Well, there really wasn’t much tumult, and no shouting, for which I was duly thankful. Could have used a little more tumult. Despite reaching out to local fans of the RenFaire and Trek variety, our attendance was lower than last year, perhaps because of the San Diego Comic Con the following week, the Star Trek thing the weekend after that, and Imaginarium the same week…but we can’t be moving around the calendar on the off chance that we’ll attract fans. We have to make Son of Silvercon the kind of convention that people are skipping these other things to show up for, and I think we’re on our way to doing that.
In compliance with ancient tradition, the Bad News comes first. Paid membership was only twenty fans, including a couple of folks who were unable to make it because they didn’t fly Southwest (HHO1/2K) and one late supporting member. There were issues with the hotel: problems checking in because the front desk was short-staffed, problems accessing the consuite (we did a workaround where I handed out keys to staff and other people to escort other people up there, but that’s not going to work if attendance is higher next year), and we only got one key for the function space, which led to occasional awkwardness. I’ll be discussing these things with our hotel guy, and also looking into some other venues, some downtown and some not. Despite these issues, our guests had a good time, most of the membership had a good time, and our vendor sold a lot of books, so we’re still winning on that front.
It was suggested that next year we offer some tours for folks coming in Thursday or early Friday; the Atomic Museum, Mob Museum, and Pinball Museum were all mentioned as possibilities. Also suggested: more programming for fans v. writers.
We’re going to put more effort into working with LibertyCon, Confinement, Writers’ Cantina, BasedCon, and Dave Butler’s IHOPCon; apparently FanX has not replaced Conduit in the hearts of Utah fans, so we’re hoping to fill that void. We’re also going to get badge ribbons for SoS3 with the website URL and “Ask me about Son of Silvercon!” buttons. Our GoH and vendor were both enthusiastic about helping recruit Utahns to the cause, and we’re hoping to see a lot of folks from SLC, Provo, and points south next year. We’re also looking forward to having Maxwell Drake, Sarah Hoyt, and hopefully Maggie Hogarth as well as Brad and Rand back next year to join our 2025 Guest of Honor Tim Powers.
Suggestions welcome, as are pre-registrations – we already have ten people signed up for next year, half of them as sponsors.
I enjoyed myself thoroughly, even stayed an extra night, so I could visit the Atomic Test Museum and Mob Museum. (Also room rates in Vegas are considerably lower on nights other than Friday and Saturday.) The new space, despite its problems allowed us to have more formal panels, but with only 20 guests, it was only a single track of panels of course. I’m really grateful to Kevin for putting this on. I wouldn’t worry about the other Cons as competition. Maybe we should tout that the Spray Tan Games event was held next to our event room. 🙂 Of course LibertyCon had the body builders (in bikinis) next to their con this year. Maybe we should promote SoS as the Secret Con that only a select few insiders even know about?
Indeed, the difference in price between Friday/Saturday and the rest of the week is jaw-dropping. At one casino/hotel near the Strip, rooms that go for $200 on the weekend drop to $9 in midweek. Crazy!
As far as the Secret Con thing goes, I think we’re at the wrong part of our life cycle to be making our appeal more selective. 🙂