Eniflade '08 is History

Made it back from Enfilade a few hours ago. It was a remarkable convention in many ways and one I found frustrating in others. I'll be devoting several blog entries, with photos to the convention doin's in the next 48 hours or so. I thought I'd just share some general high points along with a few of the lows.

First, it was a hugely successful convention. Not sure of the final count, but I'm guessing attendance was in the 250-260 range. It was the largest count since we've located at the Olympia Red Lion, and one of the largest in the convention's seventeen year history. When a convention has great attendance, it's also important that there be lots of games--preferably some really good ones. I confess to being very busy with "duties" at this con, so I didn't have a chance to get around and see as much as I usually do. However, I got impressions from lots of the guys, and all seemed to be happy with the number and variety of games. Tables were full in almost every game period.

It was also a pretty smooth running convention. I put in a lot of work on the front end to get the reg desk to run easily for the volunteers. We had great volunteers who took on the responsibility of the Bring and Buy. Very rarely did volunteers have unanswered questions, and I think that was really a testament to their quality. There seemed to be few hassles in terms of game schedules and table locations. That might be because Allan Dyer did such a great job of filling the game tables. I was really impressed with the number of games and the very few number of empty tables (but I've said that already.)

The best part of any convention is seeing old friends--I hesitate to call them convention buddies or once a year friends, but I really do have a fondness and feel a connection to so many. I missed seeing Doug at Salute this year, and I was ridiculously busy this weekend, so I didn't get to spend as much chat time with him. I'll do better next year. Loved seeing the other Canadians too, Bruce, Wayne, Tom, and Andrew as well. I also got a little bit of a chance to talk with Matt and Lloyd from Oregon-two of my favorite retired teachers. Met some new folk as well. David Kujit was our special guest-the creator and moderator of the Fanaticus page. Though I didn't get a chance to play DBA this year, I did have breakfast with David and Doug Saturday morning, and had a great chat.

I guess there was only one downside to the convention and that was the my own doing. I was just over-committed with games and time on the desk. I'm going to commit to max two games and one period on the desk year. I found myself exhausted, frustrated and on edge much of the weekend--unable to appreciate the convention for the success that it was until I got home--and that's just wrong. As with all things there is room for improvement that I'll share with the organizers, but all in all a very nice gathering we can all be proud of.

In the next couple of days I'll have at least two entries about games at Enfilade, particularly Cowpens and Thunderboats. While I didn't get as many pictures as I'd like, I will have a few to share as well as some reflections on lessons learned from the games.