I was one of the first people to accept an invite from United Fan Con up in Springfield, MA, in November…and, as of last night, was the very first one (and, to my knowledge, the only one) to be disinvited. As opposed to Orlando where I was simply summarily dumped from the roster, this time I was contacted by the convention organizer who explained that, well, they only had so much money to go around, and they were so busy paying for the appearance fees and hotel rooms for the–y’know–important guests, and their advance registration or interest in purchasing photo ops or signed pictures in advance had been so far below projection, that they could no longer afford to have me out even though I don’t charge appearance fees. They had to cut the budget somewhere and apparently I’m it. They couldn’t afford hotel stay and travel costs for the guy who signs tons of comic books and such for free because they needed to be able to accommodate all the folks who charge fans $20/$30 a pop for signatures.
I doubt that anyone was coming to United Fan Con just to see me–certainly the convention organizers are banking on that–but if you were, and you were hoping to get free autographs, you’re out of luck.
You know, I just can’t get enough of having regional conventions use my name for initial promotion and then dump me at the last minute. Actually, now that I think about it…I can. I’m going to be thinking long and hard before accepting invites for any smaller conventions; I’m just tired of having my face stepped on.
PAD
• 
Sheesh … what did you do to piss convention organisers off so much? 🙂
Seriously, the level of unprofessionalism these two sets of organisers have displayed astounds me. I feel like they’ve acted in ways that I understood were totally unacceptable back when I was in high school …
Speaking of smaller conventions, when are you coming to the Kansas City area (or did we piss you off too?)
One of these days I’d like to see a comic book convention that focuses on bringing out artists and writers and editors and such to talk about their projects from past to future. Too many conventions are reliant on vendors. One can only comic shop for so long.
Maybe it’s time to have your lawyer draw up a basic one-page Appearance Contract? One that simply outlines the Con’s responsibility to pay your travel expenses and also adds a $750 penalty for canceling your appearance (unless the con itself is canceled)?
All you want is to make sure that folks who invite you have a genuine interest in your appearing. That ought to fix it. $750 is about the amount they’d spend bringing you in, meaning that the decent and upright individuals wouldn’t be fazed in the least. In their minds, they already “spent” that money when they invited you.
You’d _hope_ for organizers to think “we can’t cancel Peter David…he’s been good to us in the past, and he promised us the date based on just a handshake” but in truth, they think “We have no legal obligation to him whatsoever; cool, so he’s the first guy we cut to save money.”
re: United Fan Con – Good riddance. I went to just one of ’em a few years ago (I needed to get one last autograph to complete my Monty Python Codex) and it seemed like every third person was giving me this look of “Who the hëll are YOU, and what are you doing here?”
I felt like I’d wandered into the wrong wedding reception. Never again!
“One that simply outlines the Con’s responsibility to pay your travel expenses and also adds a $750 penalty for canceling your appearance (unless the con itself is canceled)?”
I assure you that, if I did that, then in every case the convention would reason, “Let him sue us.” I’d spend time and energy suing them for $750 and then all they’d do is declare bankruptcy and dissolve like tissue paper on water. Plus of course it would be spun into, “Peter David sued us into oblivion,” with choruses of “What a creep!” springing up hither and yon.
PAD
“Speaking of smaller conventions, when are you coming to the Kansas City area (or did we piss you off too?)”
No, you didn’t piss me off, but at this point if I were approached by any small convention I’d probably just reject it out of hand. Who needs this?
PAD
I guess that’s a problem with things that are done by volenteers. They really have no idea how to be professional because, well they aren’t.
Would think that anyone with the slightest bit of commen sense would realize that this isn’t the way to run a rail road, but then there are lots of folks without commen sense out ther.
“Unprofessional” doesn’t even scratch the surface; “ridiculous” and “juvenile” comes closer, sadly. But if that’s their attitude, you’re best not associated with them. It’s a confluence of horrible management and idiotic decision-making, and I’m almost looking forward to other people’s post-con reports to see how bad it gets when people actually show up.
Thanks to Orlando and Springfield, the smaller venues like KC (as Byron invoked) are going to suffer, especially if this treatment becomes commonplace and your hesitation to attend mid-level cons propagates to other friendly non-prima-donna creators. Maybe Springfield didn’t intend to poison the well for other cons, and possibly the convention circuit as a whole, but intentions are irrelevant, especially when their area of concern stops at themselves.
