I’ve mentioned this before, but some folks have asked why I write up such long and detailed convention reports. The biggest reason is so that I have something to look back on in future years to remind me of what went wrong, what went right, and how to make each year better than the last. Granted, as some might have gathered this year’s Anthrocon wasn’t as great for me as past years have been. I’ll come to that in a bit, but let’s start with:

Monday

Work as usual, but Takaza and I spent the evening doing some last-minute laundry and staging all of the stuff that we were taking in the office and living room. I did lots of list checking and re-checking to make sure nothing got left behind.

Tuesday

As always right before we leave for a trip, I was nervous and somewhat scattered. Work was stressful, as it initially looked like I might get delayed until late, but at the last moment the dam broke and I was able to escape at 2:15 PM. Dan left work at lunchtime and worked from home for the early part of the afternoon, while also loading everything into the car. I got home and after packing the last few items, we were on the road by 3 PM.

The trip out was uneventful, save for a bit of detouring we did through the southwest suburbs of Chicago to avoid a backup on I-80. We rolled into Columbus, OH at 10:30 PM local time, finding the Capitol Square Hyatt Regency without any problem.

Wednesday

A very early start, as we were up at 5:30 AM to have breakfast with Ford and Jack. It was so great to see them both again and the breakfast was quite tasty, save for a rather regrettable polenta. Alas, after an all-too-short visit it was back on the road, headed for Pittsburgh.

We rolled up to the Westin a little after noon, after taking some wrong turns as we approached downtown from the Liberty Bridge. Dan took our personal luggage up to the room while I parked over on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (DLCC) loading dock, then walked back to the hotel. The walk through Hall B only served to remind me just how huge a space we had to work with.

I met Dan up in the room, which…well, it looked like every other room we’ve ever had at the Westin Pittsburgh. Still, the familiar can be comforting. After putting our clothes away, hanging our shirts, and getting our toiletries distributed, we ventured forth from the room. We walked over to the DLCC and assessed the lay of the land. The most important thing was that Anthrocon didn’t take possession of any of the spaces until 6 PM, so not a whole lot could be done before then. With that in mind, we walked over to the Steel City Diner for a delicious early dinner (and Dan picked up a Steel City Diner/Anthrocon T-shirt).

After we ate it was back to the DLCC. We pulled my car into Hall B and offloaded our gear, mostly stuff for the show office. Then it was time to offload the truck. Dan helped with the sorting of equipment onto pallets based on department, then the pallets got delivered to their respective locations. I worked with Emily and Jennifer, our contacts with the DLCC, to get all of the tables in place and all of the barriers in their proper locations. I got the pallets of Artists Alley and Con Store equipment at about 8:30 PM. I spent about a half hour assessing what I had there and getting a general idea of what needed to go where, then we decided to pack it in for the evening. After trudging back to the Westin, we spent an hour or so catching up with email and such, and then it was bedtime.

Thursday

Showtime! Well, sort of. The convention didn’t technically start until Friday, but Thursday was the day for the big push to set up. I was up at 6:30 AM (not willingly, mind you, but I couldn’t get back to sleep) and walked down to Brown Bag Deli for a breakfast sandwich and Crazy Mocha for a latte. I walked over to the DLCC and started in on getting everything set up. Part of the task was getting everything in the right place, then getting all the registers connected, making sure all the wires are taped down, making sure we have signage for the customer queue – all the usual fun stuff. I took a break at 10:30 to sit in on the meeting with the DLCC (having skipped the one with the Westin, since I didn’t really have anything to do with them). Then it was back to work.

At about noon I got my first help, as a volunteer bored with nothing to do with the Art Show setup wandered over and I put her to work folding T-shirts. Over the next few hours I recruited five other volunteers and also put them to work folding T-shirts (there was a LOT of T-shirts!). Somewhere in there my first staffer showed up, Wag. I hadn’t met Wag before, but Shy recommended him. I have to say I was very impressed – Wag’s a smart guy, and a hard worker. He was a great addition this year and I dearly hope he’ll be back next year!

We wrapped up the folding at about 3:30 PM, so I decided it was time to finally grab lunch. Rama had shown up by then and was working on programming the Con Store register, so I left him and Wag instructions to get the Con Store inventory set up for display and walked with Dan over to the newly-opened Cory’s across from the Westin for a tasty “Big C” burger – a burger with ham and cheese on it. It was surprisingly tasty! We had a quiet lunch up in our room, where we both enjoyed the air conditioning and the relaxing environment.

After lunch it was back to the DLCC. I arrived to find that not only had Wag and Rama set up the Con Store inventory well, they had added clever signs to everything as well. Great job, guys! With their help, we got the rest of the Alley set up and ready to go. We knocked off at about 6:15 PM. Dan stayed behind to work on Registration’s balky credit card terminals while I went back to the room, took a quick shower, dressed nicely and went down to the Original Fish Market for the Anthrocon Board Dinner with the Guests of Honor.

The meal was excellent, and the guests (Ben Balistreri and Bob Boyle, Joe Harris had not arrived yet) were very entertaining, trying to take in what they had gotten themselves into. After dinner I met up with Rooth, my second in command, in the DLCC. We reviewed Alley procedures and the computer programming necessary for signups. Satisfied that we were as ready as we were going to be, I headed back to the Westin at about 10 PM and crashed for the night not long after.

Still to come: The convention starts! Sushi, fireworks, and exhaustion.