I received an email from Walt Disney Event Services (WDES) on Monday, informing me that the Random Selection Process (RSP) for the seminar/workshop portion of the 50th anniversary "Magical Memories" event was now open.
Upon reading further, I discovered that not only was there a very real possibility that I would not get into the seminars that I wanted (since there wasn't an option for a second or third choice), but that WDES is now planning on selling seminar access to event attendees that registered for the "Imagineers Quest" portion of the event. This package NEVER had access to the seminar/workshops as an element of the package!
After calling WDES this morning, and not having my questions answered satifactorily, I received a callback from Martha Blanding, the manager for this event, regarding my disappointment with the way that the seminar RSP is being run.
Martha was very nice and she tried to answer my concerns. When she was not able to answer a question, she told me she would get back to me and she did. We had 3 seperate conversations. The upshot of the conversations was this; WDES is going to try very hard to make sure that everyone who is registered in the top 3 tiers of this event gets the seminars that they want.
I don't want to cast Martha in a bad light. As I said before, she was very nice and we had a good repoire on the phone. I was previously under the impression that the reason they were limiting access to the seminars was because there weren' enough seminars or seats to allow everyone into two seminars per day. I was fine with that, until I found out that there are going to be 550 seats per hour available for Friday's seminars and 480 seats per hour available for Saturdays seminars. Given the fact that there are only 311 guests that signed up for the top 3 tiers, then theoretically everyone registered for this event can attend two seminars a day.
I explained to Martha that the way the RSP is currently set up, the attendees are being asked to pick one (per hour) seminar that they would really like to attend. Which is difficult given that there are 5 GREAT seminars being given every hour. But you can only pick one. Then, WDES will go thru the "Walt's Dream" attendees first and award them the seminars they want. Then they will go thru the "Roy's Plan" attendees and award them the seminars that they want. Finally. they will attempt to award the "Lillians Inspiration" attendees with their seminars. The trouble with this is that by the time they get to the "Lillian" portion of the seminars, some of the seminars willl be filled up. Without knowing what we want for a 2nd or 3rd choice, WDES will not be able to place us in a "2nd choice" seminar and we will be left out of another seminar that has room for us.
It was at this point that she explained to me that EVERONE registered for this event in the top three tiers is going to get into at least ONE seminar per day. To which I responded, "why only one?" I further explained that according to the number of available seats and the number of registrants, that it is possible for every registrant into TWO seminars a day.
I further explained that my feeling was that each seminar given was going to be special, given the fact that there would be a different audience for each seminar with different topics being discussed, depending on the types of questions being asked. I explained that I would happily attend the same seminar twice, rather than cool my heels in the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel.
I went on to suggest that if they can take the time to sell seminars to members of the "Imagineers Quest" package, WDES could certainly take the time to see to that everyone in the top three tiers were satisfied with the seminar portion of their package first.
I also expressed my concern that after the seminar RSP, that WDES would contact attendees of the top three tiers with the RSP results by US Mail, rather than e-mail, which would allow WDES enough time to sell the remaining seminar seats to the "Imagineers Quest" attendees. Martha was incredibly patient with me and assured me that the top three tiers would have their seminar issues resolved before any of the seminars were opened up to members of the "Imagineers Quest" package. She also expressed more than once that all of these issues are going to be revisited.
She also told me that my phone call was one of only two that she had received regarding this portion of the event. Since guest input seems to make a big difference at WDES, I would strongly encourage anyone registered for this event in the top three tiers to call Martha Blanding, Event Manager directly at 714-781-4390. I got off the phone feeling slightly perplexed. Although I had received a tremendous amount of reassurance, there really wasn't any resolution. Hopefully, since this issue is being addressed prior to the closure of the seminar RSP, that WDES will revisit this issue and come up with a solution that will be satisfactory to all of the parties concerned.
Upon reading further, I discovered that not only was there a very real possibility that I would not get into the seminars that I wanted (since there wasn't an option for a second or third choice), but that WDES is now planning on selling seminar access to event attendees that registered for the "Imagineers Quest" portion of the event. This package NEVER had access to the seminar/workshops as an element of the package!
After calling WDES this morning, and not having my questions answered satifactorily, I received a callback from Martha Blanding, the manager for this event, regarding my disappointment with the way that the seminar RSP is being run.
Martha was very nice and she tried to answer my concerns. When she was not able to answer a question, she told me she would get back to me and she did. We had 3 seperate conversations. The upshot of the conversations was this; WDES is going to try very hard to make sure that everyone who is registered in the top 3 tiers of this event gets the seminars that they want.
I don't want to cast Martha in a bad light. As I said before, she was very nice and we had a good repoire on the phone. I was previously under the impression that the reason they were limiting access to the seminars was because there weren' enough seminars or seats to allow everyone into two seminars per day. I was fine with that, until I found out that there are going to be 550 seats per hour available for Friday's seminars and 480 seats per hour available for Saturdays seminars. Given the fact that there are only 311 guests that signed up for the top 3 tiers, then theoretically everyone registered for this event can attend two seminars a day.
I explained to Martha that the way the RSP is currently set up, the attendees are being asked to pick one (per hour) seminar that they would really like to attend. Which is difficult given that there are 5 GREAT seminars being given every hour. But you can only pick one. Then, WDES will go thru the "Walt's Dream" attendees first and award them the seminars they want. Then they will go thru the "Roy's Plan" attendees and award them the seminars that they want. Finally. they will attempt to award the "Lillians Inspiration" attendees with their seminars. The trouble with this is that by the time they get to the "Lillian" portion of the seminars, some of the seminars willl be filled up. Without knowing what we want for a 2nd or 3rd choice, WDES will not be able to place us in a "2nd choice" seminar and we will be left out of another seminar that has room for us.
It was at this point that she explained to me that EVERONE registered for this event in the top three tiers is going to get into at least ONE seminar per day. To which I responded, "why only one?" I further explained that according to the number of available seats and the number of registrants, that it is possible for every registrant into TWO seminars a day.
I further explained that my feeling was that each seminar given was going to be special, given the fact that there would be a different audience for each seminar with different topics being discussed, depending on the types of questions being asked. I explained that I would happily attend the same seminar twice, rather than cool my heels in the lobby of the Disneyland Hotel.
I went on to suggest that if they can take the time to sell seminars to members of the "Imagineers Quest" package, WDES could certainly take the time to see to that everyone in the top three tiers were satisfied with the seminar portion of their package first.
I also expressed my concern that after the seminar RSP, that WDES would contact attendees of the top three tiers with the RSP results by US Mail, rather than e-mail, which would allow WDES enough time to sell the remaining seminar seats to the "Imagineers Quest" attendees. Martha was incredibly patient with me and assured me that the top three tiers would have their seminar issues resolved before any of the seminars were opened up to members of the "Imagineers Quest" package. She also expressed more than once that all of these issues are going to be revisited.
She also told me that my phone call was one of only two that she had received regarding this portion of the event. Since guest input seems to make a big difference at WDES, I would strongly encourage anyone registered for this event in the top three tiers to call Martha Blanding, Event Manager directly at 714-781-4390. I got off the phone feeling slightly perplexed. Although I had received a tremendous amount of reassurance, there really wasn't any resolution. Hopefully, since this issue is being addressed prior to the closure of the seminar RSP, that WDES will revisit this issue and come up with a solution that will be satisfactory to all of the parties concerned.
