Wai-Con Wrap-up 2010
Oh yes, this post of going to be some sort of epic. Please see the cuts below XD
Of course, people know how busy I was leading up to Wai-con. As in, super busy.
But first I'm just going to start by saying like huge mega huge thank you's to Min and Christina who keep me sane and fed and make sure I sleep and all sort of crazy things. They bought me meals and made sure I ate, let me sleep at their places when I was too tired to go home, and then let me stay at the hotel room for nothing AND fed me during the con when they could. PLUS they keep me sane by letting me rant and giving me hugs and all sorts of awesome things. So :D
Most of my Wai-con lead up was, honestly, wrapped up between PCEC and merchandise. Merchandise this year was...interesting.
We certainly had more of it than ever before which maybe isn't a good thing. We tried some new stuff, some of which was good and some was bad. Stickers seemed to be, as we may have been able to guess, a huge failure, despite them being super cute. The cosplay calendars on the other hand were a huge success. The limited edition merch, while being a lot more expensive than in previous years, was a resounding success and the amount of good stuff I've heard about it has been great (hey, even Takafugi said he liked it!)
The pain I went through to get it all was maybe not worth it though XD The seemingly unlimited troubles we had with artwork had both myself and Jon and Leah up at all hours trying to finish stuff in time to print. SO huge props to them both because I would have been screwed otherwise.
Last minute Wednesday evening I got a call from the printing place to say that they had gone to print the demon shirts only to realize all the vinyls were back to front. Yeah...owch. But they pulled some sort of small miracle, worked through nights and got the whole set reprinted and put onto the shirts for us to pick up on Friday afternoon with the rest of the stuff. THANK GOD. And out of all the pre-reg bags there was only one size issue, compared to the nearly endless issues last year.
I really do hope the next merch person (please, not me!) goes back to EmbroidMe CBD because they are really awesome to us and get even more awesome the more money we spend. The work their arses off, don't charge us for a WHOLE heap of stuff, and do a really good job. Last year I made the mistake of going somewhere cheaper to save some money and just came out with substandard stuff that I had to pay full price for. EmbroidMe were going to severely cut the costs of the shirts should they not be able to finish them on time by getting new vinyls. IT wasn't even an option - the work wasn't up to their standard and we shouldn't have to pay for that. Also, with Sports as the theme next year it will be so easy because EmbroidMe already has SOOOO much stuff in their catalogues we could use.
My next issue came from PCEC who, well, I'm sure people have heard of the issues with them and those who didn't, don't need to know because I managed to handle it in the end. Needless to say though, it was hairy there for a while and could have ended pretty badly.
I also spent a lot of time working on the opening ceremony (a full day at Mike's place so he could give me a hand, then a lot of time editing it and well...yeah, I'll talk about what happened to it later).
And, of course, I spent A LOT of time finishing cosplay with Min. I realize though that this is my choice so I can't really complain too much about it. In the end I didn't finish it purely because I had other things to do that were more important (Hence, no jacket. But realistically the reason I decided not to finish it was because I knew I would take it off anyway because it was too hot and I was running around WAY too much so it wasn't worth it).
I pretty much lived at poor Min's place as we sewed and glued and god knows what else we jammed in there. We did manage to go to dinner and TimeZone at one point, I know that. But mostly it was sewing like crazy people and listening to DJ Technika music on my laptop. All in all I don't think we slept more than about four hours on Thursday night and then probably about two on Friday night.
Set up was what I was most amazed by, though. With the number of volunteers we had that showed up, set up went as easy as the bag stuffing. We got through 4000 bags in just over an hour, and got through Friday set up by 8:30. I was very impressed and happy~ I was thinking I would be there all night ;_; As it was, Leah dragged me out and refused to let me fuss anymore over things like tableclothes and slight room set ups missing like projectors and screens and microphones. I was sternly told to go home :P
PCEC did a really good job of setting up for us but a lot of that is because I was quite stern with them. The previous year we had a few issues with set up and things not being done so this year they really paid attention. Their new floor manager (yep, they finally got another one! Poor guy...) was also an anime and game fan and he said he really enjoyed Wai-con so that was good - it's good to have someone working there who understands your event and cares rather than others who don't get anything that is going on).
Realistically, I was doing way too much before the con trying to cram everything into a very limited amount of time, so lots of stuff got dropped. My only shift at work that week, for one. My mom went mental at me and I didn't even tell my dad but...yeah. This whole year for me has been deciding what it more important. PAniC won A LOT of the time. I don't think this is bad, or wrong, or something I should give up. If I had done less PAniC stuff, or none at all, would my situation be better? No. Not at all. I would have more free time, but to do what? Play video games? Having more free time doesn't mean work gives me more shifts. It doesn't mean I would still be able to live with my dad. So I put my free time and effort into something that deserves the full attention and dedication of the people who offer their time. If I have the time to offer, I don't see why I shouldn't. Though it is nice to be able to sleep again :D
Yeah wow. I think we got about two hours sleep amongst working on things, finishing things, driving, trying to eat, and moving stuff to the hotel room. It was fine though, because the real sort of excitement was just starting to kick in. When we did wake up at some ungodly hour when our alarms went off, we raced to get ready and get to the convention centre. Christina was working reg desk and had to be there early, and Wilson too who was an area head. So we left and Min trotted over later :P I actually can't remember what I was doing that morning. "Freaking out" might be what it looked like. I was racing around trying to set up my laptop in the panels room, then check the Opening Ceremony one last time before getting it to the AV guys and discussing stuff with them. I spoke to Mike just before the Opening because I was, honest to god, freaking the hell out. It's been a LONG time since I've spoken in front of THAT many people. I was watching everyone come in and was just like "what the HELL have I done?!" Mike managed to give me a bit of a pep talk and it was all good.
