bovil and I had a really good time. Minor bad travel-fu on the way east; our Seattle flight was delayed while they repaired the first class lavatory.We picked up our car and made it to the hotel despite the error in the published directions. Said hi, got dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (which I saw the inside of *too many times* during the weekend).
Loved the concourse, banners, and kiosk, and have notes and photos for reference. The DoubleTree function areas are split into several areas, so we're definitely going to be installing some onsite navigational aids in that spirit.
The original location for the CC26 table was a bit problematic, because it was on the end of the Concourse opposite from reg, and there were a) the Now and Then display and b) the giant lattice partition hiding us from traffic. When we moved into the front half of the concourse things were much easier.
In general, I was impressed by the organization of everything, with one complaint -- the one-hour-on-the-hour program slots. Inevitably, the panel before mine would run up to if not over the hour and we'd get a late start. This was especially bad for the cross-dressing panel, as the ironing demonstration ran over, their equipment had to be broken down and our AV set up. Fortunately, ours was the last panel of the day and our audience was willing to stay a little late so we could cover the points we wanted to.
The Friday social was, well, nicely social. It was also nice of the hotel to make sure later on that CC26 guests could get into "Generations" (the main hotel bar) without paying a cover if we wanted to buy a drink and bring it back to the con suite. The hotel location was also great when I had to do my shopping run for the Evil Genius party.
I spent most of my non-panel time at the CC26 table for obvious reasons, but I always seemed to have good company there; we sold a number of memberships.
It was great fun being in the "hunk of the month" chair for Match Game CC. Sidebar: if you didn't watch the original, each of the six panel positions on "Match Game" acquired certain personalities. As I've come to know it, Seat 1 was for the current male hot TV property, Seat 4 the equivalent female star (and both of them tended to be bimbos). Seat 2 was Brett Somers (Jack Klugman's wife and one of the sharpest wits on the series), Seat 3 was Charles Nelson Riley, Seat 5 was Richard Dawson and Seat 6 was Betty White or Fanny Flagg.
I usually get cast in the Seat 3 position, so it was fun mental gymnastics being in Seat 1. Hope y'all enjoyed it, too.
I used to dread being an auctioneer; it's fun, however, when it's an occasional gig and I was happy to help out Betsy and the Archives. Thanks for playing along.
I was pleasantly gobsmacked to receive the LAA; there isn't much I can say about it that I didn't say on the spot!
There is apparently voodoo about hosting an Evil Genius party at Holiday Inns. Every time we do it, we get a noise complaint. Must be doing something right. Glad everybodyl liked the wine, and happy to share it with CC27 for the Sunday party, too.
Sunday morning came wayyyy too early, but judging the Fashion Show was not a hardship. Back to the table for the rest of the day.
Monday, after two nights of going to bed at 4AM, Andy and I opted to sleep in and skip the field trips. Dinner out at Las Margaritas was lovely, as was the dead dog and the Mousekerade.
One note on that, however -- I remember when it was all spur-of-the-moment and all the critters received an award (and most of them read "Most Humorous"). Bearemy was a bit let down to be one of he
only entries to receive no award at all. It was sweet of one of the mice to present him with their medal as a Miss Congeniality-type thank you backstage afterwards.
So, there you have it -- less a con report and more an assortment of impressions. I had a great time, and I'm still tired and loopy.
Kevin
(see you in April 2008!)