This! ...was Digital Watches Are a Pretty Neat Idea

Un-Conventional Times - New Year Bonus Episode

January 27, 2022 Jeff Lesnik & Bryan Campbell, a Froods for Thought production Season 1 Episode 6
This! ...was Digital Watches Are a Pretty Neat Idea
Un-Conventional Times - New Year Bonus Episode
Show Notes Transcript

Jeff and Bryan discuss their history of going to sci-fi/fantasy conventions and how they have changed over the years… especially the last two years.

This has been a Froods for Thought production.

hey Brian how are you doing today I'm doing great Jeff how are you well I'm feeling confused confused because I just got back from the convention up in the Detroit area on man and so I want to spend this podcast talkin All About by an hour convention experiences alright sounds great my experience with non sport conventions or comic-con's goes back to the mid-to-late 1990s back then the main convention I was aware of was run by a company called Creation Entertainment yes the reason I knew of them is because they hosted the Xena and Star Trek conventions and sometimes they were combined on the same weekend correct way back then we used to attend together so my job had me working most weekends but I had a lot of Sundays off so I was able to attend one day of the event back then 1 daily admission got you in the door and then there were no additional fees for autographs or selfies the good old days go to w we're really not a thing no guess what sign is long as they could and there were different tier levels that decided we're in the line you started for autographs so if you wanted to be sure you got an autograph you bought those silver level or the gold level which started you in front so when their hand got tired and they just said sorry folks I got to go you would have got your autograph exactly they gave you a seat in the front of the auditorium and then they let you out into the line where you would line up to queue up as they say for an autograph and you spent hours and that's why you always up with a friend cuz someone could stay in line while you had to do your thing all right so we've been to this brand of convention in Chicago Philadelphia we've even flown to Las Vegas for them they were always endless fun so absolutely 100% we had a great time I mean I can tell you about my favorite little story if you got a moment horse okay so you and I we are attending the convention the Star Trek convention in Chicago and we are there early just because the way things worked out and you and I are standing in the hallway chatting about pretty much nothing and we just we just left the vendor Berry and they were setting up or something like that and I think I was either walking backwards or are turned around to look at you and just about then Jeri Ryan ran into me in the hallway cut her hair hennaed so you couldn't tell it was swell your work supposed to be able to tell it was her but good grief who could Miss Jen that was probably one of my highlights of convention convention is being right now I'm making up word for a while and I don't even know how I can figure it out but they were doing Star Trek conventions they were very similar right and they had the same caliber Gest as creation but it was a lot more close up and personal and there was a better Fan Experience and I know we've gone to a couple of those and I think one of them was in Indianapolis for me multiple things started happening all at once first the format changed and the celebrities started charging additional fees for their autographs and photos I started working more Sundays I would look ahead to see what conventions might be coming and lo and behold that would be a Sunday I worked so I kind of gave up on them and I quit going to him for about 15 or more years I would periodically check to see what was coming to town and if there was one I was interested in there would be some reason I couldn't go it would fall on the same day I was working or another event the Start never aligned there's a small science fiction fantasy literature convention in the Detroit area called confusion my sister Julie her brother-in-law is one of the people responsible for running it back in January of 2018 I look at my work schedule and not only did I have Sunday off and a whole block of time around that weekend off and I looked at the guest list and Jim Butcher the author of Dresden Files codex alera Cinder spires was one of the guests I contacted my sister who's in the Detroit area and basically told her I was visiting she was excited and happy to attend with me I had never been Was one of the guests I contacted my sister who's in the Detroit area and basically told her I was visiting she was excited and happy to 10 with me I had never been to a small Convention of this type before I had no idea what to expect and it was the greatest convention experience I ever had it was not just meeting Jim Butcher and having him sign one of his graphic novels at no additional fee it was meeting other authors in hearing about and buying their books I remember you told me a lot about that convention at the time you're very eager to attend again and and enjoy this all things would start happening right racing they have something called the con Suite where they put out sandwiches snacks soft drinks coffee all at no additional fee it was the first time I had ever experienced after convention room parties I attended the panels I had never been to anything other than a celebrity panel at any of I previous conventions if they had them I didn't know they existed and I was hooked on conventions again about six months later I was able to give my job the finger and my schedule opened way up funny how that happens I decided to make up for lost time before the pandemic shut everything down so in about a year-and-a-half time span I went to 2 G fast