Is anyone else feeling post-con depression? I got home the Monday after and it immediately hit me in the feels. As well as taking me out for a few days because man was I sleep-deprived and hungover haha.
Being able to meet, hang out, & reconnect with everyone after years was genuinely surreal and an unforgettable experience. However, this blog is meant to recap ADVANCED at GCX, not Jordan “mostly”. Starting off with day zero…well, I’m not sure what happened since I was stuck at the airport all day. I do know the team built the booth, got dinner together, and turned in early (I hung out with all of you at the bar way too late that night). Saturday (Day 1) the team and I met at the hotel Starbucks at 8 AM to finalize the plan for the day. Eric (CMO) and I were tasked with acquiring more sample cups because apparently someone forgot to order them for the event. We embarked on a journey through the dense Orlando air to find sample cups which to my surprise are hard to find in bulk. Everywhere we called had little to none in stock. We end up going to a “Restaurant Depot” finding a bulk box of 2oz cups however, you have to have a membership on top of being a business. Eric spent 40 minutes getting all that setup while Jeremy (Partnership Lead) is texting me freaking out because he’s at the booth by himself 10 minutes before doors open. Peter (CEO) & Cody (Partnership Director) were out getting ice and water for our cooler but ended up making it back in time. What should have taken Eric and me 20 minutes was over 2 hours but we made it in time before the event fully started.
Our booth originally was this big extravagant custom build but the plans fell through too close to the event so we had to improvise. Honestly what we ended up doing was better in my opinion. A chill 30 x 30 open booth with 4 couches and huge banners representing our brands and partners. It was packed from start to finish with people checking out the product, taking pictures with partners, or just resting from walking around.
PM rolled around and I still hadn’t eaten since the day before, but my girlfriend Bri (Jinx cosplay you probably took a picture with) brought me some mushroom tacos from one of the hotel restaurants. Let me tell you I was pleasantly surprised by how good the hotel food was especially for me since I have a very restrictive diet (vegan).
The rest of day 1 was pretty standard for us making sales and getting to hang out with all of you <3.
After booth hours finished up the team and I split up for the rest of the night. I went to get dinner with the lady before the comedy show while the rest of the team went out to dinner with some of the partners and other brands. Once again I stayed out way too late with all of you at the hotel bar and got maybe 4 hours of sleep! Day 2 woke up with no voice and extremely overtired but we pressed on down to the event room. It was a bit more relaxed on day 2 as a lot of people slept in or were heading to Universal for the day. I pretty much kept things organized behind our counter while Jeremy and Cody were selling or discussing the product with all of you. 5 PM rolled around and we had to quickly break the booth down before heading to the After Party venue to set up (which was starting at 7 PM).
Eric and I got to “Howl at the Moon” where we were hosting the “Official GCX After Party” about an hour before doors opened. Stress levels were at an all-time high for me, especially with planning for something way ahead of time and hoping it lands well. We had a step and repeat banner with a selfie station, VIP bar, our own drink list that Cody came up with, and 2 featured DJs from TinyWaves. Once people started showing up and coming up to me saying they were having a good time my stress slowly subsided. Also, shoutout to the venue staff as they were very helpful with keeping things organized. Months of work from the team and I paid off. Now I planned on only staying an hour at the party once everything was settled but I ended up getting a second wind. Let me put this into perspective haha… less than 4 hours of sleep and hadn’t eaten since 12 PM but I was ready to take on the night! There’s a picture of me with a very big bucket of some type of “blue beverage” on Twitter. Jeremy and I ended up staying till 12-12:30 AM the rest of the team stayed even longer (mad lads).
Spent the early half of Monday traveling and crashed into bed the minute I got home. After years of no conventions, it was truly a wonderful experience being able to meet and reconnect with everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this if you did because I’m not a blog writer haha. See you all at TwitchCon San Deigo this year! -Jordan
