Recovered from Minicon, mostly
Apr. 27th, 2003 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbonelAfter all that angst, things went remarkably smoothly.
People showed up for panels, both panelists and audience.
People participated.
No one said "I don't know why I'm on this panel" in my hearing.
The one panel that failed for lack of audience was one we moved on less than 24 hours' notice.
Linda D. returned my frantic message on Thursday and told me how to fix the problem with the name tents.
No one kvetched in my presence about not being put on panels.
The "Australia in 2010" panel ended up with a good joke, if not a Minneapolis bid out of it.
Some of my pet panel concepts came off very well, and I don't think any did worse than so-so. In fact, I don't think any panel this year came off worse than so-so, and most were considerably better than that.
Junkbox Wars worked, despite the fact that we really didn't have quite enough junk. People actually constructed musical instruments of various sorts (the challenge), Jordin Kare was great as referee and live commentary, and Steve Macdonald did a fine job of judging, I'm told. I'm sorry I missed the finals; I misguessed the timing.
My favorite line from a moderator (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minnehahaK.), quoted to the best of my recollection: "When I want a spontaneous outburst from you, I'll ask for it."
The room sizes worked out well for this year. The smallest panels had 15 to 20 people in them, and the rooms didn't look too empty, and the largest panels were standing room only -- 70+ people, at a guess. We used three rooms in all for programming, plus a fourth for Green Room/Program Ops. This is excluding the few items in the Loring Ballroom, of course. We'd had an offer for a room on the 14th floor for readings, but decided not to use it this year. If the convention expands, that will be an option. We had two rooms' worth of programming at a time on Friday, and three on Saturday and Sunday. I scheduled all the readings requested, then filled in the remaining times. This came back to bite me when I later discovered at least one more "sure, I'll do a reading" e-mail after it was too late, but everyone was very gracious about it.
People made jokes about my having to renumber the rooms because of my failing to remember they went 5-4-3-2 instead of 2-3-4-5, but I don't think anyone was actually confused by it.
Only four people wanted to do autographings, which felt rather odd. Maybe I should have pushed harder, especially for Rob Sawyer, the writer GoH. On the other hand, he was pretty heavily scheduled as it was. He was a splendid GoH from my point of view -- outgoing and available, talkative but generally well-behaved on panels. I really enjoyed watching the one-on-one "Privacy vs. Post-Privacy" discussion between him and Bruce Schneier.
elisem and Cally (and their volunteers, most notably marykaykare, redbird, and truepenny did a great job on the Green Room. They took care of things without fuss, which let Lydy and me get on with the issues of programming. They also took care of showing the "5 more minutes" sign to the panelists, which was not part of the official job description, but much appreciated.
As for the rest of the convention... Yes, there was more than programming, wasn't there? I wasn't focusing on it as much, though.
All of the party space worked remarkably well -- the Horizon room, the dome, and the mysterious 13th floor. The Pool Party didn't quite work as conceived, but the pool was full of children, and the slushy raspberry drink was quite nice.
I don't think I managed a sit-down breakfast or lunch until Monday, but I had good dinners all through the convention: Thursday at Ichiban withrysmiel, zorinth, redbird,
People showed up for panels, both panelists and audience.
People participated.
No one said "I don't know why I'm on this panel" in my hearing.
The one panel that failed for lack of audience was one we moved on less than 24 hours' notice.
Linda D. returned my frantic message on Thursday and told me how to fix the problem with the name tents.
No one kvetched in my presence about not being put on panels.
The "Australia in 2010" panel ended up with a good joke, if not a Minneapolis bid out of it.
Some of my pet panel concepts came off very well, and I don't think any did worse than so-so. In fact, I don't think any panel this year came off worse than so-so, and most were considerably better than that.
Junkbox Wars worked, despite the fact that we really didn't have quite enough junk. People actually constructed musical instruments of various sorts (the challenge), Jordin Kare was great as referee and live commentary, and Steve Macdonald did a fine job of judging, I'm told. I'm sorry I missed the finals; I misguessed the timing.
