I'm back!
Alright, so short form? Columbus is kind of a tit to reach, but TrotCon was a rocking cool time. Instead of going into deep detail (since Take will be doing that), I'll provide a bulleted list of some of the highlights.
- The Hyatt Regency down there isn't the best hotel I'd ever seen, but it was pretty nice. There's this giant indoor atrium-like place with a ~massive~ glass slanted wall that lets in so much sunlight they have live trees growing indoors, in spots right there in the floor. That ruled.
- The area around OSU is a pretty diverse one. One part slum, one part happening strip, one part classy atmosphere, there's a little something for everyone in every respect, all in a small area. Soem pretty cool eateries and such.
- Doing a few good deeds earned me some new friends, which is pretty much exactly what MLP fandom is all about, even though I do not officially consider myself a proper ~part~ of it.
- The venue, the Ohio Union (Student Center, basically), is a rocking cool place. Reminds me more than a little of the Holiday Inn of Independence, where I went to my first con ever, back in 2005. It was also kind of awesome that the con spanned more than one floor - all the others I've attended have been ground-level only, and this was a neat change.
- There's this piano on the second floor of the Union, and a few different people took turns over both days playing fantastic renditions of the songs from the show that could be heard all through the building. Hats off to these chaps, that was pretty fantastic and it really helped set the mood of things.
- Speaking of moods, the whole thing (from a non-staffer's point of view anyway) was fantastically relaxed. Unlike at Colossal where there're always many dozens of things going on at once and the halls are jammed with people making noise everywhere, this was a lot more like a vacation. It was really easy to find a quiet place to sit and chat with people, or just have some alone time. I made a lot of progress in Circle of the Moon when I had nothing better to do, and being able to do my own thing on the sidelines when nothing else big was going on was a nice touch.
- Adding to the peace of everything was the location itself, that is, that there ~as~ a location. Meet-ups in the past always had a hotel room involved, but also consisted of forming a multi-car convoy for visiting stores and parks and such. Not that all that stuff wasn't fun - it was - but when you take 30+ people from the Internet and try to get them all to form a cohesive group in cars on the road hilarity is going to ensue. Having everyone in one place eliminated all this, and I'm profoundly glad.
Not a lot more time before I have to drop so I can get up for work in the morning. This was a really good time, every bit as good as I'd hoped and really a lot better. Can hardly wait to do it all again sometime. The summer is now 55% rocked.
Peace.
- The Hyatt Regency down there isn't the best hotel I'd ever seen, but it was pretty nice. There's this giant indoor atrium-like place with a ~massive~ glass slanted wall that lets in so much sunlight they have live trees growing indoors, in spots right there in the floor. That ruled.
- The area around OSU is a pretty diverse one. One part slum, one part happening strip, one part classy atmosphere, there's a little something for everyone in every respect, all in a small area. Soem pretty cool eateries and such.
- Doing a few good deeds earned me some new friends, which is pretty much exactly what MLP fandom is all about, even though I do not officially consider myself a proper ~part~ of it.
- The venue, the Ohio Union (Student Center, basically), is a rocking cool place. Reminds me more than a little of the Holiday Inn of Independence, where I went to my first con ever, back in 2005. It was also kind of awesome that the con spanned more than one floor - all the others I've attended have been ground-level only, and this was a neat change.
- There's this piano on the second floor of the Union, and a few different people took turns over both days playing fantastic renditions of the songs from the show that could be heard all through the building. Hats off to these chaps, that was pretty fantastic and it really helped set the mood of things.
- Speaking of moods, the whole thing (from a non-staffer's point of view anyway) was fantastically relaxed. Unlike at Colossal where there're always many dozens of things going on at once and the halls are jammed with people making noise everywhere, this was a lot more like a vacation. It was really easy to find a quiet place to sit and chat with people, or just have some alone time. I made a lot of progress in Circle of the Moon when I had nothing better to do, and being able to do my own thing on the sidelines when nothing else big was going on was a nice touch.
- Adding to the peace of everything was the location itself, that is, that there ~as~ a location. Meet-ups in the past always had a hotel room involved, but also consisted of forming a multi-car convoy for visiting stores and parks and such. Not that all that stuff wasn't fun - it was - but when you take 30+ people from the Internet and try to get them all to form a cohesive group in cars on the road hilarity is going to ensue. Having everyone in one place eliminated all this, and I'm profoundly glad.
Not a lot more time before I have to drop so I can get up for work in the morning. This was a really good time, every bit as good as I'd hoped and really a lot better. Can hardly wait to do it all again sometime. The summer is now 55% rocked.
Peace.