Okay, just to be clear, it’s not so much that the con just didn’t realize that panels might need sound AT ALL.  Rather, the plan seems to have been for panelists to just plug straight into the speakers in the conference room ceiling.  I have seen cons do this in the past… which is how I know that those speakers aren’t really meant to do much more than amplify a guy talking into a microphone, not to blast music (at best, they’re meant to play soothing easy listening music specifically designed to NOT overpower people’s conversation, which is kind of the opposite of what we needed.)  Thus, sudden last minute audio equipment purchase.

Really, THAT may have been the part that most took me by surprise: actually investing one’s own money into any form of convention activity.  My ratty Dr. Forrester wig is testament to the fact that I never spend money on ANYTHING anymore.

But yeah, that’s the story of how Awesome Bad was actually heard by anybody.