Creation's Report Card

I feel a special need to do this because after the Pasadena convention last year, I really berated Creation for their disdain for the fans and, in particular, the lack of support they were showing for charity causes. This year, I'm happy to say things were much better. Some problems were still around - probably always will be - but Creation seemed to deliberately be in full damage control mode and doing all the things they could to amend the big problems of last year.

The Good:

• Charity, charity, charity. This year, both of the auctions that were held in the main auditorium were entirely for charities, and included lots of reminders that the winners' checks would be made out directly to those charities. (Two auctions were still held purely for Creation's pockets, but that was done in the side fan room.) Creation also brought up a couple of fans who had put together big charity projects on their own to include their checks/auctions with the rest. (Although it took fan-writer Missy Good using her time on stage to specifically acknowledge Sword & Staff and Debbie Cassetta.)

• A projection screen on the back wall of the stage showed a huge camera image of what was happening on the stage. That screen was a HUGE help to people in the back or with blocked views of what was going on at the moment. Almost every guest had fun with that screen, to, turning around at some point during their performances to gasp in wonder at their image ten feet tall behind them. A few even checked out their butts on the screen. It was helpful to the crowd AND a source of entertainment.

• Fan events at the cons have been growing steadily every year, but this time Creation offered a room off the dealer area for fans to schedule meetings. And they listed the scheduled meetings in the program for everyone to see. This one is kind of a self-serving Good Thing; Creation gets to pack their convention with extra events at no charge at all. But it was still a darned nice thing to have.

• Attempts were made to improve the autograph line. Only gold seats got autographs the day that the guests appeared. People in general or preferred seating could buy tickets to visit with most of them the next day. This helped keep the autograph crowds manageable, but was a mixed success: see the "bad" section also on autographs.

• Overselling of seats. I heard one vendor say that the weekend crowd totaled about 5,000 people. About 10 rows were for gold seating, and let me tell you from experience, the tenth row corner was nowhere near worth the amount of money charged for the seats. On Sunday (Lucy and Renee day), only 12 rows about a football field's length away from the stage were set aside for general admission. It was standing room only back there and the sound was wretched.

• Autographs still have a lot of problems. Many times in the schedule, guests were giving autographs at the same time that other guests were speaking, which meant I gave up on many chances to go to the autograph area in favor of hearing other people speak. The lines were STILL inchworm-slow and took upwards of two hours to get everyone through. And those autograph tickets for non-gold seats were selling at $30 a crack, a pretty obscene amount of money.

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