Back from SpoCon!
Whew! Ended up spending Sunday night in Spokane, since everyone was too shot by the end of the con to want to pack and drive back the same day. I'd arranged for that possibility ahead of time with my job, so no worries there. The rest of yesterday (after we got back into town) was spent on household concerns (especially a very clingy, attention-deprived Fry; the person we had feeding critters and checking up on the house could only stop by briefly each day, and it just wasn't enough according to the cat), but now I should be getting back online more.
Anyway, SpoCon had some organizational glitches of a first-con nature, to be sure, but in person all of the organizers were very pleasant and willing to work with us to get things fixed/taken care of -- which went a long way towards smoothing things over, IMO. The really bad events are the ones that are poorly organized *and* have rude/unhelpful staff.
Though we did have to contend with Weird Senses of Humor -- one of the concom apparently set out to tease the person in charge of fan tables by going in late at night and moving the fan tables around in relation to one another . . . which meant that the display tables for my historical group and LSR's gaming club were in different places each morning. We figured someone was screwing around with *us* in a non- malicious way (none of our tabletop displays were messed with, the tables were simply shifted), and figured we'd eventually find out what was up. I think it was a good thing that we're pretty easygoing by nature about such stuff, or the prank could have backfired badly. There are some prima-donna-type club organizers out there who would have been screaming for someone's blood immediately if their tables had been moved around like that. Mr. Prankster was informed of this, once we found out about it all, and reminded that it's a really bad idea to prank someone by involving random third parties who aren't in on the joke at the onset. Hopefully our words of wisdom sunk in.
The Gonzaga campus turned out to be a better event site, overall, than I'd thought. Campus events are often spread among multiple buildings some distance apart. While there was a little of that to contend with here, the bulk of events were centered around one core location -- which was very nice, especially for panels that involved carting gear around.
All our historical panels went well, which was a relief, though through various timing/travel issues of other members, I ended up pretty well being the main "front" person for our group -- which was kinda stressful, since I don't really have the "stage" persona to carry such things off well. I prefer doing the organizing and then shoving more charismatic people to the forefront to interact with the crowd. OTOH, I'm not afraid of public speaking, so I got out there and talked loud and fast on whatever subject was at hand (in the manner I usually refer to as "Dame Ruth's Free Association Hour") and at least held people's attention. Also, LSR was fantastic -- she took time out from promoting her gaming group to help out when some of our other people couldn't be on-hand (as did her gaming group friend, who was carpooling with us), and I really appreciated it.
We ended up getting lots of interest for our two clubs, too; in particular it was interesting to see how many con attendees were enthusiastic about "classic" card and board games (poker, Scrabble, backgammon, chess, etc.). Role-playing games and computer games get so much hype anymore, the oldies-but-goodies are often overlooked in the media -- yet people *still* love them.
Heh -- I went to the Saturday night social in the velvet dress I bought for officiating at my friends' recent wedding . . . accessorized with my nice silver Seal of Rassilon pin and a pair of black mock!Chucks, for a subtly-DW-geeky tone. Sadly, nobody seemed to get the geek reference, but the dress did surprise people. I guess I'm known as The Armor Chick in the local con circuit, since lots of people asked me where my suit of plate was! Not Iike I normally wear 70+ lbs of plate to parties anyway, but people seem to expect it . . . :D
Mini!JAck was my constant companion for the weekend, but sadly we didn't get any pictures of him onsite (too busy with other things, as it turned out). He had a cushy time of it, though, spending most of his time resting in my basket of handspun yarn. He also got a couple of friends, since one con freebie was a Worf action figure, and another was a gaming figure of a random green monster that LSR immediately dubbed Alien Meat (in reference to her favorite Jack double-entendre from Torchwood's second season). If other cons provide similar hauls, mini!Jack may end up with quite the entourage!
So, initial misgivings about organizational problems aside, SpoCon ended up being a good 'un -- and bigger than expected (I was hearing a figure of around 600+ attendees towards the end). Definitely one to try for again next year, epsecially if a lot of the pre-planning runs more smoothly a second time around!
