As you can see Kone itself suggest to use the open door button when entering the lift.
I've never heard of a company suggesting otherwise, due to potential liability. A button usually can't hurt you if it malfunctions, a door however, can. That being said, I found the door sensors to be responsive within the range I expect from a usual lift.
My friends did run into the lift technician once and found him thoroughly testing a just fixed lift by running it all the way up and down, checking the doors on each floor. I doubt he needs us to tell him how to do his job. I think the Estrel just didn't expect that such a technician would pretty much be needed to be present for on-call duty within the hotel 24/7 - something the Maritim had to learn the hard way, too.
Please don't ignore ANY bad behavior from the lift, even a squeak can be a sign [...] Note everything, make a list if you want but please tell someone.
So what percentage of attendees do have the skills and knowledge to tell what squeaks are perfectly normal and what is a sign of a potential problem? And how do you expect ConOps, Security or reception staff to weed out information about suspicious sounds, because they also don't necessarily know about the qualifications of the one reporting? Don't get me wrong, I am all for reporting obvious issues, like a door opening several times at one floor for no apparent reason. But beyond that the majority of us hardly are qualified to read into things. And neither should we run around during a convention with a list to keep monitoring the lifts. That is the job for the hotel staff. And I am positive they will be better prepared next year to keep those lifts running - at the very least by having the necessary personal at hand right away to cut down maintenance/repair time.