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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The Convention Fans team has just booked the Hyatt for Dragon*con 2010. That’s right, after I said all those nice things about the Sheraton, they managed to make me switch my hotel preference in just a two minute long phone call with their reservations department. First of all, the Sheraton told me last year that they would charge a 1 night deposit right away. They didn’t actually charge me until one random day in August of this year, which had me a little perturbed. But, we had a nice stay this year, so I was willing to overlook it.

So I called up reservations today, since the Hyatt, Hilton, and Sheraton are all now taking reservations for 2010 (Marriott opens up rooms October 1st). The lady in reservations doesn’t bother to tell me that they are now charging extra for more than 2 people in a room, until I inquired about why the final total was so damned high. And she was rude to top it all off. Instead of it being around $174 a night with taxes, it’ll be $199 a night. Then she couldn’t even tell me when the deposit would be charged, only that it “could” be charged immediately.

Screw that!

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Dragon*con has posted their official Thriller World Record attempt footage on YouTube! It’s pretty similar to the footage I linked to the other day, with the exception of the inclusion of a Michael Jackson cosplayer at the front. Their video is below. Congratulations to all of those involved, and to the organizers who made it possible! As soon as official world from Guinness comes down the line, you can bet I’ll be posting about it here on Convention Fans!

I am pleased to announce that Convention Fans will be attending Game Core Con in Oaks, PA. Game Core Con is a one-day gaming convention being held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center on September 12th (that’s tomorrow!). Tickets for Game Core Con are $10 at the door, and the hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Events for this convention will include the Sound Bytes Live Concert, a Dreamcast 10th Birthday Celebration, and tournaments on many systems (with games like Guitar Hero, Smash Brothers, Halo 3, Fighters, FPS Games, Puzzle Games etc.). K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider will be on the show floor for fans to get pictures with. There will also be four Magic the Gathering Tournaments, and panel discussions.

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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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