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

[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?