I do like Ihnatko’s idea of a simple appearance contract. Maybe if I rewrite one of my restraining orders with a bit of white-out….
Maybe you’ve lost so much weight, you make some of the fans feel self-conscious about their own. Try showing up in a fat suit and see if you stop getting cuts.
We’ll always have Shore Leave (and Farpoint)……
I think it’s obvious that John Byrne is behind this somehow.
I would pay your travel and hotel fees for you to come to Austin Texas and explain to me what is going on with DC comics and their continuity with Superman and Supergirl
So Sorry to hear that, Peter. We’d been toying with going to UFC – the bottom fo the barrel of New England conventions, as far as we’re concerned, but you’ve just solidified our resolve of NOT attending. I have never recommended UFC to anyone; it’s one of the biggest rip-offs out there for what you (the fan)get. There just isn’t much else in New England.
Have you thought of working out deals where a con can’t advertise you as a guest until they have already mailed you your reservations and/or your plane tickets or, even better, sending you a check for the tickets with the understanding that, should they pull a last minute cancellation, you keep the $$$$ to compensate for your inconvenience?
Would that even work the way some of the cons are set up?
No, a contract along the lines of “If you don’t have me come out, you’ll pay me $750” won’t work, for exactly the reason PAD cited.
However, it should be possible to have something along the lines of an escrow agreement; the convention agrees to put up $750 in an escrow account, with the understanding that once the terms of the agreement are reached, they get their $750 back. (And, of course, if they don’t live up to the agreement, PAD — or whomever PAD designates [CBLDF?] — gets the loot.)
The conditions should be relatively lax, IMO; this is meant to be a “convention lives up to its premise and promises” agreement, not a “guest is satisfied beyond all expectations, or else he’s $750 richer.” Of course, it’s in conventions’ best interests to maintain good relations with guests and would-be guests, so they’ll hopefully do well to keep everyone happy.
IANAL, but the nice thing about escrow accounts is that they’re relatively simple; it might even be possible to tweak a service such as escrow.com for the needs.
I don’t know if this is a common problem in the comic biz, but if it is, then the escrow service might be something established by a comic creators’ trade group (if such a thing exists… I’m primarily in the gaming world, and I know we have at least two such organizations I could approach with such an idea if there was a demand).
Any chance of you coming to the MegaCon next March in Orlando? I was one of those people who went to Orlando Con and was heavily let down; it would be great to see you make it out, as, from my understanding, it is anything but a small con… though many of the smaller cons held here in Tampa seem to do quite well.
I like the ideas that I have heard here about having the con sign some sort of agreement, especially since they are using you for, in essence, advertising for their con. At the very least, you should be compensated for them using your name to promote their con. The sad thing is, I’ve wanted to meet you for quite a while now, since I first read Q-in-Law, and with how badly you have been treated by cons recently, the chance is slim that I’ll see you in the Ohio area anytime soon. Perhaps a book tour for Before Dishonor, even with the late notice, and possibly add in Keith R.A. DeCandido, J. M. Dillard, and the authors featured in The Sky’s The Limit? I’m sure that a lot of us would pay to have a group like that together!
PAD – Well, I’ve been in your position. I’m a tech columnist, not a comic writer…but still, I travel about a dozen times a year to give talks.
I’ve turned down a solid, paying speaking gig because I had already promised the date to a free appearance that got cancelled. I have turned up in a strange city with nothing but my backpack and the phone number of a conference organizer who had no idea I was coming. I have had auditorium keynote presentations turn into ten minutes shoehorned into a conference room between other scheduled speakers.
I did come to dread the invites a little. But then I worked out a list of the things I was dreading and came up with a list of terms that have to be met before I agree to a date. The only really important one is that everyone must understand that my appearance is tentative until I receive confirmation of a paid air ticket and a paid hotel room.
So you’re right: a contract is worthless until it’s enforced, and there are too many people out there with a “Fine, sue us” mentality. But (at least in my experiences as a tech columnist) these things weed out most of the losers. If someone doesn’t have their act together to print, sign, and fax back a document, then they don’t have their act together, period.
And again, as someone with a contract, at least you’re no longer at the bottom of the list.
No _reasonable_ person would blame you for ending your participation in these little cons if you think the whole thing is just too much trouble. But as a general rule I think it’s usually possible to find a way to keep doing something that you really enjoy.
