Vericon

[yendi]

We hit Vericon this Saturday, so I’ve now attended the four Boston-area cons I’d meant to hit when we first decided to move up here. It was a nice contrast to Arisia, as laid-back as one could hope for, with almost none of that overwhelming pressure and chaos of the bigger cons.

The only true panel I hit was the Children’s Literature one, with sdn moderating a whole slew of awesome talents, including Lois Lowry, Kelly Link, and Donna Jo Napoli, who is simply fabulous to listen to. Elayna went to Napoli's reading later, and we grabbed her book Hush at her signing.

The open gaming room was pretty dead for most of the time I was there (and granted, I didn’t stay late at night, when gaming was most likely to have picked up), but I did participate in a bunch of Verilympics events, including Shadows over Camelot, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zendo, and Betrayal at House on the Hill. The first two there were new games for me, and both were fun. Puerto Rico was won by an interesting strategy, as one player grabbed a harbor very early on, and was pretty much scooping up victory points while the rest of us played catch-up with buildings and crops. It’s the first four-player game I’ve seen in which two players broke 50 points. I fully expect the early harbor strategy, like any and all PR strategies, to fail miserably the next time it’s tried.

I also saw my first episode of Powerpuff Girls Z, which is fourteen kinds of wrong. Elayna saw her first episodes of Moyashimon, which she adored. The con suite, incidentally, kicked ass, although I suspect a small con is in a better position than a large one when presenting a wide variety of food (thanks to economies of scale). Although I did miss having a Viable Paradise breakfast on Sunday for the first con in a while. My only mild complaint: I wouldn’t mind seeing programming more balanced over three days (Sunday had almost nothing but gaming and anime, neither of which really justified the cost of attending). Still, a fun con, and a nice counterpoint to Arisia.

ETA: And how could I forget? 'song got sketches from the webcomics artists who were there, and she got Pete Abrams to do a "Kiki as Green Lantern" sketch! Yay!

Comments

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

So, did anybody punch OSC? (From the way people were talking before the con, I was half-expecting it...)

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear it was enjoyable. This was my first time missing Vericon since it began. It was overlapping with the Reunion gathering for the Alum of HRSFA (who runs the convention) so it's possible that things were more low-key on sunday because of this in regards to the schedule.

Sat has always been the busy day for Vericon though, as it usually has the most panels etc.

I'm also glad to hear the Consuite managed to rebound from my absence of running it (I managed it for the past 2 Vericons)and that they were able to keep the quality up. I guess the advice and details passed on to my successor was sufficient to keep things rolling along.

(I had heard bad things from a number of folks about the Green Room at Arisia, and how it was being treated less as the green room and more as a Vegetarian consuite, with not much in the real way of meals and more snacks, much the disappointment of many of the program participants... caused in part by the powers that be not realizing logistics details like the fact that the person who ran it for the past 8 years or so was providing all the equipment and some of the food out of their own pocket and personal property).

Vericon remains my favorite convention, really, as it has a greater feel of 'enthusiasim' in recent years than Arisia has had for me when I used to attend it.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Or at least get into a heated debate? And were there protesters?

[yendi]

Not that I've heard. I never encountered him (as far as I know) at the con.

[yendi]

I didn't see any on Saturday, but the GOH speech was in a different building (and I'd imagine that's where any protesting would have happened).

[yendi]

I hadn't realized that you'd run the consuite in years past! If you were the one who advised them this year, they definitely took your advice to heart.

Since this was my first one, I don't know if things were any more low-key than in previous years; I suspect that there were be better con reports that will provide that info.

(As far as the Arisia Green Room goes, I'm really sick of hearing folks bitching about it (and I realize that you're just reporting the hearsay, not creating it). It had most the amenities that were there the year before other than meatballs (which were in the con suite), and although there were clearly-labeled vegetarian options (which was very nice), the vegetarian chili was right next to the beef stew. I do suspect that the fact that the Green Room was actually easily accessible and big enough to walk around in (as opposed to 2007) meant that more folks showed up, thus making food vanish a little more quickly.

It also had the best brownies the con has ever seen. )

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did Vericon's Consuite for the last 2 years, but this year's I bowed out as I wasn't attending for various personal issues the potential problems with OSC. I provided some info and guidance to the person who was handling it (just some email conversations) but that was my only involvement this year since I wasn't attending.

As to Arisia:

It's possible the folks that have been complaining about Arisia's Green room are exaggerating the problem, or maybe what they are saying in regards to the operations had to do not with the nature of the choices made as the quantities (and reduction therein) from budget reductions with the smaller convention size in general from years past.

Many folks who sit panel more or less assume that they should be able to get at least one full meal from the Green Room each day of the convention. With the longer convention and the smaller attendance level from years past, I can understand that they had to make the food that they did provide go further. Add in having to probably invest in some serving supplies from the budget (or pay for it out of their own pocket) and a reduced food supply is likely.

I suspect it was more the lack of the staples (at least from what I heard) of things like the Lasagna (which was contributed in past years by the folks who ran the green room, not from the standard budget) was where some of the complaining came from.

My wife said it was nice to have someone who was allergy conscious running the room, and she didn't have any problems with the meal or two she grabbed there over the weekend. She wasn't at the convention all 4 days or eating there all 4, so I don't know what the situation was on the days she wasn't paneling.

Other folks who were complaining were also complaining about how expensive the hotel meals were (one of the estimated that if he had eaten in the hotel resteraunt the costs for he, his wife and kid would have been in the range of $200 for the weekend). The other on site possibility, the sandwich cart, with it's $5 hot dogs didn't exactly go over well with folks either.