Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dextra" data-source="post: 3009665" data-attributes="member: 5705">Gen ConArrival at Indy: Tuesday, August 8th.  BBQ chez JediSoth with waaaaay too much awesome food.  Twas lovely sitting and chatting.  The Gelflings appreciated being able to watch cable, I chatted with MrsSoth and oooohed appreciatively at her scrapbooking skills whilst the menfolk loaded up the trailer of our display cases, generously stored there over the past year.  Big props to JediSoth also for letting us park the trailer & van at his house during the week.  You saved us around $200!Set up of the booth on Wednesday was great, thanks to the EN Worlders help.  FickleGM and the Mrs (I'm really horrible with names, I'm sorry!!) were my IKEA display case experts, and a bunch of other peeps were fabulous in getting the backdrop assembled.  I had many people comment upon how professional our booth looked.Actually, before I go any further, I've got to gush a bit about how wonderful the EN World community truly is.  There's such a huge variety of people with differing talents upon whom we drew, all good-natured souls willing to help, it was overwhelming.  Heck, I had to turn away offers of help because we were just too packed!  Buttercup gets massive props for giving the Gelflings four books from one of her fave authors.  The youngest is almost finished the last of the books already!  And the keys at the Embassy Suites from various donors meant we never had to pay for breakfast which made our stay considerably easier!Went out for dinner to the Bucca with a bunch of Canucks who had never been to Indy before.  We had hoped to experience the Hard Times Café, but apparently it fell upon hard times.  Much yummy food was consumed.  We passed by the Canadiana Suite briefly, but the youngest Gelfling wanted to go home at nine, so I only stuck around for an hour.  Sorry to have missed so many people!  Thanks to the krewe for hosting the party!The rest of the Con was a bit of a blur.  My days usually went like this:  2:30 am, Hound stumbles home, drunk, snores so loudly the eldest and I can't sleep.  I drag my tired arse out of bed at seven to shower, dress, and head off for a hearty breakfast at the Embassy.  Get to the booth around 8:30, set up the displays, hang out until noon, work the dealer hall, go back to the room for PB&J.  Back to the dealer hall or the booth, close down at six, dinner, bed.  Lather, rinse repeat.Some notable highlights:-meeting new ENWers and reacquainting with old friends-Saturday's Costume contest: Xath getting 2nd and doing a great sketch with the announcer.  The Gelflings getting 1st for their dance piece.  Hanging out in the front row with Peter Adkison and saving his seats.  Having Gigli come up to the youngest Gelfling and I backstage and telling us how talented and lovely the girls were. -speaking with the GAMA peeps in the booth next to ours.  I've learned a lot of stuff from these guys, and had my ego blown up a lot, too- they consider the ENnies to be the standard to which to aspire.  Good folks.-going through the dealer hall and collecting product for next year's Awards.  Why no, Ms Customs Officer, I have nothing to declare!  I've got ten boxes full of product waiting to ship out as soon as the next crop of judges are elected.  Hooyeah- and there's some AWESOME stuff in there, too.  Having Kevin from Palladium give me autographed copies of his leatherbound books to auction off for the fund raiser was sweet.  Having Dave Arneson autograph one of the last existing hardcovers of Blackmoor book (also to auction off) very sweet indeed.-the drive back from Indy with fusangite- much planning and plotting for next yearThe ENnies:-arriving at 6pm (the earliest we were allowed access to the room) to discover that they'd set 10 tables with 12 chairs each instead of the 20 tables with 10 chairs I'd requested.  And no theatre seating.  Quick panic to arrange for more chairs.  Seating plans totally shot.  -a lot of other backstage crap that could've been solved with better planning that I will deal with, but rest assured, next year will be considerably better.  If you have suggestions or wish to volunteer talent or services, email me.-I never got to have any of the food, but hope it was nice.-Air conditioning not working (we called engineering 3 times, I kept the doors open, etc).  As a matter of fact, I missed large chunks of the ceremony because I was in the hall or backstage guarding the door.  -pleasantly surprised by the calibre of the presentation that Rich Burlew made, considering he's an unexperienced public speaker.  Not to say everybody else sucked, but he totally shone.  He has also confided in me that he plans a product line that will sweep next year's ENnies.  Look out world!  Piratecat was even better this year than last.-Totally geeked out, hanging with Mike Pondsmith, Peter Adkison, having Justin Achilli dj my party, Robin Laws, etc.  Honoured that Rick Loomis and a bunch of other gaming luminaries dropped by.  Happy to see lots of people enjoying the games provided.  It was a room full of awesome people- I just wish we could've had more room.-with regards to the room situation, I printed 300 programmes, and we ran out before 8, and were still cramming people in.  (Thanks RangerWickett for "borrowing" extra chairs from the room next door).  The official capacity for the room we were in was 320.  So if anyone asks, we had 319 people in attendance, no more.-disappointed that so many people bailed as soon as the ceremony was over.  I don't know how much the DJ rig is going to cost me, but it was frustrating to see all these people I'd thought were going to stick around scatter to the winds.  Ah well, those of us who stuck around had a great time without y'all.  Nyah nyah.  And Thunderfoot truly did the worm.  He rocks.-achilles DJ'd until midnight.  I bought him four beers.  He staggered out to use the loo to which I offered directions- out the door, turn left and left again, walk down the hall towards the elevator bank.  As he was leaving, he said that he didn't pee soon, he would explode.  Two minutes later, I was leaving, I turned left, then left again, but was stopped from walking towards the elevator banks because of the huge puddles of water and falling ceiling tiles.  I was convinced that Justin had exploded.  Apparently 'twas just a water main.  ASIDE: As a result of the water main breaking and the water pouring down to the floors below, the anime rooms needed to be evacuated.  The following night, during the Gen Con dance, ceiling tiles fell down again.  I suggested to the Auxiliary Events person that the next motto for Gen Con should be "Come watch anime.  This time, we won't miss."-dropped by the FanPro booth to collect entries for next year, and was told that as a result of the ENnie wins, Shadowrun (to the surprise of everyone there) almost sold out.  Apparently people would go to their booth and say that as a result of the ENnies, they were ready to give SR another chance.  M&M apparently sold out as well, and I had people trying to buy my display copy off me.  Rich Burlew (and a bunch of other people) stopped by the booth to ask where they could buy a copy of Dread.  So to all the peeps in the past who said that the ENnies did not have any significant effect I offer the following: "neener neener neener"  (and I still maintain that the ENnies aren't supposed to have any market effect- we're about highlighting great product and celebrating excellence... this is just an added bonus)</blockquote>

Verification