which are giant monster/Godzilla conventions I went to a Chicago Tardis which is a Doctor Who convention index Fest which is an X-Files convention I went to four different wizard Worlds 2 here in Chicago 1 in Madison Wisconsin and one out in Philadelphia I went to 1 flashback weekend horror convention and I made it to the Big C to e to Chicago, can Entertainment Expo so counting confusion that started it all it was 11 conventions in two years so needless to say I was a bit burnt out on them but now I'm glad I did it because the convention scene has been shut down for almost two years so including the last confusion I just attended a week ago that makes 12 conventions in 4 years that sounds a lot more sane well when you put it that way so we did attend a couple of these conventions together yes that's right we you and I were able to attend the X-Files the second X-Files I guess I believe that was the second one that you attended right no I standing in line at a wizard world to get an autograph from Gillian Anderson somebody had asked if I had been to the X-Files convention that wasn't a little bit earlier up and I hadn't even it didn't know it exists all right right right now and they said I can have one next item when that rolled around and again that was back in a 19 right 2019 and June 2019 we we kind of did a swap way I came out to your area the Chicago area and we attended a couple of events together including the X-Files convention and then you came out to Philly with me and we attended the Wizard World convention here in Philadelphia it was kind of funny and in one way anyway at somehow we got our wires crossed and I ended up with a VIP ticket which really was enjoyable because it added us the fence of all fun by creating a kind of a how I can't even think of the right term but that's it bad to go around and find all these different individuals who received extra signatures and and autographs. My brain is not working today locked in room escape room together while we attend to that convention and that got me started with the idea of attending the Escape Escape rooms cuz they're a lot of fun if they are coincidentally together when you came to town for the X-Files convention I told you that there was going to be a book signing at a local bookstore by an author that I met at the confusion that I went to that I talked about the first one her name was Tracy Townsend and she wrote a book called The 9 and she had her new book The Fall that was going to be released like on that day so we signed up to sit and listen to her read an excerpt yes and that was really enjoyable I went online and I bought her first book and then I also went online and signed up to get a copy of her new book signed A new book signed by her at that event So we signed up to sit and listen to her read an excerpt yes and that was really enjoyable I went online and I bought her first book and then I also went online and signed up to get a copy of her new book signed by her at that event and it's waiting for you probably still looking for the script in her portmanteau as the pandemic restrictions were loosening decided to try to go to that is quite ridiculous so therefore very noticeable oh I can't wait till we actually get to do it however I started recognizing a familiar theme you came into town to visit just for fun right and coincidentally there was a small science fiction fantasy literature convention in Chicago called windycon happening that we thought perfect then one of our vehicles was in the shop for longer than expected and we were without a vehicle so we couldn't go because we were stuck at home with no way to leave while we had a great time certainly and we did a lot of work with our podcast which I tremendously enjoyed but you are right it started a trend but sorry would because I've never been to your convention and I really did try and there was a possibility that you would come in again for see to E2 but work got in the way and that never happened right exactly we wanted to go to this year's confusion in Detroit but again work stuff got in the way that's what happens when you get a new clients in Texas you have to end up spending a lot of time in Texas well my sister agreed to attend confusion with me so I drove to Detroit and I want to stress that none of what I'm talking about is going to be the fault of the convention confusion they are in fact a victim of circumstances as are we all by sister and I went on Friday night to register pay we get our Badges and check things out everything was quiet the first thing my sister noticed was our ability to actually park in the parking lot but Friday is mostly about gaming and that was on a different floor so having it be a little slow on the main level was like maybe Saturdays and Main day things could turn around they did not have the convention itself was nice convention was nice they had interesting guests of honor they had interesting panels do there were fewer panels there was a modified meeting everything had to be wrapped in packaged version of the con Suite so to me that was surprising that was the one thing I thought if they're trying to shave things off their budget data got rid of the con Suite where they were giving away free food and drinks but they didn't they still felt they should provide snacks and drinks for the attendees so I applaud them for that do you know what year this is for that convention oh my goodness it's forever I'll be there in like 40 years I mean it's a it's been a convention a small convention for many many years problem that I saw was attendance I expected attendance to drop off because of the pandemic maybe to like 50% right I don't have any official numbers but to me it looked like a attendance dropped by 90% to talk about the cosplay aspect that we wanted to use to promote the podcast I had this