Penguicon Happened

Penguicon was this past weekend, and lived up to my expectations, which was itself expected. I certainly wasn't the only one enthusiastic about it, because this year, with over 1,000 attendees, we clearly have outgrown the hotel. It's been a nice hotel and everything, but it's just not quite big enough for such a large group. Next year will be in Romulus, so that problem should be alleviated, though.

I managed to get Adam from WSULUG to come along for most of it, and Eric (also from WSULUG) made it out for Saturday and Sunday. Friday night Chris came out as well. Other than that, I mostly tended to hang around the Ubuntu Michigan LoCo Team, most of whom I had talked to countless times in IRC, but had never met in person. I also met a girl there, with whom (as she pointed out) I may have the greatest possible "how we met" story - we met while trying to devise a way to create a velociraptor from assorted garbage and tape. It's a long story, but it has to do with the author of xkcd being there. Readers of it can guess at the intention.

Other highlights of the weekend include hot sauce tasting with ESR (I love spicy food, and the guy has great taste in hot sauce, I learned), and the Giant Singing Tesla Coils. Hell, the tesla coil concerts (there were two, at least) were worth the price of admission alone. Even the hotel employees would sneak out to see them when they could.

I'm not sure if it was the additional people this year or not, but Saturday night seemed even more energetic and bigger than last year. I often describe Penguicon to those who haven't been there as "a 72 hour-ish long party, reverting to serious stuff when the sun comes out", and this year exemplified that. I didn't stick around all night, but based on some of the stories I'm hearing, I think next year I will.

So for those that didn't come - you missed out. A lot. From what I'm hearing, 2009 will be even bigger and even better. There's no reason for you not to go.