ConClave 30
ConClave 30 was held over the weekend of October 8-10, 2005 at the Holiday Inn in Lansing, Michigan. However, we stayed at the Day's Inn just down the road.
We arrived just before noon on Friday, after having stayed the night with family on the way. We got our personal belongings into our sleeping room, then headed over to the con hotel. However, the dealers' room wasn't ready for us to move our merchandise in, so I got some notebooks out and did some writing. while we waited.
Once we finally got our merchandise loaded in, we had to get set up. Because of the late start, we were still setting up when the doors opened, so we had to keep telling people that we would sell to them even while we were setting up. Once we got set up, I took my art over to the art show and got it set up.
By the time the dealers' room closed for the evening, it was late enough that we didn't want to stay up over-late for parties. We did stop by the Penguicon suite, since we wanted to touch base about selling at it next year. However, we missed what looked like an interesting party because they weren't open yet. Thanks to the recent papal election, there was an increased awareness of the origin of the word "conclave," so they decided to hold a mock papal election. Then we headed back over to the Day's Inn and grabbed a quick bite of supper before turning in for the night.
Saturday, we got up early and headed over to the Holiday Inn to get breakfast in the con suite. Then we headed down to the dealers' room and opened our tables for business. However, sales remained pathetically slow. By mid-afternoon we decided we wouldn't be returning to ConClave in the future, because we couldn't afford to throw good money after bad.
After the dealers' room closed for the evening, we had supper. Then we went back to the main hotel and went to the parties. As we entered the Holiday Inn, we discovered that someone else had gotten into the spirit of the mock papal election by costuming as the pope, complete with a good replica of the white simar (the cassock of a bishop, distinguished from the ordinary priestly cassock by its shoulder-cape) and a tall miter. He wandered around the con suite and the parties, giving comic blessings to all who asked.
In addition to Penguicon's suite, ConFluence in Pittsburgh had a party. Unfortunately, they hold their con on the same weekend as another event that is very good for us. As we were ready to leave, we had a bit of a scare when I discovered my shawl missing. I went back to all the parties, but couldn't find it anywhere. Just as I was about to give up hope of ever seeing it again, we found it lying on the railing in the lobby area.
Sunday we got up early and carried our personal belongings out of our sleeping room. We ended up getting to the Holiday Inn so early that we had time to kill after getting our breakfast in the con suite.
As soon as we could get into the dealers' room we got our tables opened for business. However, sales remained slow, so we started packing early to maks sure we were ready to load out as soon as the dealers' room closed. We had help loading the heaviest items out, so we were able to get on the road reasonably quickly.
Copyright 1998 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated October 21, 2012.