Hello everyone!
I’m so sorry we’ve been very busy with work and school recently, but we’re back now!
This weekend myself (jukes) and Emma were at Gemucon in Nottingham, UK. It ran from Friday 5th April – Sunday 7th April and had 718 attendees!
I was quite lucky that I have a boyfriend who drives, so Jamie and I arrived on Thursday at about 3pm at the Britannia hotel. For those of you who have been to conventions before or anyone who is planning to hold a convention… don’t hold it here.
Walking into the lobby I genuinely thought, ‘well this is a little anticlimatic’. I think the UK con scene have been a little spoiled by Kitacon who hold their fantastic convention in the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham. In anycase, the hotel was not really suited and booted to a convention hosting almost 1000 people.
Upon arrival, we checked in and went up to our room in the two small lifts that were situated in the centre of the hotel. It all felt a little like the shining, and I felt as if soon enough i’d hear the grinding of a tricycle racing around the corner.
(watch out for the splicers!)
The reason i’d originally arranged to arrive the day beforehand is so that I could meet up with people for Preconnaissance def: Meeting up with your con friends and either purchasing and imbibing large quantities of alcohol/caffeine/nicotine (please choose your poison(s) of choice OR finding a decent bar and settling down for drinks and banter.
This lovely man [please see image below] arranged the official gemu precon drinks event, at the Brass Monkey which unfortunately I had to miss due to feeling rather unwell after the long car ride. I heard that the bar was a bit dissapointing only in that because the drinks were so alcoholic people had gotten drunk a little too quickly.
I personally stayed at the bar at the hotel which was occupied by many OAP’s and various levels of cosplay.
Please note, the above image is the embodiment of bears and coffee
Friday I queued up relatively early, got my con bag and t-shirt and my con badge, and then settled down into what I call the Friday wait. The Friday wait is when you have very few events happening on the first day of a con, so you sit and socialise and as the phrase indicates you wait for the opening ceremony which in my opinion was a wee bit lacking. I went in and sat for an hour of essentially just going over the rules and the guests.
What could have been better?
Video introductions? I suppose a little intro to the guests in the form of video, any video skits ect (which could have been made beforehand and worked into the opening ceremony) and also a proper introduction to the con’s chairman and committee members. I know they popped up a few pictures of the committee but I don’t feel they delved in there enough.
As much as ‘cupcakes’ was funny for a good 10 minutes, it did worry me that people were immature enough to smear their free cake up the bannisters and the wall. I feel very sorry for any of the gophers having to clean up after them.
I suppose It really should have been no surprise after hearing this to meet a few unsavoury characters. Over the weekend I confronted someone singing ‘gas the jews’ and ‘holocaust’ to the pokemon theme tune, a person who made it clear to me that he thought Rape was okay and that women made too much of a massive deal about it, and several folks who seemed to have only attended to try and get laid.
However, Saturday did change my mind about going home there and then.
I had a great time visiting the dealers room, trying out the games in the games room and having a good time with my friends. I think that for a gaming con, they didn’t really have all too many games, and with only three small office rooms with console games, I think that there could have been a lot more?
The events I think, should have all been on the same floor. There were two lifts one of which broke down on the first day after people were trapped in it and for the events to be on the top floor of a building (10th) is a bad choice, and I know the committee have taken that into account as they won’t be hosting it at the same hotel next year.
Regardless of these, I did enjoy myself. The parties were fantastic, even if they were slightly less packed than I had expected, but again I think that’s also Kita Privelege. I think for a first time con, i’ll give it a 7/10.
There were flaws, but overall it was a good experience and while I did have some negative opinions as observed throughout that piece I didn’t have a bad time.
Looking forward to seeing what’s done for Gemu 2014!
GeekRound 