Wednesday Night at Denvention

After I got back from the WSFS Mark Protection Committee meeting, Lisa and I went out and had dinner at the Little Italy restaurant -- thank goodness we only made half-orders; those were more than big enough -- Lisa and I went back to the room. We could easily have holed up in here for the rest of the evening because we have some Business Meeting work to do, but we felt we should make an appearance at the parties if possible.

( Work needing doing; parties needing attending )

Just before midnight, we finally tore ourselves away and we worked our way back to the Crowne Plaza. The rain that fell this afternoon and evening had stopped. Then it was back up to the room, where I have one more data DVD to cut before I can rest. And tomorrow is the Preliminary Business Meeting, which starts at 10 AM, meaning I reckon we should be out of the room just after 9 AM to be sure of being there early for set-up purposes.

Pea in a Barrel

Because of the convention center and hotel restrictions, there is almost nowhere I can post flyers promoting Match Game SF. That means I have to rely on only the program listing and (I hope) an item in the newsletter. Lisa and I looked in the Grand Ballroom last night on our way back to the room from the parties. That room is pretty big -- bigger than any room in which we've ever hosted the game. I fear that even if we have a large turnout by our standards -- a couple hundred people, maybe -- that we'll look badly under-attended.

I guess I must not have enough to worry about.

Relocation

Due to an unfortunate series of mis-communications, it appears that Match Game SF is going to be moved from the (probably too large) Sheraton Grand Ballroom to the (possibly too small) Sheraton Tower Court Room C. Ah, well, as I said, we would have echoed in the Ballroom. We'll see how things work out.

Thursday: Denvention Well Under Way

After Wednesday's hectic running around, today was relatively sedate. We got over to the Convention Center and set up for the Business Meeting. Lisa rearranged chairs and set up her camera gear for recording. I helped set up papers.

The meeting could have gone worse, but it certainly could have been better. We found a lot of annoying typographical errors in the agenda papers, most of which stemmed from re-using the same document as last year without correcting relative references and updating to the current year. (The flip side of the ease and consistency of using last year's papers as the starting point for the current year.) We also ended up leaving off one of the new proposals -- to add a new Hugo Award category for Graphic Novels -- entirely. (It being the head table staff's mistake -- none of us caught it when we were proofing the agenda -- there's no penalty to the motion's sponsor.)

( Only of interest to Business Meeting geeks )

I spent my booked time behind the San Jose in 2011 Westercon bid table, where I'm pleased to say that I sold three pre-supports and two friends of the bid, which is excellent showing for a Westercon bid, I think. Pat McMurray came around and returned the laptop he'd borrowed from me, and Deb Geisler and Jim Mann came to me at different times to explain the Match Game SF issues and what they're going to try to do to fix them.

Fred Moulton also came by, and he volunteered to sit behind the bid table so Lisa and I could get a chance to see the dealers' room and exhibits. We knew that Glenn Glazer would be back to close things down by about 6, especially as he'd left his pack, and people had been dropping off things for him.

( Kevin gets to see the convention! )

After setting aside out heavy bags, we went out for dinner. Passing by Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company, we found Fred Moulton, freed from his volunteer duty at the table, looking and the menu, and we joined him for dinner.

You get a lot of food at Bubba Gump's, so Lisa and I walked clear down the 16th Street Mall to Union Station and looked around the place. Lisa was particularly pleased at how many fans she saw up and down the mall, noting in particular how in past years all we ever heard was "It's too far to walk anywhere!" contrasting with people being out and about walking everywhere here and being cheerful about it. Also on the walk back, we chanced upon Randy Smith, who donated the mimeograph to the exhibit, and he thanked me again for providing transport.

It's a good thing we walked; my blood sugar was about 147 even so, but it would have been worse otherwise.

Now I need to sign off here and go over to the Sheraton, where I have a panel at 10 PM on "Things Not to Do at an SF Convention," and of course the bank of parties to attend. We also want to check out the revised space into which we are apparently moved and redo our plans accordingly.