Detcon 1 report
Slowly recovering from the con and all that went before and after it. The adventure began last Mondaywhen Dave picked up the big yellow truck and I set out to fetch the strapping young men that helped us load the truck. The good news was that my car was in the driveway when we discovered the flat tire. The bad news was, of course, said flat tire. It was easily fixed but was a complication I sure didn't need.
We did eventually get the truck loaded, although the trip to fetch the boys took far too long due to a truck fire on the tristate.
Tuesday we set out for Detroit and the trip was uneventful except for me dumping a cup of watery tea in my lap just before we got to Ann Arbor. Made three stops to pick up yet more stuff for the con and finally made it to the in laws in time for dinner.
Wednesday it was down to the Ren Cen and load in. No traffic to speak of on the way in and dave_ifversen got the truck into the dock with no problems. redrunn and our friend Eric were already there and we rounded up a few more folks to help unload. The very good news of the day was that the dock had pallet jacks and pallets we could use for unloading! Three cheers for heavy lifting equipment!
We had some awesome volunteers who helped us with both load in and load out on Sunday, including the twin teenage sons of one of the volunteer coordinators. I think they hauled several tons of stuff all by themselves!
In chatting with one of the guys on the dock Wednesday, I found out that the dock office (and hence the heavy lifting equipment) wasn't open on Sunday when we would be loading out. I had visions of us moving 2 tons of art show grid (no, REALLY - 200 pieces x 20#/piece = 2 TONS!) by hand or in very small batches on small carts and it was NOT a pretty sight. Luckily this turned out to be a non-issue thanks to Chris Marble the dock master for the con. He got three large carts for us before the dock office closed on Saturday, which was more than sufficient for load out of both con equipment and for the dealers to use.
Dave and Eric made a procurement run to get the con suite stuff, resulting in a second full truck to be unloaded. The con suite was on the 69th floor. Getting stuff up there was...slow but not our problem after we got it off the truck, fortunately.
Set up started Thursday and other than getting lost at least a couple times a day in the maze that is the Ren Cen, was pretty uneventful.
We were sharing the hotel with the Netroots Nation convention, which was over in Cobo Hall (across the street). They had VP Biden speaking on Thursday afternoon, which caused some traffic issues but I didn't hear any major complaints about it. Turns out that SF fans and Netroots folks were pretty compatible and we got a few walk in memberships from them. Somebody on Twitter said that we were the first group to "out-geek" the Netroots folks. Um...d'uh!
I was officially working ops as well as helping Dave. Thank ghu for Eric stepping in at the last minute to help Dave with tech - he did a ton of work (and probably hauled several tons of stuff), putting in over 50 hours from Wednesday to Sunday. The three of us were basically it, although we had help from other folks taking down the masquerade and load out.
Only got to a few pieces of programming - half of opening ceremonies, Heather Dale's concert Friday and closing ceremonies. I probably could have gone to other stuff but was so low on sleep, I probably would have fallen asleep in anything I went to. About the only complaint I heard about programming was that there were too many things people wanted to see that were happening at the same time. As a former programming chair, this is a good problem to have!
It was lovely to see folks. We don't get over to Detroit cons much and many of them don't get over to Chicago either.
There were surprisingly few Chicago folks there that I knew, which is a shame. Y'all missed a good con!
The parties sounded excellent. I was either resting or breaking down dance equipment in the evenings so I never made it to any. Made it to the con suite a couple times - ditto the GT suite. They both had fabulous views of the river and Canada, as did our hotel room.
Other than the twisty-turny corridors and lack of clear routes to the food court, it wasn't a bad facility and the hotel people were super-nice. Apparently the con surprised them by cleaning up after ourselves and being polite. I fetched food and caffeine from the food court several times and can highly recommend the coney island place there, especially the gyros platter.
We loaded out Sunday in two parts - the AV equipment went in early in the day (thereby not competing with dealer load out) with the grid and con suite stuff after closing ceremonies. Tammy made a plea at closing ceremonies (which was PACKED BTW) for help and people responded. Some of our Detroit area friends also came to help, including Gabe, Margaret and Clark. Gabe and Eric made a very efficient team for chucking grid onto the carts, with all 2 tons being broken down and loaded in less than 2 hours! We had to wait a bit for the con suite stuff so Dave, Eric and I went and had dinner rather than sitting on the dock, waiting impatiently. Turned out to be a good plan as we didn't get out to my in laws til 10pm.
Monday we set out for Chicago and the final load out. Dave and I did all the grid ourselves (yes, stupid I know) but had help with the AV gear from Pete, Jason, Betsey and Scot.
Tammy Coxon ran a helluva great con. Good people in key positions, resulting in very few problems. As evidenced by the con chair, hotel liaison and several other division heads being able to go off and party Saturday night, because they could! If you read con reports from other folks, raving about how good the con was - believe them. Attendance was great - 1628 paid memberships, making it the largest con ever in Michigan. There is much speculation about a Detroit Worldcon bid, which I would totally support, both with money and volunteering. Having worked Chicago cons for many years, I was really impressed with the level of enthusiasm from the Detroit folks.
I was averaging about 10 miles a day according to my pedometer. I had the foresight to take (and actually wear!) my foot brace, which was a good thing. My feet and back may forgive me sometime next week. The weekend was fueled by water, gatorade, really yummy baklava (provided by redrunn) and espresso. The last item may surprise those of you who know me well (and hence know my dislike of coffee in general). All I can say it's Eric's fault!
