Crypticon Houston Recap

So, where to begin about Crypticon Houston? Friday afternoon I guess. Well we arrived to a disorganized mess, registration wasn't set up, and no early entry for the VIP pass holders. SO at that point I'm wondering to myself why it was exactly that we paid $200 for VIP passes? We managed to register and get our passes, get inside and start getting autographs. There were a lot of "Indie" film makers at the show which was refreshing. I attribute the troubles to first convention growing pains. The t-shirts were decently designed, I did have the complaint that their largest size was XL. I apologize if I am being a bit critical on this issue, but not all horror fans are "Beautiful People" who are a size M or L and not all female horror fans are a size 4!
I can say that all of the guests who were advertised were there and very pleasant to talk with. Ed Neal had something to do and didn't show up until Saturday, but I believe there was a sign on his table stating such, so nice save there.
I do think that the venue was a bad choice, it was too large for a small con. A hotel would have been a much better choice. One of the things that I heard grumbles and complaints about from fellow convention goers was the parking situation. $8 every time you left and wanted to come back (Thank you Reliant Center). It sounds small and trivial, but here's the reason it's a problem. If, say for instance, you get hungry and want to run off to eat something, $8, then you get back and realize that you left an item you wanted signed in your hotel, you either wait on it or pay another $8 for parking. A hotel as the venue would have eliminated this issue entirely.
The gathering was small as far as convention goers was concerned, which is not a bad thing, if you're a convention goer. I'm certain that the convention coordinators were hoping for a bigger turn out. As I was saying, as a fan it was exquisite, there were short lines and it was nice having more than two or three minutes to talk to the celebs while hey signed your stuff. There was time to ask the questions I wanted to ask and time to pitch the show to some of the (Hopefully) upcoming guests.
For myself it was nice to get to know some of the indie film makers, normally I'm rushing off to get this or that signed and the only times I'm not really engaged in something is when I am outside smoking.
The Costume Party was held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in a ballroom, where Mike Terror and Revolutions rocked the stage. Kristy Swanson got on stage with Revolutions and played both Bass and did drum solo.
The Tattoo Booth run by Advanced Body Art was tattooing all weekend, they also did Kristy Swanson and Cathy Saint George their first tattoos. Yes you read that correctly, two of the celebs got their first tats at the convention!
Saturday they were far more organized and everything seemed to run as planned, some of the panels ran over their scheduled time, which is testament to the actors and or actresses on the panels going out of their way to answer the fans questions.
Sunday went without a hitch, so there's not much to say about that.


SUMMARY

There were problems, but I know that Crypticon Houston will take the lessons learned from this first convention and remedy them. Better advertising and a more accessible venue for both the guests and convention goers will vastly improve things. Having a few more volunteers to help out with things like registration, planning and execution will make everything run more smoothly in the long run. As I said, hopefully, Crypticon Houston will take these small steps in the future and return even bigger and better next year, having learned what worked and what didn't work.
Simply put, continue on with what worked, omit and change the things that didn't work and success will come. There is no trial without error and you cannot succeed if you don't try, if you try and fail, to not try again is the true failure. I guess it will be a year before we find out if Crypticon Houston was a success or a failure.

-Cheers!