The I-Con Report

Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 29, 2010

I-Con occasionally suffers when it has massive turnover of staff, which is to be expected since it is a con largely run by students. Last year, things were a mess when they could not use the campus and splitting the show among three venues did not make anyone happy. Fortunately, this year the show returned to campus and we could happily spread out in one place.

On the other hand, the database used to schedule things apparently did not allow for cross-track guests which led to some confusion especially for those of us who straddle two or more tracks. As a result, the schedule for me was a bit of a mess and miscommunication lasted for months right up until the show.

A good con, though, carefully masks its errors and the attendees barely notice. I think, therefore, the con was a major success for the fans who were happy to be back on campus. Moving registration to the Student Activity Center seemed to work well, too.

As a guest, I loved that the Green Room was also moved to the SAC since my panels were all in the building. This let me grab a cup of coffee and sit with my fellow authors in-between events.

Peter David and I invited ourselves onto the Media Tie-in Panel and somehow I got named moderator. Go figure. What made this particularly fun was that beyond the usual suspects, we also had Mike Resnick, Barry Malzberg, and agent Joshua Bilmes at the table. Their comments were not only amusing, but added some fresh perspective to the topic.

While I had a block of free time before my next event, I never quite made it to the Sports Complex and the dealer’s room. Instead, I wound up sitting and having a long lunch talking with pals, old and new ranging from Bill Fawcett and Jody Lynn Nye to Michele Lang. Tor’s Jim Frenkel had to read my badge to place me, which has become an annual event and somehow amuses me.

With Glenn Hauman’s assistance, I hosted Trailer Park and we got a good sized crowd. They seemed to enjoy the videos and the Q&A session that followed. From there, it was back to the Green Room where a bunch of us had pizza and good times. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »