The con went by way too fast!!! Flew in Thursday, met up with the usual suspects, Peter, Dot, LawDog, Alma, Larry/Bridget, Sarah/Dan Hoyt, Cedar/Sanford, Jonna, Ringo, John Van Stry, Colonel Kratman, Retired Spook, Kirk and he lovely wife, and a host of others. Doc Nik finally showed up too.
Things were a tad disjointed, due to the short time the board had to put this one together, and the venue was ‘slightly’ larger than we actually needed, but the volunteers did a super job!
First ‘official’ year as a presenting author, rather than getting yanked out of the audience onto a panel…LOL That was a little strange, in that I actually had to prepare. Five rather diverse panels, two science ones (VR and The Next Big Thing), Terminal Ballistics for Writers, our Indie Author panel, and a Navy centric one on “Sea Stories”.
But it was funny when LawDog grabbed Cedar to come help on the Indie panel.
All of the panels went pretty well, IMHO. I may have even contributed a time or two, and for those that attended The Next Big Thing, I really DIDN’T intend for the panel to turn into The Next Big Thing That Fails panel. But we went down that road (literally with self driving cars) and the issues with our current power grid. I did offer one kinda big thing, 3D and large 3D printing in space, which devolved into how to do that in zero G. Again, sorry…
The big ‘disadvantage’ was being a panelist limits one’s opportunity to attend other panels, and three of the ones I was on were against panels that I really wanted to hear/see. Sigh…
Also lots of half done conversations, as one or the other would look at the watch, go “Oh crap, panel”, and disappear into the sunset, so to speak. In a couple of cases, I think it took two days to finish conversations. It also took three days to ‘track’ some folks down, even for five minutes. Sigh…
Much the same with the meals, it was catch as catch can, but I also have to give a shout out to both the waitstaff at the hotel and the ladies at City Cafe! Moving tables, combining tables, everything but a Chinese Fire Drill and they all handled it with aplomb.
What ‘I’ didn’t particularly handle well was being recognized, and people wanting to meet me, telling me they were long time readers (sorry Steve and others), LOL. I like being in the background, just watching… Sigh…
It was also nice to basically spend three days off the net, not watching the news, just enjoying the company.
Next year should be even better, with a different venue, sadly on a different set of dates, late May instead of late June, but apparently lots of folks want to attend, since the tickets sold out in six, SIX hours yesterday. You can get on a waiting list, if (as usually happens) folks have to drop for a number of reasons.
Thanks again to the LC31 committee, the volunteers, and those who were kind enough to compliment us on the panels. To those friends that were there, until next year; unless we meet sooner!
If the tickets sold out in six hours, to people who want to repeat, the organizers might want to re-think the program and the venue. That’s the capitalist in me, and also the “me” in me who might want to attend next year when things have hopefully settled down in my life.
However it sounds as if everyone survived the fun and frolics and is primed for next year.
Well, the way I understand it, the intent was to provide a con where there was a lot of opportunity for congenial meetings, and not a super-event like Dragon Con. So, strict limit of 750, right? However, if the OldNFO was not able to kickback and hang out, due to being part of the programming + his growing fame, perhaps the closeness needs to be provided in some other way.
I HAVE attended some professional conferences where I didn’t attend any of the planned sessions; just hung out in the halls and snack bars and schmoozed. It was great fun, and more professional development took place in the schmoozing sessions than did in the programmed sessions.
Correct, Pat. And from what I was told, the State of Tennessee changed some laws a few years ago, so that if LibertyCon tries to expand past 750, it will hurt their charitable status and they will have to start all the paperwork all over again. Thus the cap as the lesser of two evils.
Getting harder to be “the grey man”?
Hoisted on the petard of your success?
What I see from that is that there is probably more space in the market for a similarly targeted con. The thing to do is look for clusters of volunteers with the right skills. Get those together, see if LibertyCon organizers would let the volunteers shadow them as part of the learning.
Well, at least I can get on the waiting list. Sounds like I missed an excellent event. 2019 calendar is not final yet.
Are you going to give us any highlights? Inquiring minds…
All- Thanks for the comments, and yes LC is limited as a charity to 750, thus the hard cap. Fargo- It’s a blur…LOL
Posted from my iPhone.
Hey Old NFO;
YAY, I did my happy dance when I bought a ticket on a whim and didn’t procrastina…Oh Wait a shiney!!!! and off on a tangent I went. I truly didn’t expect the con to sell out in 6 hours.