The Westin has been host to FE for the past 4 conventions, but even so, this was the first year I noticed this chunk missing from the car park ceiling, offering a superb view of the hotel’s south tower.

Saturday started with the daily department heads meeting, with a few items raised from the previous evening. After the meeting ended, I made my rounds and fetched a couple of coffees for staff (having had coffee for the department heads meeting and with plenty left over, it would’ve been a shame to not use it). I floated around the Den a bit more and ran a couple of errands, before having a late lunch with Seadog in the hotel bar/restaurant. It appeared that the staff were a bit overstretched, as it took almost an hour for a pizza and pasta dish to come out, but the pasta was tasty and the company enjoyable nonetheless. Heading back to the Den for a bit, I then headed off to Uncle Kage’s panel on examples of conventions gone wrong, and why they went wrong, and very entertaining it was too! I won’t deny; I took a few notes for future reference, though many of the points made were pretty basic which you would think anybody organising a con would know…apparently not. :P

After the panel, I met up with Soot, Kindle, and a friend of theirs to go for dinner at a nearby ramen place. Unfortunately, it and the next two restaurants we tried were packed to the rafters, so we eventually settled on The Fox pub as a safe and affordable option. As I recall, I had a couple of ciders and a fish burger, and we mostly discussed cats and home improvement. We walked back to the hotel, and then parted ways as I went up to my room to chill with Fulminar for a bit. At around 11, I made my way down to attend the midnight howl panel. There was an attempted interruption by a couple of felines holding “no awoo” signs (which I later learned Con Ops had printed off…conspiracy! ;-p). There were 95 attendees in total, the most ever for a midnight howl, and while it was a bit before midnight when the howl started, it seemed to have the desired effect. I heard an unconfirmed report that a localised fire alarm in the hotel went off at the exact moment the howl started. Whether or not the howl was the cause is also unconfirmed.

Hope you enjoy!