AlternaCon 2015 was awesome!

AlternaCon received overwhelmingly positive feedback this weekend, especially from some seasoned vendors who said it was the best first-year convention they had attended. Woot! While none of the vendors except the publishers did particularly well financially, it was very worthwhile. My booth, Madam Raveena's Curio and Tea Room, was definitely a success as a refuge from the crowd, and I had numerous people returning for games of chess and mancala, and an epic game of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit broke out at one point. I put a lot of effort into the atmosphere of my booth, and it must have showed because it got a mention in the local newspaper. My water spirit bowl delighted many passers by, and I believe my movie prop/memorabilia display was the largest collection there. Brit, the event coordinator and an old friend from middle school, had picked the perfect girl to help me out. Her name is Tara Beckman, and she brought so much of just the right kind of energy with her sword dancing skills, musicianship, and and friendly demeanor. My half brother Derek and his girlfriend Tiffany were also a great help. Derek is an excellent chess player, and I think my board got more play in 3 days than in all the years I've owned it. We played a parlor LARP (Live action role playing) game with a steampunk theme, which was a lot of fun once it got rolling. In addition to my booth, I was on the panel for teaching Steampunk 101. While I wish I had been better prepared for a public speaking engagement than I was (especially since one of the other panel members had made such nice presentation boards), it seemed to go well. I'm definitely excited for next year's AlternaCon, and can guarantee that my booth will be even better- several of my projects were only half-finished by opening day, and others were ready-to-go, but never got pulled out because the timing didn't seem right. Still, there was enough going on in my booth at any given moment to make people happy, which made me happy, too!