conversation with my sister during the weekend so you talked to her about that huh did one of the things that I said was I generally Project A vibe of stay away from me so now I'm going to dress up like a Coca friendship captain in a bathrobe wearing a silly hat and carrying a rubber duck and in order to attract attention to myself and I thought you were going to wait till I get you know that I could absorb all that and -4 chili telephone sanitizer second class t-shirt for my collection and she will latex gloves and she carried around a plastic container of popups sanitizing wipes no phones My Hope was that I would feel less ridiculous walking around in the city of other people wearing costumes I hope walking through a crowd of people who get some of them interested enough to ask what the heck I was Play being talked about on the current latest episode of this podcast correct there were long long stretches of hallways I walk down that were empty I'm all by myself walking through a hallway at this convention it was it was odd usually people are shoulder-to-shoulder and You've Got A Squeeze by cuz they're stopped at this table to see something in the stop at the table across the aisle from it and you're pushing through there was one person that had apparently wondered what the heck I was and came up and was walking behind us okay that has the big polka French of logo that I designed with telephone sanitizer second class and telephone sanitizer second-class only comes from one place in the world the right right at the end of the universe correct because he saw Julie sure he put it together realized who I was and said good job so I did get one voice recognition so I am happy about that other because without that man it was just odd and because it was such a I forgot those at home we'll just think if it was only a attended by what you were thinking of is 10% of the people that were there and you have one individual out of that 10% who actually noticed you are stopped or said something to you if they had had 50% you would have had at least a dozen people stopping you and if you would have a hundred percent you'd be around 5060 people would have said something to you I told Julie percentage-wise it was pretty good I think so I'm really impressed by that everything that I am saying I am in no way trying to speak bad about the confusion convention in fact it's the exact opposite I want anybody that hears this to take know it was a really tough year for conventions the small ones especially for their and the hotel's protection contracts are signed the conventions want to make sure people who travel and have a place to stay the hotel does not want to hold rooms for It was a really tough year for conventions the small ones especially for their and the hotel's protection contracts are signed the conventions want to make sure people who travel in have a place to stay the hotel does not want to hold rooms for a convention that they do not use so a percentage of rooms has agreed upon and any of the rooms not used by the attendees are the responsibilities of the convention so they say of the hotel if only 20% is used. 60% of the hotel rooms that they're going to be billed for so I don't know what the numbers are I'm not in the the numbers thing but let me tell you it is not good for these conventions right now there are probably many other conditions I am unaware of but the room one to me is a doozy really here is my message do not forget about your small local conventions I know I am a creature of habit and once I break my habit it is easy for it to stay broken if you've been going to a convention year after year after year and now you've skipped two years go back the next one that's available go back. Maybe one more year maybe one more year because that's what I would do I'm not saying that the large corporate conventions are not hurt by the pandemic I just feel they're better able to weather the storm then the small conventions that are regular people trying to make a safe place for people to share their fandoms yeah I can definitely see that you and I are still in the middle of a process that we've been going through since June of 2020 once I had so much fun with our swap where I came out for a week to see you and you came out to for a week to see me and we attended the convention we committed our cells to attending the Wizard World convention in June of 2020 and that convention was canceled rescheduled for November of 2020 cancelled yet rescheduled for February of 2021 then that whole convention process was sold and it's now been bought by a company called Fan Expo and it's been rescheduled for April of 2022 but I have to tell you I I have very little faith that anything's going to happen at this moment because even as of today you go onto their website and there are no guests listed no signing opportunities for sale no selfie or picture opportunities for sale and we are only what a couple months away for when that convention is supposed to hit the floor here in Philly so bright I do appreciate 100% what you're saying we've been stacked up and waiting people do need to support whatever they have locally so that these things can come back to life the way they should yes so if you've never been to a convention now maybe your time to start go to your favorite search site and type in sci-fi convention and the major Metropolitan City nearest you and you may be surprised how many you find and hopefully when you get there you'll find the captain of the BR where he bathrobe his rubber duck and his number one walking around the convention and maybe you'll stop and tap them on the shoulder and say hey who are you all right so thank you for listening to another bonus episode in one week's time secondary phase it will be talked about in our main podcast episode so okay Jeff I'll say goodbye