Want create site? Find Free WordPress Themes and plugins.

Let’s be clear. I love the vaping community. It’s full of nerds, weirdos, eccentrics, hardcore hobbyists, and passionate advocates (in the very best of ways). But not everyone in the community recognizes that they represent not only the community at large, but also the industry — an industry on the verge of harsh rules based almost solely on public perception.

By many accounts VapeBash in Chicago appears to have been quite a success. But in making vapers look like an amicable, reasonable, and approachable community, the event might not be the best sample.

The short version is that after signing a contract with event organizers stating that vaping would be allowed anywhere throughout the hotel, a few fire alarms from too much vapor and (presumably) visits from the fire marshal resulted in the hotel changing that policy. The hotel sent a letter to guests dictating that e-cigs could only be used in the ballrooms and ballroom foyers. It also called in additional staff to police vaping and booted individuals that set off the smoke detectors in their rooms.

Presumably, things got so heated and antagonistic between hotel staff and vaping guests that at least one physical altercation occurred.

The vaper side of the argument can be heard in vaping radio show Click, Bang‘s latest episode (discussion of VapeBash begins at around 24 minutes). And certainly these grievances are reasonable. While the hotel may not have known what it was getting itself into by agreeing to allow vaping anywhere and everywhere, that is not an excuse for what appears to be grossly poor customer service in the wake of the change in policy (whether it was forced by the local fire marshal or not).

Click Bang‘s host, Russel, even has a recorded conversation between himself and the (it sounds like) head of the hotel. The episode is worth a listen, though Russ certainly gets a bit heated over his interaction with the hotel manager. Right out of the gate, what could be a simple lack of distinction between private and public hotel space policy makes the hotel representative a bald-faced liar in Russ’s eyes. It is possible that the note about where vaping could be done was meant primarily to apply to the hotel’s public space.

A few things about the event appear to suggest more is at play than a hotel deciding it suddenly doesn’t like vaping and vapers. Among other things, the hotel rep mentions individuals tampering with smoke detectors. Some vapers might have been doing this to vape freely in their rooms without concern of the alarms going off. The problem is that hotels are required to maintain working smoke detectors and tampering with them in most states is a misdemeanor. This might be why some individuals were booted from the hotel.

It also appears that a group which decided not to stay at the hotel in light of vaping issues was given a full refund.

Meanwhile, it appears the response to the hotel crackdown may have ranged from passive aggressive to aggressive aggressive. Apparently, some even staged a cloud competition (blowing the largest, thickest clouds possible) on the last day as a way to show the hotel what for before leaving.

Again, certainly plenty seems to have been handled incorrectly, but perhaps the harsh response from hotel staff was based on what can only be described as uncouth and antagonistic behavior by some vapers (not all, but some).

Let’s forget for a moment about the hotel itself. Let’s imagine that someone at the hotel is there for something other than the vaping event and isn’t even acquainted with electronic cigarettes. How then does this person perceive the vaping community? Are they going to see vapers as a trod upon group merely seeking the freedom to use their devices in peace or as a group of entitled nicotine-obsessed brats that blow smoke in the faces of everyone they pass?

Again, we all need to be aware that the way we act at these events, justified or not, reflects on the community and industry. These actions could impact the way that local authorities view e-cigs.

Should vaping events be vapor free-for-alls? We’d certainly like that, but a little decorum now may lead to more freedoms later.