As usual I had a great time at this year's Armadillocon, hanging out with friends and meeting some interesting new people. On the whole the panels I attended were fun and provoked some good discussions and thoughts.
Having said that there were a couple of things I noticed on a few panels that, if not exactly spoiled the panel, certainly detracted from the experience.
- At at last three panels the moderator had done zero preparation, which left it to one or more of the panelists to jump in and keep things moving. Personally I find that unacceptable and very unprofessional, if you check the box on the form that you are prepared to moderate a panel, then if selected you should do at least some basic prep work, like know who is on your panel and have some questions on the subject ready.
- Panelists who would dominate the panel, but not in a good way. I don't have a problem with someone dominating the panel if the other panelists are not responding, but panelists who will interrupt others answers or talk over people just to make their voice heard, really bug me. Luckily didn't happen on any of the panels I was on, but I did see it in a couple I attended. (And worst, the moderators just let it keep happening.)
But those few notes aside, I felt this year's con was very well run and on the whole the scheduling worked out well.
From a personal perspective the events I participated in seemed to go well and be, on the whole, well received.
- I had a 300% increase in people at my Reading this year. - Well OK I had six people turn up, rather than the two from last year. The good part was that there were all strangers, it wasn't a "pity audience" of friends, but folks who had decided to waste 30 minutes of their Friday night listening to me stumble through one of my stories. They all gave great feedback on the story, and even suggested some good ideas to incorporate in my planned rewrite.
- The Blogging and Podcasting panel provoked some interesting discussions about various types of social media and how writers can use them. - The "Promoting Your Work" panel I attended immediately afterwards soon fell into similar discussions and topics, - so perhaps those two panels could have been combined into one.
- Moderating the Star Trek panel was a lot of fun, and I had a good panel, and great audience interaction. I believe we were at "standing room only" status for that one. The room certainly seemed packed. The most talked about moment from that panel was when a guy in the audience prefaced his question by starting to give a detailed description of, and even quote from, a Star Trek porno movie!! Luckily we managed to divert the conversation back to the new Trek movie, because who knows where that may have gone!
- I was a little worried that I may have dominated the Dr. Who panel later that evening, but as the token Brit and the one with the life-time experience of Who, it seemed that most of the questions ended up coming back to me. In fact I had to make a conscious effort at one point to put the microphone down so others would answer. And I think that the folks at Big Finish Audio owe me a commission check for the amount of times I plugged the Dr. Who audio dramas. The IDW Dr. Who comics got a few mentions too.
- Sunday's Graphic Novels panel was pretty much a continuation of any lunch time, or bar discussion that happens when a bunch of Austin based comics creators gets together, except this time instead of being sat around a table, we were in a straight line behind the table with an audience in front of us. I could say it was just like chatting with my mates, but it wasn't "just like that, " it WAS that.
Didn't spend as much time in the bar this year, however I did sell a copy of my James Bond book while in the bar. Not to an Armadillocon attendee, but to a Bond fan who was just hanging out in the bar having a drink with friends and family.
The weekend seemed to flash by this year, and I'm looking forward to next year's event.
