WorldCon After Action Report
Your mileage may vary.
The Good,
For a WorldCon of this size, the Art Show was very good. Lots of variety, a large show, and I saw quite a lot of art being bid up to the point where I had to tap out. Just about every piece of original art priced under $5000 was bid on our purchased outright, and the print shop was looking pretty thin by Sunday evening as well.
Great Concerts by everyone. The 3nd string backup sound crew did a great job. I know they were the third string because I know who was supposed to run sound. And when the ConCom was so poorly organized and couldn't communicate he backed out. Then they even reached out to me to ask if I would help with sound and I politely laughed at them. So great job by the guys who finally got suckered into doing it.
Devon was working her tail off in the Con Suite. Unfortunately, the Con Suite wasn't mentioned anywhere except for one of the rotating electronic signs, so I didn't even know we had one until late Saturday. Also Devon didn't know she was running the Con Suite until she got there. Sense a pattern?
Lots of new voices in the Filk room. Got me meet folks in person whom I previously only knew online. Huzzah. One young lady showed up with a fiddle (first convention) and was a good enough musician to jam along with everyone. Apparently some people can hear music in their heads. Amazing. Larry Niven sang Stewball.
The Bad,
The distance from the Hilton to the portion of the Anaheim Convention center actually used was brutal. Especially in the heat and humidity. I got in almost 14,000 steps one day. I know folks who never managed it due to health or mobility issues.
Dealer's room was, frankly, pathetic. I've seen nicer, better, larger dealers rooms in 1000 person conventions.
Book signing. It was clear that the staff was trying hard, but it was a bit of a cluster for the big name authors. I believe I was roughly 2 hours deep into a one hour signing session for Larry. I was told that Steve Barnes was double booked, with a panel appearance opposite his signing.
Inconsistent AC. The filk concert room was freezing. Folks were calling it the ice box. My room was constantly hot with the A/C struggling to keep up. The open filk room also needed more airflow. It was ok with the doors open. Some folks wanted the doors closed because of folks chit-chatting in the hall, but that made it unalterably hot. Sing louder folks.
Water service was 9/10 in the Hilton and non-existent in the Convention Center. Water service disappeared/was cleaned up at midnight, even though we had the Filk room until 01:00. Completely unacceptable.
Filk space was too small for the crowd we had. We had over 40 people in the circle. That's big enough that it normally makes sense to split into two circles. Also, the lights simply turned off randomly, which is lots of fun if you are playing from a book you can no longer read in the dark.
Concerts ended early on Sunday. We could have had another half dozen concerts. I know this because I know at least 6 people, including myself who volunteered to perform to fill out the schedule. ConCom never got back to any of us. This was 100% not on Nick, it was the scheduling folks who dropped the ball.
The Ugly,
Unfortunately, the absolute cancer that is “chaos” filk has infected the West Coast. Sunday was chaos, and it was every bit as bad as chaos always is. People getting stepped on repeatedly, new folks unable to get in a single song. Even the folks with 6 string guitars fighting to get in a single song. I think I changed my follower 6 times before I finally had enough and decided to simply quit the circle.
I should know better. I should have brought a 12-string. In the past I have simply packed up at the beginning. If we had had another room available I would have started a competing circle. Instead I may have lost my temper a bit the 5th time someone sang over me. Chaos is cancer. It destroys any and all sense of community, and encourages the worst narcissistic tendencies. It can, maybe, work in a very small circle of less than 10 people.
Yes, the Bardic was taking over an hour to go around. Chaos is not faster. It's the same amount of people. It just lets the bullies grab more turns, and makes the new folks not want to come back. It's no secret I hate chaos, but this really reinforced how white hot my hatred of this format truly is.
If folks really hate going in a circle I'll bring poker chips.
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