...then my powerpoint completely died. ;_; Yeah. I was pressing the buttons on the presentation remote and it wasn't doing a thing (no matter where I pointed it). The AV guys tried to flip through for me but that didn't work either. In the end they reset it and then it worked...except I was pointing the remote at the screen rather than the damn AV box. FAIL! XD It was pretty funny though. Problem was that I missed a couple slides that actually had important information on them and honestly couldn't remember so...yeah, it got missed out.
There were also a couple mistakes on the presentation. My fault entirely because I wrote the damn thing. Unfortunately neither Wade nor myself picked up on them and there just wasn't time to have everyone screen the thing before it went "live". So there were a few problems caused by that but these things happen and we try to work around them.
I was really glad that A LOT of people came up to me after the opening ceremony and said they really enjoyed it and they had been to previous years and it had been really boring so they were glad they came back. They also liked that I gave out tickets to Destiny. One girl I gave them to was like so UBER happy she hugged me and stuff and was all flustered. It was cute. :D Lots of people said I looked really hot too so...happy face XD
After that I went to see Curzon in the "Welcome to Wai-con" panel which was, again, complete fail because no one cares about what we do, they just want to enjoy the con. So we just chatted to the people who were there and asked them some questions and stuff which was pretty good because some of them had never been to Wai-con before and had some interesting insights about the whole thing so far and some suggestions on stuff they wanted to see as noobs to the "scene".
A lot of the rest of the day I spent around the con making sure stuff was happening. Cosplay on Saturday was very stressful and it was interesting to see some of the new stuff happening like opening both doors (which required me and Curzon (and Andrew!) to move people both days and get the cosplayers downstairs instead of near the doors. It worked MUCH better though by spreading out the line and getting everyone inside much faster.
I spent a lot of time checking in my sub comms and board members who looked flustered (poor Leah! Hugs~) and getting updates from Glen and the Reg desk. Sub comms had a few issues but they deal with them like STARS, I swear.
At about lunch time I was feeling REALLY shit. I mean, REALLY. I hadn't eaten, hadn't drank anything until Leah forced me a bottle of water. I realized that I left my external harddrive at the hotel room so I had to walk back which was...a bad idea. It was hot outside and when I got there I all but collapsed on the bed. I'm SO glad I didn't actually lie down otherwise I think I would have passed out. So I forced myself, grabbed the harddrive, and got back ASAP for my panel.
Panel was the usual rubbish. Unfortunately, my computer settings got changed and none of my videos worked except 1, which was a bit disappointing as that's what a lot of people want to see and it also eats up some time in which I don't have to talk. But I worked through it.
I'm glad this is the last year I'll be doing the yaoi panel. There's only so many times you can say the same thing. People will always come back, even if they've heard it before, but for me, it's not worth it. There's better things I can do with my time. So I asked Jill to help me with the panel so that she can run it in future ^^ I just hope that during my time running the panel I've actually given people some interesting information rather than just "lol, buttsex!" because it really is more than that. It's not just about guys kissing or the spectacle of the whole thing. A panel should offer new information, insight, and mature discussion. Sure, have some humor, keep it interesting, but remember the main point of a panel is for frank discussion of a topic otherwise what's the point? It is not a vehicle for someone's reputation or off-topic nonsense. /end rant
After the panel I went back to the reg desk and just about died. By this point MOVING made me violently ill. Luckily pizza had been purchased for Eminence and board (and select others) and I very, very, very happily went to get a couple slices, which being the first thing I had eaten in probably a day or more, was very welcome. It was also nice to see the Eminence guys backstage and just hanging out because they're several types of awesome. Jem, especially, is like OMG...Jem fanclub, anyone?
Min, Christina, Wilson and Daniel went back to the hotel room to change and such so I was greeting people as they came to see Eminence. Ticket sales could have, of course, been better, but in a way it was nice having such a small audicence. A lot of people were saying how it reminded them of earlier cons where it was a small group of really dedicated, really interesting and friendly people, which is a lot of what they miss about later cons.
Min and I got a seat down the front which was awesome :D Though we were both so tired a lot of the time we were laying on each other's shoulder trying to stay awake. Not that Eminence was boring. GOD NO. Can I say, BEST CONCERT EVER? I am so glad I went. I am so glad I stayed awake. I am so glad they came. It was EPIC. Anyone who didn't go? You missed out. You missed out big time. For the very small price tickets were, you threw away an awesome opportunity to see a CLASS performance. Every song was awesome and THEY PLAYED RADICAL DREAMERS! OMG fangirl. I was crying it was so beautiful. So, so, so beautiful. RADICAL DREAMERS!!! They also played a song from Gundam SEED that Min and I squeed over and Granpa's Violin which I LOVE. Then they came back onto stage for their encore wearing the Maid headdresses and colored wigs which was EPIC and so funny. They told funny stories and really played with the audience and got everyone involved in some parts which was so great. I've never heard PAniC people cheer so loud. Then final encore...MARIO PLAYLIST! XD I knew it was coming but none the less I was so happy. It was AWESOME. I wanted to buy every single thing they ever did, but, alas, no money. So, instead, Wilson stayed back and got the programme autographed for me XD So happy~ I am framing it.
