InConJunction XXXIX
InConJunction is the Circle City's longest-running science fiction convention, and has kept its old-school charm while doing its best to keep up with the times. It still has a con suite where you can find munchies to keep you going between activities, and where you can hang out with other fen. It's a place where the guests of honor are not celebrities behind velvet ropes, but other lovers of science fiction and fantasy who have become notable in some endeavor, whether it be writing, art, cosplaying, music or just being a Big Name Fan.
It's also a home-town convention for us, which was welcome after the lengthy drive and disappointing sales of Wisconsin Comic Con. It meant we could go home each night and sleep in our own bed, and have a little fun time with our cat.
This year it was held over the weekend of July 5-7, 2019 at the Indianapolis Marriott East, with dealer setup the day before. On Thursday right after lunch my husband and I headed over to the hotel so we could get the van in a good spot to load in. Another family member was going to come over in the car and help with load-in and setup, but he'd come down with some kind of illness and we all agreed that it would be best if he didn't become Patient Zero of a nasty con crud outbreak.
Load-in was complicated by the heat and humidity, which just sapped my energy. Worse, I was having trouble with keeping the cart under control as I took it down the ramp to the roll-up door into the exhibition hall. So although I had one of the big carts from the hotel, I had to limit the amount of mass I could load on it. It wasn't so bad when I was carrying things like squishies, but when I was hauling t-shirts or books, I ended up with about half the load I could've taken on a shallower slope, simply because I didn't want to risk the cart getting away from me and crashing into someone's vehicle or otherwise causing harm.
As a result, it took forever to get everything into the dealers' room. I still had almost all our hardcover books in there when it was time to close for the night. At least we didn't have to quick rearrange them to have a stable load to drive home, since our third family member was able to drive the car over and pick us up.
When we got back home, we had supper. Then I took care of some things before we turned in for the night.
On Friday we had to get up super-early to get back to the hotel and finish setting up, since our third family member was still feeling ill and not up to coming. My first order of business was to haul in the final loads of books and the big gridwall units. By this time my husband had all the minigrid structures set up, although the zip ties had done a real number on his nails. So I went to work putting t-shirts in their hutches while he put figurines and other items in the other ones. We didn't quite get finished by the time the doors opened, but we came reasonably close.
Sales were slow, but it is a small convention, so we had to adjust our expectations accordingly. We did have some time to slip over to the con suite and grab some munchies. However, we didn't want to indulge too much, especially on the sweets.
After the dealers' room closed for the evening, we went to the con suite to hang out for a while. Then we headed home to have supper. Since there were no parties (other than Barfleet, which is too drunk for our tastes), we just took it easy until time to turn in for the night. I did accomplish a little work, so the day wasn't lost altogether.
On Saturday we got up and headed over to the hotel. To save time, we just ate the con suite's breakfast, then headed over to the dealers' room to get things open for the day. I finally got a little chance to walk the dealers' room, although a lot of people hadn't gotten their tables uncovered before I needed to get back to our own.
Sales did pick up, and I started feeling better about our finances. However, I was still painfully aware that we had a long way to go to recover from the previous weekend's disaster. A small con like this one might help out, but it wouldn't put us back where we needed to be, especially when we really needed to do some serious restocking for the three big conventions in August.
After the dealers' room closed for the evening, we went to the con suite to do a little munching. Then we went out to the Royal Manticorian Navy table in the atrium and hung out with our friends there. They weren't throwing a party, so we ended up taking off after a while. We needed to eat a real supper at home, and there was some stuff we needed to get done. I spent some time writing out a new story idea that had come from listening to people joking about a very public gaffe by a public figure misreading a teleprompter.
On Sunday we got up and headed back to the hotel. This time our other family member was able to come, at least long enough to drop us off in the car so we had the possibility of his helping us load out if he felt up to it in the evening. He did join us briefly in the con suite for breakfast, then headed back home to avoid spreading too many germs. So he finally did get a little something out of his membership after all.
We got our tables opened for business and I did a little walking around the dealers' room before we actually opened. Sales were slow at first, but we did have a few nice large ones before I had to start packing stuff. Our third family member came near the end of the day and helped us get everything packed and the structures broken down.
Once the dealers' room closed and they opened the big roll-up door, I started hauling stuff out as fast as I could within the constraints of being able to push the cart up the ramp. I did have to stop briefly while the Fiberglass Freaks crew pushed out the Batmobile, but even then I was trying to get some last few items packed and ready to go away.
We were able to get everything loaded in good time, thanks to another vendor who is apparently local and who decided to stay and help us get out. Because she's also a vendor, she understood a lot of important things about handling other people's merchandise, and even was able to see some possibilities that I didn't for how to pack stuff. So we got a good, tight load, although it wasn't as critical as it would be for a long drive.
Then my husband and I dropped by the con suite for a little of the dead dog party. However, we couldn't stay long, because we needed to get home for a real supper and then I needed to get the van up to the storage unit to change our merchandise over in preparation for the anime convention we'd be leaving for on Tuesday.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated July 21, 2019.