Please, please, somebody tell me that Boskone was fun on Saturday (2/16/08). Colin and I checked it out on Sunday (2/17) and frankly it was pretty lame. Nothing much going on, only one fan/attendant was in costume, not even many cool vendors. Walking by the bar when there was supposed to be a “literary beer” we saw an empty room. Maybe everybody was hungover from parties the night before - the moderator of one pannel was clutching a bottle of Excedrin for the whole hour; maybe everyone left town for the long weekend. I dunno. It was just dull. There was some nice artwork on display, but it looked like hardly any had been sold or even bid on.
I had fun at Arisia last month, when I also attended the Sunday, and was hoping that Boskone would be at least a good. But no. The programs weren’t even folded correctly, so until we figured it out it looked like the schedule was randomly skipping back and forth between saturday and sunday.
Anime Boston is next month (3/21-3/23). We’re planning on the saturday for that one. It’ll be better. It has to be.
It all depends on your definition of “fun.”
You’re not gonna see hall costumes, because that’s not what Boskone is all about.
But you’re not gonna hear much filk at Arisia lately, so Boskone was a great venue for filk, including a noontime Sunday concert by Lady Mondegreen. There was also a lot going on in the gaming room. (I cannot comment on the quality of anime).
Certainly, the dealers’ room was better at Boskone. (There not have been one at Arisia), and the art show (which a touch weak) was a heck of a lot easier to get to.
I am sorry you did not enjoy yourself.
I am assuming you cannot get to cons on Saturdays? I also think Arisia does more on Sunday than Boskone.
Boskone was deader than a thing made of dead on Sunday. Also, a bit of programming got moved or changed at the last minute (there were signs up, and there was a daily newsletter available at the info desk–also, people are sick, everyone is sick, it’s not concrud it’s pre-con crud. anyway.)
The Saturday programming was interesting, but it (as the previous commenter says) depends on your definition of interesting. The bit of anime I saw in the video room didn’t suck, but I like mahou shoujo.
Most of the programs should have been collated, folded, and stapled correctly. I can only speak for the ones I saw people collating, but we were weeding out a lot of misprints and things not in order. Ooops?
I try to get the BostonGeeks to go to cons Saturdays but there always seem to be scheduling issues. It was obvious from the event schedule that sunday was basically a spillover day. I was just surprised how dead it really was.
Vendors at Arisia were all lin their own hotel rooms on the 2nd floor, rather than in a big “vendor’s room.” Obviously they’re less visible that way and a little inconvenient, but it worked okay. There were more vendors and a wider variety of vendors at Arisia.
Arisia & Boskone are two extremely different conventions. I like both, but for very different reasons.
Arisia, Boskone, and AnimeBoston are entirely different conventions. You really can’t compare them as they all do different things on different days.
Boskone isn’t as fast or flashy as Arisia or AB. It’s main topics are filk and writing. For filk it is probably the best convention to attend.
Anime seemed to be pretty popular at Boskone this year. Gaming was not as popular this year, although the Wii, which drew so much interest last year, is no longer the new thing on the block.
Still, many people came in to try out Rock band (and they even created a few new accounts on the game for them, which are going to be deleted).
The art work at Boskone is also top notch.
Arisia appeals to everyone as opposed to Boskone which is more of a specialty convention. AnimeBoston, of which I should also be attending, is nothing like either of them.
AB, however, has its own problem: 11000 people trying to get into one event. Needless to say, a long wait in line is rather necessary at AB to get into anything. It simply cannot be helped. AB, however, has the best costumes. It also has the best video game room.
Each convention has its own flavor. You can’t expect to see the same thing at every convention. If that was the case there wouldn’t be all these different conventions.
Even aside from the differences between the cons (music is better at Boskone, gaming & costuming are better at Arisia), Arisia is a 4 day con now; Boskone’s still a three day one.
So Boskone Sunday == Arisia Monday.
That said, I had a great time at Boskone, even on Sunday — the fantabulous Lady Mondegreen concert in the afternoon, then fun chatting in the game room, then an hour and a half of dead dog filking before I had to go.
I certainly agree that it is probably an unfair comparison (Boskone to Arisia to Vericon to AnimeBoston, etc), however, I also just think that Boskone just wasn’t for me. I wanted to go, because I hadn’t been before, but tend to enjoy gaming (d&d, etc) cons.
If I were a Scifi/Fantasy writer, I think Boskone would have been _so_ much more interesting to me than it was. To each his (or her) own. I just think its great that we have a nice variety of cons to attend here in the Northeast.
Gaming at Boskone is not #1, although I run it and as long as I do I will treat it as if it were #1 and do everything I can to make it the best it can be.
That, however, cannot change that Boskone is more for filk and writing. I’m actually glad that Boskone is that way as I will be the first to admit that I don’t read as much as I should and I’d hate to see a Boston without a Boskone, for I feel that it does have a place in the mist of all the cons here.
Boskone is also a slower pace than the other conventions. This is also a good thing, for if you’re like me and attend 5 conventions in the first 3 months of the year, a slower pace convention is great after two conventions that can run you through the ringer as far as a schedule goes (especially this year, where the first two were back to back and now that Boskone is finished it is also back to back with Totalcon).
There are plenty of faster, flashier cons out there, so a slow one where you can literally sit down with friends for a couple of hours and just talk is a nice change of pace once a year.
If I may be allowed to make a personal plug, if you head to yahoo groups and type in GCIACST (Greater Convention Info And Con Survivel Tips) and join, you can check the calander for all the different types of conventions happening in New England and one state beyond. This will give you a good list of conventions to check out and you should be able to find one that you will like.
Thanks. I’ll definitely add the GCIACST Group’s RSS feed to my Google Reader.