Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
We had a great time at SoonerCon this year. But of course.
The con moved to the Embassy Suites in Norman this year. It was a closer drive for us. No fighting Friday afternoon rush hour in OKC. (It's like Dallas and Austin Friday rush hours, in that it just goes on all day.) Of course, some people probably had a worse drive compared to before. I'd been at that hotel several years ago for a con, and liked it. It's showing its age a bit now and looks ready for a major refresh. (More on that in a bit.) But it's still a good venue for this type of event.
Since Paul was taking K-9 this year, we decided to rent a minivan. That was nice, even though it was a bit of a behemoth compared to our C-Max.
We arrived early Friday afternoon and the hotel had rooms ready for us. Yay! We got moved in, and I set up in the Art Show and got all the gear ready for the 4:00 Wearable Electronics panel.
Saturday was busy indeed. Paul was off showing K-9 for most of the day, and I had three panels plus the radio show. (Of course, Paul was also involved in the radio show.) Technically, I think we did a much better job on the show this year, but I've realized that I need to go back and open the show with a brief explanation of what we're doing. SoonerCon has grown so much that a good deal of the crowd is new to what we do. I'll keep that in mind for next year.
Sunday morning was a Kaffeeklatch and then in the afternoon I had a buckram blocking workshop. We had 10 of the 11 slots full, and I think everyone enjoyed it, even if it was a tad messy.
The one problem with this facility isn't the con's fault. There are a LOT of airwalls in that place, and I was having trouble hearing people. Also, the battery on my right hearing aid didn't get all the way in on Saturday, and it was only half working. Grr. I think I'm going to ask the audiologist if there's anything they can do go program in a setting that will help. I suspect this will be a problem at FenCon as well.
I also discovered that my foot isn't healed as well as I thought it was (for those who don't follow me on Facebook, I had an altercation with the credenza in my office a couple of months ago). I'm trying to stay off of it as much as possible for the next couple of days to promote healing.
All in all, SoonerCon was a blast. It's nice to get away to a con that I'm not running, and it's nice to be appreciated for the things that I do.
Major thanks to everyone who helped put on this event. I know how hard it is. Now go get some rest.