True story. Though I think we sprung for the projector for the con-which-shall-not-be-named. Sad given that only two non-staffers showed up to that monstrosity.
Oh sure, you had to use THAT photo. Of course I don't look that different these days, I guess.
I got reports later from people who weren't aware I was senior con staff the first few years that there was rampant badge fraud in no small part due to the simplistic design. An issue we rectified later. But if I recall correctly, the decision was made that no affordable solution was more than nominally secure.
Never assume that anyone knows what they're doing? None of us knew what we were doing. It's less of an assumption and more of the foundation upon which NBC 1 operated.
Yeah, the thing about vendors, as I'm sure I don't have to tell most readers here, is that they need some kind of good sense they'll get a reasonable ROI on their time at your con. As such, first year cons, particularly in small to medium markets, can only get vendors that essentially make so little on an average day and live so close that it makes financial sense to come. These are good vendors, and are often the rocks upon which the con stands for a few years, but they aren't the vendors people come to a con for.
Heck, we couldn't even get the comics and gaming shops down the road to spare an employee or two for the first few years.
Fast Food Anime was probably our first big vendor that dealt in bread and butter anime merchandise. I was so happy to have them, that I thanked the guy, personally, this year at Geek.kon for giving us a shot at the time. I'm pretty sure I speak for a good number of early NBC staff in that regard.
If memory serves NoBrand has more than one scheduling hiccup. Part of that disaster was trying to book Davies Center for a whole weekend, which kind of forced us to hop around on the schedule every year.
From what I understand, though, the Wisconsin con scene has had a stabilized schedule for a while to the degree that Wausaubicon's staffers noted they started theirs in part due to a gap in the con calendar that was looking to be filled.
Rockabye baby on the tree... *woop**woop**wub**bwoooooow* when the wind blows the cradle will WAKE UP NOOOOOW!!!!! *wub**wub**bwaaaaoooow**tickettaticketta**woop**woop*
Though it's not a very high bar to clear, the last hotel was considerably worse, even if you discount the whole "completely closed without notice" thing. Of course that distinction only stands on lack of evidence from the new hotel. Give it time.
I imagine Ross Philbin is probably tangentially derived from Regis Philbin. These sorts of running themes kinda stick in your head even when you don't realize it. Like when you just noticed that you've had a song stuck in your head for the past 3-4 hours. It has been there forever and you never noticed... until now.
I love the visual (audio? I dunno) of dreaming in dubstep. Perhaps my years on staff at NoBrand are why dubstep seemed oddly soothing to me when it came out. Like a messed up, fractured lullaby.
Deck Hand: Sir, the ship, it's sinking!
Captain: Impossible! It's unsinkable!
Deck Hand: Yes sir, but might I note your shoes are wet!
Captain: Don't be silly. It says right here in the brochure. Unsinkable!
Deck Hand: *blub**blub**blub*
langland, it happened at NBC, kinda. The director of West Con (may it rest in peace) came as a vendor to NBC for several years. But the Wisconsin scene as a whole is rife with staff migration, as you likely know. I'm not sure how that compares elsewhere.
I like this variation on the Marcus theme. I mean, I like the original as well, but it's kinda neat to see old familiar faces rendered in the new style.
Eva's the best brain spike. It gets more and more screwed up the closer you get to exhausted. By the time you start hitting the half-dreaming half-awake phase its so screwed up you won't sleep for a week. It's so great.
It's hardly the con-which-shall-not-be-named if you go an name it. To be fair, it's not exactly like StrDexCon. StrDexCon only had 2 attendees and no vendors showed up. That's totally different.
Borneo, aside from 12 more attendees and three more vendors than the one I attended, you could have very well been describing my experience (and I believe one of the inspirations for this particular story arc).
Was it really only a single sheet? I thought we did a small booklet. Of course it was a decade ago, my memory could well be failing me. I do remember us creating a relatively minimally errored guide 2nd or 3rd year which was subsequently screwed up by the printer and provided to us so late we weren't able to fix them. That was fun.
This is SO true. I go to No Brand Con now and talk to staff and they give me con reports about how things are going. Fortunately I'm far enough out, they don't actually expect me to do anything anymore.
You haven't ridden in a trunk until you've ridden in the trunk a 1960's era Camaro hatchback. In my senior class I was voted most likely to get locked in my own car trunk. I think it's even in my yearbook.
I totally relate to this. I can't go to a con, even cons I've never had anything to do with, without feeling like I should be running something or helping out with something.
I remember handing off NBC for the first time. I passed it into totally capable hands, and I had every confidence it would work out, possibly better than it had (and it did). But the actual act of handing over a con that had never had a management change to a ragtag band made up of about half new folks still scared the heck out of me. I am exceedingly glad for the work that Cheryl and the team did, and for taking the reigns under pretty much the same "uhhhhh, here, you be chairperson" circumstances as the strip.
FYI, I'm not saying this is based in any way off of that specific moment, but it certainly had the air of truth that reminded me of it.
The really rough ones are the bootlegs that are done so well they pass most people's instincts. I remember the year (second, third?) of NBC when someone brought it to our attention that even reputable vendors occasionally have one they didn't catch hanging around in the collection.
My old literature professor enlightened me. he was in particular from China, but I doubt it's unique to China. It seems in some factories overseas when a shift ends, they simply run the machines for an hour or two longer, then sell the extra as pretty much pure profit. While that doesn't explain the clear copy vio issues out there where the production company is clearly not the original and sometimes even the dub/sub work is totally different, it gets at the heart of the problem.
If only it were always so obvious as DVD-R's with sharpie writing. While a total jerk, this guy at least was an easy case to prove.
I believe I encountered almost this exact scene at least 4 times at Geek.kon.
BTW, the submit button is almost entirely outside the form on the comments. I'm rendering it using up to date (as in updated 3 hours ago) Firefox on a Vista machine if that helps with diagnostics.
