RMFC Weekend Distillation
Thursday, crazy early in the morning, I crawled into my car and made my way to SFO to catch a flight to Denver. Due to heavy traffic I arrived too late to catch my original flight and had to bump to one an hour later. Why I chose to fly from SFO I don't know…momentary lapse of judgement while booking, I guess.
Anyway, I made it to Denver an hour later than I'd intended which worked out amazingly well. My friend Max just happen to be at the airport right then meaning I didn't have to wait around for the airport shuttle. After 20 minutes or so bouncing around in the back of his jeep I found myself at the DoubleTree, checked in and ready for the weekend.
I'd promised myself that I'd login to work and do some stuff but the call of a sushi lunch was too strong. Let's face it…it was my second to last official day at the previous company so there really wasn't a whole lot that I was going to accomplish anyway. And did I mention sushi lunch?
Anyway, Rocky Mountain Fur Con--hence forth to be called RMFC because it's fully qualified convention name (FQCN) is too damn long--was a pleasingly fun convention. Very much the social relax icon I needed. I've not met so many cool people in one place in a very long time. I can honestly say I've walked away from Denver with more than a few new friends…and that's kind of a huge deal when you think about it.
Some interesting (to me) things that I noticed about RMFC:
Programming - Roughly sixty events (minus dances) listed on the schedule split between three days with no big production shows like FC's masquerade or FC:U! or…well…the list goes on. That's not a bad thing, just an observation. Panels seemed to be a little on the random side (with one even called Underwater Basket Weaving) and the dances were fun.
Registration - This seemed like a cluster fuck but in reality it was pretty smooth. I say seemed because when you've got 400+ pre-registered attendees in a single queue trying to get their badges it's just going to take a while. To RMFC's credit they were able to plow through pre-reg badge hand-offs at the rate of one every 100 seconds per agent handling pre-reg. (Yes, I timed it.) It was awesome that they'd had the pre-reg bags numbered by attendee with pre-printed release forms in the bag so that all I had to do was show an ID, select badge art and sign my name while all the reg agent had to do was check my ID, get my bag and hand my crap to me. Very slick and very easy.
The process was good, the pipeline could have been better. For opening day I might have split at-con-reg and pre-reg apart, put pre-reg in a different areas broken up into six queues by attendee last name just to burn through pre-reg hand-off as quickly as possible. After that first rush at pre-reg was done I'd collapse reg and pre-reg back to the same place.
The Hotel - Seemed to have a good amount of appropriately sized space for RMFC though the some of the event space wasn't as open and free-flowing as maybe would be nice. The long hallway from the hotel lobby to main ballroom/event space felt very restrictive an claustrophobic. Putting that aside, however, the hotel was fantastically friendly with the convention members. There was a weird vibe in the evenings though as the hotel put on more uniformed security goons which felt…excessive.
The Joss - Ahh…That'd be me. Almost immediately people started pointing out the similarity in appearance that I have with a certain Mr. Joss Whedon. It became a running gag for the entire convention, one that made me grin like an idiot every time I must confess. From this I ended up with laminated "Hello, My Name Is…Joss" badge that'll start making the round with me at conventions. It's good to know that it's not just my friends in LA who think I could be a younger, evil clone of Mr. Whedon.
Anyway, I made it to Denver an hour later than I'd intended which worked out amazingly well. My friend Max just happen to be at the airport right then meaning I didn't have to wait around for the airport shuttle. After 20 minutes or so bouncing around in the back of his jeep I found myself at the DoubleTree, checked in and ready for the weekend.
I'd promised myself that I'd login to work and do some stuff but the call of a sushi lunch was too strong. Let's face it…it was my second to last official day at the previous company so there really wasn't a whole lot that I was going to accomplish anyway. And did I mention sushi lunch?
Anyway, Rocky Mountain Fur Con--hence forth to be called RMFC because it's fully qualified convention name (FQCN) is too damn long--was a pleasingly fun convention. Very much the social relax icon I needed. I've not met so many cool people in one place in a very long time. I can honestly say I've walked away from Denver with more than a few new friends…and that's kind of a huge deal when you think about it.
Some interesting (to me) things that I noticed about RMFC:
Programming - Roughly sixty events (minus dances) listed on the schedule split between three days with no big production shows like FC's masquerade or FC:U! or…well…the list goes on. That's not a bad thing, just an observation. Panels seemed to be a little on the random side (with one even called Underwater Basket Weaving) and the dances were fun.
Registration - This seemed like a cluster fuck but in reality it was pretty smooth. I say seemed because when you've got 400+ pre-registered attendees in a single queue trying to get their badges it's just going to take a while. To RMFC's credit they were able to plow through pre-reg badge hand-offs at the rate of one every 100 seconds per agent handling pre-reg. (Yes, I timed it.) It was awesome that they'd had the pre-reg bags numbered by attendee with pre-printed release forms in the bag so that all I had to do was show an ID, select badge art and sign my name while all the reg agent had to do was check my ID, get my bag and hand my crap to me. Very slick and very easy.
The process was good, the pipeline could have been better. For opening day I might have split at-con-reg and pre-reg apart, put pre-reg in a different areas broken up into six queues by attendee last name just to burn through pre-reg hand-off as quickly as possible. After that first rush at pre-reg was done I'd collapse reg and pre-reg back to the same place.
The Hotel - Seemed to have a good amount of appropriately sized space for RMFC though the some of the event space wasn't as open and free-flowing as maybe would be nice. The long hallway from the hotel lobby to main ballroom/event space felt very restrictive an claustrophobic. Putting that aside, however, the hotel was fantastically friendly with the convention members. There was a weird vibe in the evenings though as the hotel put on more uniformed security goons which felt…excessive.
The Joss - Ahh…That'd be me. Almost immediately people started pointing out the similarity in appearance that I have with a certain Mr. Joss Whedon. It became a running gag for the entire convention, one that made me grin like an idiot every time I must confess. From this I ended up with laminated "Hello, My Name Is…Joss" badge that'll start making the round with me at conventions. It's good to know that it's not just my friends in LA who think I could be a younger, evil clone of Mr. Whedon.