17 days of con. Days 1-3: SPNUK
May was a very busy month for me, as I attended 3 cons in the space of 2 weeks: SPNUK, JIBWeek and Cross Roads (4 cons if you count JIBLAND separately from JIB)... which was probably not the best idea because it meant I was exhausted by the end and for the first time ever, I caught con flu :(.
I was going to post my con reports all in one post, but then this first one got a bit too long, so I'll do them separately.
SPNUK
The first con was SPNUK - the 'first and only' Creation con being held in the UK. Now, I love Creation for the SNS and Chris Schmelke's photos, but I hadn't planned to attend any more Creation cons because they are so expensive now that I just can't justify the expense... but this one was in the UK, and the venue was about halfway between my house and my parents' house, so I thought 'Why not? This is my chance to go to another Creation con without having to pay hundreds to fly to the US.'
Normally, I go Gold at Creation and try to get a seat in the first few rows, but I wasn't going to pay $900+ for the privilege, so the plan was to wait for Copper (since I didn't need any autos) for about $300-400. Unfortunately, Creation then decided to add J2, Rich and Matt autos to Copper tickets, making them $520... which was only $40 cheaper than Silver! So, I went Silver instead... but by that time, most of the tickets were gone already, so I only managed row M... which wasn't ideal as I like to take con photos.
The lead-up to the con was a little disappointing because it felt a bit like Creation hadn't really thought through the costs and logistics of bringing a con (and therefore all their staff and equipment) to the UK. They announced J2 for both Saturday and Sunday... but then that meant there were hardly any other guests, I'm assuming due to the fact that it costs a lot more to have J2 for 2 days instead of one! So, while it was cool having them for both days, I probably would have preferred them just on Sunday and a wider range of guests on Saturday. I mean, it's a weird con when you have 5 panels (Jake, Alex, Jason, Briana, and Matt on his own, and ) on Friday, then only 4 panels on Saturday (Briana, R2M, Misha, and then J2) and just 2 panels on Sunday (J2M and R2) plus the J2 Gold panel. Yeah, okay, so we got a J2M panel, which has never happened before.... but it was at the expense of 2 or 3 other panels that could have been held on that day. And since I'd already had my photos on Saturday (I only bought a Jensen and a J2 photo), I had basically nothing to do on Sunday except attend 2 panels and get J2 autos :(.
Despite the issues though, it was a good weekend, and it was nice to attend a UK con that was actually well organised and didn't involve much queuing at all. It was the fastest registration I've ever done at a con: I got to the registration desk 10 minutes before the Silver Pre-Reg time to find no one waiting at all. I just wallked right up and was registered within a couple of minutes. Similarly with my Jensen photo op... I left the panel room when they called my number and was back in my seat again, having taken the photo, within 5 minutes.
A few of my photos from the weekend (though not as good quality as I would like, due to being so far back. I only have a couple of Misha and Jake due to bad lighting and not being able to see them half the time):
The rest of my photos from the con are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ksanders24/albums/72157696536387525/with/41944389001/
I was going to post my con reports all in one post, but then this first one got a bit too long, so I'll do them separately.
SPNUK
The first con was SPNUK - the 'first and only' Creation con being held in the UK. Now, I love Creation for the SNS and Chris Schmelke's photos, but I hadn't planned to attend any more Creation cons because they are so expensive now that I just can't justify the expense... but this one was in the UK, and the venue was about halfway between my house and my parents' house, so I thought 'Why not? This is my chance to go to another Creation con without having to pay hundreds to fly to the US.'
Normally, I go Gold at Creation and try to get a seat in the first few rows, but I wasn't going to pay $900+ for the privilege, so the plan was to wait for Copper (since I didn't need any autos) for about $300-400. Unfortunately, Creation then decided to add J2, Rich and Matt autos to Copper tickets, making them $520... which was only $40 cheaper than Silver! So, I went Silver instead... but by that time, most of the tickets were gone already, so I only managed row M... which wasn't ideal as I like to take con photos.
The lead-up to the con was a little disappointing because it felt a bit like Creation hadn't really thought through the costs and logistics of bringing a con (and therefore all their staff and equipment) to the UK. They announced J2 for both Saturday and Sunday... but then that meant there were hardly any other guests, I'm assuming due to the fact that it costs a lot more to have J2 for 2 days instead of one! So, while it was cool having them for both days, I probably would have preferred them just on Sunday and a wider range of guests on Saturday. I mean, it's a weird con when you have 5 panels (Jake, Alex, Jason, Briana, and Matt on his own, and ) on Friday, then only 4 panels on Saturday (Briana, R2M, Misha, and then J2) and just 2 panels on Sunday (J2M and R2) plus the J2 Gold panel. Yeah, okay, so we got a J2M panel, which has never happened before.... but it was at the expense of 2 or 3 other panels that could have been held on that day. And since I'd already had my photos on Saturday (I only bought a Jensen and a J2 photo), I had basically nothing to do on Sunday except attend 2 panels and get J2 autos :(.
Despite the issues though, it was a good weekend, and it was nice to attend a UK con that was actually well organised and didn't involve much queuing at all. It was the fastest registration I've ever done at a con: I got to the registration desk 10 minutes before the Silver Pre-Reg time to find no one waiting at all. I just wallked right up and was registered within a couple of minutes. Similarly with my Jensen photo op... I left the panel room when they called my number and was back in my seat again, having taken the photo, within 5 minutes.
A few of my photos from the weekend (though not as good quality as I would like, due to being so far back. I only have a couple of Misha and Jake due to bad lighting and not being able to see them half the time):
The rest of my photos from the con are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ksanders24/albums/72157696536387525/with/41944389001/