We did eventually get the truck loaded, although the trip to fetch the boys took far too long due to a truck fire on the tristate.
Tuesday we set out for Detroit and the trip was uneventful except for me dumping a cup of watery tea in my lap just before we got to Ann Arbor. Made three stops to pick up yet more stuff for the con and finally made it to the in laws in time for dinner.
Wednesday it was down to the Ren Cen and load in. No traffic to speak of on the way in and dave_ifversen got the truck into the dock with no problems. redrunn and our friend Eric were already there and we rounded up a few more folks to help unload. The very good news of the day was that the dock had pallet jacks and pallets we could use for unloading! Three cheers for heavy lifting equipment!
We had some awesome volunteers who helped us with both load in and load out on Sunday, including the twin teenage sons of one of the volunteer coordinators. I think they hauled several tons of stuff all by themselves!
In chatting with one of the guys on the dock Wednesday, I found out that the dock office (and hence the heavy lifting equipment) wasn't open on Sunday when we would be loading out. I had visions of us moving 2 tons of art show grid (no, REALLY - 200 pieces x 20#/piece = 2 TONS!) by hand or in very small batches on small carts and it was NOT a pretty sight. Luckily this turned out to be a non-issue thanks to Chris Marble the dock master for the con. He got three large carts for us before the dock office closed on Saturday, which was more than sufficient for load out of both con equipment and for the dealers to use.
Dave and Eric made a procurement run to get the con suite stuff, resulting in a second full truck to be unloaded. The con suite was on the 69th floor. Getting stuff up there was...slow but not our problem after we got it off the truck, fortunately.
Set up started Thursday and other than getting lost at least a couple times a day in the maze that is the Ren Cen, was pretty uneventful.
We were sharing the hotel with the Netroots Nation convention, which was over in Cobo Hall (across the street). They had VP Biden speaking on Thursday afternoon, which caused some traffic issues but I didn't hear any major complaints about it. Turns out that SF fans and Netroots folks were pretty compatible and we got a few walk in memberships from them. Somebody on Twitter said that we were the first group to "out-geek" the Netroots folks. Um...d'uh!
I was officially working ops as well as helping Dave. Thank ghu for Eric stepping in at the last minute to help Dave with tech - he did a ton of work (and probably hauled several tons of stuff), putting in over 50 hours from Wednesday to Sunday. The three of us were basically it, although we had help from other folks taking down the masquerade and load out.
Only got to a few pieces of programming - half of opening ceremonies, Heather Dale's concert Friday and closing ceremonies. I probably could have gone to other stuff but was so low on sleep, I probably would have fallen asleep in anything I went to. About the only complaint I heard about programming was that there were too many things people wanted to see that were happening at the same time. As a former programming chair, this is a good problem to have!
It was lovely to see folks. We don't get over to Detroit cons much and many of them don't get over to Chicago either.
There were surprisingly few Chicago folks there that I knew, which is a shame. Y'all missed a good con!
The parties sounded excellent. I was either resting or breaking down dance equipment in the evenings so I never made it to any. Made it to the con suite a couple times - ditto the GT suite. They both had fabulous views of the river and Canada, as did our hotel room.
Other than the twisty-turny corridors and lack of clear routes to the food court, it wasn't a bad facility and the hotel people were super-nice. Apparently the con surprised them by cleaning up after ourselves and being polite. I fetched food and caffeine from the food court several times and can highly recommend the coney island place there, especially the gyros platter.
We loaded out Sunday in two parts - the AV equipment went in early in the day (thereby not competing with dealer load out) with the grid and con suite stuff after closing ceremonies. Tammy made a plea at closing ceremonies (which was PACKED BTW) for help and people responded. Some of our Detroit area friends also came to help, including Gabe, Margaret and Clark. Gabe and Eric made a very efficient team for chucking grid onto the carts, with all 2 tons being broken down and loaded in less than 2 hours! We had to wait a bit for the con suite stuff so Dave, Eric and I went and had dinner rather than sitting on the dock, waiting impatiently. Turned out to be a good plan as we didn't get out to my in laws til 10pm.
Monday we set out for Chicago and the final load out. Dave and I did all the grid ourselves (yes, stupid I know) but had help with the AV gear from Pete, Jason, Betsey and Scot.
Tammy Coxon ran a helluva great con. Good people in key positions, resulting in very few problems. As evidenced by the con chair, hotel liaison and several other division heads being able to go off and party Saturday night, because they could! If you read con reports from other folks, raving about how good the con was - believe them. Attendance was great - 1628 paid memberships, making it the largest con ever in Michigan. There is much speculation about a Detroit Worldcon bid, which I would totally support, both with money and volunteering. Having worked Chicago cons for many years, I was really impressed with the level of enthusiasm from the Detroit folks.
I was averaging about 10 miles a day according to my pedometer. I had the foresight to take (and actually wear!) my foot brace, which was a good thing. My feet and back may forgive me sometime next week. The weekend was fueled by water, gatorade, really yummy baklava (provided by redrunn) and espresso. The last item may surprise those of you who know me well (and hence know my dislike of coffee in general). All I can say it's Eric's fault!