Gym Leader Underlings:

[Morganstern]

I've used it before. All you have to do is print out a red R in a black circle, then cut around the R and the black won't be visible against the fabric.

[CommodoreSkippy]

Besides, cutting out a Rocket R or a T for Trainer just takes a little time at a table with an X-acto knife, even if it was 50 of them. That's something I'd be willing to do to help out.

[Kirogata]

Well, if my Gary Gym gets approved, I was planing on having a couple of my cheerleaders be grunt trainers. For the lols, and to keep people that could get lined up entertained if nothing else.

[StarVVolph]

To sort of reopen this discussion, I have another suggestion for Gym Leader Underlings that stems from a great friend of mine.
Gym Grunt System
The Gym Grunt System is a system for elevating line and time congestion brought up by too many participants at any given time. It rewards sharp eyes from the challengers while they are experiencing the many wonders of PAX.
Grunts are not difficult. They are merely stepping stones for experience and knowledge of what to expect from the leaders. In most cases they are even shippable. For the PPL, they are purely optional.

The mechanics:
Grunts experience the con as they would normally. They have some visual queue showing who and what they represent. If a PPL challenger spots one they are entitled to challenge the grunt. The “battle” consists of something short, easy, and quick. Possible encounters could be trivia, puzzle, or anything else related to the gym that the grunt represents.
Let’s find a grunt. It's a grunt for Poison! He is challenged. They say (one of probably a few questions the grunt could ask): “Name a type advantage to Poison.” This is easy. People who are participating should be able to answer this.
This makes beating the grunt quick and easy.
The grunt, being defeated, gives something unique to the gym he represents as the reward (something predetermined by the gym leader).
In this scenario finding the grunt is the only hard part, which could end up being luck as well. The challenger doesn’t need to actually take time out of their day to find a grunt. The grunt doesn't lose much time as well.
As a challenger with the reward they see that the Poison Gym leader is holding an hour long challenge session for people who have the reward from one of the grunts.
There are still open challenge sessions involving long lines, but there are also the special ones.
If the special sessions end up with too long of lines then the leader can announce (probably via twitter) that the reward cost is two. Since it's basically luck seeing who you need (grunts) doubling the requirement could cut down on the special line.

What this does:
This inspires social interaction throughout the con without forcing time drains on either the grunt or challenger. People can beat leaders in a quicker fashion because they were skilled / lucky enough to spot a grunt.

Shortened:
Leaders have grunts attending the con with a special reward. Challengers get this reward for spotting the grunt, talking to them, and completing an easy task that’s gym related. On twitter the leader announces a special challenge time for all challengers that have XX amount of the reward. Challengers with the requirement meet up with the leader.
This can be completely optional for all gyms, and the amount of grunts doesn’t matter.

[Heleor]

That's very similar to our Rocket grunt idea, except needlessly splits them up, requiring a much greater amount of heads.

[Kirogata]

What if Gary Oak has all of his ragtag cheerleads around him at all times?

[Heleor]

[Kirogata]

PUBLICITY!

[StarVVolph]

Kirogata, I lol'd. If this was Reddit, I'd upvote you XD

[Kirogata]