Well the con was nearly two weeks ago and I've had time to unwind and reflect on the convention.

First: I really, really, REALLY needed that time off from work. Nothing like taking a week off from work to prepare and attend a convention to help recover some from serious work burn out. Woo!

I ended up spending most of my con time running MFM's first Art Gallery (21 hours over three days). They were very insistent that it be called an "Art Gallery" and not an "Art Show" - presumably on the grounds that they wanted to be clear in the title that art was for display only and not for sale, a point I didn't really think was clear by their title choice, but the matter really wasn't discussed with me in very much detail and their reasoning never explicitly spelled out. But the naming issue was really just semantics and they let me display people's art, which is exactly what I was asking for so I am not complaining!

The Gallery was fairly well received: we had slow but steady traffic the entire weekend and it was really nice watching people comment on and enjoy people's work. A number of contributing artists and visitors commented on how they were glad the convention was finally providing a display area, and a few more expressed interest in participating next year (which was really gratifying). Also, the interactive finger painting portion of the exhibit seemed to go over fairly well and was auctioned off in the charity auction (you can see a picture of it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24721226/).

In addition to the Gallery, I found the time to do a little gaming with friends, meet some new people, attend a couple panels, do a little Karaoke, and generally have a nice time. So yay!

So, now I'm sitting sitting about next year and everything this year gave me to think about. The most important take away from this year was that people that work the cons are some pretty great people: not only they work for months in advance to prepare for the weekend, they often don't get to enjoy a lot of the activities happening during the con because they're busy making sure they happen. It's pretty impressive. And now I need to decide if I want to do the Gallery next year. If I don't, there's a good probability no one else will and it just won't happen. And if I do, I will be losing most of what is traditionally the one voluntary break from work I take each year. (Really need to work on my work/life balance.) My husband is definitely for it. And maybe I can wrangle up a volunteer or two to help us out if we do it again.

Anywho! I've got a little while to think on it. And in the meantime, the flats have been gussied up for FangCon! (Though, Draconis might debate me on whether the changes were an improvement.)