Hi Amy, thanks for this site; it was invaluable for my first Creation con! I was wondering if Simone's still on deck for JIB questions? I'm wondering how easy it is to navigate the registration process/the con itself as a monolingual English speaker, what the likelihood of someone who's never gone before getting a Demon pass or better is, why the Hunter pass isn't in the Stage Room, what the cocktail party is like, are there any minuses vs Creation- Basically everything. Any help is appreciated!
I had a someone who has attended JIB help out with this for me :)
The registration process itself is fairly easy to navigate. Essentially you take a hard copy of your emails that represent the “tickets” you purchased (seat, photo ops, extra autos etc) and some form of identification. The JIB people will have an envelope with your name on it, and inside will be the actual tickets you will use during the weekend. The check each ticket in the envelope against each email you have to make sure you have everything you should have, including – of course! – your weekend pass which has your seat number. That’s pretty much it.
Most (if not all – haven’t met all, so cannot guarantee ) of the JIB staff speak English to a greater or lesser degree, and all are very helpful and patient, so you will have no issues. (Also, if you’re staying at the Hilton Hotel, the hotel staff speak English as well.)
To be perfectly honest, getting a pass IS difficult. Those who have attended JIB in prior years get one hour’s grace to opt in/request for a ticket when they do become available, and generally all the Angel Passes are taken up with the emails received in the first 30 seconds. The other passes follow soon after, so by the time anyone who hasn’t attended before is able to request a pass (an hour later) the chances of getting better than Demon are almost nil. That being said, at times people who have an Angel Pass may find they cannot go, and there is a window of opportunity before the next convention for someone to handover their pass to someone else. The alternative – if you want to get better than Demon – is to save up and try to win one of the Prophet Passes when they are auctioned. (Though fair warning, they go for a very high $$ figure.)The Hunter passes aren’t in the stage room likely because there simply isn’t room. There are a fixed number of seats available at the convention, so the Hunter pass enables people to attend and do photo ops and autos (if they purchase them), but they can only watch the panels from a separate room/on a screen.
The Cocktail party is somewhat akin to a speed-dating thing. Basically there are multiple big round tables, approximately 10 attendees per table. Those who win the Prophet Passes have their own table up the front. Essentially when the guests arrive, they move from table to table to talk to those at each table. To be honest, they aren’t given very long at each table – they do their best, but there are many tables, and getting every guest around to each table takes some effort, so at best you might have about 5 minutes with each guest. (At least, from experience, that’s what it feels like.)
Regarding the pass handover thing: Note: The handover of passes has some fairly stringent guidelines that have to be followed, most particularly that you cannot say you are selling or buying a pass. What occurs between pass owner and pass receiver is not something that should be public, and not something JIB get involved with. A JIB pass is viewed as an invitation to a party, somewhat, and not a “ticket”. And the handover must be approved by JIB. (There’s more information on the website when they open the window for handovers to occur.)
How does JIB compare to Creation? The JIB weekend panels/structure – while certainly busy! – is better. There are more panels with each guest, for example there is usually always a panel with Misha on Friday and Saturday, and then a Misha and Jared panel and a Misha and Jensen panel (usually the last panel of the weekend on Sunday). There will be solo Jensen panels, solo Jared, but also Jensen and Jared. And the changeover between panels can often be a lot of fun as the guests for the next panel will arrive on stage while the other is still there. It’s generally just more relaxed and less “structured” than the Creation panels.
The photo ops do overlap a lot more with the panels. Whereas Creation will start photo ops before panels begin, with JIB you may have more instances of needing to leave a panel to get to a photo op. That being said, there are usually multiple photo op sessions with each guest over the weekend, so you can plan which session to attend to best suit what you want to see.The same goes for autographs – there are multiple sessions, and depending on what you’re priority is, you may skip out of part of a panel to get the autos done.For both photo ops and autos you may not always need to skip out - there are gaps in the schedule to give you some down time. But as with Creation the photo ops move pretty fast anyway, so you won’t miss too much, and they always publish notices on the screen to alert when photos and autos are in progress, or about to end.Note: like Creation, the autos and photos work on pass priority – Prophet, then Angel, then Demon etc.
The convention area itself, where the panel room, is not huge, and you’ll find that during photo op sessions many of the attendees line the hallway between what is used as the green room and what is used as the photo op room to catch glimpses and take photos and vids or J2M et al walking back and forward. So be prepared to battle the crowd if you’re trying to get anywhere in a hurry during those times.
The photography for the Ops, on a scale of convention photos, is better than The Hub in Australia (no shower curtain ;-) ) but not as good as Creation. Let’s face it, there’s no replacing Chris Schmelke. And the photos you get at JIB are not 8x10, but more like 5x7. Like with Chris, you do have an opportunity to order your JPEGs from JIB, but after the convention. Be warned, they don’t keep them forever. Where with Chris I ordered photos from more than 5 years ago, with JIB photos from 2 years ago were no longer available.
The merchandise room is somewhat limited, restricted to the photos, tote bags, mugs and other items JIB sell. There are no other vendors.There are rules with JIB about what can be autographed. Artwork and official merchandise is fine, but you cannot have any photo autographed – they must be JIB-approved photos (which they sell). (Check the website for full details.)
JIB has the Roman Holiday event, wherein you can tour a site or two in Rome with a few of the guests, and a limited number of attendees. Creation doesn’t really have anything that compares. Note: It’s difficult to get a pass for the Roman Holiday event because the places available are very limited.
* Side note - Creation have run some special event/tours in the past. There have been several Ghost Tours with Chad Lindberg and a Nashville home town tour with local Richard Speight Jr. (and his dad!). There is also the Vancouver Vancon location tour run by show locations manager Russ Hamilton.
The buying of passes for the event is probably the most problematic, as it compares to Creation. As known you have to send an email at a certain time (usually 3pm Rome time for ‘newbies’) on a certain day, and hope your email gets in early enough to get the type of pass you want. Paying for the pass is problematic for anyone not in Italy/Europe. Unlike Creation, JIB do not accept payments by credit card or Paypal. You either have to arrange an international bank transfer, or use some other online money transfer process. Unlike Creation you can opt to pay by instalments, but you must be absolutely on time with each payment – JIB set the number of instalments, amount and dates they are due.And per previous, you can opt to handover your pass if you find you can’t go, but the handover must be approved, and there are multiple guidelines about the process. Of note, you have up to a certain date to do this, so if you find at the last minute you cannot go, there is no opportunity (like there is with Creation) to ‘sell’/handover your pass or your photo ops and autos to someone else. And there are no refunds.
A few other quick notes for comparison:JIB don’t have auctions – Creation do.JIB doesn’t have a Karaoke night – Creation do. JIB doesn’t have a Saturday Night Special, but they do have guests like Rob and Jason playing - for example last year Rob Benedict played on the Sunday night - and after the convention Jason Manns, Rob Benedict and other guests will usually be playing at a local venue to which you can obtain tickets.
A final note: It’s clear the guests really enjoy JIB, and the attendees do as well. The panels have certainly improved and relaxed over time with Creation, but there is a definite vibe at the JIB events – a little bit more spontaneity at times, and it’s very apparent the guests are seemingly having just as much fun as the attendees. They’re on holidays in Rome! (Over the last couple of years JIB have placed boxes of unknown gift items on the stage which the guests open here and there during the panels – what comes out, and what they do with them, can lead to a lot of fun and laughter.)It’s certainly worth experiencing at least once if you can.