We dragged ourselves back to the room and ate dinner which Christina had bought, which was great because I was starving. Half of us fell asleep, the other half was doing stuff for Sunday until at about...oh, 12 am...I realized that I had made a HUGE mistake. EPIC mistake. I left my car keys at PCEC. LOCKED PCEC. Absoluetly no way of getting them. ...and everything we needed for Sunday was still in the car. Yeah.
I was just about in tears I was so upset. I knew there would be no way to get anything then until Sunday morning at like...7 or whenever PCEC opened, and we had WAY too much to do to leave it that long. Until Min had the brilliant suggestion: Ring RAC. I KNEW I renewed my roadside assistance for a reason! So I rang RAC and they sent someone out...except I fell asleep. I slept through two phone calls and the guys left!!! *wails* If I had been upset before I was even MORE upset now. So I called them back, explained, and they sent someone else out. I ended up dozing on the couch watching House and Cops with Daniel because I was too afraid to fall asleep again.
In the end the guy who came was awesome and totally understood. Apparently he got the job the first time but had to send someone else closer so when it came back on his screen he was like "what the?" but he laughed about it. Got into car, got stuff, went back upstairs to continue working. We did a bit before we decided we needed at least some sleep of some sort. Two hours is better than nothing.
Go to sleep at 2:30, wake up at 5 was the plan. Yeah...that didn't work well at all. Min and I slept through THREE alarms. I'm not joking. The first one we slept through completely. The second we did wake up and were attempting to get up and...went straight back to sleep. Third alarm went off and when you're tired the five minutes you spend laying in bed trying to wake up actually turns into an hour. FAIL. OMG again, so upset. If something could get me into tears at this point, it was this. How could I sleep through THREE alarms?! People said it was understandable, but it still didn't make it acceptable.
Luckily the board are all VERY capable people. I rang Wade and told him the deal. Looked like a lot of people were also late. I got a txt from Glen too saying he had a flat tyre. Also lame :S All of us seemed to need extra sleep we just weren't getting. Even luckier my Sunday cosplay was basically normal clothes with a wig which was...basically what I did Saturday too just this time it was an actual character XD So getting ready took no longer than usual getting ready. I think I got to PCEC about quarter past 10...though no one realized ;_; Everyone walked straight past me and apparently only when I spoke or they stared at me did the realize it was me. Lolz. I suppose that's a good thing when in cosplay? XD
I met up with Jen, my epic, epic Trunks slash fan fiction panel co-presenter. I am SO glad she did the panel with me this year. She kept me from being rambly and is just...well, epic. But I know I don't need to tell people this. Plus she is a good writer and knows her stuff just as good as I do so it was really easy to run the panel together. Future plans, yes? XD Panel was, again, awesome. It was completely packed again this year which was good because last year was so tiny (bad time slot) and people were enthusiastic (some a little TOO enthusiastic). So panel went very quickly and very easily.
After that was more cosplay line and door issues which Curzon and I fixed before racing down to the Medina to get some lunch. Two pieces of sandwhich and a bottle of water later I headed back up to race around the con once to check in at PAniC HQ and the maid cafe to see how they were doing. I spoke to Elizabeth from PCEC for a bit and got some of her suggestions and such then headed back to the reg desk...only to realize I had forgotten my pendrive with the closing ceremony. F@#%!!! I tried to see if ANYONE from my room was free to grab it but they were all helping in cosplay so Emily was kind enough to come back with me to like...keep me upright.
The whole afternoon otherwise was spent mostly with Wade doing the closing ceremony. Even though I had already done half there is just SO MUCH that goes into it and with two days of prize giving's it was pretty difficult to get it all right and all set up properly. As it was I didn't do any sort of animations or anything because it was just too difficult.
Once it was done I took my first look at the trader's hall all weekend because Christina wanted to buy me a present XD FMA doujin FTW! Tehehehe! Some people fed me pocky as I was walking around and I caught up with Jon to discuss the auction (talking to Jon is hard - he gets surrounded by fans all wanting his picture and to talk with him and hug him and GAH!) I then raced to the theatre to discuss with the AV guys who were again several thousands times awesome with their suggestions and easy goingness to the whole thing.
And holy shit the Closing Ceremony. Holy shit. Holy shit. Watching all those people file into the theatre? Holy shit. I was shaking Wade, got the pep talk of my life from Jon (big thanks to him for that, btw, because I was honestly freaking the hell out and he...does a good pep talk), and then holy crap, walking onto that stage with the lights and the music and friggin' smoke machines and clapping and cheering and...GAH! I always used to think when I worked at PCEC that ONE DAY I wanted to be the person on that stage, with everyone watching me and clapping for me and, well, it came true. I'm really not a glory hog. I don't do it for the glory. I don't even care if people don't remember my name, but after a long weekend and feeling shit and underappreciated a lot of the time, coming onstage to that was like the most awesome and wonderful thing ever in my whole life. (Plus it helped to have Wilson, Christina, Min and Dan in the front row, Jen and Ewan a few back, and all the interstate guys where I could see them, and Wade and Jon backstage for support when I was freaking out).
