Arisia: the pluses and minuses

[ckd]

A quick look back at the good and bad (and neutral) of the con (and some surrounding events).

[+ good, - bad, 0 neutral]

+ Booking myself out of the office Friday
- Getting called anyway and having to work-from-home on two problems
+ Referring to them as P.P.O.U.Ses ("Production Problems of Unusual Size? I don't believe they existAARGH") when talking to xthread

+ Planning to have lunch on the way to the Park Plaza
- Having said lunch occur at about 1500
- At the food court at the mall

+ Not much line at badge pickup when I arrive
- Some kind of glitch which made them think I'd cancelled
+ Getting it worked out quickly and painlessly
0 My name not being pre-printed on the voodoo message board (since half the people I'd expect to look for me would look for my LJ name anyway)
- I didn't get any messages

- "Gaming's not in Stanbro?"
+ Gaming's closer to panels, Dealer's Row, and the Con Suite
- Gaming still felt like it was off in the corner, because it was
0 The space wasn't too bad
+ There were plenty of games going on
+ People enjoyed Bang!

+ I got to see a bunch of people I wanted to see
- But by no means did I see all of the folks I wanted to see that were there
- Also, some folks couldn't be there
+ As usual, I also met new people and people I'd only known through LJ

+ Lots of very interesting LiveJournal/blogging panels and other content
- The con suite is too small for an LJ meetup
+ gnomi's birthday gathering was an auxiliary meetup
- I didn't stay for the whole thing
+ I didn't have to walk all the way home in the rain, because I left before the T stopped running

+ Good weather Friday
- Okay but rainy weather Saturday
- Brr! January returned for Sunday
- Stuck around for Monday, too
+ Still no Snowpocalypse though

+++ The con suite was incredibly well done
+ The rest of the con ran pretty well from my POV as well

- The Saturday string of interesting panels/events meant that I didn't get out for lunch
+ I still followed the 5-2-1 rule
+ I didn't have to eat any meals (breakfast doesn't count) alone this year
- Friday lunch doesn't count either
- I did miss some meals, see above
+ I made sure I had reasonably nutritious snacks in my bag
+ Trader Joe's is my friend
+ The con suite had nutritious stuff and not just salty munchies

+ Sunday I basically gamed all day
- Well, after swinging by the office to reboot a server, anyway
+ The Dead Dog Party was great
- Except for a phone call or two, and a bunch of pages
+ The automated monitoring system we use at work still works

+ Monday was a holiday
- The setback thermostat didn't know that, so I nearly froze
+ The furnace is still working after our recent fix

- Tuesday was effectively a Monday
- Was it ever! Plus add in the usual Tuesday scheduled events.
+ It's Wednesday now.

Comments

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Since I'm running a consuite in 3 days, can you tell me what Arisia did to earn three pluses?

[ckd]

You should talk to persis who was the Con Suite Goddess (see her pre-con call for volunteers), but from my POV:

Food:
In addition to a well-stocked set of traditional munchies and dips of both the bad-for-you and good-for-you varieties, less traditional items like a crock pot with warm meatballs, smoked salmon, more interesting cheeses to go with the usual cheese cubes, tea!, hard-boiled eggs (and a shell disposal bowl), and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.

Physical layout:
They had an end-of-hall suite with what seemed like a near-perfect layout for the "front of house" part; I didn't see the "back of house" operation, but they apparently had a kitchen and prep room. Basically, you could go to the end of the hall and turn either left or right into the suite; left was "Con Suite Alpha", the main (and largest) room, with most of the food. Off of that was "Alpha Prime", a bedroom with a large TV (useful for folks wanting to watch con programming, or at the Dead Dog, the FX showing of the X-Men movies) and the drink-filled bathtub "not a bathroom" bathroom. To the right as you entered was "Con Suite Beta", which was a "social event" programming space and could also be used as an overflow room when no events were on.

Staffing/replenishment:
I don't think I ever saw an empty bowl/platter/tray, or if I did it didn't last long enough to register. (Exception: during the LJ meetup, but since I could hardly move, I don't think that's a fair complaint.)

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much of this is doable without the facilities they had, so this may not be as helpful as you'd like.