Anime USA 2014 – page 6
Context: whatever panel was supposed to be before ours apparently canceled, so a small number of folks were just hanging out in the now empty room. Once we started setting up, they quit chatting and cleared out. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than having a room full of people who aren’t actually there to see you.
(Historical Notes: Stuff like this is also why the whole being the only person in the audience thing didn’t feel as weird as it really should have.)
Never had I felt more defeated in the setup of a panel than that walk out moment. Although I remember that room we were in was in that weird tucked around side area of rooms that definitely had that feeling of only recently having a broom taken to the cobwebs in the corners.
Yeah, that’s one of the things that always struck me about Wardman Park: there were lots of rooms where people actually went for stuff, and lots of rooms with plenty of space, but not a lot with both. Those side rooms REALLY felt like they were totally outside the normal people flow (hence randos thinking they could just camp out in there and not be interrupted)