Conjecture weekend Review
Well, I can tell you my review of what I saw at Conjecture... The Con Suite was really well received, and I have to give major kudos to the extra help that showed up at the last minute to make my job much easier.
I came in about $50 under budget, too!
... and I did well showing my woodworking for the first time anywhere. Sold 20 of the 32 pieces I brought to the convention.
That's about it. I didn't see anything else. Did I mention I was in charge of the Con Suite? That's about all I saw of the convention.
Day-by-day breakdown:
Wednesday 9/26 9am: loaded trailer at my house with the artshow flats for the convention. Went into work late because I was expecting a late night.
Late night turned into *all* night... got home thursday morning around 6am, changed clothes, showered, went back to the office for 7 more hours of work that had a thursday @3pm deadline.
Thursday afternoon: came home, changed clothes, finished loading the trailer with some more boxes of con-stuff, hooked the trailer up to my Jeep and headed to the convention.
No one was there to help unload the trailer... so I did it all myself. Then, at Adam's suggestion, I took two refrigerators from the Anime and Gaming suites and moved them into the Con Suite room. Went home with the empty trailer and passed out for 10 hours straight (I was still awake from wednesday morning!)
Friday: Loaded the rest of conjecture's storage boxes and my woodworking art onto the trailer and picked up Caitie and her friend Justin in Santee (my helpers for the morning) and took them to the convention. Unloaded and parked the trailer, then took Caitie (to push the second cart at Costco) shopping for the perishable Con Suite supplies (Milk, meats, cheeses, etc.) got back to the hotel around Noon and had lots of help waiting to help put the con suite together. Opened on time at 2pm (Yay!) Sometime in there, I managed to stop by the artshow for 30 minutes and laid out my woodworking on a half-table... but I can't remember if that was before or after the con suite opened.
I closed the room a little after 9:30pm, cleaned up the room with lots of help, got home by 11 and passed out.
Saturday morning, I did some additional shopping (based on friday's consumption, I knew I needed a lot more water bottles and a few more flats of soda) picked up my friend Janell at her apt, who was one of my ConSuite staffers, and headed to the hotel. Again, several volunteers were on hand to help out and we opened on time... but due to power problems (3 small refrigerators, 2 crock-pots, a 12-cup coffee pot making hot water, and a 60-cup percolating coffee urn was a bit too much current for one circuit to handle), the coffee wasn't ready until a little after 10, and it got back to me that some dealers were a bit put out.
All of the rest of Saturday went flawlessly, with high traffic through the con suite for most of the day... the Meat and Cheese dissappeared at an astonishing rate, and at 6pm, I turned the room over to the Loscon people (after putting all our food aside) for them to set up their party and host it out of the same room.
(I had another engagement Saturday night... a social mixer with some non-fannish friends, so I was thankful to be able to close the con suite and go off-site for that.)
I got back to the hotel just before midnight, did a quick inventory of what Loscon was leaving/donating to the consuite, and decided I wouldn't have to make another shopping run for Sunday.
Sunday: solved the power problems, so both the coffee and the oatmeal, as well as some sweet rice was all ready for opening for breakfast. I got kudos for the oatmeal and some puzzled looks regarding the rice, but both went fairly quickly. Janell called in sick, so she didn't make it to the con on Sunday, but I still had plenty of help.
Glen called me from the art show after that closed to let me know I had sold most of my woodworking (Yay!)
Turns out that I was wrong about needing more sodas... ran out of caffeinated beverages around 2pm and the con suite didn't close until 3:45. I think I did pretty good, though, for basing my purchases on gut feeling. I also could have bought some more meat, but I was just about *at* my budget at that point, and couldn't count on the donation jar covering the difference.
In the end, the donations were great enough that I was nearly $50 under budget, but that's just a bonus for the convention. I didn't want to risk being over budget.
So, Sunday afternoon, after packing up the con suite, sorting my stuff from the con stuff, loading the jeep, hooking up the trailer, loading the artshow flats (had lots of help this time with that), loading more stuff on the trailer behind the artshow flats, we had a dead dog party with pizza and the last of the sodas (all non-caffeinated at that point)... then around 7:30 I called it a night and hauled the full trailer home.
I left the Jeep hooked up to the trailer, parked in my driveway, quickly pulled the loose conjecture storage boxes into the garage, and went inside and relaxed in front of a few DVR'd programs on the big-screen before calling it a night.
This morning, early, I parked the trailer on the side of the house where it belongs, finished taking the boxes out of the jeep and putting them inside, and headed for work... the first few hours of which were hectic, but the last hour or so I've been able to steal some online time to write this ;)
...I wonder what the rest of the convention looked like?
