Thoughts on Geek.kon 2018 :: The Life of the Traegorn

Thoughts on Geek.kon 2018
Posted Aug 27, 2018 - 10:39:10	Tweet

So I went to Geek.kon this year, and it was a weird time. Like 90% of my friends who usually go decided to sit this year out, so it was a bit more of a lonely experience than that con usually is for me.

That's not to say it was a bad time or I didn't see friends -- like I got to talk to some people I rarely see, and I had a lot of fun.

It's definitely a slightly different con now -- but with the mass walkout of a lot of people including a lot of veteran staffers and their old security team, it was obvious that the con is going to have some adjustment pains -- people are having to learn to do things that others always took care of. I have a lot of nitpicks, but I told the staff all of them... so... hopefully they listened?

It's hard to tell if someone is hearing me or just being polite when I throw unsolicited advice at them.

That's not to say there weren't improvements this year too. I like the new vendor layout better (though adding full height pipe and drape to the two middle islands would make the room a little less overwhelming), as it got rid of the "dead aisle" in the old artist alley (people weren't spending as much I hear -- but I think the fact that the city is mid-natural disaster is a significant component of that). Registration FINALLY works well now too -- they used to have a hell of a time with long wait-times, but it's finally fixed. Like I can't even begin to explain how much better that was this year -- it's almost shocking.

Attendance was up this year, which is also good for the event.

Honestly, I don't blame the people who walked out for leaving or even staying away -- I would have probably done the same in their shoes. But the fact is what happened is in the past, and there's still a lot of good here.

I didn't think I'd say this, but I have a lot of hope for Geek.kon's future.
- Traegorn

I do feel the need to correct you on one thing. There wasn't a massive walkout. If that is what you heard, you were told wrong. A lot of us were basically fired from the convention for many reasons. They changed the AOAs on us and alienated half the staff because they wanted less staff and more volunteers...which that's how volunteers work. ANYWAY, I feel like our stories, the ones that were alienated and forced to walk away, needs to stay alive. What they did was wrong. But, they keep lying to people to make what they did less important, at least, that's the way it appears. I will guarantee you, from other reports I have gathered, attendance was not up this year. They were down. If you heard this from staff, you were, again, lied to.