Not like I’m a Cowboy Pete groupie or anything ( I know, the thought scares me too) it’s been a long time since I attended a con based on who is the big name guest star. By far it’s the regular attendees I find I’m looking forward to seeing the most. It’s great catching up with Bobby Greenberger, and Mike Freidman, Howie Weinstein and some guy named PAD.
Of course it never hurts to visit with the likes of George Takei or Claudia Christianson (GOD was she ever RIPPED at last Shore Leave!). But it’s the (forgive the expression ) little guys who make the whole con experience worthwhile. It’s the geek family reunion.
These guys are missing the point… it’s what fandom is all about, not bragging what celebrity elbow touched whomever’s teat.
Bob (Syd de Vicious) Ahrens
This does suck. I’ve been lucky enough to meet you a few times in Dallas. At Wizard world two years ago, my friend Thom Zahler’s booth was next to yours and we got to see how nice you are at all times (even with a cold.)
It does seem sometimes that it doesn’t pay to be a good guy but as we’ve learned from Earl (and other sources) that being good does pay off in the long run. Travel safe and hope to see you back in D/FW sometime soon.
My friend owns a comic shop about 40 minutes north of Springfield and I know there was a few of his clientele that were citing your appearance as one of the reasons for going (not THE reason, I grant you, but still…)
You could always do a signing at my friend’s store. We cannot pay travel costs but we can feed you Bill Cosby’s favorite meatball grinders from the pizza joint next door. And you can stay at my house!
Hi Peter
Two questiosn unrelated to this blog post but I didn’t know where else to ask.
1) I read and was really quite fond of The Darkness of the Light. When is the sequel out?
2) I see you ahve a novel called “Tigerheart” coming out. Is there a synopsis for it somewhere, or maybe you could tell me a bit about what sort of story this is and in what world it is set?
Oh, cut them some slack. They’re taking a big risk, probably laying out their own cash, to try and build an annual event. I’m sure they discovered too late that they were in over their heads and I’m equally sure they were polite and apologetic when they contacted you.
This isn’t Canada, after all, where the comics retailing business is subsidized by the government.
“Oh, cut them some slack. They’re taking a big risk, probably laying out their own cash, to try and build an annual event.”
You might want to do some checking before talking. If you’d checked their website, you would have seen this is the 17th annual convention.
PAD
This sucks!
You were one of the main reasons I was going to United Fan Con!
Man, now I’m really going to have very little to do at the Con.
Ok, I was going to tell everyone, as a joke, that Highlander wasn’t coming because he found out I was there. He’s canceled on two other cons I went too, so it must be me right?
This one, I won’t take the wrap for.
But for the record: I always come to see Peter David. Bottom line, he’s more fun than some of the other guests and he’s the nicest guy there.
Oh, well!!!
I’ll see you at Farpoint.
duskrider3740—Peter David has attended Motor Citycon in Novi, Michigan (not Detroit), in the past. I am sure he would attend Mid-Ohio-Con in Columbus, if invited. Both of those are long running conventions.
Peter, I understand your frustration. I have attended too many cons where the ‘main attraction’ has cancelled at the last minute. After so many, I, too, began to suspect that certain names were on the list to attract suckers, er…I mean fans.
Alan- Thanks for the info! My husband was the one with his thumb on the con info and was unable to give me that info! Really, though, what has been done to Peter is an outrage and starts to give cons a bad name.
Victoria Goldy-Rhodes
Idiots.
Can’t blame you for considering a no small cons policy. And thanks for letting us know–the people who are helping to ruin things ought to be exposed for all they’ve done.
Wow… that is impressively lame.
Sorry, Peter. And what a let down to the fans. Well, anyone who was planning to go- you know who to complain to.
That just….stinks.
I’d say it’s just their loss but it’s a royal screwing of fans too.
sorry to hear it Peter – if it makes you feel any better, you can come to any event I’m involved in and I won’t dis-invite you no matter much you don’t charge – you’re all witnesses to the vow I’m making.
We love ya big guy!
That just….stinks.
I’d say it’s just their loss but it’s a royal screwing of fans too.
sorry to hear it Peter – if it makes you feel any better, you can come to any event I’m involved in and I won’t dis-invite you no matter much you don’t charge – you’re all witnesses to the vow I’m making.