The Closing Ceremony went awesomely awesome. No slideshow issues this time. We only got one picture wrong (fail ;_; ) and having the cosplayers and some of the winners of stuff come up and hug me and thank me and stuff was epic because they work so hard and it's so cute to see them so happy about winning.
Epic things happening in the Closing Ceremony included the auction that, like, holy shit, the money flying around at this thing. The plushies of the mascots sold for FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Wade and I looked at each other and were just like OH EM GEE. The last Limited Edition bag with a WHOLE HEAP of other stuff went for a decent price, and Christina picked up the Eminence pack. Then the guy who bought the Pocky decided the give it back to PAniC and threw it out to people in the audience which was AWESOME and just shows the sheer love and dedicate by some of our members. Thank you, Keith!
By the end it was HIGHLY evident my voice was DYING which Christina and Min laughed about later and were all "you sounded like a cute boy XD" Sigh. :P The Closing Ceremony ran EXACTLY to time which is good because I was worried about not being able to fill time or run massively over, but...exactly on time! Woot~ And when we got out...everything was done. OUR VOLUNTEERS RULE!
Outside I was swamped by people including people who had won stuff in the auction and wanted me to sign it XD and people who wanted pictures with me and stuff and just wanted to be all "bah! Wai-con was awesome this year!" which I am all up for hearing XD Everyone wanted to know if I was running for President again next year which was all like lolz, not on your life. Great and all but just the once, thanks!
We went back to the hotel room to dump our stuff and get changed (well, I didn't, but others did) and then went to pancakes. I was actually really hungry when I got there but got less and less so while eating. The Eminence guys came down which was cool too, especially being Mistuda's birthday and we all sang to him which was cool. I gave a little speech, but the problem with speeches is that they can't properly convey the emotion you actually feel for something most of the time. Because when I say that I can't thank everyone enough, I really mean it.
So, here are more thank you's to everyone who friggin' worked their arses off:
Wade, who kept me sane, kept me working, and kept me on track whilst dealing with Eminence which was a HUGE job.
Jay, who is an awesome Treasurer and a good friend who let me rant, let me cry, and general was an awesome guy.
Gav, who really gets his stuff together at the con and becomes one of the most competent people available on the day.
Chris, who managed to organize all his multiple sub comms into a well oiled machine and organize prizes better than I've ever seen (and has some leet skills with those medals!)
Kylie, who put in some serious leg work and went well above and beyond with Eminence.
Leah, who works harder than anyone I have ever seen. She is, beyond a doubt, the best Trader's Coordintor PAniC has ever had and goes out of her way to help and assist with anything she can.
Glen, who knows he bugs the hell out of us but can pull his stuff together at the eleventh hour...which is sometimes just when you need it.
Trina, who put in an arse load of work in a VERY demanding job. She streamlined the whole logistics process and made sure that she was thinking about everything we forgot.
and Curzon, who happily accepted all the additional work we gave him and organized a lot of what we hadn't even considered at the time.
And to all the sub comms who were EPIC, especially Jon, our website coordinator, who did excellent work, did stuff last minute, and actually used his iniciative to anticipate our wants and PAniC's needs. Justin, who doesn't just work his AMV's but acts as our stage AV guy for most of the day, PLUS getting together all the volunteer and Trader's food. Cuzza, who did an awesome Video Games room that I keep hearing good things about. Sally, who seems to think her job wasn't hard at all, even though it is what we've had the most trouble keeping up with every year. Mike, who put in some serious hard yards over the weekend with volunteers. Layla who is an AWESOME registrar and should definitely run again, and Zing who despite not actually have any screenings to show Friday night, managed to get everything together for the weekend. And that's not everyone but special thanks to a whole bunch of other people as well including all of the volunteers and...gah! Awards speech, much?
I think my only bad thing about the weekend is that I really have no idea what Wai-con was like other than what people told me! I didn't see anything, didn't do anything, and missed spending time with just about everyone! Such is life though, I suppose. Though if anyone has video of the Kaze no Ko Drumming I would REALLY appreciate it because that's what I wanted to see more than anything and didn't have the chance, and I would love to see how they went. Though Sanny did come to the front counter and was entertaining us with his paper airplane for a while which was awesome because I have yet to see one of his demonstrations despite the number of times he has come to Wai-con now!
So anyway, my last bit is to remind all you guys about the AGM!
Location: University of Western Australia, Crawley Campus, Fox Lecture Theatre.
Date: 27th Feb, 2010.
Time: 1400-1600
*Members Only Event*
I will be running for the board again so, if you guys come along I would love it if you vote for me! (well, only if you want to of course!) But more importantly, you can ask questions about PAniC and Wai-con, and also see how we went for the year, and get a chance to alter the future of PAniC and the con by voting for who you want on the board!
Also, if you have any suggestions or comments about Wai-con, even if it's to say how much you loved it, please do so! You can leave comments and such on the forums, there is a feeback form on the website, OR if you know my email please send me an email with any not for everyone's eyes comments and suggestions (or we can catch up sometime as I've already done with some of you :D )
Of course, people know how busy I was leading up to Wai-con. As in, super busy.
