My personal retrospective of PAX Aus 2016: (I'll keep it short for reasons which will become clear later)
THE GREAT:* Obviously, G/K/P being there at all was always going to be incredible, and man, they did *not* disappoint. The Jackbox panel was hilarious, and their personal panel the next day was like one of those "best of" episodes of your favourite TV show. A definite treat.
* The "pin mules" really pulled through this year! With a minimal amount of fuss a troubles, we were able to secure 2 (mostly) complete PAX Aus pin sets to donate to LRR. Some of those special events ones are always going to be a pain in the ass to nail down though (Alienwaaaaaare! *fist shake*), but I feel like we did a great job regardless. Looking forward to helping out with this initiative again next year... maybe even *BETTER* ^_^
THE GOOD:* I didn't get out to a huge amount of different panels, but what I did see covered a great range of interesting and thoughtful content. It's always a good time when you can simultaneously be entertained and also get some insights into aspects of our nerdy culture which you might not always consider.
* The reason I didn't get to so many panels - there were so many to choose from! Always felt like there was never a dull moment. And even if there was a dull moment, taking a second to stop and breathe away from it all is always appreciated... even if it *is* only crappy Melb'n
. *shrug* Oh well, they can't all be winners : p
THE AVERAGE:* Gotta love the traditional "event pricing" markup. I guess it's a bit of a necessary evil, and with better planning you can absolutely avoid getting gouged too badly... but really, it coulda been worse. And some of the food was actually pretty great - seemed like a real step up from last year.
THE BAD:* Not going to sugar coat it... we (in general) really suck at planning. And/or possibly I really suck at planning (mental note, maybe look into this "tweeter" thing at some point eventually)... the important note is that somewhere along the line, the Australian runners collectively dropped the friggin' ball. So it was a little disappointing that we missed out on enjoying some of the events that were tentatively planned. Upshot - I get a sweet unopened box of Conspiracy to do with whatever my sick little heart desires.
But look, honestly... yeah, we coulda done better on that front, but a nonzero amount of ball-dropping was directly on my hands. Sorry guys : (
THE TERRIBLE:* I got pox'd and had to sit out of day 3 : (
* And we'd already booked in for an 11 hour train ride back to Sydney the day after the convention
* And the train was delayed along the way so it was even longer than necessary
* And I bought too much and my luggage was really heavy
So yeah. Definitely more sweet than bitter though, all things considered. Good times had by most. Thoughts for next year... we're almost certainly going to bring some kind of official sign, so that passing runners, specifically forumites, will locate each other *much* faster / at all. And... I mean, not to harp on a point, but let's all try (life permitting, of course) to get our plans in early and stick to them! Go team!
Melbn sucks! : p