Archon/NASFiC

[filkertom]

Didn't have a wrap-up for Archon/TuckerCon/NASFiC, so here we go.

First, many, many thanks to mofilker and his wife Jamie, who went way above and beyond the call trying to make everything better for the musicians.

And many, many thanks to huskiebear, who also went way above and beyond the call in a lot of ways helping me out this weekend in particular.

And it was fantastic actually getting the chance to hang out for awhile with min0taur and Sally and tollers and harperjen and quadrivium (and I briefly met her husband Wesley and didn't even know it) and gorgeousgary and the_sheryl and lemmospice lemmozine and shsilver. And lukeski and pixelene were there, and Ken, and filkferengi and hlynna and popefelix and janmagic and singlemaltsilk and starcat_jewel and I can't even remember who all else. I only saw Sally Kobee and Barb Van Tilburg briefly, and that's my fault for not getting to the dealer's room.

It was a working con, so I ended up not going to the open filk at all (I was in one hotel, the filk was in another hotel, and the con was mostly in the Gateway Center, aiee). I heard from Gary and Sheryl that it was pretty good, mostly. I thought my concert sets went well enough, and it was really great to hear everybody else as well. Wild Mercy seemed especially crisp Saturday, and Mary Crowell impressed the heck out of us -- as I mentioned in an earlier post, I really hadn't heard her do her stuff, and we happily traded CDs.

A few rough spots, nothing worth really going into. Except... con programming people? Don't put programming after noon on Sunday. Or at all on Sunday. Seriously. Not more than a few people will be there. Most people are checking out, saying goodbye, and making those last few purchases, and all you're doing is making the panelists wait a few hours before going home. This has been My Opinion On The Matter™, and you don't have to listen. Thank you.

Anyway, a pretty good time had by all, methinks.

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Lemmospice?

Fun-nee!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Watch it, bucko, or it'll be Lame-O Spice. ;) Sorry, m'friend.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

At a three day con, killing programming on Sunday would effectively create a 1 day con, since Friday programming has a similar problem with Sunday programming. (checking in, arriving after work, etc.)

I try to start programming as early as 4:00 on Friday and run it until 2:00 (end time) on Sunday when I program.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Also, I came across a wonderful phrase a couple weeks ago while reading a non-fiction book about prostitution in Chicago in the 1910s. The author refers to tracts opposing prostitution, but giving detailed descriptions of what happened to young women as "Porn for Puritans." It struck me you could do something with the phrase, but I forgot to mention it to you when I saw you at A/N/T.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Understood. But that (and that was precisely what I had) means the earliest you can start home is 3:00 pm, and in our case that meant both a very long con day, way after we wuz conned out, and an extra hotel night, because it really wasn't practical to get all the way home.

And the only things I'm thinking about on Sunday morning are check-out and saying goodbye to people before they leave.

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

Throwing my two cents in, I often do Sunday concerts at cons, and usually they are pretty well attended. I have nothing against Friday or Saturday concerts obviously, but a Sunday concert gives me the opportunity to promote where and when it's happening over the course of the whole weekend, through the use of my fliers, merch table chatting, and word of mouth when socializing at the room parties and such. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But as long as the concert is scheduled about an hour after the hotel's check-out time, I ususally get a decent crowd.

of course, if you have a 6 hour plus drive ahead of you, heading home early on Sunday is usually a good idea. Sorry I had to miss your shows, as I was watching my table and doing other necessary stuff. Ken (madmanotl) caught one and said it was great. :) See you in 2 weeks!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Same here, pretty much. The real problem with Archon, and other multi-buildings, is that there's really no easy way to take a break. You can't just go back up to the room for an hour or three and decompress.

So we'll do the thang at GenCon and then sneak out for BBQ. :)

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

OMG WTF BBQ!!!

(which reminds me, I have a song to write for Con on the Cob...)

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

FWIW, although I didn't attend Luke's concert, the couple in the seats in front of me on the train home were raving about his concert, explaining that he has come a long way and totally lived up to his name.

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks!

I should have called myself "the mediocre Luke Ski". Then people's expectations would start out much lower, thereby impressing them even more on average.

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

What, no 9am Sunday concert! Darn, I'm gonna have to completely overhaul MidSouthCon's schedule now...

{g,d,rlh} :) :)

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

For those locals who cannot get to the con until midday Saturday or Saturday night due to work, the Sunday concerts and panels are a real treat, making us feel as though we got our money's worth.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

...so I guess the invited guests don't get a whole lot of input on when/where their stuff is on the program? I mean, it'd probably mean something to me were I (stupid enough to be) a con programmer and were you to tell me that you didn't want to do Sunday afternoon programming because you had a long drive home. I admit that if the only reason you gave was that "nobody was going to be there", I'd put you down as a whiner - I mean, come on, you're TOM F&&&ING SMITH, of course people will be there! - but I would want to be accommodating to travel schedules if possible.

Your Saturday concert was great, and the main reason I'm enjoying the Homecoming CD so much. I don't normally go in for live recordings because it's sometimes hard to hear all the words, but in this case it's great because it reminds me of the energy of the Archon concert. Oh, and I *still* haven't listened to "A Boy and his Frog". I stumbled onto "Rainbow Connection" while playing selected tracks for the housemate, and THAT song always makes me cry! I am not ready for your piece.

Lastly, I know it's not as inspiring as "307 ALE", but I did see "666 SPF" when coming home from the airport Sunday evening.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

We get some input. The programming people usually try to accommodate pretty well, actually, and travel plans are taken into account. But driving is different from flying. And it may just be more acute right this second because A/T/N had so damn much programming, with way too many people (in my opinion) on panels. I mean, my first panel Thursday, on SF soundtracks, had eight panelists. That's just berserk.