We love ya big guy!
That just….stinks.
I’d say it’s just their loss but it’s a royal screwing of fans too.
sorry to hear it Peter – if it makes you feel any better, you can come to any event I’m involved in and I won’t dis-invite you no matter much you don’t charge – you’re all witnesses to the vow I’m making.
We love ya big guy!
That just….stinks.
I’d say it’s just their loss but it’s a royal screwing of fans too.
sorry to hear it Peter – if it makes you feel any better, you can come to any event I’m involved in and I won’t dis-invite you no matter much you don’t charge – you’re all witnesses to the vow I’m making.
We love ya big guy!
At this year’s I-CON, there was a panel on how to run a convention. One of the people — I forget his name, but he’s been organzing sci-fi conventions since the 1960s — stressed that conventions are business events, and that it’s very important that the people involved act as professionals. Sadly, if this is the 17th con run by these folks, they’re either consistently amateurish or more interested in casting a wide net and than cancelling later, than treating their people well.
I hope you’re able to talk to other convention guests and attendees before rejecting all small conventions, PAD. I can only imagine how an experience like this can leave a bad taste in your mouth, but they can’t all be that bad!
Funny that you should mention I-Con, James, since they often do the opposite to Peter. By that, I mean they either don’t invite him until the last minute, or leave him off their promotional announcements, despite the fact that he’s a perennial guest, and certainly one of (if not the) the biggest names in SF/comics living on Long Island.
Interesting.
UFC has a fan forum on their website. A fan posted a query asking why I was suddenly dropped from the guest list. Someone posted a link to this website as a response. The reply and link were subsequently deleted. The question remains; the answer is gone. I’ll be curious to see if the question vanishes as well.
PAD
It’s gutless that they deleted the reply and the link.
They better not delete the original post. I’m the one who posted it.
And no one from the Con organizers has bothered to respond either. I want an answer!
Peter, that was a pretty tacky thing to do. Not only was the situation handled badly, but I would think you’d be less than enthusiastic about attending their future conventions, so they’ve now managed to screw themselves as well. Considering their website proudly boast several ‘bonus’ guests (whatever that means), they obviously had enough money in the budget at some point. I don’t mean this to be an insult in any way, but common sense would dictate that in terms of cost versus return, you would be their best investment, considering they would be paying minimal travel expenses, hotel room and meals. That means they could probably invite ten Peter (and Kathleen) Davids versus one Wendy Padbury or Tracy Scoggins. That has nothing to do with either actress, both of whom I like a lot; I’m simply talking economics here.
As somebody who’s been to literally hundreds of conventions both as guest and attendee, I know there has always been a multi-tier system as far as guests are concerned. The actors are usually the big draw, meaning their name sells tickets, but it’s usually the second and third-tier guests who provide the most value for money. A big-name actor may sell a thousand tickets, but quite a lot of those actors will refuse to do anything beyond what’s in their contracts. On the other hand, it’s the lower-tier guests who often pitch in to do the work that the STAR won’t do, whether it’s judging a masquerade contest, hawking items at a charity auction, running workshops, or sitting in the hotel bar chatting with fans until the wee hours of the morning.
I’ve always been pragmatic enough to know that if I get invited to a con, it’s usually as a third-tier guest (in fact, I often wore a badge that said Little Shot to differentiate me from the Big Shots. My wife Sheelagh, who’s a makeup artist, is more of a Medium Shot (although having just won a Welsh Bafta Award for Doctor Who last season, she’s probably moved up half a tier). If we went to a con together, we always made sure we gave value for money. The stuff I brought for a charity auction usually raised more money than my expenses, so I figured the convention staff wasn’t out of pocket as far as my presence was concerned. And I remember when I was going to a big Thanksgiving convention in Chicago some years ago, I felt badly for the folks who paid big bucks for the celebrity luncheon only to get stuck with me as their table’s guest, so I made sure I brought lots of signed ‘door prizes’ from the Babylon 5 set where I had been a few weeks earlier.
The point I’m probably making quite badly here is that while it appears the STAR guests may bring in the numbers, it’s the Little and Medium Shots who often help make the convention more enjoyable. Anybody who doesn’t think that having Peter and Kathleen David as guests isn’t a good investment probably should re-think their involvement as far as running a convention.