But first I'm just going to start by saying like huge mega huge thank you's to Min and Christina who keep me sane and fed and make sure I sleep and all sort of crazy things. They bought me meals and made sure I ate, let me sleep at their places when I was too tired to go home, and then let me stay at the hotel room for nothing AND fed me during the con when they could. PLUS they keep me sane by letting me rant and giving me hugs and all sorts of awesome things. So :D
Most of my Wai-con lead up was, honestly, wrapped up between PCEC and merchandise. Merchandise this year was...interesting.
We certainly had more of it than ever before which maybe isn't a good thing. We tried some new stuff, some of which was good and some was bad. Stickers seemed to be, as we may have been able to guess, a huge failure, despite them being super cute. The cosplay calendars on the other hand were a huge success. The limited edition merch, while being a lot more expensive than in previous years, was a resounding success and the amount of good stuff I've heard about it has been great (hey, even Takafugi said he liked it!)
The pain I went through to get it all was maybe not worth it though XD The seemingly unlimited troubles we had with artwork had both myself and Jon and Leah up at all hours trying to finish stuff in time to print. SO huge props to them both because I would have been screwed otherwise.
Last minute Wednesday evening I got a call from the printing place to say that they had gone to print the demon shirts only to realize all the vinyls were back to front. Yeah...owch. But they pulled some sort of small miracle, worked through nights and got the whole set reprinted and put onto the shirts for us to pick up on Friday afternoon with the rest of the stuff. THANK GOD. And out of all the pre-reg bags there was only one size issue, compared to the nearly endless issues last year.
I really do hope the next merch person (please, not me!) goes back to EmbroidMe CBD because they are really awesome to us and get even more awesome the more money we spend. The work their arses off, don't charge us for a WHOLE heap of stuff, and do a really good job. Last year I made the mistake of going somewhere cheaper to save some money and just came out with substandard stuff that I had to pay full price for. EmbroidMe were going to severely cut the costs of the shirts should they not be able to finish them on time by getting new vinyls. IT wasn't even an option - the work wasn't up to their standard and we shouldn't have to pay for that. Also, with Sports as the theme next year it will be so easy because EmbroidMe already has SOOOO much stuff in their catalogues we could use.
My next issue came from PCEC who, well, I'm sure people have heard of the issues with them and those who didn't, don't need to know because I managed to handle it in the end. Needless to say though, it was hairy there for a while and could have ended pretty badly.
I also spent a lot of time working on the opening ceremony (a full day at Mike's place so he could give me a hand, then a lot of time editing it and well...yeah, I'll talk about what happened to it later).
And, of course, I spent A LOT of time finishing cosplay with Min. I realize though that this is my choice so I can't really complain too much about it. In the end I didn't finish it purely because I had other things to do that were more important (Hence, no jacket. But realistically the reason I decided not to finish it was because I knew I would take it off anyway because it was too hot and I was running around WAY too much so it wasn't worth it).
I pretty much lived at poor Min's place as we sewed and glued and god knows what else we jammed in there. We did manage to go to dinner and TimeZone at one point, I know that. But mostly it was sewing like crazy people and listening to DJ Technika music on my laptop. All in all I don't think we slept more than about four hours on Thursday night and then probably about two on Friday night.
Set up was what I was most amazed by, though. With the number of volunteers we had that showed up, set up went as easy as the bag stuffing. We got through 4000 bags in just over an hour, and got through Friday set up by 8:30. I was very impressed and happy~ I was thinking I would be there all night ;_; As it was, Leah dragged me out and refused to let me fuss anymore over things like tableclothes and slight room set ups missing like projectors and screens and microphones. I was sternly told to go home :P
PCEC did a really good job of setting up for us but a lot of that is because I was quite stern with them. The previous year we had a few issues with set up and things not being done so this year they really paid attention. Their new floor manager (yep, they finally got another one! Poor guy...) was also an anime and game fan and he said he really enjoyed Wai-con so that was good - it's good to have someone working there who understands your event and cares rather than others who don't get anything that is going on).
Realistically, I was doing way too much before the con trying to cram everything into a very limited amount of time, so lots of stuff got dropped. My only shift at work that week, for one. My mom went mental at me and I didn't even tell my dad but...yeah. This whole year for me has been deciding what it more important. PAniC won A LOT of the time. I don't think this is bad, or wrong, or something I should give up. If I had done less PAniC stuff, or none at all, would my situation be better? No. Not at all. I would have more free time, but to do what? Play video games? Having more free time doesn't mean work gives me more shifts. It doesn't mean I would still be able to live with my dad. So I put my free time and effort into something that deserves the full attention and dedication of the people who offer their time. If I have the time to offer, I don't see why I shouldn't. Though it is nice to be able to sleep again :D
Yeah wow. I think we got about two hours sleep amongst working on things, finishing things, driving, trying to eat, and moving stuff to the hotel room. It was fine though, because the real sort of excitement was just starting to kick in. When we did wake up at some ungodly hour when our alarms went off, we raced to get ready and get to the convention centre. Christina was working reg desk and had to be there early, and Wilson too who was an area head. So we left and Min trotted over later :P I actually can't remember what I was doing that morning. "Freaking out" might be what it looked like. I was racing around trying to set up my laptop in the panels room, then check the Opening Ceremony one last time before getting it to the AV guys and discussing stuff with them. I spoke to Mike just before the Opening because I was, honest to god, freaking the hell out. It's been a LONG time since I've spoken in front of THAT many people. I was watching everyone come in and was just like "what the HELL have I done?!" Mike managed to give me a bit of a pep talk and it was all good.
