SG Complains

IT Shows Extremely Crowded!! Dangerous?

According to Channelnewsasia:

SINGAPORE: Despite the economic slump, IT Show 2009 generated a record S$58.5 million, which is S$4.5 million more than last year.

Vendors at the show were thrilled that customers came out in full force due to the massive bargains on offer.

The exhibition hall was not a place to be if you are claustrophobic.

Read the full article at Channelnewsasia:

- I had bought stuff at the IT Show last Friday afternoon and it was packed to the brim with bargain hunters, technology seekers and parents that bring babies into the excited crowd?

Yes, IT show is like one of the biggest bargain shopping experience in town and only happens once in a while per year which draws not just the locals but tourist as well.

It seems to me that the whole Singapore had just converged into a relatively big (half a stadium) convention halls to seek out the latest gadgets and thrills….and many got squeezed by the people from everywhere.

Yes, it’s dangerous.

Let me list out a few dangers.

1. Females being molested unknowingly by the crowd and have no choice but to move on.
2. Stampede if there is any panic (fire alarm?)
3. Children being walked over if they fall down.
4. Goods stolen or looted if chaos breaks out (highly unlikely since Singaporean or locals are a very honest, God fearing, educated bunch of people)
5. Fainting of exhaustion and no place to rest.

My wacky solutions again

1. Go on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday or Sunday to avoid heavy crowds
2. Go by MRT instead of driving to avoid traffic jams
3. After going out from the underground exit to Suntec, go around to the Suntec front entrance of the convention hall instead of going through the crowded walkway via the shopping area.
4. Do not bring small kids to such crowded events unless you are absolutely sure you can carry the baby all the time.
5. When in panic, be calm and do not run or rush through the crowd and find a wall if possible to lean on to and avoid falling down.
6. Try to avoid bottlenecks of human traffic jams at walk ways if possible.
7. Females do use a sling bag to cover your bottoms and a file or hard object to cover your front to avoid embarrassing moments in the crowd.
8. The official in charge of crowd control should actively seek out alternative routes to the place of interest and divert the crowd there instead.
9. More signs to divert the crowd away from bottle necks.
10. Live feed of “human traffic” conditions shown to the people approaching to let them judge their decisions to go to the place.

Yes, I love how Singtel does on the ticketing queue system that SMS me that my queue number is approaching (left 10 person in front of my queue number) and how efficiently they handled the people but they must anticipate and plan ahead to have place for people to rest their feet while waiting for their queue to come up.

The center where lot’s of fake phones on display does not give much incentive to customers to make decisions so if I am the organizer, I will remove the center island display partially to make more room for comfortable seats for people to wait for their queue ticket to be “beep” on the electronic counter.

The rest of the IT show is great while the bottle necks at the Suntec shopping area is a terrible way to spend 30 minutes squeezing through small gaps and holes to get pass the approaching excited crowd.

Thank goodness I survived the IT show with my purchase and my life…what is your experience?