A look Back at Timegate 2012! My thoughts

Buster, my puppet making an appearance!

Being a director at a con is much different than being a con attendee.  As one would expect the experience changes.  Your fun factor shifts, and for me it shifts for the better.

I have been the co-director of Timegate for the past three years.  It has honestly been a life changing experience.  three years ago I jumped into water that was WAY over my head and Since then I have came up to the surface a bit.  As a person it has changed me to be a bit more personable, a bit more outspoken, and a bit more critical of what I say.  I have seen different ways to run presentations, and I have found myself to be more versatile.  As a director you have to be many things, a Carnival caller, a mediator if problems arise, a moderator to try to let every one have their chance to talk.

This year at Timegate has been no different, it was a great time being on "that side" of the panel room.  The guests were all GREAT! the attendees all came with GREAT questions! It seemed that everyone went away happy.  As always I walked away from the weekend with new friends.

Of course you don't want to hear my fluffy ramblings about life changes, YOU want to hear about the convention. . . So, fearless reader, I give you my thoughts on the weekend, but you have to realize I was in my panel room most of the time.

Timegate is a convention full of costumes, and friends and love for the two franchises it represents.  The weekend started on Friday.  My favorite part is always coming down to the lobby for the first time.  you see the people registering, and picking up their badges, and you see friends.  this year was no different immediately I was greeted with the faces of my dear timegate friends that I see once a year.  The people who run the con, and the people who help with my tracks.  all of them are fantastic people and seeing them is an event of it's own.

Getting started with the first panel of the weekend

The panels began without a hitch.  This year we were in a much larger room and our first panel took advantage of it.  It was a great packed panel that focused on "companions"  the panel was great, and our panelists really started the weekend of with a bang!  and Friday night continued like that.  Friday is always the busiest.  I didn't even have time to take more than a cursory look through the vendor room on Friday!  The night eneded with an open mic fan cometary of the new edition of the classic story "Day of the Daleks"!  We had some great commentators in there who seemed to really have fun.

$25000 Pyramid of Mars

Saturday is always the big day and the panels kept bringing in the crowds and the panelists were ALL so great! The real events started on Saturday as well with the $25000 Pyramid of Mars where we married A game show and Sutek Destroyer of Worlds!  We had Josh Wilson and Lars Pearson of Mad Norwegian press as our "Celebrity guests" and it was a lot of fun!  We really enjoyed it and the audience did to!  We had some great contestants a lot of great laughter!  The questions we found were very hard!

Countdown to 50 panel

The panels continued to be great, But, as it does every year,  the anticipation built us toward the script read through at the end of the night on saturday.  during the script read through we go through my library of unmade scripts and we have a dramatic reading of one.  I have to give huge props to my co-director, Martin Hennessee, and Bill Ritch of the Atlanta Radio Theater, for helping a top notch performance take place!




 Sunday continued to be great and panels went on, but on Sunday we got the best quote ever from a young attendee, when asked what his favorite thing about Doctor who was he said "The TARDIS - it travels through time and space. . . Isn't that enough"  it was GREAT! the enthusiasm of the younger demographic was fantastic!

Every thing about the con out did itself this year.  The dealer room was great, I will be doing another post about some of the things I picked up this year.

The whole con was great I do want to give a few shout outs to some people who made it great! and this is not an extensive list, and I apologize if I miss some people.

Alan Siler is such a good friend and is the guy that makes Timegate happen, so big props to him!
Marten Hennessee is my partner in crime and my co-director.  I couldn't do it without him!
Check out Mad Norwegian Press where Lars Pearson is the publisher        
Josh Wilson also works as an editor for Mad Norwegian and is also my co-host on The Oncoming Storm podcast
 Scott and Sacha both participate in The articles of the Shadow Proclamation Podcast and have a very cool new project coming very soon!
George Cockrell is the best unpaid scientific adviser a con could ask for!
Bill Ritch and the Atlanta Radio Theater Company helped us TONs.  If you get the chance to see one of their productions please DO!
Ken Spivey of the Ken Spivey Band has some great music!
Kathy Sullivan shares a last name with dear Harry, and  really knows her stuff!  Check out her books!
Denise Bagley who is usually our only staffer who could not be there this year, but she showed up anyway!  Thanks Denise!
I would be remiss if I did not thank my wife as well for letting me participating in this even every year over our anniversary weekend.  THANK YOU!

Also ALL of the people who attended the con and the panels.  There were lots of new who fans who have an interest for the new series AND have a huge respect for the classic series!  I am so glad to see that, so if you guys have any questions ASK!