Sasnak City 2019 wasn’t perfect but that doesn’t mean it was a complete shambles. Here’s why the Outlander convention is worth the money.
Let’s be honest that Sasnak City 2019 wasn’t perfect. You know, I’ve never known of a con that is perfect, so I went in expecting mishaps along the way. My tip is to go into everything with no expectations and then you won’t be disappointed.
But I know there were a lot of people who were disappointed. That was especially the case for those who didn’t buy extra photo ops or autographs for whatever reason. It was disappointing for those looking forward to panels than not to get many. And I’ll get onto those disappointing moments with some suggestions for improving them in a bit.
Just remember one thing. Sasnak City is just three years old. it’s a baby con compared to the Creation Ent-run conventions, the likes of NYCC and SDCC, and even compared to Starfury in the UK. When you start a convention, there are teething problems. Yet, when I talked to a lot of people at the con, they weren’t going to skip on things next year because of one thing: Gina Phipps-Hubbell.
Owning up to problems
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Many con organizers would try to hide away if things went wrong. Gina didn’t. She got up on stage and immediately owned up to the mess. While she shared why things went wrong, she never once made excuses. She just apologized, owned it, and tried to get things running as fast and as properly as possible.
What many people wouldn’t have see was Gina and her volunteers running things behind the scenes. I personally spent a lot of time with them because it was a few of them pointing me in the right direction. They were pointing everyone in the right direction, ensuring people got what they paid for and what they needed.
Behind the scenes, they were trying to remain calm and work out a plan to get everything moving again. On Sunday, things were much calmer and maybe that’s because there were fewer people to get through the last few photo ops.
This is where one of my first suggestions comes in, though. It might be best to keep people seated in one place, whether it’s the auditorium or the small area with tables. They can easily go check the vendors too, but make sure people are in one or two places at the most. Then people can be called up tier-by-tier for what they need. Those with meet and greets can be found easily and it’s simply to get things running.
There were hundreds of people to get through lines. This is where my next suggestion comes in. Organize by tier and day. Fraser’s Ridge and Lallybroch people with Saturday tickets could get their photo ops and autographs on Saturday. Maybe Leoch would fit in there as there aren’t too many of them. All others could wait until Sunday. Those with just Friday tickets then can be organized on Friday for things.
It would help to keep lines moving. That could have been hard on Sunday due to cast members needing to leave early, like Maria Doyle Kennedy who could only do half a day, but things could be organized around one person when that’s the case—and things were. Maria’s autograph line went down extremely quickly because Gina knew that they needed to go as fast as possible to get everyone in.