I haven’t gone to a con by myself since Otakon 2006. It seems strange to do so, usually I at least have a couple people with me.

This year however I was by myself going down which made for a strange drive, but I made the best of it. Katsucon 16 was held at the Gaylord Convention Center at National Harbor, a relatively new place, and you could tell. The convention center side was huge, a lot of rooms, and we didn’t even take up the whole place, only a handful of rooms on the top and bottom floors. Two other functions were being held on the middle floor. The hotel side was very nice, I saw some of their huge suites as well as the room I stayed in was still very nice for a modest 2 bed. The staff seemed pretty cool about everything and the ground level garden was very nice looking.

I started driving at 4am and got there around 11am, one stop for breakfast and gas and one stop for the restroom, but Baltimore and Washington DC had moderate traffic coming in which set me back a little. Once I got my gear into the room I started working Art Show. Art Show this year was pretty good, but definitely not as big as last year. Our total number of pieces were less than previous years and only eight pieces went to auction this year, and even then the auction crowd was pretty silent. Nevertheless there was some excellent art in the show this year, I walked away with two of the three pieces I bid on, both excellent pieces that will find homes on the walls in this and the next apartment. Staff this year was the same as previous years minus a few people, Eric and Mailie as usual, along with Scott and Sudir. Even with a couple volunteers we were pretty thin this year, though it was not busy so it worked out, it was just trickier to schedule meal breaks and breaks for us to go out into the con. I spent most of Friday in Art Show inputing art into the database and checking stuff in. We could not get the hotel’s free wifi over on the convention side, and the convention side wanted 1500 dollars a day or something for internet access for Katsucon, and we didn’t need it that badly. I tethered my phone to my laptop and used it for internet, but I kept having to reboot it a couple times because it did not like to do internet and forty other things at once. I folded around midnight and passed out.

Saturday I woke up around 8, showered, and ate staff breakfast down in the staff suite. All the other staff meals were in the Gaylord’s Staff Cafeteria, which offered a bunch of food options for cheap, and we had up to $10 for each meal. This translated to having a ton of food, everything from pizza, salad, pasta, cheeseburgers, fries, fruit, and a bunch else. I won’t lie, this was the best staff food option we have had since Katsu 10 at the Hyatt. I can stand to stay here for many years if this keeps up. Saturday was basically bids, close, tally, auction, and close. Outside of that I did some dealer’s room shopping, picking up an artbook for myself and Matt, a Nanoha StrikerS book for myself and a Shana book for him. I did not see a 00 Raiser, other than a Perfect Grade, as tempting as that is, expensive. Of Nanoha figures I was trying to find, I did find the Nanoha StrikerS version I wanted, but 150 was too rich for me, I ended up buying the Figma version of Vita for 45 on Sunday. Two passes through dealers, saw a lot of stuff, but nothing else really grabbed my attention except the goggles and the top hats, but not willing to buy either. Dealers was actualy rather disappoint this year really. I linked up with Mattie for a bit and dropped by GeeksNextDoor’s booth in Artist’s Alley and I dropped by Dave Lister’s book in dealers later on. I hung out with her and her roommates for a bit both Friday and Saturday. I did not attend the cosplay contest but I heard some of the details. Maybe next year. We did try to go to this “Mystery Heckle Theater 3000” panel at midnight, and while the premise seemed excellent, the execution of it was horrible. The idea of having a bunch of people scream outdated internet memes and movie catch-phrases at some obscure anime totally defeated the implied spirit of MST3K/Rifftrax. Mattie and them left halfway in after getting bored, I stuck around until he started choosing people to go sit up and do the commentary, but I left afterwards. It seemed like a cool idea, but the better idea would have been to have the hosts do their own session, then pick a few people to come up and do a session, and vote who stays and goes, and do like that. Too disruptive and slow to start. I went to bed around 3am and woke up Sunday at 8am.

Today I woke up and ate breakfast, listening to the damage report from Saturday night, one girl put her arm or herself through a glass table in the lobby, someone punched an information kiosk, and some ravers were busted for E. This is business as usual for Katsucon, hopefully the Gaylord won’t think too badly of us. Art Show finished checking out artists and bidders and we packed up. Did my final tour of the dealers and picked up Vita and manga for Ola, which I forgot somehow and Suds has to ship back. Caught Dave for one last time and then one more last time as he did the Pokemon panel across the hall from us upstairs. Got my one last staff lunch in around 2 and left at 4, made excellent time coming back with only two 10-minute stops for gas and McD fries, got back at 10pm. I made the correct decision in choosing the GWB Express side as the Local side was backed up from an accident. Score. Also, the GWB is $8 toll. Pretty sure it was $5 before, christ.

Overall, I think the Gaylord is nearly perfect for this con and hopefully we will stay long enough to actually build up the attendee base. Next year I’m planning to do Thursday through Sunday so it doesn’t feel so rushed, and maybe if I can get enough people to split the cost, get a multi-room suite.

Photos will get added here tomorrow, along with anything else noteworthy I can think of. Check FB for now for all the day-to-day details and pics.