[Con Report] MizuCon's Fantastical Tea Party '11
Yeah, so I'm pretty sure the consensus last year was that I can't review my own event. XDDD Think of this as more of a "report" then review.
Saturday, May 28th, 2011
Our prep work for the Tea Party actually started the day before. We loaded up Randy's car the day before with just about everything we needed for the event. We spent the day finalizing the schedule, what prizes would be given to what category and then sub-category, and which teas would be featured in the Tea Identity Contest. We also printed out all the sheets we needed for the events, and Mindy was trying to finish up one of the prizes she was donating.
It was a very long day, actually. XDDD
On the actual day, I woke up at 7 AM to start getting my last-minute items together, things I needed for my costume, and ate. At roughly 8, Randy showed up and with my brother, got the rest of the stuff to the car while I finished getting dressed. We left at about 8:30.
We got to the park about an hour later. We were the first people there so we got a great parking space and started by gathering four benches and two trash cans to our area. Then we unloaded most of the stuff. We set up the two tables we'd brought and began to decorate them a bit.
We were suppose to have a staff meeting at 10 AM so about that time a few staff members made their way over. While waiting for others, we got the tent set up and put some blankets down. I was also making the labels for the scavenger hunt items and handing them out to my brother who would then go about the park hiding them. The staff meeting started at 11 and while everyone was being cued in, I finished up our schedule boards (ghetto'd, mind you).
After the floor was given to me and I let the staffers know how the event worked since nearly all of them hadn't attended last year. Their two big jobs were making sure the scavenger items didn't go missing and that the attendees remained safe. I also gave them a brief run-down of how the event was suppose to go.
So. We got off on a rocky start because while Kiwi, Randy, my brother and I got there on time, Andy and Mindy were running late. For several reasons, which aren't really important, but they got there at roughly 11:30. My brother, Randy and I all turned into ninja with us sneaking her contributing scavenger items into Randy's car, put labels on them and then gave them to my brother to ninja off and hide.
Luckily, we managed to start the first event, Scavenger Hunt & Trivia, on time! 8DD
Here was the schedule, so you can follow:
12 - 3 : Scavenger Hunt & Trivia
1 - 2 : Tea Identity Contest
2 - 3 : Elimination Trivia
2 - 3 : Costume Contest Pre-Judging
3:30 - 4 : Relay Trivia
4:30 - 5 : Costume Contest
So Andy and Mindy were huddled by the tailgate of Randy's truck trying to set up for the Tea Identity Contest. I was going about chatting with the guests, handing out sheets for the scavenger event, and making sure the food was divided among the two main tables evenly; the third, middle table for tea.
Magically, again, the Tea ID Contest ran on time. It was quite funny and got a pretty good reception! One of the contestants was really hilarious and would sniff the tea and then go, "I got this," and write simply "tea." XDDDD She wrote tea for most of them.
Everyone thought that the cherry blossom tea was chocolate. I even sniffed it myself and it smelled like chocolate to me too! Very surprising!
After it ended, Mindy and I went over to Randy's tailgate to do the costume contest prejudging. Meanwhile, Randy, Andy and Kiwi did the Elimination Trivia. I think it went quite fast? IDK.
We had more entrants for the contest this year than last year so Mindy and I had a lot of fun going through the contestants and asking questions and deciding who got what.
Afterward, we got ready to announce the winners of the scavenger hunt (trivia just didn't happen), when A DR. PEPPER TRUCK SHOWS UP BLASTING MUSIC. DDDDD: Seriously, while I was happy they gave us free, cold, drinks, I was also kind of irked that they blasted their music just as I was going to announce the winners. (And to be honest, I really had to pee. XDDDD)
After 15 minutes, the truck finally left. I announced the winners, the prizes were handed out, and while the pictures were being taken, I snuck off to the restroom with Mindy and Andy. We had to hurry though, because Relay was suppose to start at 3:30 (which left us 15 minutes after the truck left) and we still needed to assign questions to sages and cut the papers.
Somehow, though it was tense, we managed to get it done on time. So while Andy stayed behind to explain how it worked to the participants, us sages snuck off to our spots. It was quick! Quicker than last year's. D: I think this was due to us not having mixed up the sheets enough because I had a lot of people ask me the same questions.
Shortly after Relay, one of the costume contest participants came up to tell us that he wanted to know when it was going to happen because he had to go soon. So we upped the time for it for his sake (because he was actually going to win Best in Show).
Last year, we didn't really have any sort of "stage" for the contestants so all the attendees just sort of crowded around. This year we came up with a "red carpet" so that attendees could watch without crowding them and photographers would have easy access and a nice vantage point of them. Our red carpet was neither red nor made of carpet. XDDD We had six metal pikes and caution tape. It was quite fun.
The contest went well and everyone seem to have lots of fun with it. ^_^
Afterward, we did an interview with Real Otaku Gamer's reporter VenomousFatman. They had been covering it the whole day which was totally awesome. 8D
After that, the event really wound down. We pretty much started cleaning up. But before that, we took a "sage shot" and some goofy staff photos and then a bigger, personal shoot with me and then Andy and Mindy.
It was really fun and very, very tiring! XDDD
If you're interested in photos/videos, Real Otaku Gamer got some great coverage of it!! Here are the links:
Photos: http://realotakugamer.com/mizu-con-tea-party-gallery
Video: http://realotakugamer.com/mizu-con-tea-party-pre-con-event-interviews
With that, I take my leave. Night guys!
