A little on the 2007 Open House and Aftermath

[Kevin]

By now you’ve probably read the zillions of rave reviews on Palladium’s 2007 Open House and seen the many photographs being posted. In short . . . it was AWESOME!

Everyone had as much fun this year as they did last year . . . maybe more fun! It was fantastic. Two days (three for VIP Friday folk) of gaming, fun, laughs and conversation. I had a blast, though I was nonstop busy talking, signing autographs, running games, setting up the silent auction, dealing with event issue and being pulled in all directions. Lost 5 pounds being on my feet for a week! It was a blast.

The event went off without a glitch. We estimate about 250-270 people in attendance and we had people from Australia, Canada, and all across the USA – including Alaska, Washington, California, Texas, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, Florida, and many, many other places. For some reason, we seemed to have an unusually large number of folks from Virginia, Missouri, Texas and California. Cool. We were happy to greet EVERYONE from wherever they came from and we’re delighted that everyone seemed to have a great time.

I would have posted more, sooner, but we have been wiped out, especially me. I think all the previous two-weeks of prep work and the Open House itself just finally caught up with me. It didn’t help that I had caught a touch of a cold or some kind of bug which made me feel sluggish, played havoc with my sinuses and made my voice gravelly.

Monday was a blur. We tore down displays, cleaned up the warehouse and processed orders from the weekend. I chatted with a half dozen fans who dropped by the office on their way home throughout the day and drove my pal, Joe Bergmans, to the airport. Then I knocked off early for the day around 6:00 PM, fell asleep by 10:00 P.M. Oh, no! Am I getting old?!

Tuesday, long time pal, Thom Bartold, dropped by to help us rearrange the warehouse and ship out Rifts Machinations of Doom. So did Tony Falzon. We also chatted a bit and handled a few business things. Still felt a bit under the weather (which explains why Wayne Smith beat me in a best of seven fooze ball match) and fell asleep on my couch in my office for two hours. Went home around 8:00 PM.

Wednesday, seemed like telephone day as a number of friends and freelancers called to talk about the fun they had at the Open House. I also had to run some errands, approved more art and pages for the John Zeleznik Art Book coming this summer, and took care of some business. Meant to write a Murmur and post-Open House report, as well as a new press release, but the day just seemed to zoom by. Still sluggish. Went to buy new comics around 7:00 PM and then home.

Thursday, telephone calls continued to pour in today. All glowing reports of fun and how we MUST do this again next year no matter what! Went through four days of mail, wrote out payments for a zillion bills, made arrangements to print Johnny Z’s Art Book, approved some art, wrapped presents for Wayne Smith’s birthday party tomorrow (his B-Day is May 1, but we postponed celebrating it till the 11th) and took care of a number of other business issues.

It’s 8:10 PM and I still have to write my “official” Open House report, answer six days of e-mail (sorry), write a press release, look over the Robotech Contract and take care of a few other things. At least I’m starting to feel better.

Sorry I haven’t posted sooner. More tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist, Happy Conventioneer and Blurry-Eyed Guy
© Copyright May 10, 2007