Conventional Wisdom: depressing times at tiltEXPO

Sometimes I leave things out of Conventional Wisdom updates because I just can’t make them funny. Other times I can’t condense a sprawling idea down to a single page. Still other times I just don’t feel comfortable sharing an anecdote involving some other people without their permission. The first night of tiltEXPO got left out of that update for a unique reason: it was just too freaking SAD.

There’s a good chance that most people reading this won’t even recognize the name “tiltEXPO”, which should give you a hint about how this story will turn out. Basically, it was supposed to be a successor to the Escapist Expo. Those guys weren’t doing an event of their own in 2014, but this group “Tilt” decided to step in at the last minute to help them do something. Apparently they were normally concert promoters or something? I’m not sure. The point is, they wanted to capitalize on whatever reputation the Escapist events had build up by doing a gaming and music shindig. When you say it that way, it sounds a little like MAGFest, right? Yeah, about that…

So, I show up in Durham Friday night, and something I’ve NEVER experienced before takes place: I’m the only one there. I mean, there’s staffers running all over the place, and the acts for that nights concert were milling about, but no ATTENDEES. I was actually the first person to check in and get a badge. And understand, I didn’t show up super early. In fact, I wandered around downtown Durham for about an hour, convinced I WAS early since there didn’t seem to be any people lined up yet. But no, I was on time, and attendee #0000001. I’ve been to… gosh, a lot of conventions, and that’s happened exactly ONCE. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but that’s because you didn’t have to gaze into the eyes of a table full of staffers and see the growing sense of panic. You didn’t hear the nervous laughter of volunteers trying not to show how concerned they were. You didn’t see the boxes upon boxes of badges that hadn’t even been touched yet, and probably never would.  Yeah... not fun.

One comic that DID make it into the update was my being the only person in the audience at a panel, and yes, it was SUPER awkward. However, what I tactfully neglected to mention was how often that situation repeated itself over the weekend. I don’t think any of the concerts ever had more people in front of the stage than were on them. That’s never not depressing to watch. Admittedly, the Cosplay Contest was well attended, and the Game Room was always decently busy, but it was clear that wasn’t where Tilt had sunk all their money. They were in this thing for the concerts, and the concerts… well, there won’t be a tiltEXPO 2015, and I could have told you that before I even left. I couldn’t bring myself to do a comic about it, though, ‘cos that’s just sad. They may not have done a good job planning or promoting the thing, but at least they SORT OF tried, and I don’t like the thought of pointing and laughing at their failure. It’d be like doing a comic about seeing a dog get run over on the way to the con, too morbid and depressing. …but apparently I’m okay writing a blog about it. Oh well.

Oh, one other thing: at first, they sold passes for the concerts separately from the ones for the expo stuff. But then nobody bought the concert passes, so they said the expo ones were good for everything in a desperate attempt to get SOMEONE to show up. Of course, a few schmucks like me actually HAD spent extra money on passes for both, and Tilt decided to make it up to us by giving us free stuff. Specifically, the equivalent of the cost of one pass at the bar. Yes, despite attending multiple MAGFests, somehow tiltEXPO because the first convention to ever offer me free booze. Um, yay?

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