Michael Morris
First Post
Ok, I'm back home at a working computer. Here's a few recollections.
Wednesday...
Left out for Nashville to get the statues. When I arrive at the trade off point I get out my laptop and get ready to finish up the slides while waiting on Clay. The handle breaks and no more slides.
Arrived in Indy 5 hours later, still fuming. Check the booth and badges. Our badges aren't ready because of a slight mixup. Schedule an 8 AM meeting with Johnny (GC event coordinator) to sort that out. Try to find a way to get the computer fixed in a hurry. No luck. Got to the Marriot and found out the reservations didn't start till Thursday night. With no budget on me for hotel expenses I did what every truck driver does - found my favorite local truck stop and camped. At least I didn't have to struggle to find a parking spot.
Thursday...
6AM Got up, got a shower (Still have about 10 shower credits on my driver's payback card). Picked up some tacks at Krogers for the picture display. Met with Johnny and got the badges, then continued working on a way to repair the slides. Art graciously offered the use of his laptop, but we couldn't get a fast enough download time of Fireworks/Flash to make the setup feasable (And that's assuming my hard drive is indeed intact, here's hoping it is). By the evening I make the decision to go without the slides. Went to the 30th anniversary D&D party with the WizO's and then to their private party on Melanie Creel's invite.
Friday...
The big day. Started off by getting the ENnies trophies out and placing them on the bed. Then Glenn and I moved them about until we found an order for the show. Joe entered the meeting and we went over the last minute checklist, getting the Award certs printed at Kinkos. I went over to the Crown Royal Ballroom to take care of the stage and get the lights focused with the hotel and GC staff's aid (and a cameraman who taped the show).
Got back to the con, fretted over some last minute details and then we started up. We had planned to have an ENWorld member (I remember her real name but not her screenname so will not reveal it) hand over the certificates along with Peter Adkinson, but Peter's wife Melissa was hurt in a freak door accident just before the show and he couldn't appear (Last I heard she is fine). So our mystery member ended up handing off statues and certificates to the MC alone.
Apparently Glenn's mind control powers worked better on the publishers then I could have expected - the show was over in an 1hr 15mins, half the time of last year's show despite the presence of nearly twice the awards.
Art's reception at the Ram went well though the staff seemed a little flooded (took 45 mins for my plate to get out).
#######################
Not having the slides to worry about turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it let me attend to other duties associated with the ceremony. Without Russ present to help in the decision making all the questions were forwarded to me, and I did as well as I could. Still, I would have went insane without Joe (jaeldeph) and Glenn (zenld)'s help. Joe kept the booth running smoothly and Glenn kept me sane by giving me someone to kick ideas off from (as well as providing many of his own).
While there are many areas that can be improved on I still feel this show was a success.
Wednesday...
Left out for Nashville to get the statues. When I arrive at the trade off point I get out my laptop and get ready to finish up the slides while waiting on Clay. The handle breaks and no more slides.
Arrived in Indy 5 hours later, still fuming. Check the booth and badges. Our badges aren't ready because of a slight mixup. Schedule an 8 AM meeting with Johnny (GC event coordinator) to sort that out. Try to find a way to get the computer fixed in a hurry. No luck. Got to the Marriot and found out the reservations didn't start till Thursday night. With no budget on me for hotel expenses I did what every truck driver does - found my favorite local truck stop and camped. At least I didn't have to struggle to find a parking spot.
Thursday...
6AM Got up, got a shower (Still have about 10 shower credits on my driver's payback card). Picked up some tacks at Krogers for the picture display. Met with Johnny and got the badges, then continued working on a way to repair the slides. Art graciously offered the use of his laptop, but we couldn't get a fast enough download time of Fireworks/Flash to make the setup feasable (And that's assuming my hard drive is indeed intact, here's hoping it is). By the evening I make the decision to go without the slides. Went to the 30th anniversary D&D party with the WizO's and then to their private party on Melanie Creel's invite.
Friday...
The big day. Started off by getting the ENnies trophies out and placing them on the bed. Then Glenn and I moved them about until we found an order for the show. Joe entered the meeting and we went over the last minute checklist, getting the Award certs printed at Kinkos. I went over to the Crown Royal Ballroom to take care of the stage and get the lights focused with the hotel and GC staff's aid (and a cameraman who taped the show).
Got back to the con, fretted over some last minute details and then we started up. We had planned to have an ENWorld member (I remember her real name but not her screenname so will not reveal it) hand over the certificates along with Peter Adkinson, but Peter's wife Melissa was hurt in a freak door accident just before the show and he couldn't appear (Last I heard she is fine). So our mystery member ended up handing off statues and certificates to the MC alone.
Apparently Glenn's mind control powers worked better on the publishers then I could have expected - the show was over in an 1hr 15mins, half the time of last year's show despite the presence of nearly twice the awards.
Art's reception at the Ram went well though the staff seemed a little flooded (took 45 mins for my plate to get out).
#######################
Not having the slides to worry about turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it let me attend to other duties associated with the ceremony. Without Russ present to help in the decision making all the questions were forwarded to me, and I did as well as I could. Still, I would have went insane without Joe (jaeldeph) and Glenn (zenld)'s help. Joe kept the booth running smoothly and Glenn kept me sane by giving me someone to kick ideas off from (as well as providing many of his own).
While there are many areas that can be improved on I still feel this show was a success.
