Geek.Kon 2012

[laceblade]

Today, were_duck and I went to Geek.Kon for about half a day.

I made a Storify of my tweets, which you can read here. In a few instances, I'm conversing with people who have locked tweets, so sorry for only giving you part of the conversation.

Tweets include: pictures of stuff I bought, live-tweets from two panels: one on podfic and one on digital publishing, complaints about other attendees, and excitement over getting books signed by Michael Stackpole and Elaine Cunningham.

Stackpole's X-Wing books are some of the first "grown-up" sci-fi I ever read (Steve Perry's Shadows of the Empire was the very first) back in fifth grade, and the books were pretty formative for me. I loved the shit out of them.

Cunningham wrote a Star Wars expanded universe called Dark Journey. I told her that I had enjoyed reading a book that focused on Jaina Solo, probably my favorite expanded universe character. She said that she'd enjoyed reading her as such a capable woman in the Young Jedi Knights series, and I beamed and said, "Me too!" I loved Young Jedi Knights too, even if I felt I was a little "too old" for them when I read them the first time.


I am very spoiled by WisCon's programming.
I'd like to go to a larger anime convention some day, maybe, but am worried about how annoyed I would get. I'd like to scope out a large convention with decent programming.
I definitely like the merchandise at Geek.Kon better than WisCon.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for the mini-tour. It's great you got to share that vital enthusiasm with Cunningham.

Intrigued by your merch comments, OK to discuss here?

[owlectomy]

I like how half of your tweets are about how annoying other convention-goers were being. ...I think there's a reason I don't make it to anime cons anymore.

[ahorbinski]

I've been to Otakon a lot and to AX once and I would heartily endorse both experiences, though I suspect we might have our annoyance thresholds at slightly different levels. I can guarantee you that Otakon has better programming than Geek.kon. (If I'm Stateside next summer I'm going to go to Otakon, FYI.)

[were_duck]

Man those were some poor hallway manners. Exacerbated by a weird horseshoe-shaped space which seemed designed for corners you can't see around every three feet.

I thought the two panels we went to ended up being reasonably interesting, though the publishing one should have just been an hour. I kind of wish we'd had evening panels that looked interesting. And I do wish the con had had more actual *panels*--it seemed like a lot of the panel slots just had one knowledgeable person and that was it, which makes it more of a presentation than a panel and I tend to enjoy the interplay between different people (and getting multiple perspectives) much more.

The merch at Geek.Kon was WAY better! WisCon still doesn't have a single t-shirt vendor, which has always bugged me. I thought the commission artists doing fanart and selling cosplay pieces were awesomeeeeee.

[lileyo]

I have a similar lack of tolerance for that kind of crowd anymore. I wouldn't recommend ACen, by that measure. I only went once, way back in '03, but I imagine it's only gotten worse. :-/ I'm hoping someday I can get up to Sakuracon in Seattle, though.