I was recently honored to be included as a literary guest to the first annual “Omegacon” March 14-16, in Birmingham AL. There were some growing pains, since this was the first, some organizational issues, some scheduling problems, but over all, this was a very good convention.

Over 3000 attendees, which is great for a first convention. The sponsors went into the red, because they had low ticket prices for the first convention to get interest, but this is about par for the course for a first convention.

For me, it was a smashing success. I got to do some panels with some of the biggest names in the business (David Drake, Eric Flint, Ben Bova, William H. Drinkard and more), spend time with some icon authors (Steven Brust). I also got to rub elbows with some great people from publishing: Editors from Tor (Claire Eddy and Liz Gorinksy), Pyr (Lou Anders) and Baen (James Minz) were in attendance and showed us their summer line ups (wow). There were also many small presses in attendance, both in the dealer’s room, and doing panels.

Many kudos to Shaun Knoph for heading up the project and taking the heat.

This was a great success for me, being the first large convention that I was not selling my own books, and was able to network. The hotel was huge, and things were a little spread out, but all told, a great success.

So put it on your calendar for next year. Omegacon is a hit, a good time was had by all. I will be there with bells on (jingle jingle)…