Genericon 2011 Post-con Debriefing, Wrap-up, and Review: Friday

First, a bit of information about the con. 

Genericon 2011 was held Feb 11-13 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (heretofore referred to as “RPI”) in Troy, NY. For those unfamiliar with New York State, Troy is just outside Albany (the state capital), about an hour north of NYC, straight up the Hudson River. This was its 24^th year; it was our first year in attendance. For reference, we live approximately a 2-hour drive from Troy, so this was an easy con for us to reach (i.e., we didn’t have to scour the Internet for plane, bus, and/or train deals).

Helpful map of Troy, NY, circa 1861. Image shamelessly yoinked from The Cultural Historian's blog.

In a welcome change of events, this was NOT a homecoming con for Jenn. It was, however, a bit of a homecoming for Matt, who lived outside Albany for 2 years and worked in the area for 3 years.

This con was also the first time that we brought the 8-bits. They had previously attended two cons – Bakuretsu Con 2006 and Anime Boston 2007 – but both of those conventions were before we began the doll business, so we were there only as cosplayers/attendees. They grumbled a bit at the prospect of helping haul things around each day, but then, they’re tween boys – if they didn’t grumble, I’d be worried ;-)

Traveling to the con was an interesting exercise in logistics. This winter has been the first time that we’ve really had to contend with car space. In previous years, we’ve been able to use Jenn’s SUV (or Jenn’s mom’s SUV) to drive things around, so packing in a bunch of dolls, display cages, luggage, etc. wasn’t really a problem. Even the first year of tabling ever, when Jenn and Elizabeth took the subway into Boston with all their gear, the girls had less merch to haul and knew how to pack light. However, since Jenn’s SUV went on strike at the end of 2010, we had to use Plan B: Matt’s 4-door sedan.

Pictured: what Jenn's car going on strike might look like.

This was marginally okay for Arisia, as we had fewer dolls prepared at that time and the 8-bits, while traveling with us across the state, did not actually have to come to the con with us. By the time Genericon rolled around, we realized that we had to fit another 100 or so plushies, as well as a weekend’s worth of both clothes AND entertainment for everyone, as well as the 8-bits’ school gear since we’d be picking them up from school and then just leaving. At a summer con this wouldn’t have been as much of an issue, but in February, when everyone’s wearing sweaters and snow pants and big bulky coats, the suitcases fill up a lot faster!

With the help of some vacuum-the-air-out space-saving bags, we were able to compress the plushies down quite far (something I’m sure they didn’t really appreciate, but they survived it with no ill effect), but the car was still very, very full. And because no trip is complete without some kind of logistical curveball, when we picked the 8-bits up from school, Matthew had … wait for it … snowshoes with him. (They fit, but barely.)

Pictured: what Matthew's snowshoes might look like, if they were blue instead of red,

and if we had put them on some stranger's furniture.

The drive out was uneventful, and checking into the hotel went smoothly (once we figured out how to GET INTO the hotel’s parking lot, which was harder than you’d think). After unloading into the room, stretching out from the car ride, and getting Appa into his cosplay, we headed over to campus to get set up.

Settling into Genericon was a bit of a misadventure, but it seemed to be a result of lots of people coming to the con who weren’t actually familiar with the campus and hadn’t oriented themselves prior to arrival. (In fairness, neither had we, but Jenn works at UMass and three of us attended there, so we’re all very, very used to college-campus logistics like parking and internal roads.)As a result, there were lots of people trying to enter the wrong buildings, entering the right buildings from the wrong direction, and asking questions of whatever staff member they could grab hold of … which seemed to only add to the chaos of setting up the con. After a brief bit of wandering the campus center because Jenn apparently can’t read a map, we located the Artists’ Alley and got checked in.

Because no one ever gets tired of seeing Appa in cosplay, here he is again.

We were only open for 2-1/2 hours on Friday night, but it was the busiest time we saw all weekend as far as traffic went. The two people who had pre-ordered plushies from us both checked in before we even had our display set up completely – these were some excited customers! Thanks again to both of you, it was fun to make Ginji (GetBackers) and Kaoru (Ouran High) ^_^ The 8-bits loved the high-energy atmosphere of that first evening, they instantly made friends with our table neighbor, and by the time we got back to the hotel room with dinner, we were ready for sleep!

Hmm, this got long. I’ll make subsequent posts about Saturday and Sunday. Hey, more blogging, right? ^^;