Kumori Con

***The Dinner was also unplanned. It had a very awesome turnout as well. Again this is just to help show Division Leaders out with Dinners. If you want to discuss the dinner you can HERE.

It's Saturday - the first day of Kumori Con 2008. Kumori takes place in Oregon over Labor Day. This year it's in Portland and by 10:00 am there was talk of hitting the hotel's 4,000 cap. Like most cons it started out with a huge pre-reg line for those who weren't smart or fast enough to pick up their badge on Thursday night. You know, people like me. So at seven this morning I got up to check out what the line was like. Nothing is open until eight, but there are already about a hundred people in line. Screw that! I'm going to take a shower and get into my MSA uniform. I'm not too worried because I have already pre-registered and I'm not really doing anything today. Besides the Dealer's Room doesn't open for three more hours! A couple hours and several wardrobe malfunctions later I head down to find that the line has grown to about 500. Yep. Brilliant planning on my part. A friend near the front had been saving me a place. Brendan and Krystle tend to anticipate these sort of things and are wonderful at saving me from myself.

With badge in hand, it is time for what is possibly my favorite part of cons - wandering around and chatting with people. So far the Skirts I have found are Brendan, Krystle, Lizzie, Danni (you probably know her as Renegade Kitsune), and Chelsea. I had never met Chelsea before, so that was really cool. I did find a few Rangers though. One was a really fun group sitting at a table. They made a comment about a skirt. I invited them to the panel and to the Tall Side in general. They wanted to know why the Rangers didn't have a panel. I laughed and told them that the RRs must have forgotten again.

By the end of the day my boots made of awesome and hawt had me limping. But I was able to pass out a nice stack of cards. It's now time for me to kick back, unlace the corset, remove the boots, and pray I can still walk tomorrow.

Today is Sunday, and I figured I'd grab a minute and recap while I sit in the Green Room and wait for our skit to start. Did I mention that I have stage fright? Horrible, crippling, stage fright? The panel is over and we survived! The morning started out with getting half my uniform on before dashing off to cosplay rehearsal. I had to run out after about twenty minutes (luckily we went first) so I could finish dressing in time for the MSA panel. Then I got lost. Did anyone else think that map was confusing? Once again Brendan and Krystle come to my rescue and find me wandering the lobby. They have news that shocks me. There is already a line. I kid you not. A line. With about twenty people in it. I don't believe them. There is no way there could be a line. There's never been a line before! Usually there are just a few people sitting down and then it fills up as things get going, but a line? People are waiting to get into this thing? Oh, boy. Just wait till they see how unprepared I am. By the time I show up the line has gotten bigger. Sure enough they are waiting for the MSA panel. There is a group changing in the panel room so I start just talking to the people in line and passing out cards. Mostly I just can't get over how many people there are waiting. Anyway, we make it into the room and it has these awesome, conference-style, rolly chairs. Comfy chairs will make people stay longer! The chairs are pushed around so it makes it kind of hard to do a head count. I think there were about 40 people there. The room was full. I finally got to meet Elf! All said the panel went well. Hopefully, the people who came thought so too! I decided to follow the plan-less panel with a plan-less dinner and invited everyone up to the 15th floor at 7 or so for pizza. This almost caused a disaster as I needed to be at cosplay for the skit. Chrystal and Lizzie get us moved to the front, so it all works out. I have really got to plan stuff next year instead of just letting it happen! Pizza is ordered and as I leave my room I see two girls who were at the panel. They were checking that this is the right place and tell me that there are about seven of them who are early. I think everyone that night ordered pizza because it's going to be another hour and a half before it gets there.

One of the girls, I forgot her name, but she was a really cute girl with glasses, suggests that we play a getting-to-know-you game where you say your name and something unusual about yourself. This is a brilliant idea and we play that until the pizza arrived. About thirty people show up for the pizza. We had a lot of fun and got to know each other. I'm thinking this may become a Kumori Con tradition.

It's finally Monday. Things are winding down. My feet hurt too bad to cosplay but I keep getting recognized as Miniskirt Girl. This is pretty awesome and I take it as I sign that the panel wasn't an utter failure. By the end of the day I'm down to a small stack of cards. It was really sad to say bye to everyone, but lots of new people promised to check out the site and register. Hopefully we'll see them soon!

***This Panel was purposely planned to be 100% NON prepared. We are using this as a teaching tool for all Division Leaders that Panels can be done without any tech, audio, and visual. Though, it IS suggested that you at least write down what you want to cover in your panel. Otherwise you get what we have below. Please NOTE that Maj.Gen. TalisX gave permission to post this completely UNEDITED panel. If you wish to discuss the Panel you may do so HERE. Division Leaders are encouraged to discuss the Panel HERE.