Convention fun in Tallahssee

Jason and I went to a Steampunk convention in Tallahassee this weekend.  Ok, I went for fun and Jason went for work (he is part timing at Tandy Leather).  This was the first year for the GLI Expo and it showed, sadly.  It was a convention that consisted of only a vendor room.  They did have to panel "rooms" curtained off but still felt too vendor-ie.

Likes:

1. Good city with loads of places to explore.
2. Super friendly vendors.
3. The film room played Castle in the Sky, but I missed Steamboy :(
4. Costume contest with great entries.
5. The crafters and artists!  Mostly local people to Tallahassee but some good talent there.
6. The cake-pop truck!!
7. Panel on a Steampunk Christmas

Dislikes:

1. The venue.  I am so use to having cons attached to Hotels that allows for more socializing.
2. Lack of food and beverages.  Aside from the cake pops there was nothing.
3. More creative and prepared panels.  The panels were nice but most felt too last minute.
4. Lack of costuming vendors.  This seemed lack of forethought.  A costume vendor would have made a killing.  There were some vintage vendors there but they were missing key elements or had too much non-steamy goodness.

The turn out was small, as expected for a first year, but it felt smaller due to the venue size.  This is a sub-set con and I think would have been much nicer and felt bigger in a smaller space.  I felt very underwhelmed by the panels, it was all good information but just too casual.  I would have loved to have seen more and experience more but there just was not much.  I am use to the Con community in Chattanooga which is very strong and pulls in people and help from other areas.  I would love  to see this Con get some advice on panels, extra vendors and venues from Convention groups in Atl.

All in all it was a valiant first year con that was fun to see and priced very well for what it was.

Linkage: http://www.gli-expo.com/

Will be adding a picture post later this week :)