I came in about $50 under budget, too!
... and I did well showing my woodworking for the first time anywhere. Sold 20 of the 32 pieces I brought to the convention.
That's about it. I didn't see anything else. Did I mention I was in charge of the Con Suite? That's about all I saw of the convention.
Day-by-day breakdown:
Wednesday 9/26 9am: loaded trailer at my house with the artshow flats for the convention. Went into work late because I was expecting a late night.
Late night turned into *all* night... got home thursday morning around 6am, changed clothes, showered, went back to the office for 7 more hours of work that had a thursday @3pm deadline.
Thursday afternoon: came home, changed clothes, finished loading the trailer with some more boxes of con-stuff, hooked the trailer up to my Jeep and headed to the convention.
No one was there to help unload the trailer... so I did it all myself. Then, at Adam's suggestion, I took two refrigerators from the Anime and Gaming suites and moved them into the Con Suite room. Went home with the empty trailer and passed out for 10 hours straight (I was still awake from wednesday morning!)
Friday: Loaded the rest of conjecture's storage boxes and my woodworking art onto the trailer and picked up Caitie and her friend Justin in Santee (my helpers for the morning) and took them to the convention. Unloaded and parked the trailer, then took Caitie (to push the second cart at Costco) shopping for the perishable Con Suite supplies (Milk, meats, cheeses, etc.) got back to the hotel around Noon and had lots of help waiting to help put the con suite together. Opened on time at 2pm (Yay!) Sometime in there, I managed to stop by the artshow for 30 minutes and laid out my woodworking on a half-table... but I can't remember if that was before or after the con suite opened.
I closed the room a little after 9:30pm, cleaned up the room with lots of help, got home by 11 and passed out.
Saturday morning, I did some additional shopping (based on friday's consumption, I knew I needed a lot more water bottles and a few more flats of soda) picked up my friend Janell at her apt, who was one of my ConSuite staffers, and headed to the hotel. Again, several volunteers were on hand to help out and we opened on time... but due to power problems (3 small refrigerators, 2 crock-pots, a 12-cup coffee pot making hot water, and a 60-cup percolating coffee urn was a bit too much current for one circuit to handle), the coffee wasn't ready until a little after 10, and it got back to me that some dealers were a bit put out.
All of the rest of Saturday went flawlessly, with high traffic through the con suite for most of the day... the Meat and Cheese dissappeared at an astonishing rate, and at 6pm, I turned the room over to the Loscon people (after putting all our food aside) for them to set up their party and host it out of the same room.
(I had another engagement Saturday night... a social mixer with some non-fannish friends, so I was thankful to be able to close the con suite and go off-site for that.)
I got back to the hotel just before midnight, did a quick inventory of what Loscon was leaving/donating to the consuite, and decided I wouldn't have to make another shopping run for Sunday.
Sunday: solved the power problems, so both the coffee and the oatmeal, as well as some sweet rice was all ready for opening for breakfast. I got kudos for the oatmeal and some puzzled looks regarding the rice, but both went fairly quickly. Janell called in sick, so she didn't make it to the con on Sunday, but I still had plenty of help.
Glen called me from the art show after that closed to let me know I had sold most of my woodworking (Yay!)
Turns out that I was wrong about needing more sodas... ran out of caffeinated beverages around 2pm and the con suite didn't close until 3:45. I think I did pretty good, though, for basing my purchases on gut feeling. I also could have bought some more meat, but I was just about *at* my budget at that point, and couldn't count on the donation jar covering the difference.
In the end, the donations were great enough that I was nearly $50 under budget, but that's just a bonus for the convention. I didn't want to risk being over budget.
So, Sunday afternoon, after packing up the con suite, sorting my stuff from the con stuff, loading the jeep, hooking up the trailer, loading the artshow flats (had lots of help this time with that), loading more stuff on the trailer behind the artshow flats, we had a dead dog party with pizza and the last of the sodas (all non-caffeinated at that point)... then around 7:30 I called it a night and hauled the full trailer home.
I left the Jeep hooked up to the trailer, parked in my driveway, quickly pulled the loose conjecture storage boxes into the garage, and went inside and relaxed in front of a few DVR'd programs on the big-screen before calling it a night.
This morning, early, I parked the trailer on the side of the house where it belongs, finished taking the boxes out of the jeep and putting them inside, and headed for work... the first few hours of which were hectic, but the last hour or so I've been able to steal some online time to write this ;)
...I wonder what the rest of the convention looked like?