FWIW, that ends the con circuit for 2008 (at least for me). Next up: RadCon in Pasco, WA, Feb. 2009. But there's a bit of breathing space till then. :)
Anyway, SpoCon had some organizational glitches of a first-con nature, to be sure, but in person all of the organizers were very pleasant and willing to work with us to get things fixed/taken care of -- which went a long way towards smoothing things over, IMO. The really bad events are the ones that are poorly organized *and* have rude/unhelpful staff.
Though we did have to contend with Weird Senses of Humor -- one of the concom apparently set out to tease the person in charge of fan tables by going in late at night and moving the fan tables around in relation to one another . . . which meant that the display tables for my historical group and LSR's gaming club were in different places each morning. We figured someone was screwing around with *us* in a non- malicious way (none of our tabletop displays were messed with, the tables were simply shifted), and figured we'd eventually find out what was up. I think it was a good thing that we're pretty easygoing by nature about such stuff, or the prank could have backfired badly. There are some prima-donna-type club organizers out there who would have been screaming for someone's blood immediately if their tables had been moved around like that. Mr. Prankster was informed of this, once we found out about it all, and reminded that it's a really bad idea to prank someone by involving random third parties who aren't in on the joke at the onset. Hopefully our words of wisdom sunk in.
The Gonzaga campus turned out to be a better event site, overall, than I'd thought. Campus events are often spread among multiple buildings some distance apart. While there was a little of that to contend with here, the bulk of events were centered around one core location -- which was very nice, especially for panels that involved carting gear around.
All our historical panels went well, which was a relief, though through various timing/travel issues of other members, I ended up pretty well being the main "front" person for our group -- which was kinda stressful, since I don't really have the "stage" persona to carry such things off well. I prefer doing the organizing and then shoving more charismatic people to the forefront to interact with the crowd. OTOH, I'm not afraid of public speaking, so I got out there and talked loud and fast on whatever subject was at hand (in the manner I usually refer to as "Dame Ruth's Free Association Hour") and at least held people's attention. Also, LSR was fantastic -- she took time out from promoting her gaming group to help out when some of our other people couldn't be on-hand (as did her gaming group friend, who was carpooling with us), and I really appreciated it.
We ended up getting lots of interest for our two clubs, too; in particular it was interesting to see how many con attendees were enthusiastic about "classic" card and board games (poker, Scrabble, backgammon, chess, etc.). Role-playing games and computer games get so much hype anymore, the oldies-but-goodies are often overlooked in the media -- yet people *still* love them.
Heh -- I went to the Saturday night social in the velvet dress I bought for officiating at my friends' recent wedding . . . accessorized with my nice silver Seal of Rassilon pin and a pair of black mock!Chucks, for a subtly-DW-geeky tone. Sadly, nobody seemed to get the geek reference, but the dress did surprise people. I guess I'm known as The Armor Chick in the local con circuit, since lots of people asked me where my suit of plate was! Not Iike I normally wear 70+ lbs of plate to parties anyway, but people seem to expect it . . . :D
Mini!JAck was my constant companion for the weekend, but sadly we didn't get any pictures of him onsite (too busy with other things, as it turned out). He had a cushy time of it, though, spending most of his time resting in my basket of handspun yarn. He also got a couple of friends, since one con freebie was a Worf action figure, and another was a gaming figure of a random green monster that LSR immediately dubbed Alien Meat (in reference to her favorite Jack double-entendre from Torchwood's second season). If other cons provide similar hauls, mini!Jack may end up with quite the entourage!
So, initial misgivings about organizational problems aside, SpoCon ended up being a good 'un -- and bigger than expected (I was hearing a figure of around 600+ attendees towards the end). Definitely one to try for again next year, epsecially if a lot of the pre-planning runs more smoothly a second time around!
FWIW, that ends the con circuit for 2008 (at least for me). Next up: RadCon in Pasco, WA, Feb. 2009. But there's a bit of breathing space till then. :)