Illiad's After Action Report: DucKon 12
Updated/Posted: [2003/06/10 19:02]

Editorial Note: This was originally published at User Friendly and is used here with permission.

And thus I return from my second foray into the jungles of Duckon. And what a gas that was.

I had the good fortune to be invited as the Mad Scientist Guest of Honour for Duckon 11, so it was an honour to be invited back as a special guest this time around. This year the Duckon gang moved shop to the Radisson Lincolnwood, aka the Purple Hotel. It was actually a kind of lavender.

Over the three days the Duckon crew put on a show so organized it was obvious they had been doing this for years. These guys were sharp. There was no problem that couldn't be solved with a phone call or a short trip to Operations, and every event that I attended or was involved in ran like clockwork. What is especially cool about Duckon is that it's a family-friendly event, and is geared for it. There's a kids' track that allows the parents to drop their kids off at events so that mom and dad can go have fun too.

Cartooning with Illiad went off without a hitch and I'm proud to say that I've corrupted another dozen or so young minds with dreams of being a cartoonist. There were a few adults there as well who were soundly tromped by the skillful panelwork of some of the older kids. Duckon Illuminati was hysterically fun and I was lucky enough to pull off a win! DID I CALL IT OR WHAT?!?! BWAHAHAHAHHA!!!

Someone pointed out that it was kind of silly for the prize of the Duckon card I did for the game to go to me, so I stepped out of the game and it went to second place, which was as hard-fought as the first win. What was cool is that the Duckon card came into play in the first or second round, and was actually a minor lynchpin as it helped the Discordians with their goal of acquiring Weird groups. Cool. :)

All of this fun was held in a moderate --but very comfy-- hotel with exceptional staff. I hadn't seen that kind of attentiveness and politeness from hotel staff in years, and this includes the five-stars I've been to. (I got pretty annoyed one time when I saw a mess of sugar packets in the stairwell that a hotel staff member had to clean up by hand -- these people work damn hard and someone who attended the con either didn't care about the mess or couldn't be bothered to clean up after themselves. If the Con staff saw the culprit do this I could see the litterbug being ejected with much haste and glee.)

The programming this year was even better than last year's, which is a great indication of the progression of the con. The events were largely packed, and there were great parties and con suites to visit. Before I left, I was asked to come out next year for Duckon 13. I had an incredible time two years in a row. Think I'm gonna say no?

And of course we had a few UFies show up! My thanks to Da_Ediot, adiplomat and dad2tzk for hanging with us, and especially to chi_girl for organizing everything. To those dozen or so folks who wrote in with varying degrees of annoyance and sadness that you were unable to join us -- allow me to rub it in. It was a great time. :)

Mark your calendars. Next year, Chicago, Duckon 13!