GMX review 2012
What I LOVE about GMX
It's local. The time of year is perfect. I really like having a 6pm Friday to 6pm Sunday con. It's a true weekend con. Bigger/longer isn't always better. Great venue. Free parking. Interesting guests...people who are making it in the industry and have great stories to tell. There was a really good variety to the panel topics and events.
What needs work...
GMX is a relatively new and growing con...so there's a learning curve. It was a little hard to figure out where the guest tables were. Might help to mark those more clearly.
I think the sex/alcohol could be toned down a bit. The GMX babes need to either go, or wear more clothes in the middle of the day. (Maybe scif/Fantasy themed outfits rather than just sparkly mini-skirts.) I have nothing against attractive women, but I think a geek con needs to be emphasizing it's geekiness not it's sex appeal. There are plenty of other venues for that.
Most costumes were cool and appropriate, but there were some female con goers walking around with their rears very exposed in the middle of the day. And a few that have very bloody/ scary costumes while there were still kids walking around. (I will say most zombies waited til nightfall, out of good courtesy and common sense...but it would be nice to make it official.)
Honestly, I don't think kids under age 13 ought to go to cons, but parents bring them anyway. And teenagers ought to have their youth respected. Not to mention, I don't like having my eyes assaulted by the naked rears of total strangers. Official guidelines would be nice.
What massively FAILED this year...
Scheduling was a mess. There were great events and panels going. They were just scheduled at weird times.
I was told registration started at 2pm, but there was nothing to do Friday night until 8pm. I truly believe panels should have started at 6pm. People were looking rather bored.
Instead of making use of these waking hours, day time panels were scheduled for the middle of the night. I had lots of people tell me how they really wanted to come to the Sherlock Holmes or Draco Malfoy panel, but the midnight and 1am time frame made it impossible.
This was the ONLY all ages Harry Potter panel at the con. A 10 and 12 year old stayed up and braved the zombies and alcohol just to come to my Draco panel at midnight.
I'd suggest All Ages panels run 9am to 9pm, and then they can start the adult panels at 9 or 10. Most cons do this, and there's good reason for it.
Also there were no printed schedules. I appreciate the attempt to go paperless, but not everyone has a smart phone. Nor does everyone want one. The schedule screens might have made up for it, if there had been a way to keep them still and stop them from rotating so quickly. They were hard to read. It made it very difficult to plan out your day, which is usually my first step. The only panel descriptions were available online...which was a bit of an issue too.
At the very least, there should have been a printer friendly version of the schedule on the website, and ideally a few printed copies available for those who don't have iphones/ipads. I tried printing out the schedule after I got home the first night....but couldn't figure out how to make it print properly short of doing screen caps and resizing it in photoshop.