My favorite line from a moderator (
minnehahaK.), quoted to the best of my recollection: "When I want a spontaneous outburst from you, I'll ask for it."The room sizes worked out well for this year. The smallest panels had 15 to 20 people in them, and the rooms didn't look too empty, and the largest panels were standing room only -- 70+ people, at a guess. We used three rooms in all for programming, plus a fourth for Green Room/Program Ops. This is excluding the few items in the Loring Ballroom, of course. We'd had an offer for a room on the 14th floor for readings, but decided not to use it this year. If the convention expands, that will be an option. We had two rooms' worth of programming at a time on Friday, and three on Saturday and Sunday. I scheduled all the readings requested, then filled in the remaining times. This came back to bite me when I later discovered at least one more "sure, I'll do a reading" e-mail after it was too late, but everyone was very gracious about it.
People made jokes about my having to renumber the rooms because of my failing to remember they went 5-4-3-2 instead of 2-3-4-5, but I don't think anyone was actually confused by it.
Only four people wanted to do autographings, which felt rather odd. Maybe I should have pushed harder, especially for Rob Sawyer, the writer GoH. On the other hand, he was pretty heavily scheduled as it was. He was a splendid GoH from my point of view -- outgoing and available, talkative but generally well-behaved on panels. I really enjoyed watching the one-on-one "Privacy vs. Post-Privacy" discussion between him and Bruce Schneier.
elisem and Cally (and their volunteers, most notably marykaykare, redbird, and truepenny did a great job on the Green Room. They took care of things without fuss, which let Lydy and me get on with the issues of programming. They also took care of showing the "5 more minutes" sign to the panelists, which was not part of the official job description, but much appreciated.As for the rest of the convention... Yes, there was more than programming, wasn't there? I wasn't focusing on it as much, though.
All of the party space worked remarkably well -- the Horizon room, the dome, and the mysterious 13th floor. The Pool Party didn't quite work as conceived, but the pool was full of children, and the slushy raspberry drink was quite nice.
I don't think I managed a sit-down breakfast or lunch until Monday, but I had good dinners all through the convention: Thursday at Ichiban with
rysmiel, zorinth, redbird, [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<ljuser="papersky">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]
After all that angst, things went remarkably smoothly.
People showed up for panels, both panelists and audience.
People participated.
No one said "I don't know why I'm on this panel" in my hearing.
The one panel that failed for lack of audience was one we moved on less than 24 hours' notice.
Linda D. returned my frantic message on Thursday and told me how to fix the problem with the name tents.
No one kvetched in my presence about not being put on panels.
The "Australia in 2010" panel ended up with a good joke, if not a Minneapolis bid out of it.
Some of my pet panel concepts came off very well, and I don't think any did worse than so-so. In fact, I don't think <i>any</i> panel this year came off worse than so-so, and most were considerably better than that.
Junkbox Wars worked, despite the fact that we really didn't have quite enough junk. People actually constructed musical instruments of various sorts (the challenge), Jordin Kare was great as referee and live commentary, and Steve Macdonald did a fine job of judging, I'm told. I'm sorry I missed the finals; I misguessed the timing.
My favorite line from a moderator (<user site="livejournal.com" user="minnehaha">K.), quoted to the best of my recollection: "When I want a spontaneous outburst from you, I'll ask for it."
The room sizes worked out well for this year. The smallest panels had 15 to 20 people in them, and the rooms didn't look too empty, and the largest panels were standing room only -- 70+ people, at a guess. We used three rooms in all for programming, plus a fourth for Green Room/Program Ops. This is excluding the few items in the Loring Ballroom, of course. We'd had an offer for a room on the 14th floor for readings, but decided not to use it this year. If the convention expands, that will be an option. We had two rooms' worth of programming at a time on Friday, and three on Saturday and Sunday. I scheduled all the readings requested, then filled in the remaining times. This came back to bite me when I later discovered at least one more "sure, I'll do a reading" e-mail after it was too late, but everyone was very gracious about it.
People made jokes about my having to renumber the rooms because of my failing to remember they went 5-4-3-2 instead of 2-3-4-5, but I don't think anyone was actually confused by it.
Only four people wanted to do autographings, which felt rather odd. Maybe I should have pushed harder, especially for Rob Sawyer, the writer GoH. On the other hand, he was pretty heavily scheduled as it was. He was a splendid GoH from my point of view -- outgoing and available, talkative but generally well-behaved on panels. I really enjoyed watching the one-on-one "Privacy vs. Post-Privacy" discussion between him and Bruce Schneier.
