The "Con Vibe" - A little more explanation

Re-reading my last entry, I think I need to explain a little more about the "Con Vibe" issue.  Let me try to equate this to an experience I had in college.

So, freshman in college.  I discover that there is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy club.  Great.  I've always liked that and it would be nice to talk to others about that.  So I go to one of their meetings.

Now, I have to say that I was "welcomed" in that people talked to me and no one gave me a vibe of "go away."  But as the meeting started, there was a great deal of "in jokes" and such.  Initially, I took that in stride because I was new to the group.  But the "in jokes" were to obtuse and related to past club events that I simply couldn't relate.

If I experienced this today, I would equate it to the Star Trek: TNG Darmok episode.

The end result left me feeling like I would always be an outsider in this group.  As a result, I decided that they weren't worth my time.  Over the next few years, I would meet up with members as part of my education.  They would try to get me to attend their meetings and I would explain why I don't go - yet they never really "got" it.

As time went on, members graduated and weren't replaced by new people (hence current members trying to get me to go) and the club dwindled.  By the time I graduated, the club was no more.

This is how I felt at Tandy Assembly sometimes.  I can't assess whether there are more or less people going each year, having only gone once.  But I really hope this doesn't happen to them and that they become more aware of how "outsiders" feel when attending.  It's nice to see old friends getting together, but they need to be more aware, and a little more accommodating, to new people too and not assume that "everyone" knows.

Tandy Assembly

So this year, we did Tandy Assembly.  This has been on my list for a few years, but the scamdemic sort of derailed that for a bit.  It finally got high enough this year.

It's quite a drive (5 hours of driving, 6 when you factor in rest stops and a meal), so we took some extra days off so that we could arrive early and be fresh for the tech talks, and to recover afterwards.

Overall: It was worth doing once, but I don't think I'll do it again.  It cost a good amount of time, energy and money to go.  I don't regret it, but I don't think it's worth it to me to do it again.  Maybe if they get someone really special to speak.  Like one year, they had Don French, who was one of the father's of the TRS-80.

So let's focus on the good first.  Great speakers on interesting topics.  Lots of cool equipment.  Some Model II/12/16/6000s as well as the expected Model I/III/4 systems, and CoCo's, plus some extra stuff (like a DT-1).

But we also have to talk about the bad, and I don't like doing this, but it needs to be said.

Venue: First off, the hotel and the staff were wonderful.  They got a perfect score.  The problem with the venue is location.  There's 1 coffee shop near by that was... OK.  Not Herman's Boy that's for sure.  The area was not nice, especially at night.  So that limited us to where we could go and we like to walk.  Most other restaurants were a need to drive and that's hard with all the construction even with GPS.

Next, the normal "Con Vibe" wasn't there.  Normally at a convention, there's a bunch of geeks who don't know most of the people there.  What ties us together is a common like of whatever-the-con-is-about.  Tandy Assembly is more like a meeting of old friends and "outsiders" are not accommodated.  That's not to say that were weren't made to feel welcome by some.  But we weren't "in the know" and we were kept in the dark a bit.

For example, on Friday night, after the tech talks, we headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  We didn't know that Tandy Assembly had a buffet.  It wasn't written anywhere. We weren't told about it.  We didn't see anything about it until later when we brought in our auction stuff.  Normally, such a thing is for the show "guests of honor" and the people who work to put it on, but it seemed it was open to all attendees Friday night.  It would have been nice to know about it before we went off to dinner.

Unlike many cons, we didn't take over the hotel.  I was rather surprised at the lack of attendance Friday, but we figured that it was a work day and we'd get a lot more people on Saturday, but we didn't.  Now, this is a good/bad thing.  Personally, I like the lack of crowds (ex: we won't be at VCFMW until they get a bigger venue), but there were so few people that we didn't get to meet many people - because there weren't that many to meet with.

To close on a upbeat note:  It was nice to meet Ian, Jeff Birt, and a few others that I've only seen on YouTube.  So, like I said, it was worthwhile to go.  I don't regret the time/energy/money we spent.