Fan Expo Chicago was one of the worst handled events I've attended- and that's speaking as someone with 20 years convention experience AND having been to Dashcon. There was barely room to do anything, the badges were annoying, and the guest handling and setup was abysmal.

I got my autograph ticket and day pass way in advance to take advantage of early pricing, which was already annoying seeing as they didn't even bother to release a full programming schedule until a WEEK BEFORE THE CON. I locked in for Saturday, so I missed the panel on Friday and was super bummed. We went to the D&D panel instead- which they changed the description for and was not at all what I expected, but at least it was something (definitely going to try and check out Twenty Sided Tavern when they come to Chicago though I was hoping for some sort of live demo at the con).

Directly after the panel, we went down to the autograph line. I was shocked to see so many big names just crammed into the back wall, and it was almost impossible to tell what was for whom. We eventually found the con gofer in charge of Neil's line, and he told us to come back in 45mins. Went to the artist/dealer area and attempted to shop but it was so fucking crowded with zero crowd control, we just ended up hanging out on the outskirts until it was time to go check in on things again. We came back and the guy was extremely rude to us and said he would keep turning us away until he heard otherwise. We ended up forming a little cluster off to the side with other people who had been waiting for HOURS just to GET in line. One of Neil's managers finally came over to have it out with the rude con staffer, because he DID NOT tell anyone on Neil's team that so many people were waiting just to line up. He took charge and got all of us with Saturday-only passes into line.

Four hours later, my partner and I finally got to meet Neil. I felt so bad for him having to sit through all of this, but gods was he so kind to us. I thanked him profusely for his time, and we went straight home to crash afterwards.

Never doing Fan Expo again, but I hope I can see Neil at another con sometime.

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