Geneva Steam Convention Report

The Geneva Steam Convention went pretty well, all things considered.

Some of the things to be considered:

How little we'd gotten done since Military History Fest - Ron did some chainmail, and that was about it.

I'd been busy with the program book for the annual floodplain managers' conference. Said book went to the printer last week Thursday morning.

Rearranging and cleaning the living room the previous weekend, see the personal blog for a very long post and pictures.

First-year convention.

Opening the vendor room at 10 am Friday.

Time change Sunday morning.

Staying at Xap's, at least for me-as-introvert.

No Robin-muscles (he wanted to go, but forgot to ask for the weekend off).

Setup was Thursday until 6 pm, and from 8-10 am Friday. Wednesday the weather was decent, so Ron and Robin got the trailer into the driveway. Ron and I took half-days on Thursday, finished packing the last stuff, and set off for the Grand Geneva Resort, in Lake Geneva, WI.  It was about an hour trip, and uneventful, other than a detour down a one-lane access drive around the back-ish of the main hotel building, reminding us not to put too much trust in GPS.

Happily, they upgraded from 8'x8' spaces to 10'x10'. We got the trailer unloaded, Set up gridwall, Xap joined us at some point, and we got the Things unloaded, tables and Things in place and covered, and belts hung up. By that time we were tired and hungry and went back to Antioch (IL, about a half-hour away). In the morning we easily finished setting up, and then sat.

And sat.

And sat.

I worked on sewing swivels onto tails, 16 or 17 of them, IIRC. Not much traffic in the room other than fellow vendors and convention staff.  It was grim, We (all the vendors) were telling each other it was just Friday, Fridays are always slow, and not many people are likely to take time off for a new unknown convention, things will look up when more people arrive after work (just in time for the room to close at 6), etc.

We did see a few more people toward the end of the day.

Saturday was better. There were more con attendees, as well as other resort patrons. We kept reasonably busy. We also found a quieter place for dinner than the noisy places we went Thursday and Friday.

Sunday was slow again, but not as slow as Friday.  Packing up went reasonably well, and the driveway had melted clean, so Ron got the trailer backed all the way into the side yard, and Robin was home to help unload the truck.  

Sold mostly pouches, a bunch of amphora bottles, a few tails, belts, and odds and ends. Profits covered space. Gas, food, and shopping . . . Not so much. But it was pretty good for a first year, we'll do it again.