Convention Fans

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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Dragon*con 2009 should have been the most epic and awesome convention event ever. It had the best guest list of any convention I’ve ever attended. I had friends from all around the country coming in to attend. There was talk of improvements to the pre-registration process. The programming looked interesting. There was going to be a World Record attempt on Thriller. So how in the world did a convention with so many positive things going for it, end up with so many low points? It all boils down to poor crowd and line management, and it almost ruined my favorite convention of the year. But before I dive into the problems, I do want to highlight what was enjoyable about Dragon*con 2009, because it certainly wasn’t all bad!

The Good:

- The best guest list EVER. Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Terry Gilliam, and Adam Savage represented some of the major star power for Dragon*con 2009. It really couldn’t have been much better. And on a personal note, I was absolutely thrilled to see a member of the Rocky Horror Picture Show cast in attendance.

- Incredibly enjoyable celebrity panels with Stewart, Savage, Nimoy/Shatner.  Each of these events was entertaining and worth the wait. Adam Savage was a particular delight, as he is clearly not a “celebrity” in the same sense as some of the Star Trek stars, and his down to Earth personality was evident right away. Stewart was also entertaining, and his panel provided some unique insights into his personal and professional life. And well, the Shatner/Nimoy panel is an entry in-of-itself. My favorite part of the Stewart panel deserves a quick mention though. He told the audience that “Jonathan Frakes couldn’t manually dock a bicycle.” Hysterical! (Watch Stewart talk about how he accidentally grabbed Gates McFadden’s breasts during a take.)

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I feel like I have been very fortunate in my celebrity encounters over the years. I’ve attended a lot of cons, and met actors from all manner of shows. The vast majority have not only been pleasant, but downright awesome. Some of the highlights include George Takei, Cirroc Lofton, Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Kevin Sorbo, Richard Hatch, and Nathan Fillion. Some of the not so great encounters have included Nichelle Nichols, Gates McFadden, Tim Russ, and Denise Crosby. After Dragon*con 2009, I now have celebrity guest(s) to add to each category. I am officially dubbing this entry “The Assholes of Dragon*con 2009.”

But I’m sure you’re thinking, hey, she implied she had someone to add to the awesome category? And you would be right. One of the nicest celebrity guests I’ve ever met happens to be one of the oldest assholes around: Barry Bostwick. (For you non-Rocky Horror Picture Show fans, Barry’s character is called “asshole” throughout the movie by fans.)

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Nothing was more talked about at Dragon*con 2009 than the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy panel. While Nimoy had been on the guest list for a number of months, Shatner had been a late addition. So late in fact, that many programming directors had already submitted their schedules. With so many big name guests already taking up the largest ballroom time slots, what in the world were they going to do with Shatner?

The answer arrived when the Dragon*con pocket program became available online. Shatner would be doing only one panel, and it would be with Nimoy at 10 a.m. Friday morning. That’s right, one of the first events of the entire convention. This news meant some fans had to readjust their travel and registration pick up plans. Fans were talking about sleeping outside the ballroom entrance just to ensure a front row seat. Dragon*con staff came back and said no lining up more than 2 hours before the event. There was confusion and frustration in abundance. On top of that, the location of the panel was changed between the printing of the schedules and the arrival of attendees.

And so, with all of this brewing, the Convention Fans crew planned to get in line for said Friday morning panel at exactly 2 hours in advance.

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After a 12-hour car ride from Atlanta to Philly, the Convention Fans team is finally back home. As you can imagine, trying to wrap up four action packed days at a convention can take a while, so we’ll be furiously writing and uploading pictures over the next few days. However, I did want to provide a very quick overview of what we attended, and our overall thoughts on how the convention went, so you can know what to expect from the big comprehensive review that will be posted later in the week.

First of all, our original schedules proved completely unrealistic. Why? Because the crowds were unreal. I can’t remember a time in the last four years where the con was anywhere close to being that packed. It took twice as long to do anything, whether it was picking up our badges (that took almost 3 hours!), walking from hotel to hotel, getting food, or attending an event. We found ourselves having to line up between 1 - 2 hours in advance for almost every event we attended, and even then we sometimes didn’t get in.

We did get to see the epic William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy panel (a.k.a. the Shat-Noy panel), the 2nd Patrick Stewart panel, the Adam Savage panel, a Japanese sword demonstration, and the second half of the Steampunk Maker’s panel. We also attended a portion of the big MMO World of Warcraft party. I dropped in on a bit of the Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant, and we all got to see the parade.

But to be honest, most of the time was spent playing Munchkin, Settler’s of Catan, and Magic the Gathering with all of our friends. And as fun as some of the panels were, we had the most fun just hanging out on the Marriott’s 10th floor lobby playing games together. No crowds. No lines. No staffers yelling and screaming at people. No pressure. Just fun.

That all being said, I must return to unpacking and doing laundry. But stay tuned for a big report and photos later this week!