~Shizu
Saturday, May 28th, 2011
Our prep work for the Tea Party actually started the day before. We loaded up Randy's car the day before with just about everything we needed for the event. We spent the day finalizing the schedule, what prizes would be given to what category and then sub-category, and which teas would be featured in the Tea Identity Contest. We also printed out all the sheets we needed for the events, and Mindy was trying to finish up one of the prizes she was donating.
It was a very long day, actually. XDDD
On the actual day, I woke up at 7 AM to start getting my last-minute items together, things I needed for my costume, and ate. At roughly 8, Randy showed up and with my brother, got the rest of the stuff to the car while I finished getting dressed. We left at about 8:30.
We got to the park about an hour later. We were the first people there so we got a great parking space and started by gathering four benches and two trash cans to our area. Then we unloaded most of the stuff. We set up the two tables we'd brought and began to decorate them a bit.
We were suppose to have a staff meeting at 10 AM so about that time a few staff members made their way over. While waiting for others, we got the tent set up and put some blankets down. I was also making the labels for the scavenger hunt items and handing them out to my brother who would then go about the park hiding them. The staff meeting started at 11 and while everyone was being cued in, I finished up our schedule boards (ghetto'd, mind you).
After the floor was given to me and I let the staffers know how the event worked since nearly all of them hadn't attended last year. Their two big jobs were making sure the scavenger items didn't go missing and that the attendees remained safe. I also gave them a brief run-down of how the event was suppose to go.
So. We got off on a rocky start because while Kiwi, Randy, my brother and I got there on time, Andy and Mindy were running late. For several reasons, which aren't really important, but they got there at roughly 11:30. My brother, Randy and I all turned into ninja with us sneaking her contributing scavenger items into Randy's car, put labels on them and then gave them to my brother to ninja off and hide.
Luckily, we managed to start the first event, Scavenger Hunt & Trivia, on time! 8DD
Here was the schedule, so you can follow:
12 - 3 : Scavenger Hunt & Trivia
1 - 2 : Tea Identity Contest
2 - 3 : Elimination Trivia
2 - 3 : Costume Contest Pre-Judging
3:30 - 4 : Relay Trivia
4:30 - 5 : Costume Contest
So Andy and Mindy were huddled by the tailgate of Randy's truck trying to set up for the Tea Identity Contest. I was going about chatting with the guests, handing out sheets for the scavenger event, and making sure the food was divided among the two main tables evenly; the third, middle table for tea.
Magically, again, the Tea ID Contest ran on time. It was quite funny and got a pretty good reception! One of the contestants was really hilarious and would sniff the tea and then go, "I got this," and write simply "tea." XDDDD She wrote tea for most of them.
Everyone thought that the cherry blossom tea was chocolate. I even sniffed it myself and it smelled like chocolate to me too! Very surprising!
After it ended, Mindy and I went over to Randy's tailgate to do the costume contest prejudging. Meanwhile, Randy, Andy and Kiwi did the Elimination Trivia. I think it went quite fast? IDK.
We had more entrants for the contest this year than last year so Mindy and I had a lot of fun going through the contestants and asking questions and deciding who got what.
Afterward, we got ready to announce the winners of the scavenger hunt (trivia just didn't happen), when A DR. PEPPER TRUCK SHOWS UP BLASTING MUSIC. DDDDD: Seriously, while I was happy they gave us free, cold, drinks, I was also kind of irked that they blasted their music just as I was going to announce the winners. (And to be honest, I really had to pee. XDDDD)
After 15 minutes, the truck finally left. I announced the winners, the prizes were handed out, and while the pictures were being taken, I snuck off to the restroom with Mindy and Andy. We had to hurry though, because Relay was suppose to start at 3:30 (which left us 15 minutes after the truck left) and we still needed to assign questions to sages and cut the papers.
Somehow, though it was tense, we managed to get it done on time. So while Andy stayed behind to explain how it worked to the participants, us sages snuck off to our spots. It was quick! Quicker than last year's. D: I think this was due to us not having mixed up the sheets enough because I had a lot of people ask me the same questions.
Shortly after Relay, one of the costume contest participants came up to tell us that he wanted to know when it was going to happen because he had to go soon. So we upped the time for it for his sake (because he was actually going to win Best in Show).
Last year, we didn't really have any sort of "stage" for the contestants so all the attendees just sort of crowded around. This year we came up with a "red carpet" so that attendees could watch without crowding them and photographers would have easy access and a nice vantage point of them. Our red carpet was neither red nor made of carpet. XDDD We had six metal pikes and caution tape. It was quite fun.
The contest went well and everyone seem to have lots of fun with it. ^_^
Afterward, we did an interview with Real Otaku Gamer's reporter VenomousFatman. They had been covering it the whole day which was totally awesome. 8D
After that, the event really wound down. We pretty much started cleaning up. But before that, we took a "sage shot" and some goofy staff photos and then a bigger, personal shoot with me and then Andy and Mindy.
It was really fun and very, very tiring! XDDD
If you're interested in photos/videos, Real Otaku Gamer got some great coverage of it!! Here are the links:
Photos: http://realotakugamer.com/mizu-con-tea-party-gallery
Video: http://realotakugamer.com/mizu-con-tea-party-pre-con-event-interviews
With that, I take my leave. Night guys!
~Shizu