Conflikt report

[figmo]

It was a success. By now everyone who cares has read all the reports about how good the concerts were and all that, so I'm not going to reiterate.

I knew the northwest had a strong filk community years ago when I got drafted to run filking at Westercon in Seattle years ago because the "usual suspects" didn't want to run it. Here are some of the things nobody else mentioned:

• This is the first filk con other than the one in the UK where I've been consistently up before 11am. The Saturday morning brunch was worth the price, especially with the CD. The bacon at the brunch was especially good -- it was nice and thick and went way more quickly than the hotel had expected it to.
• The concert room was packed.
• The "scramble bands" (at other cons they've been called "instabands") were a success. I was lucky enough to be lined up with mnemex and two girls (Jovanie and Anne) who were referred to as "The Tardis Girls" because they were wearing coordinated Dr. Who t-shirts all weekend. All four of us could carry a tune and stay on pitch, so we did the obvious and sang a cappella (to rave reviews!). The girls were amazingly quick at learning "Rebel Queen." It didn't hurt that I had the right kind of USB cable on me to go from mnemex's MP3 player to the girls' laptop unit.
• I got to spend lots of time hanging around with filkferengi, who I've known for years from going to GAFilk and other cons.
• The con suite was excellent. A bigger variety of soda (especially sugar-free) would have been nice, but if that's my only "complaint," that's pretty good.
• The songbook sing-along worked, too. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be leading a sing-along of "L. Ron Ron."

Most of all, this convention had a really nice "vibe" to it. People who I'd have expected to snip at each other were very social and friendly. Heck, everybody was friendly.

Even though it was the first Conflikt, this convention had a "personality," complete with mascot (the Vixy frog) and an "official" color (green, esp. emerald green).

The criticism I have is really tweaky stuff:

• The hotel restaurant does have sugar-free pancake and waffle syrup; it'd be nice if they had some of the packets of it at the brunch next year.
• The font for the names on the badges was too small.
• It'd be nice if there was an alternative to clip-on badges. I would rather wear mine around my neck than have to deal with a clip because clips frequently come off of me.

In the end, I already bought a membership for next year, which says it all.

Comments

The Clip On Badge Problem

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Besides the Big Badge Holder I can clip things to, and the smaller ConJose badge holder I can clip things to, I also have some Mardi Gras beads I snagged from an older con that I can clip a badge to. That way I can Always wear a badge around my neck, no matter how they give it to me.
Neener.
And at FurCon this last weekend, they were handing out some nice plastic Purple badge holders that I can clip badges to as well. I snagged three of them.
Oh, and if the stoopid badge PINS on (we remember those too), then one can pin it to some ribbon and then tie the ribbon onto some Mardi Gras beads. Yes, I've done that too.
There are always ways to hang a badge around the neck.

[tollermom]

For the badge issue, I hang onto my badge leashes from MacWorld every year, so I have a good collection now. Then I just clip the badge to the leash instead of to me and life is good. :-)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

It didn't hurt that I had the right kind of USB cable on me to go from mnemex's MP3 player to the girls' laptop unit.

Eeeheeheehee! Now this just makes me giggle. Not only did you all bring musical skills to your band that worked well together, you also brought just the right assortment of tech! If you guys didn't exemplify the idea of the band scramble I don't know what did! :D

[howeird]

Wish I'd have known about it, I might have gone. The best part of RustyCon was the filking, so I'm completely not surprised Conflikt (which my brain insists on rendering as Confilkt) was awesome.

Sounds like they used the same badge software/hardware as Rustycon. Tiny tiny name at the bottom of a keycard mostly filled with a pretty graphic, totally useless as a name badge.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Actually the name was right up at the top near where the badge clip attached, which I found made it pretty hard to read. If it were me I think I'd have done the Conflikt text smaller and the name text bigger. But hey, if all they got wrong was minor things like this, I think they can call the con a success.

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

I was lucky, smart or prescient (probably some combination of all three) in that I had bought three Browncoat lanyards a while back when the local coffeehouse was doing a fundraiser for Equality Now! That took care of the badges for the adults in the party (and got me introduced to julesong besides), but left us one short for my granddaughter. It's a good thing we had them too, because that first day my wife just could not get her badge to stay clipped onto her T-shirt.

/me wonders what it would cost to have some custom lanyards made to hand out with the badges next year as a lagniappe for the congoers. (Hmmm, /me looks it up and sees that you can get 100 unprinted lanyards that would be perfectly adequate for $34.00 from at least one supplier. Getting some printed with "Conflikt II" would be nice, but the quotes I'm finding in my extensive 4-minute research lead me to believe that they would be a not-insignificant part of the membership price, all things considered.)

I didn't notice the problem with the lack of sugar substitutes because I ended up not going to the brunch and we brought our own sodas, but you can bring your own sodas a lot easier if you're driving in from the north end of the county like we were. It seems like a simple thing to do though, and I'll send feedback to the concom about it.

In the end, I already bought a membership for next year, which says it all.

Yup. I asked my wife if she wanted me to get memberships for us for next year and she just gave me That Look that says, "Do you even need to ask?"

[jhitchin.livejournal.com]

I plan on going next year as well and hopefully staying on site if possible. If so, I would be happy to pick up some soda or drink items for you on the way down and you can just grab them at your convenience.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Sweeeeet!!! I'll give you $$ in advance or pay you at the con for them.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Has anyone said anything to anyone on the committee? Lots of people underestimate how many people drink diet soda, and it's possible that they would be open to your feedback, or they may even have realized on their own that they didn't have enough, and plan to fix that for next year.

I also would have asked at the buffet if it would be possible to have sugar-free syrup. The worst they could have done was say "no."

[figmo.livejournal.com]

The con didn't realize the ratio of diet to non-diet drinkers.

As for the sugar-free syrup, I did ask at the brunch; the hotel staff said "no" even though the restaurant did stock the stuff.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

The con didn't realize the ratio of diet to non-diet drinkers.

Exactly. So they might stock more if people let them know.

As for the sugar-free syrup, I did ask at the brunch; the hotel staff said "no" even though the restaurant did stock the stuff.

That sucks. Is it *that* much more expensive than the regular stuff?

[filkferengi]

It was lots of fun hanging out with you, too. Are you coming to Denvention?

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Yes. I've got my membership and my room.

[filkferengi]

Good thing; there was a bit of a feeding frenzy there for a while.

See you there!