Rex B. Hamilton reports on the 2012 HauntCon convention

[RexBHamilton]

Rex B. Hamilton reports on the 2012 HauntCon convention




May 11, 2012




Greetings, Fellow Haunters:

I spent Saturday, May 5, 2012 at the HauntCon haunted convention, produced by Leonard and Jeanne Pickel. The venue this year was the Monroeville Convention Center in Monroeville, PA - a busy suburb of Pittsburgh. It’s close to a 3-hour drive from my home here in the Cleveland area.

The weather that day turned out to be really nice - lots of blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. But it sure started out spooky. Both the OH and PA turnpikes were mostly shrouded in fog that morning as I motored to the East. It was if the Halloween spirits already knew that I was coming to a haunt show and wanted to get me into the proper mood.

I arrived just after 8 AM - nearly two hours before the convention floor opened. But there were dozens of people there before me, getting ready to take classes. I saw four distinct tracks of classes throughout the day.

HauntCon took a different path for scheduling its classes than any other convention. Classes were held before and after the convention floor hours. For everyone who attended, there was nothing in your way to prevent you from spending the hours of 10 AM to 5 PM talking to vendors. From a vendor’s point of view, this was the royal treatment.

Overall, I have little knowledge about HauntCon and its history of eight annual conventions before this one. My only previous connection is that I attended the 2007 HauntCon, in Pontiac, Michigan, on Saturday.

That HauntCon has survived all these years, while never in the same place twice, is evidence that there are plenty of haunters who really want to get better. Some of the lecture classes had nearly a hundred attendees that day. The make-and-take seminars seemed to be completely filled up. The traffic on the convention floor was leisurely and friendly.

For the first time in many years, I stopped and chatted with nearly all the vendors at a haunted convention. Unlike most conventions I visit, I didn’t have anything special to do at HauntCon. I was there as an ordinary attendee. I paid my 35 bucks, got a clear plastic name badge, got a purple wristband and was treated just like everyone else there.

I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Very truly yours,




Rex B. Hamilton


13939 Clifton Boulevard
Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1462
216.226.7764
EvilLordZargon@msn.com


Evil is good!

[NeverMore]

Almost makes me wish I still lived in Y-town. Almost. I need to find one of these haunt conventions out here on the left coast.