Dragonmeet... A Pretty Good Convention

Bog Boy

Dragonmeet was an unusual experience as I have never helped out at a convention before, nor have I ever been so tired. But I did get to wear a beeper and be a Fire Marshal.

My respect for people like James Wallis and Colm has increased tenfold.

Can't wait for Warpcon. :)

General Tangent

It was great.

Mark

The same comments as Gaelcon, but with no cylon.

Bubba

Instead of my usual quick quote here I'm going to write a little more then I usually do. Mainly because Jonny was trapped in a green windowless basement all day and didn't really get to see much of anything.

Dragonmeet, the best convention I have ever been to...*

The Day started early for us as we'd been asked to be there for 8ish to help traders unload and set up. I know that we were one of the first to arrive as we actually managed to get t-shirts that fitted us - well in my case almost fitted.

Jonny, Bog Boy and Mark all knew Colm so we ended up getting much more involved in things then I had anticipated. I thought we were just going to turn up, cart stuff around for a bit, do a couple of stints wondering round pointing out were the bogs were, and possibly even guiding people to games. And then we would wonder round ourselves to see what was going on, before carting more stuff around when the traders left.

Boy was I wrong...

As you've probably read I ended up on the door, and because no one else seemed to want to do it I was there for most of the day. Not that I'm complaining, at least I wasn't trapped in a basement. As interesting as I'm sure the 'Game in a Day' was, I know I would have hated that job.

After the initial rush at the door (that we managed to deal with in about 40 minutes) working the door was pretty enjoyable. I did my first 3 hour stint and then found Mark and took a well earned break.

At this point I got to actually wonder around and see what was going on. This was my first Dragonmeet and I was very impressed with the way things seemed to be going. Just about everyone I met seemed to be having a great time** and generally there was a really good vibe to the whole event.

For those who weren't there, during the day the event was split into sections.

Games: These were mainly played in the Great Hall Foyer and the Lower Foyer, though I did see some gamers just making space on one of the outside benches and launching into a game of something.

Shopping: This was in the Great Hall and was really really good. I don't get to games shops much but I did have a great time shopping***.

Dorkstock: This was on the main stage, but as it was absolutely packed I didn't get to look around. Mr Kovalic did autograph my t-shirt after the quiz though. ;)

Panels: There were a series of panels through the day hosted by various figures from the gaming industry.

Game in a day: See Jonny's report

I'm sure there were more things going on but I only had a couple of hours and between shopping and talking to people it went by fast. At one point I heard James Wallis exclaiming loudly: "Why with these you're really spoiling us..." Sure enough when I looked someone had just handed him a large box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates****.

Then it was back to the door for me, going through to 6pm. After about 5 hours of standing at the door, when my feet were throbbing, I was thinking "so whose fucking Idea was this anyway?"

Unfortunately on examination I'm pretty sure it was my idea to volunteer so I had no one else to blame... Arse...

After that I just hooked up with the guys for the auction and quiz, and as Jonny has already filled you in on that I'll just say both were very entertaining and funny.

All in all I had a great day and I'd recommend Dragonmeet to anyone. If you fancy volunteering for the day, I know that the organisers would be happy to have more hands to help out. Contact information is on the Dragonmeet site or you can just e-mail [email protected].

See you there next year!

Bubba

* Of course I do have to admit that I didn't get to Gaelcon as I was attending a wedding on the other side of the planet.

** Except for the bloke who was loudly exclaiming something about "a bunch of smelly freaks in Black" as he wondered out after only being inside for about 40 minutes...

*** Especially at from the stand that was doing handfuls of dice for something like �3 a handful. I grabbed at least 5 handfuls for various people, and I think the guy at the stall was getting a bit suspicious...

**** I probably should explain this for our non UK readers but I really can't be arsed. Take a look here.

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