Convention Fans

Convention Fans is fortunate enough to have some dedicated volunteers who go out and write reports about conventions when we can’t get there ourselves. One such volunteer is Elle, who recently attended Oni-Con 2009 in Houston, Texas. Below is her convention report. If you attend a convention and would like to write a report for Convention Fans, send us an e-mail (dreadpiraterose[at]gmail[dot]com).

 Oni-Con 2009 Convention Report
written exclusively for Convention Fans by Elle Velie

Note: These are not only the opinions of myself, but others who attended the con as well. For the most part, everyone was unhappy.

Convention:

- I have been to this convention before. Last year was fun and exciting… this year however it was horrible. There was no organization at all, and if I’m mistaken and there was, then I don’t know what sort of organization method was used. Everything from registration, to basic opening times for the dealers rooms, to events, were a half hour late if not more. The entire weekend was full of mass confusion about not only the start and end times of events, but of the LOCATION of certain events.

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This weekend I headed to Oaks, Pennsylvania to check out GameX, a video game expo and media convention. While I did have a good time overall, GameX does have some areas that need improvement. As with most of my reviews, I’m going to break this convention report down into the good and the not-so-good, and offer some constructive criticism for the organizers of the con. Of course, some of the criticism I have for GameX would be good to read for any convention organizer, so you don’t make the same mistakes, as they were pretty common ones.

The Good:

- The convention had plentiful and free parking at it’s location (the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center). You don’t realize how important this can be to someone’s overall experience until you have a parking problem. Being able to find a place to park quickly, and not have to pay for it, is a strong selling point for a convention, for me personally.

- GameX had pretty good signage! Again, you don’t think about this being important until a con doesn’t do it right. GameX had clear signage for check in, and plenty of overhead signage in the expo hall itself. They also had maps printed in the program, and posted throughout the convention hall. The only thing that could have been marked a bit clearer was the celebrity area. The cast members from The Guild actually told their Q&A audience on Saturday that they felt they were hard to find.

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PhauxCon 2009 was unlike any convention I’ve ever attended, namely because it doesn’t want to be like all of the other sci-fi and fantasy cons out there (hence the name “Phaux” con). What started as a small gathering of friends in a living room seven years ago has evolved into a slightly larger small gathering of fans at a hotel. I must admit that when I walked into the PhauxCon 2009 conference room with my friend Nathan Lilly (who runs the Convention Finder), I didn’t know what to think of this little convention. But what surprised me was that nine hours later I was genuinely sad to be leaving all of my new friends.

When Nathan and I entered the hotel lobby, there was just one little sign by the elevator directing us to the 7th floor. We arrived and discovered a large conference room (more like a small ballroom really), with about two dozen chairs, a projector, a screen, and two people sitting behind a table. We were introduced to Sierra and Rob, who are the two behind PhauxCon. Sierra is the founder, and Rob is a friend of hers from “across the pond” that’s been helping her run it for the past three years. We soon got to meet some of the other attendees, including David and Filamena (who I had met at Game Core Con just a few weeks earlier).

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Below is a press release regarding Horror Realm 2009, a recent horror convention that happened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

Horror Realm 2009 Weekend Recap

Welcome to Deer Creek wins film competition

Pittsburgh, PA – September 24, 2009 – Horror Realm, Pittsburgh’s modern horror convention, was held last weekend and garnered favorable reviews from fans, guests and vendors.

Highlights of the weekend included film panel discussions with Bill Moseley, Ken Foree, Leslie Easterbrook, Jeff Lieberman, Joe Knetter, Scarlett Salem and Brenna Lee Roth; an impromptu jam session with Robert Zdar on the guitar and Tiffany Shepis singing; the US premiere of Zone of the Dead starring Ken Foree; author discussion panels featuring SG Browne, Jonathan Maberry, Dr. Kim Paffenroth, JL Bourne, Travis Adkins, Rhiannon Frater and other horror writers represented by Library of the Living Dead and Permuted Press.

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On Saturday, Dan and I ventured out to Oaks, PA to attend Game Core Con, a one-day gaming convention. Although it was a small con, it was a breath of fresh air considering we had just recently returned from the mammoth sized Dragon*con. We had an enjoyable time, and got to connect up with a lot of well known members of the Philadelphia geek community.

One of the big issues for a convention is location choice. The organizers of Game Core Con selected the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center as their facility.  It had plentiful (and free) parking. The size of the main hall was big enough to allow for wide vendor aisles and plenty of table gaming space. There was also space set aside for the numerous bands that were performing, and a nice sized conference room to be used for panel discussions.

The down side was that the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center was far enough away from center city Philadelphia that you had to get there by car. This may have limited the number of attendees, especially since the convention was advertising in Metro, a Philadelphia paper. We did get word that some of the vendors were a bit disappointed in the number of attendees, and the subsequent lack of sales. But at the same time, we also heard that Game Core Con was communicative and organized when it came to dealing with their vendors.

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