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

About the panel over stuffing - you ain't kidding...Raise your hand if you were at a panel where the Panelist:Audience ration was greater than 1! Yes, this happened more than once this weekend.

As far as con programming goes, I can speak from experience, just not on the scale of A/N/T. MidSouthCon runs about 1100-1200 in attendance, while a good Archon can top 2200+. What I try to do when starting programming is get as much input from the panelists as possible - what sorts topics they might like or are expert on, what times are good/what times are out, how many hours they want to be on panels for, who they don't want to be on a panel with, etc and then accommodate those wishes as much as humanly possible while giving the artist/writers/musical acts as much time to plug their stuff as possible. However, when crunch time hits - generally starting about 2 months before the con - then the programming committee has to start making choices based on programming requirements rather than personal preference. This is especially true at a single-hotel convention like mine - not all of the choices are popular all of the time. As much as I would love to grant every single panelist his or her preferences, sometimes it just doesn't work out - and someone gets stuck with the 9AM Sunday panels, no matter how hung over they are...

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

As a con attendee, I generally like to have programming to attend in the noon-3PM Sunday range. I feel a little cheated by a con where I have nothing to do Sunday but check out and drive home, no matter how good Friday and Saturday were.

Also, cons that are worth attending generally already have way too much crammed into Saturday, even when half of the con's scheduled programming is Friday evening and Sunday. Even if there were function space to hold the Sunday events on Saturday, it would just add more "I have three events I want to get to at 2:00" frustration.

OT but Gmail doesn't seem to talk to your ISP

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Let's try it the other way around.
Would you please email me at this username(at)Gmail?
Maybe I can at least respond.
When I try filling in the contact form on your website, the reply comes to my husband's Gmail account.

I've got the Brobdingnagian Bards booked into Studio Joe here in Little Rock (http://mcubedventures.netfirms.com/StudioJoePresents.html) for next week, on their way to GenCon. I'd like to talk to you about coordinating something similar on your way either to or from FenCon in September.

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

Other than Marscon where I take the Monday and Tuesday off afterwards to recover and Gencon Indy last year where I helped Luke after close, I haven't ever been at a con when it ended and I have never attended a "dead dog" party. Usually I am on my way home or if the con is local and I commuted, I sometimes don't bother to go especially since I am at work the following day at 5:30 AM and have a family to return home to.

However, I do like Sunday programming. It allows me one last chance to be away from the world which I escape at conventions.

[the-sheryl.livejournal.com]

Psst..I has an LJ :)

It was great seeing and hearing you at Archon/Tuckercon/Whatchamaycallit.

[pickledcritter.livejournal.com]

We had a great time as well. I didn't have time to hit open filk like I wanted - I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the day (I can't wait until Archon is back at its much cooler time of the year), and the filk panel I was able to make was great - and thanks to for giving me a good review of Reaper.

The one concert of yours I was able to make ROCKED - trust me folks, there ain't nuttin' better than sitting behind someone in full fairy get up when "Smash the Frickin' Fairies" starts playing :)

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

I had (and have) no kick against Sunday programming per se -- I know folks for whom it's a real enjoyment, and as long as I can get the logistics done for moving gear and checking out, it works fine. Sal and I have especially enjoyed the farewell jams at various cons over the years, and this year's closing ceremony at A/N/T was well attended and fun. Our main challenge this time out was meeting the schedule. The truly stalwart and mighty efforts of mofilker to keep things manageable were stretched by the one-convention-center-multiple-hotels configuration of a con this size. Getting to consecutive events in different buildings, and finding the time to set up for a concert (admittedly more complex where a four-person band is concerned) made meeting our commitments as guests a bit hectic. It always seems to be a tradeoff between providing a rich, immersive experience for everyone possible (in the limited time available) and also allowing some time to kick back and enjoy what's on. That balance is a moving target.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I've gotta say -- I don't really count farewell james and dead-dog parties as "programming". Nor film rooms, which are relatively easy to handle. I mean panels.

[norda.livejournal.com]

Hello, Tom. Not trying to spam you.... I'm a friend of hughcasey's.

I'm trying to take a survey of sorts about Archon, because we had a sales rep there [Daniel Geduld of B7 Media] who got the impression that this year's con had a far lower attendance than in past years, and certainly lower than a NASFIC "should" have.

He was new to the venue, so I am wondering how accurate his impression was. What were your impressions of attendance numbers?

Thank you in advance for any input you can give.

------Patty Cryan
www.mikescomics.com (http://www.mikescomics.com)
The Mike's Comics Presence on LiveJournal (http://mikescomics.com.livejournal.com)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'm not sure. I heard the number 1,500 at one point, but there were hundreds and hundreds of people in the line for seats at the masquerade. And I'm not sure, but I suspect the main hall was largely empty during the day because everyone was in programming.

[norda.livejournal.com]

That's still useful to know. Thank you!

My partner and I are trying to get a line of audio dramas off the ground, sales-wise, here in North America, and Archon was supposed to be our "big" convention, since the con reps we talked to told us there was an expected attendance estimate of 4000.

1500 sounds about average attendance for many of the other cons that we'd looked into. We'd hoped for more from Archon. Oh well.

I appreciate your reply.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Bluntly, Dragon*Con. If you're looking for big cons that you have a chance of getting into. Alternately, pick a few decent-sized regionals, see what more local cons are nearby in a certain timeframe, and make a tour of it. Look into MarsCon, MiniCon, MarCon, PhilCon, AnthroCon (geared towards furries), BaltiCon, Arisia, Boskone, the Chicago cons, OryCon, and other people can help me out with the west coast...?