Another Eastercon under our belts… The thing with conventions is that, after a couple of days, the idea of going home to peace and relaxation is enticing – but as soon as I’m home, I wish I was still at the con! We miss our friends, and the gentle pleasures of wandering around the dealers’ room, attending panels, sitting in the bar looking out at the beautiful spring weather and trees…

The Hilton Metropole at Birmingham NEC was a pleasant surprise – it’s surrounded by mature woodland and a lake, which I wasn’t expecting, and insulated by high grassy banks so you’d hardly know the surrounding road network is there. Mike and I took a pleasant walk around the lake, saw loads of wildlife including a heron. Not what you expect at most conventions! As a con hotel, the layout was superb – all conference facilities were on the ground floor, with lots of huge rooms, lots of shiny marble, the art show leading straight off the bar (instead of tucked away down corridors several floors up). We spent lots of time with friends, saw some good panels, enjoyed watching Dr Who on a big screen surrounding by a large, enthusiastic audience. It was well worth my while displaying some items in the art show, and I sold a few copies of Elfland, Midsummer Night and Dark Cathedral too – all good stuff.

Negative points? Ah well. An animated advertising board invited us to ‘Enjoy a coffee in the lobby bar’ or words to that effect. I half-seriously expected the next screen to read, ‘Ask us about our easy credit terms!’ Yes – PRICES. The hotel food and drink was insanely overpriced. Apart from a small counter in the fan lounge (tea £1, baguette £4.50 and so on), and a reasonable buffet in the early evening, the regular bar prices were mad. £4.40 for a cup of coffee! £6.50 for a glass of wine! £15.00 for fish and chips! Mike and I got round it by sharing things, which obviously only works if you have similar tastes, small appetites and no communicable diseases J. One small-press publisher, who wanted a mere 8 bottles of wine for a book launch, was hit by a bill high enough to make a politician-on-expenses blanch. And yet the hotel’s ‘corkage’ policy made it impossible for the convention to bring in its own booze. As a result, most launch parties and other events where free drink is traditionally offered, were cancelled. And that was a huge shame.

As I understand it, a large number of folk who’d registered for the con didn’t actually come, because of the high room-rates. A lot of familiar faces were missing, which was sad – because we missed them, and they missed out on a lovely hotel, lovely setting, perfect weather. I can’t help feeling that if the hotel had been more reasonable and less money-grabbing, they would have made a lot more profit out of us!

Next time, I have things to say about panel discussions that revealed some shocking gender-biased statistics in the literary world…