Finally, to address a point that previous posters have made, I’ve been invited to a number of conventions where the STAR name had to cancel, for whatever reason. The organizers would generally post the cancellation as quickly as they could, but in several cases, that news wouldn’t be made public for weeks, even months. After all, the difference could mean a couple of hundred extra tickets sold, which in turn could make or break a convention’s budget. I’ve always found that approach to be unconscionable, because you’re taking people’s money under false pretences. And to bring this discussion back around to the convention in question, how many fans paid their hard-earned money to see Adrian Paul only to discover that he wasn’t going to be there? How many of them were offered refunds if they chose not to go now? Just something to think about.
Incidentally, I just went on the convention’s website to see what their policy was in regards to my last question, figuring I should double-check before I opened my big mouth (too late!) but I noticed one of the forum posts notes that ‘Admission tickets of any type are not refundable.’ So I guess that answers the question.
You might want to do some checking before talking. If you’d checked their website, you would have seen this is the 17th annual convention.
Maybe you should have done some checking before you committed to be a guest?
I inferred from the comments above mine that it was a new con. However, whether it’s new or not really has little bearing on the argument. Perhaps you should cut them some slack because it’s indecent to do what you have done, which is imply nefarious intent against a bunch of guys who are (to judge by their website) simply in over their heads.
Lingster – Has someone been slipping questionable substances in your drinking water? Setting aside the fact that PAD, by his diverse output would draw in not only comic book, but TV, SF, fantasy and TREK fans (and how many comic book writers can make that claim?) there’s the simple fact that anyone who’s ever been near a convention knows you don’t plan for more than you can afford. And if you do wind up in trouble, you cancel the event, you don’t try to make a go of it by screwing guests over.
What nefarious intent are you seeing? As far as I can tell PAD has told us what happened, which is more than can be said of them.
Or to put it another way, the UFC guys are free to come here and post their side of the story but based on their actions so far they have no desire to allow the same to be done on their forum. So who’s acting like they have something to be ashamed of here?
Actually, as of a few minutes ago, someone named ixmart has posted a reply that again sends them to this forum, so they have another chance to do the right thing.
“Maybe you should have done some checking before you committed to be a guest?”
I’ve been a guest at several previous United Fan Cons. So what would you have suggested I check?
“I inferred from the comments above mine that it was a new con.”
Infer whatever you wish, but before you actually operate on that inference, it wouldn’t do you any harm to check.
“However, whether it’s new or not really has little bearing on the argument.”
Considering you made it the centerpiece of your previous post, that’s quite a 180 you’re pulling.
“Perhaps you should cut them some slack because it’s indecent to do what you have done, which is imply nefarious intent against a bunch of guys who are (to judge by their website) simply in over their heads.”
*Indecent*? What the hëll are you talking about? Who *are* you, anyway? That’s pretty amazing, that you can discern so much from their website (a site you didn’t bother to check earlier). What about their site, exactly, tells you that they’re in “over their heads,” ’cause you’re some kinda psychic if you can tell that.
PAD
Someone mentioned that I-CON is often late announcing PAD as a guest or doesn’t publicize him enough. I leave it to PAD to answer specifics on those, but since he’s been there almost every year and run multiple panels, I doubt anything that’s happened has been too bad. (I’ve gone to I-CON for the past nine years, running everything from games to panels, and my one consistent complaint is that they can’t/don’t get the schedule up until a week or two before the convention.)
Peter David: Writer of comics, Star Trek novels, Babylon 5 episode, Space Cases, movies, numerous other novels. All around good and funny guy.
On top of which, they’ve got Bill Mumy coming, tell me they couldn’t have gotten the two of them together to do something!
I’m kind of really pìššëd. I want to see Bill and Tracy Scoggins for the B5 connection and Nicki Clyne from BSG (for her Dark Angel connection) but as far as anything else, the chance to once again meet, chat, and have a few things signed by the one and only PAD was a main reason I was going to the show. Plus I would’ve been able to pick up the two new books he has out that I was purposely waiting for the Con to buy so I could have them signed.
SONUVABITCH!
I’m about as pìššëd now as I was last night when the Red Sox put Greg Gagne, that hack, into the game.
*Indecent*? What the hëll are you talking about?
This is from PAD’s post:
You know, I just can’t get enough of having regional conventions use my name for initial promotion and then dump me at the last minute.
