following the guidelines for Los Angeles County, but Los Angeles City is much more restrictive, with their recent finding to force most indoor venues to require proof of full vaccine after November 4th, is it possible that the convention might require full vaccine by the start of the convention, or will it be standing firm on allowing attendance with a negative test?

    Chris: We have no expectation that the current rules will change before our December 3-5 dates – it will be proof of full vaccination, or proof of a negative test within the prior 3 days. Since many of our attendees are kids aged 3-12, they wouldn’t have a chance to get fully vaccinated by then, but they’re still attending school with proof of negative tests. We’ll stand by that. And, if someone who comes can’t find their vaccination or negative test confirmation, we will have free rapid PCR testing onsite, with results in 15 minutes.

Eric: Has it been difficult booking talent, or getting exhibitors to rejoin the in-person convention?

    Chris: To be truthful, Eric, not really. We have been very upfront about all of our safety precautions, and we rescheduled the event to December to provide more time for more people to get vaccinated. We are proud that we are able to offer the fans this year the biggest, most diverse talent line-up we’ve ever had – and that just expanded greatly with the addition of the Tiltify Arena, and all the eSports, Anime and Gaming programming being added to West Hall. On the exhibitor side, it looks like we will have almost exactly the same number of exhibitors in 2021 that we had in 2019. We take everyone’s trust quite seriously, and have been working for a full year to ensure that this show can be both fun, and safe for all. We’re so excited to see everyone again, and welcome them back – for our (belated) 10th Anniversary show!

Eric: I don’t want to be negative, but I feel it’s still an important question, does the convention have a plan if things take a turn in the next few weeks prior to the convention?

    Chris: We always have back up plans, and contingency plans to the back up plans – we’re event organizers, it’s what we do. We have no reasonable expectation that the current metrics and health trends will change in the next 2-3 weeks, but if LA County alters its guidelines, we have back up plans ready and in place to respond to them.

Eric: I know you’re excited to jump back into the “Convention Life” as are we, so I want to thank you for your patience and honest attempts to create a safe and responsible event!

    Chris: And we want to thank you, Eric – folks like you have been instrumental in giving all of us a continuous stream of news, updates, information and nerd-centric stories to consume until we could venture forth from our homes again. Thank you for keeping us connected, and helping keep our community whole.

The convention is coming to the Los Angeles Convention Center from December 3, 2021 through December 5, 2021. Tickets are still available for the convention, and can be purchased Here.

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