<user site="livejournal.com" user="elisem"> and Cally (and their volunteers, most notably <user site="livejournal.com" user="marykaykare">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="redbird">, and <user site="livejournal.com" user="truepenny"> did a great job on the Green Room. They took care of things without fuss, which let Lydy and me get on with the issues of programming. They also took care of showing the "5 more minutes" sign to the panelists, which was not part of the official job description, but much appreciated.
As for the rest of the convention... Yes, there was more than programming, wasn't there? I wasn't focusing on it as much, though.
All of the party space worked remarkably well -- the Horizon room, the dome, and the mysterious 13th floor. The Pool Party didn't quite work as conceived, but the pool was full of children, and the slushy raspberry drink was quite nice.
I don't think I managed a sit-down breakfast or lunch until Monday, but I had good dinners all through the convention: Thursday at Ichiban with <user site="livejournal.com" user="rysmiel">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="zorinth">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="redbird">, <ljuser="papersky">, Cally, and Sue; we'd intended to have sushi, but the sushi bar wasn't wheelchair-accessible. I haven't had teppanyaki for years and years; it was expensive but wonderful. Friday at Oceanaire with <user site="livejournal.com" user="marykaykare"> and Jordin -- probably not the best choice considering Jordin's tastes in food, but good food and company. Missed lunch at Akavit on Saturday because I had a panel -- alas, didn't realize this when I accepted the invitation. Saturday at Ichiban again with bunches of people, this time for sushi. And Sunday at Market BBQ with Ben L, <user site="livejournal.com" user="tammylc">, and Laurie W. Interesting conversation about Laurie's recent grant, and NLP, and jukeboxes (ours had an off-by-one problem) and stuff. And then sushi again Monday lunch at Sakura. There were about 20 of us in all, so my guess of 15 to 20 was in the money.
<user site="livejournal.com" user="daedala">'s LJ party was great fun. Good food (much cake and things to put on cake), good company, and way the corridor opened at the end of the hall meant that there was good overflow space for the hall party.
I didn't enjoy the music as much as some years, but I think that might have been me more than the music. I would listen for 30 minutes to an hour, then have to get up and go roaming again. The overall quality was quite good, but there just wasn't enough of it to my admittedly folkie tastes to keep me pinned down. Went to bed by two a.m. most nights; having to get up early for programming was a factor, but also I was just ready. Didn't have any trouble with insomnia at the hotel, at least, despite Cally's mild snoring.
Some good conversations in the hotel bar with several of the heretofore-mentioned Usual Suspects, plus Erik and <user site="livejournal.com" user="pnh"> and my partner-in-crime <user site="livejournal.com" user="lydy">, and others that I have no doubt forgotten.
All in all, a quite successful Minicon, I think, even if there weren't any extravagant high points. I hope we'll be back at the same hotel again next year; it was quite a good fit in most ways, and will be for a couple of hundred members' worth of growth.
People showed up for panels, both panelists and audience.
People participated.
No one said "I don't know why I'm on this panel" in my hearing.
The one panel that failed for lack of audience was one we moved on less than 24 hours' notice.
Linda D. returned my frantic message on Thursday and told me how to fix the problem with the name tents.
No one kvetched in my presence about not being put on panels.
The "Australia in 2010" panel ended up with a good joke, if not a Minneapolis bid out of it.
Some of my pet panel concepts came off very well, and I don't think any did worse than so-so. In fact, I don't think <i>any</i> panel this year came off worse than so-so, and most were considerably better than that.
Junkbox Wars worked, despite the fact that we really didn't have quite enough junk. People actually constructed musical instruments of various sorts (the challenge), Jordin Kare was great as referee and live commentary, and Steve Macdonald did a fine job of judging, I'm told. I'm sorry I missed the finals; I misguessed the timing.
My favorite line from a moderator (<user site="livejournal.com" user="minnehaha">K.), quoted to the best of my recollection: "When I want a spontaneous outburst from you, I'll ask for it."