That looks like an allegation of deliberate wrongdoing to me, in that PAD is suggesting that the organizers pulled a deliberate “bait and switch”. Unless they admitted it to you, making such an allegation in a public forum is a bit indecent.
Who *are* you, anyway?
Smile! You and I are going to have a prolonged relationship. I run a handful of web sites, including a She-Hulk fan site, here: http://shulkie.com.
What about their site, exactly, tells you that they’re in “over their heads,” ’cause you’re some kinda psychic if you can tell that.
They’re running an old “Nuke” content management system, and their instance has not been upgraded with any security patches in several years. That means they have no ongoing technical support, which almost any enterprise of that size at least ought to have these days. Also, it’s obvious that they’re not even really using the (admittedly meager) content creation features of Nuke, instead using brute force to create content on the site. That means that the person who originally set up the site has left, and no person of equal competence has come on board. From a web marketing perspective, then, they’re deeply over their heads. And since web marketing has become the primary marketing tool for niche events such as comic cons, the consequences of that weakness are likely going to be grave.
Additionally, the forum (also running on unpatched software with multiple published security vulnerabilities) is moribund in terms of activity.
Finally, I would say that their failure to even post their own event dates on the site calendar would tend to suggest there’s insufficient manpower and a lack of experience among the organizers.
It surprises me that you immediately jumped to malice (if you did) as the explanation for your disinvitation, when it’s far more likely that good old fashioned incompetence is the actual reason.
Incidentally, there’s a good chance you’ll fix your site’s formatting problem if you change this bit of code in your CSS file:
to this:
I haven’t tested it, but my guess is that will correct the problem. If it doesn’t I can do some more involved diagnosis.
What the hëll? Why would they drop you from the convention, and then delete any questions about it on their website?
Well, these dudes can’t be that smart or dependable or honest if they can cut one of the biggest names in comics, AND the Trek universe. Bill Mumy should drop out at the last minute, just to give them a taste of their own medicine.
But the thing that is disturbing is WHY? I know what they said, they have exhausted their budget on other big-names — but that doesn’t really explain WHY. What other big names, and how much “bigger” are they than PAD, and how much were these people demanding for accommodations? Why couldn’t the convention organizers have worked with you Mr. David — called you or wrote you, to say, they were running short of funds, and could you and they work something out?
I know this sounds “out there” but it’s possible that another creator put their foot down, and didn’t want to appear with PAD at the same convention. I don’t know the entire guest list, so I don’t know who that would be. Still, convention organizers should respect their CUSTOMERS, or rather their potential customers, and we all have our favorite creators. If a convention is advertised to be featuring particular creators or celebrities, and fans make plans to go based on that advertising, for the organizers to drop a creator is false advertising, and demonstrates piss-poor business sense.
I would guess the organizers of this particular convention are not long for the convention business.
Well, this incident comes close to confirming that this will likely be the final United Fan Con event. It seemed probable when guest announcements were made very late followed by the elimination of the VIP guest slot due to the inability to sign a huge name guest (they had Shatner in last year). A flat-out guest dumping firmly shows that the powers that be are in full panic mode. Last year, I came across numerous people who dumped down $250-$300 each without hesitation to attend. This year, the con runners are openly (and somewhat quietly in Peter’s case) admitting that they are struggling to get those same people to dump down $60 (and they are offering more than usual to get those tickets sold). There seems to be little chance that there will be enough money in the reserve accounts to let the people behind the con prep for a 2008 event.
While I have never been fully happy with how UFC has been run in the past (hiding the schedule from attendees until they arrive, not letting “day of” ticket buyers enter for the first hour of the con), I did enjoy myself at last year’s event. Much of that was due to the people friendly nature of the lower tier guests like Peter and Dean Haglund. Hopefully this year’s show will not become more sterile because of the elimination of these type of guests.
Peter, it is a shame as I was wanting to see if your printer could once again forget to print out 10-15 pages of a story that you were wanting to read to us. 🙂 I’ll try to catch you at New York Comic Con if you attend next year’s event.
My sympathies, particularly after learning Bill Mumy’s a guest. Hope he has time in his schedule to wander down to Long Island for a visit while out your way.
This entire incident makes me so very sad. UFC used to be my favorite convention, but these past few years… I strongly suspect this will be the last one.
And I’m still going, but mostly just to hang around with friends in a nerdy environment.