...then my powerpoint completely died. ;_; Yeah. I was pressing the buttons on the presentation remote and it wasn't doing a thing (no matter where I pointed it). The AV guys tried to flip through for me but that didn't work either. In the end they reset it and then it worked...except I was pointing the remote at the screen rather than the damn AV box. FAIL! XD It was pretty funny though. Problem was that I missed a couple slides that actually had important information on them and honestly couldn't remember so...yeah, it got missed out.
There were also a couple mistakes on the presentation. My fault entirely because I wrote the damn thing. Unfortunately neither Wade nor myself picked up on them and there just wasn't time to have everyone screen the thing before it went "live". So there were a few problems caused by that but these things happen and we try to work around them.
I was really glad that A LOT of people came up to me after the opening ceremony and said they really enjoyed it and they had been to previous years and it had been really boring so they were glad they came back. They also liked that I gave out tickets to Destiny. One girl I gave them to was like so UBER happy she hugged me and stuff and was all flustered. It was cute. :D Lots of people said I looked really hot too so...happy face XD
After that I went to see Curzon in the "Welcome to Wai-con" panel which was, again, complete fail because no one cares about what we do, they just want to enjoy the con. So we just chatted to the people who were there and asked them some questions and stuff which was pretty good because some of them had never been to Wai-con before and had some interesting insights about the whole thing so far and some suggestions on stuff they wanted to see as noobs to the "scene".
A lot of the rest of the day I spent around the con making sure stuff was happening. Cosplay on Saturday was very stressful and it was interesting to see some of the new stuff happening like opening both doors (which required me and Curzon (and Andrew!) to move people both days and get the cosplayers downstairs instead of near the doors. It worked MUCH better though by spreading out the line and getting everyone inside much faster.
I spent a lot of time checking in my sub comms and board members who looked flustered (poor Leah! Hugs~) and getting updates from Glen and the Reg desk. Sub comms had a few issues but they deal with them like STARS, I swear.
At about lunch time I was feeling REALLY shit. I mean, REALLY. I hadn't eaten, hadn't drank anything until Leah forced me a bottle of water. I realized that I left my external harddrive at the hotel room so I had to walk back which was...a bad idea. It was hot outside and when I got there I all but collapsed on the bed. I'm SO glad I didn't actually lie down otherwise I think I would have passed out. So I forced myself, grabbed the harddrive, and got back ASAP for my panel.
Panel was the usual rubbish. Unfortunately, my computer settings got changed and none of my videos worked except 1, which was a bit disappointing as that's what a lot of people want to see and it also eats up some time in which I don't have to talk. But I worked through it.
I'm glad this is the last year I'll be doing the yaoi panel. There's only so many times you can say the same thing. People will always come back, even if they've heard it before, but for me, it's not worth it. There's better things I can do with my time. So I asked Jill to help me with the panel so that she can run it in future ^^ I just hope that during my time running the panel I've actually given people some interesting information rather than just "lol, buttsex!" because it really is more than that. It's not just about guys kissing or the spectacle of the whole thing. A panel should offer new information, insight, and mature discussion. Sure, have some humor, keep it interesting, but remember the main point of a panel is for frank discussion of a topic otherwise what's the point? It is not a vehicle for someone's reputation or off-topic nonsense. /end rant
After the panel I went back to the reg desk and just about died. By this point MOVING made me violently ill. Luckily pizza had been purchased for Eminence and board (and select others) and I very, very, very happily went to get a couple slices, which being the first thing I had eaten in probably a day or more, was very welcome. It was also nice to see the Eminence guys backstage and just hanging out because they're several types of awesome. Jem, especially, is like OMG...Jem fanclub, anyone?
Min, Christina, Wilson and Daniel went back to the hotel room to change and such so I was greeting people as they came to see Eminence. Ticket sales could have, of course, been better, but in a way it was nice having such a small audicence. A lot of people were saying how it reminded them of earlier cons where it was a small group of really dedicated, really interesting and friendly people, which is a lot of what they miss about later cons.
Min and I got a seat down the front which was awesome :D Though we were both so tired a lot of the time we were laying on each other's shoulder trying to stay awake. Not that Eminence was boring. GOD NO. Can I say, BEST CONCERT EVER? I am so glad I went. I am so glad I stayed awake. I am so glad they came. It was EPIC. Anyone who didn't go? You missed out. You missed out big time. For the very small price tickets were, you threw away an awesome opportunity to see a CLASS performance. Every song was awesome and THEY PLAYED RADICAL DREAMERS! OMG fangirl. I was crying it was so beautiful. So, so, so beautiful. RADICAL DREAMERS!!! They also played a song from Gundam SEED that Min and I squeed over and Granpa's Violin which I LOVE. Then they came back onto stage for their encore wearing the Maid headdresses and colored wigs which was EPIC and so funny. They told funny stories and really played with the audience and got everyone involved in some parts which was so great. I've never heard PAniC people cheer so loud. Then final encore...MARIO PLAYLIST! XD I knew it was coming but none the less I was so happy. It was AWESOME. I wanted to buy every single thing they ever did, but, alas, no money. So, instead, Wilson stayed back and got the programme autographed for me XD So happy~ I am framing it.
