Alas, all good things must come to an end.

SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2008
I was up again at 7 AM. I wonder what it’s like to sleep in at conventions? I wouldn’t know.

I grabbed a muffin at Brown Bag Deli, which was blessedly open outside of their usual hours to accommodate Anthrocon attendees. After getting the Alley ready for the morning’s crush I actually made it up to signups early. As exacted, there was less of a crush for seats and only 96 artists signed up. No lottery today!

Once we got everyone seated and the Alley opened for the day, things proceeded smoothly. Roho brought me a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel, and Dan was nice enough to bring me a muffin, too. I really appreciated both of these, since I always forget to do things like eat when I’m busy.

It was a mellow kind of day, but it was nice since all of my staff knew what they had to do and made sure that it got done with very little intervention from me. That made me happy! Payout went well, with the exception of a couple of artists who didn’t show up. We got everyone paid and out of the Alley in 30 minutes. Total Sunday payout: $10,000. Total payout for the weekend: $44,000!

We packed up most of the Alley, and then took a break to catch some of Closing Ceremonies. I bugged out partway into the gripe session and went back down to help finish up the packing. We ran out of packing tape (note for next year: bring three or four rolls! And Sharpies!), but we got everything packed up and put onto pallets.

After walking back to Operations with Dan and Linnaeus, Paul and I adjourned to the staff dinner. It was a fun meal, and we sat with the video crew. The Dorsai performed a filk that they had written during the convention that was quite amusing, as well.

Dan spent the dinner busy in Ops working on the end-of-con finances. I figured I’d pop downstairs to the Original Fish Market and bring him up something to eat. Surprise! Nothing on their menu that would have interested him. OK, I’ll just pop outside and find a quick take-out place. Evidently all of downtown Pittsburgh shuts down at 7 PM on Sunday. A quick pop outside somehow became a twelve-block slog through the rain until I finally found a McDonalds that was just about to close. I got Dan some dinner and brought I back to him, then went up to our room.

I sat up there by myself in a truly foul mood, not so much about the trek for dinner but about other convention-related issues. I might have just said to hell with it and gone to bed except that Roho, Genet, and Nyuni came in and persuaded me to join them up in Nyuni’s room for some good beer and good company. It was exactly what I needed, and really turned things around for me. Thanks again, guys! We packed it in at around 11, and I went off to bed.

MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2008
We got to sleep in a little today – all the way until 8 AM! Dan and I got all of our stuff packed up and mostly moved down to our car, then got breakfast at Brown Bag Deli. I was amused by this exchange as I added cream and sugar to my coffee:
Man in business suit to BBD manager: “So is that goofball convention finally over?”
Me: “I’d take exception to that if it wasn’t true.”
Business suit: “Oh, did you see it?”
Me: “Man, I helped make it happen.”
BBD Manager: {Laughter}

We met first with the DLCC staff, then the Westin staff. Overall everyone seemed very happy and it appears that we are locked in for a big change next year: moving from Hall C (44,000 square feet) to Hall B (82,000 square feet). More space, more artists, more interesting logistical problems!

After the meetings we moved the last few items out of our room, left a hefty tip for housekeeping (on top of what Roho, Genet, and Linnaeus left), and we hit the road out of Pittsburgh at around 1 PM. The drive home was uneventful; the only traffic we ran into was a traffic jam fifteen miles from home where someone flipped their U-Haul trailer on the Tri-State Tollway. We got home at 8:45 PM, which is doing pretty well with stops and such.

THE WRAPUP
All in all it was a good convention for me in my staff position. We rolled out some exciting new technology with Samsung cash registers, and really improved our processes such that the increased number of artists didn’t cause nearly the problems I was worried about. We’ve got the basis for a truly amazing Alley and Con Store next year.

Personally, things were good but not great. I was in a lot of pain by Saturday from all the walking and standing on concrete, I didn’t get nearly enough sleep, the Potables Party wasn’t what I had hoped for, and Sunday night could have a disaster but for the help of friends. Next year I will have more staff to take some of the load off me, and maybe even one of the days I can sleep in and they can open the Alley without any intervention from me at all. I’d like more time to socialize and actually talk with many of my friends who I only see at conventions. The convention was not a failure for me, but could certainly stand some improvement.

So this wraps up Anthrocon stuff for me. Now it’s time to start thinking about plans for Midwest FurFest…