Last Saturday while I was in the chat room with folks vying for badges to Comic-Con 2023, a number of folks were complaining about how the floor in the Exhibit Hall is uncarpeted and the concrete can be very hard on the feet. That's true not only of the San Diego Convention Center but of most convention centers I've been in throughout my silly lifetime. I assume most of these places have carpeting available for rent if some group that's meeting there wants to pay but I believe I once heard a convention chairman (not in San Diego) explaining how carpeting creates many problems for the load-in by the exhibitors and the load-out. And it costs money, probably more than we think.
So I'm wondering aloud here if recent incidents at the TwitchCon, held in the San Diego Convention Center earlier this month, will cause any changes. Several people — including a lady who broke her back in two places — were injured in a "foam pit" which "attendees reportedly noted was simply not deep enough." From the videos and photos, it doesn't look like a pit at all; just blocks of foam piled on that concrete floor.
I have no idea who's legally liable in a situation like this — the convention, the convention center or the particular exhibitor — but I'm reminded of one time I heard a lawyer asked by a client who they were going to sue in some matter at hand. The attorney's answer was "Everyone in every direction who has serious money." One assumes all three of those businesses carry significant insurance.
I'm also wondering if the convention industry has done any sort of analysis on the cost-effectiveness of carpeting. I know I've left the floor of some cons earlier than I might have because my feet and legs couldn't take much more time on cement. In a carpeted hall, I might have stayed another hour or two and spent more. Some exhibitors at Comic-Con do bring in carpeting for their spaces. Do they do that to be decorative or because they think it'll cause you to spend more time in the area where they're selling stuff? Even some carpeting does little to spare your lower extremities from the hard, cold flooring below.