We dragged ourselves back to the room and ate dinner which Christina had bought, which was great because I was starving. Half of us fell asleep, the other half was doing stuff for Sunday until at about...oh, 12 am...I realized that I had made a HUGE mistake. EPIC mistake. I left my car keys at PCEC. LOCKED PCEC. Absoluetly no way of getting them. ...and everything we needed for Sunday was still in the car. Yeah.
I was just about in tears I was so upset. I knew there would be no way to get anything then until Sunday morning at like...7 or whenever PCEC opened, and we had WAY too much to do to leave it that long. Until Min had the brilliant suggestion: Ring RAC. I KNEW I renewed my roadside assistance for a reason! So I rang RAC and they sent someone out...except I fell asleep. I slept through two phone calls and the guys left!!! *wails* If I had been upset before I was even MORE upset now. So I called them back, explained, and they sent someone else out. I ended up dozing on the couch watching House and Cops with Daniel because I was too afraid to fall asleep again.
In the end the guy who came was awesome and totally understood. Apparently he got the job the first time but had to send someone else closer so when it came back on his screen he was like "what the?" but he laughed about it. Got into car, got stuff, went back upstairs to continue working. We did a bit before we decided we needed at least some sleep of some sort. Two hours is better than nothing.
Go to sleep at 2:30, wake up at 5 was the plan. Yeah...that didn't work well at all. Min and I slept through THREE alarms. I'm not joking. The first one we slept through completely. The second we did wake up and were attempting to get up and...went straight back to sleep. Third alarm went off and when you're tired the five minutes you spend laying in bed trying to wake up actually turns into an hour. FAIL. OMG again, so upset. If something could get me into tears at this point, it was this. How could I sleep through THREE alarms?! People said it was understandable, but it still didn't make it acceptable.
Luckily the board are all VERY capable people. I rang Wade and told him the deal. Looked like a lot of people were also late. I got a txt from Glen too saying he had a flat tyre. Also lame :S All of us seemed to need extra sleep we just weren't getting. Even luckier my Sunday cosplay was basically normal clothes with a wig which was...basically what I did Saturday too just this time it was an actual character XD So getting ready took no longer than usual getting ready. I think I got to PCEC about quarter past 10...though no one realized ;_; Everyone walked straight past me and apparently only when I spoke or they stared at me did the realize it was me. Lolz. I suppose that's a good thing when in cosplay? XD
I met up with Jen, my epic, epic Trunks slash fan fiction panel co-presenter. I am SO glad she did the panel with me this year. She kept me from being rambly and is just...well, epic. But I know I don't need to tell people this. Plus she is a good writer and knows her stuff just as good as I do so it was really easy to run the panel together. Future plans, yes? XD Panel was, again, awesome. It was completely packed again this year which was good because last year was so tiny (bad time slot) and people were enthusiastic (some a little TOO enthusiastic). So panel went very quickly and very easily.
After that was more cosplay line and door issues which Curzon and I fixed before racing down to the Medina to get some lunch. Two pieces of sandwhich and a bottle of water later I headed back up to race around the con once to check in at PAniC HQ and the maid cafe to see how they were doing. I spoke to Elizabeth from PCEC for a bit and got some of her suggestions and such then headed back to the reg desk...only to realize I had forgotten my pendrive with the closing ceremony. F@#%!!! I tried to see if ANYONE from my room was free to grab it but they were all helping in cosplay so Emily was kind enough to come back with me to like...keep me upright.
The whole afternoon otherwise was spent mostly with Wade doing the closing ceremony. Even though I had already done half there is just SO MUCH that goes into it and with two days of prize giving's it was pretty difficult to get it all right and all set up properly. As it was I didn't do any sort of animations or anything because it was just too difficult.
Once it was done I took my first look at the trader's hall all weekend because Christina wanted to buy me a present XD FMA doujin FTW! Tehehehe! Some people fed me pocky as I was walking around and I caught up with Jon to discuss the auction (talking to Jon is hard - he gets surrounded by fans all wanting his picture and to talk with him and hug him and GAH!) I then raced to the theatre to discuss with the AV guys who were again several thousands times awesome with their suggestions and easy goingness to the whole thing.
And holy shit the Closing Ceremony. Holy shit. Holy shit. Watching all those people file into the theatre? Holy shit. I was shaking Wade, got the pep talk of my life from Jon (big thanks to him for that, btw, because I was honestly freaking the hell out and he...does a good pep talk), and then holy crap, walking onto that stage with the lights and the music and friggin' smoke machines and clapping and cheering and...GAH! I always used to think when I worked at PCEC that ONE DAY I wanted to be the person on that stage, with everyone watching me and clapping for me and, well, it came true. I'm really not a glory hog. I don't do it for the glory. I don't even care if people don't remember my name, but after a long weekend and feeling shit and underappreciated a lot of the time, coming onstage to that was like the most awesome and wonderful thing ever in my whole life. (Plus it helped to have Wilson, Christina, Min and Dan in the front row, Jen and Ewan a few back, and all the interstate guys where I could see them, and Wade and Jon backstage for support when I was freaking out).