The room sizes worked out well for this year. The smallest panels had 15 to 20 people in them, and the rooms didn't look too empty, and the largest panels were standing room only -- 70+ people, at a guess. We used three rooms in all for programming, plus a fourth for Green Room/Program Ops. This is excluding the few items in the Loring Ballroom, of course. We'd had an offer for a room on the 14th floor for readings, but decided not to use it this year. If the convention expands, that will be an option. We had two rooms' worth of programming at a time on Friday, and three on Saturday and Sunday. I scheduled all the readings requested, then filled in the remaining times. This came back to bite me when I later discovered at least one more "sure, I'll do a reading" e-mail after it was too late, but everyone was very gracious about it.
People made jokes about my having to renumber the rooms because of my failing to remember they went 5-4-3-2 instead of 2-3-4-5, but I don't think anyone was actually confused by it.
Only four people wanted to do autographings, which felt rather odd. Maybe I should have pushed harder, especially for Rob Sawyer, the writer GoH. On the other hand, he was pretty heavily scheduled as it was. He was a splendid GoH from my point of view -- outgoing and available, talkative but generally well-behaved on panels. I really enjoyed watching the one-on-one "Privacy vs. Post-Privacy" discussion between him and Bruce Schneier.
<user site="livejournal.com" user="elisem"> and Cally (and their volunteers, most notably <user site="livejournal.com" user="marykaykare">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="redbird">, and <user site="livejournal.com" user="truepenny"> did a great job on the Green Room. They took care of things without fuss, which let Lydy and me get on with the issues of programming. They also took care of showing the "5 more minutes" sign to the panelists, which was not part of the official job description, but much appreciated.
As for the rest of the convention... Yes, there was more than programming, wasn't there? I wasn't focusing on it as much, though.
All of the party space worked remarkably well -- the Horizon room, the dome, and the mysterious 13th floor. The Pool Party didn't quite work as conceived, but the pool was full of children, and the slushy raspberry drink was quite nice.
I don't think I managed a sit-down breakfast or lunch until Monday, but I had good dinners all through the convention: Thursday at Ichiban with <user site="livejournal.com" user="rysmiel">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="zorinth">, <user site="livejournal.com" user="redbird">, <ljuser="papersky">, Cally, and Sue; we'd intended to have sushi, but the sushi bar wasn't wheelchair-accessible. I haven't had teppanyaki for years and years; it was expensive but wonderful. Friday at Oceanaire with <user site="livejournal.com" user="marykaykare"> and Jordin -- probably not the best choice considering Jordin's tastes in food, but good food and company. Missed lunch at Akavit on Saturday because I had a panel -- alas, didn't realize this when I accepted the invitation. Saturday at Ichiban again with bunches of people, this time for sushi. And Sunday at Market BBQ with Ben L, <user site="livejournal.com" user="tammylc">, and Laurie W. Interesting conversation about Laurie's recent grant, and NLP, and jukeboxes (ours had an off-by-one problem) and stuff. And then sushi again Monday lunch at Sakura. There were about 20 of us in all, so my guess of 15 to 20 was in the money.
<user site="livejournal.com" user="daedala">'s LJ party was great fun. Good food (much cake and things to put on cake), good company, and way the corridor opened at the end of the hall meant that there was good overflow space for the hall party.
I didn't enjoy the music as much as some years, but I think that might have been me more than the music. I would listen for 30 minutes to an hour, then have to get up and go roaming again. The overall quality was quite good, but there just wasn't enough of it to my admittedly folkie tastes to keep me pinned down. Went to bed by two a.m. most nights; having to get up early for programming was a factor, but also I was just ready. Didn't have any trouble with insomnia at the hotel, at least, despite Cally's mild snoring.
Some good conversations in the hotel bar with several of the heretofore-mentioned Usual Suspects, plus Erik and <user site="livejournal.com" user="pnh"> and my partner-in-crime <user site="livejournal.com" user="lydy">, and others that I have no doubt forgotten.
All in all, a quite successful Minicon, I think, even if there weren't any extravagant high points. I hope we'll be back at the same hotel again next year; it was quite a good fit in most ways, and will be for a couple of hundred members' worth of growth.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-04-27 08:33 pm (UTC)Gad, do I feel clever.
K. [has no memory of saying this]
no subject
Date: 2003-04-28 10:00 am (UTC)Pamela
no subject
Date: 2003-04-28 10:21 am (UTC)I suppose I should get off of my dead penguin butt and try to help it happen.