ACEN 2010 – Thursday
Thursday night after work got out I grabbed my already packed (and very heavy luggage case), and headed out to the blue line to Rosemont. I was kind of beat after the long work day, but extremely excited for the weekend ahead because this was my first year as an official guest of one of my favorite conventions of the year: ACEN!
This was the 13th year of the show, and it’s grown by leaps and bounds. Last year they boasted 17,000 attendees – making them one of the largest conventions in the country. I was unofficially on their guest list last year, but didn’t have a table or any product to sell. Instead, I sat on several panels and helped spread education and entertaining stories to the masses. Apparently they liked me enough to invite me back as an official guest of the show this year – and for all of you who requested me, I humbly thank you.
Russell Lissau (The 29, Batman Strikes!), another guest of the show and my good friend, picked me up and took me to Target because I forgot my table cloth for the show. Then we headed into the Hyatt and went straight for the green room so I could get my room keys and badge from con ops.
Russell and I were then invited to a meet-and-greet with the con volunteers and the guests. Kind of a fun way to mingle with the people volunteering their weekend to making the show as awesome as possible! We chatted up one such staffer, and were joined by fellow guest Steve Yun (Robotech).
After the meet-and-greet, we went to go grab tickets to see Iron Man 2. Although I had already seen it (read the review here), Russell had not. When we got to the theater, I was amazed to see several of my friends from college (who attend the show every year) were already in the theater! We sat by them and enjoyed the flick together.
After the movie ended, Russell and I headed back up to the green room to hang out with the guests and staffers. Many of the Japanese guests were up there with their translators, as well as many of the American voice actors. I had met a few of them at previous cons, but this year they recognized me – probably because I was the only bald guest, and probably because my profile picture in the brochure had that blazing red background.
After a few drinks, I headed off to bed looking forward to the long weekend to come.
To be continued….