The Closing Ceremony went awesomely awesome. No slideshow issues this time. We only got one picture wrong (fail ;_; ) and having the cosplayers and some of the winners of stuff come up and hug me and thank me and stuff was epic because they work so hard and it's so cute to see them so happy about winning.
Epic things happening in the Closing Ceremony included the auction that, like, holy shit, the money flying around at this thing. The plushies of the mascots sold for FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Wade and I looked at each other and were just like OH EM GEE. The last Limited Edition bag with a WHOLE HEAP of other stuff went for a decent price, and Christina picked up the Eminence pack. Then the guy who bought the Pocky decided the give it back to PAniC and threw it out to people in the audience which was AWESOME and just shows the sheer love and dedicate by some of our members. Thank you, Keith!
By the end it was HIGHLY evident my voice was DYING which Christina and Min laughed about later and were all "you sounded like a cute boy XD" Sigh. :P The Closing Ceremony ran EXACTLY to time which is good because I was worried about not being able to fill time or run massively over, but...exactly on time! Woot~ And when we got out...everything was done. OUR VOLUNTEERS RULE!
Outside I was swamped by people including people who had won stuff in the auction and wanted me to sign it XD and people who wanted pictures with me and stuff and just wanted to be all "bah! Wai-con was awesome this year!" which I am all up for hearing XD Everyone wanted to know if I was running for President again next year which was all like lolz, not on your life. Great and all but just the once, thanks!
We went back to the hotel room to dump our stuff and get changed (well, I didn't, but others did) and then went to pancakes. I was actually really hungry when I got there but got less and less so while eating. The Eminence guys came down which was cool too, especially being Mistuda's birthday and we all sang to him which was cool. I gave a little speech, but the problem with speeches is that they can't properly convey the emotion you actually feel for something most of the time. Because when I say that I can't thank everyone enough, I really mean it.
So, here are more thank you's to everyone who friggin' worked their arses off:
Wade, who kept me sane, kept me working, and kept me on track whilst dealing with Eminence which was a HUGE job.
Jay, who is an awesome Treasurer and a good friend who let me rant, let me cry, and general was an awesome guy.
Gav, who really gets his stuff together at the con and becomes one of the most competent people available on the day.
Chris, who managed to organize all his multiple sub comms into a well oiled machine and organize prizes better than I've ever seen (and has some leet skills with those medals!)
Kylie, who put in some serious leg work and went well above and beyond with Eminence.
Leah, who works harder than anyone I have ever seen. She is, beyond a doubt, the best Trader's Coordintor PAniC has ever had and goes out of her way to help and assist with anything she can.
Glen, who knows he bugs the hell out of us but can pull his stuff together at the eleventh hour...which is sometimes just when you need it.
Trina, who put in an arse load of work in a VERY demanding job. She streamlined the whole logistics process and made sure that she was thinking about everything we forgot.
and Curzon, who happily accepted all the additional work we gave him and organized a lot of what we hadn't even considered at the time.
And to all the sub comms who were EPIC, especially Jon, our website coordinator, who did excellent work, did stuff last minute, and actually used his iniciative to anticipate our wants and PAniC's needs. Justin, who doesn't just work his AMV's but acts as our stage AV guy for most of the day, PLUS getting together all the volunteer and Trader's food. Cuzza, who did an awesome Video Games room that I keep hearing good things about. Sally, who seems to think her job wasn't hard at all, even though it is what we've had the most trouble keeping up with every year. Mike, who put in some serious hard yards over the weekend with volunteers. Layla who is an AWESOME registrar and should definitely run again, and Zing who despite not actually have any screenings to show Friday night, managed to get everything together for the weekend. And that's not everyone but special thanks to a whole bunch of other people as well including all of the volunteers and...gah! Awards speech, much?
I think my only bad thing about the weekend is that I really have no idea what Wai-con was like other than what people told me! I didn't see anything, didn't do anything, and missed spending time with just about everyone! Such is life though, I suppose. Though if anyone has video of the Kaze no Ko Drumming I would REALLY appreciate it because that's what I wanted to see more than anything and didn't have the chance, and I would love to see how they went. Though Sanny did come to the front counter and was entertaining us with his paper airplane for a while which was awesome because I have yet to see one of his demonstrations despite the number of times he has come to Wai-con now!
So anyway, my last bit is to remind all you guys about the AGM!
Location: University of Western Australia, Crawley Campus, Fox Lecture Theatre.
Date: 27th Feb, 2010.
Time: 1400-1600
*Members Only Event*
I will be running for the board again so, if you guys come along I would love it if you vote for me! (well, only if you want to of course!) But more importantly, you can ask questions about PAniC and Wai-con, and also see how we went for the year, and get a chance to alter the future of PAniC and the con by voting for who you want on the board!
Also, if you have any suggestions or comments about Wai-con, even if it's to say how much you loved it, please do so! You can leave comments and such on the forums, there is a feeback form on the website, OR if you know my email please send me an email with any not for everyone's eyes comments and suggestions (or we can catch up sometime as I've already done with some of you :D )