Me in my Eleventh Doctor (Doctor Who) cosplay,
which I wore to UBCon on Friday, April 28th.
In April, I attended UBCon, which a convention that takes place at the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. I attended the Friday of the convention, which was on April 28th, 2023. It was the first day of this year's (2023) convention. As someone who's been to over 40 different conventions over the years, I think I'm pretty well-fit to give an honest review with my thoughts and opinions!
This was the 32nd year of UBCon, but it was surprisingly only my first time attending. I've been attending conventions for 10 years now, since 2013. Mostly, they've been within New York State, since that's where I live, but I've also gone to some in other states, as well as Canada. For me, it was about a 2 and a half hour drive to Buffalo, so the travel time wasn't too bad for what the convention was, as someone who will often go 5+ hours for conventions pretty much annually.
Now, since I only attended the Friday of the convention, I can't review the whole weekend, but I can review what I personally experienced. Let's start with the pre-convention shenanigans.
The first thing that I noticed about UBCon when it came to pre-convention related things were the lack of announcements. Now, I understand that they are doing this convention through/at a college campus and that that can make things difficult when it comes to specific details and announcements, things could've been done a bit better.
Firstly, the tickets went on sale less than two weeks before the convention on April 18th. There were a mere ten days between when the tickets were posted as 'on sale' and the first day of the convention. The event schedule was posted on April 15th, which was 13 days before the convention. Although, the event schedule being posted that close to the convention is a bit more understandable, as the nuances of schedule can be a bit difficult to pinpoint until it gets closer to the actual event.
I suppose there's also an excuse for the tickets, as UBCon did mention that they were having issues with specifics from the campus's ticketing office, but nevertheless, it was frustrating for attendees.
There were also a lot of issues with communication between convention staff pre-convention and the people asking questions on their Facebook page, which is the main source of their announcements. They didn't answer any of the messages I sent them via DM or comments on their posts, and answered very few people's comments on their posts in general.
The convention also very much took their time announcing their guests, and while I understand that this can be partly due to contracts with the guests restricting things, it was quite frustrating. The first 'paid guest' as they called it, wasn't announced until quite literally the day before the convention started.
Their first paid guest was Cherami Leigh, who is quite a fantastic individual, so I personally was really excited to meet her, but wish they'd announced her sooner so that I could've gotten another thing to bring with me for her to sign. Luckily, I at least had one item for her to sign, as I prefer getting my own items signed over the prints that celebrities have at their tables, typically.
The other 'paid guests' were two people I hadn't heard of, but to be fair, I don't know a lot of internet personalities, and I believe they were both YouTubers (QuintonReviews and HippieRat). Unfortunately, the convention didn't announce any other celebrity guests, which was a bit disappointing.
If you've gotten this far, please bear with me. I promise that this review won't be all negative things. There were just some struggles early on with things relating to the convention.
Now, for the convention itself. Things were pretty easy to navigate with the map that the convention put online, which is a bonus. The first thing to do when I got there was pick up my badge, which was pretty straight-forward and easy to find. Although the badge check-in was quite slow, and they certainly messed up how my name was supposed to be written on my badge at first, it went pretty smoothly overall.
For reference, they had a rule of putting your legal name on the back of your badge and the name you wish to go by on the front. The person checking me in just put my legal first and last name on the front of my badge, which I wasn't too happy about, but I left it be.
The next step after checking in was figuring out what I wanted to do. I was checked in before the vendor hall or artist's alley opened, and before any panels started, so I had to wait around for a bit. When things did open, however, I made my way into the vendor hall, where many of the vendors were still setting up. Since things weren't quite ready yet, I decided to go to one of the volunteers sitting at a table in the vendor hall to ask when and where Cherami Leigh was going to be signing, since it wasn't on the schedule.
Unfortunately, the volunteer that I had asked didn't have an answer for me, nor did the other volunteer that they asked. They both suggested I find a convention staff member (since that's different from a volunteer) since they didn't believe that volunteers were given that information. So, I tracked down a staff member, and the first one I found didn't have an answer for me either, and sent me to the registration desk to ask. The staff members there didn't have an answer for me either.
Eventually, I returned to the volunteers at the table in the vendor hall where I'd started, and politely told them I'd asked a few different staff members and still didn't have an answer. They eventually ended up texting one of the staff members that they specifically thought might have an answer for me. This staff member showed up at the table in the vendor hall and ended up telling me where Cherami would be signing, and that she'd be signing whenever she wasn't in a panel.
I was first in line for Cherami's autograph after finding her table. She was still setting up when I got there, but when she was finished, I approached her with the wall scroll I wanted signed and paid for her autograph, which if I recall correctly was about $40. That's a pretty fair price for a voice actor's autograph at a convention, so I was happy with that.
I had a great conversation with Cherami. We got to chat a little bit, since there was no one else in line yet, and she even remembered me from a previous convention I'd met her at a few years prior! I think she was 100% a great choice in guest, so I give props to UBCon for inviting her, even if she was the only guest I had heard of.
After getting the autograph, I went to the artist's alley, which was split into I believe two different rooms, if I'm remembering correctly. Both of the artist's alley rooms and the vendor hall were pretty easy to find with the convention's signage. They had a lot of fantastic artists! I ended up buying a pin for myself (I can't recall who the artist was) and an art print for a friend of mine (from The Clever Kitsune, one of my favorite local artists), and am very happy with what I got.
The vendor hall was all set up by the time I got down there after spending some time in the artist's alley, and they had a pretty good selection too. I ended up buying some Pokémon cards, which is really no surprise on my part.
On my way to one of the other buildings, I was running through the rain and ended up losing my convention badge. Luckily, after going back to the check-in desk, they were able to replace it for me after I showed them my ticket confirmation again. It was a quick and easy fix, and I had sure to hold onto it a bit better for the rest of the convention.
I didn't attend any panels at the convention, unfortunately, so I can't review that part, as the one panel that interested me was at the same time as the Dungeons & Dragons games that they had going on.
The Dungeons & Dragons games that they had going on were run by WNY Gaming, and I had a lot of fun with it! It was definitely a highlight of the convention for me. I was in the low-level group, which was for levels 1-3, I believe. I played my lizardfolk monk character. Our group actually had three monks in it, but it was a pretty big group so we managed to balance things out a little!
I would return to this convention just for the Dungeons & Dragons game and the artist's alley, to be completely honest with you. It was worth it just for those things. I had so much fun with the D&D game!
Oh, and if any of you who were at the convention happen to be reading this post, although I have a feeling that's quite unlikely, I have one word for you all: Pauwl!
The D&D group I played with at UBCon
Photo credit to WNY Gaming*
All in all, I'd say that, despite the convention being relatively disorganized, I had a pretty good time, and would return to it in the future! I'd recommend this convention for those of you who like the small, more intimate convention environment as opposed to the big, bustling, crowded conventions.
The attendees were extremely nice, the volunteers and staff did their best to help me with my questions and even went out of their way to help sometimes, such as by contacting the other staff member who they believed would be able to help me with my questions, and the guest I met, Cherami Leigh, was an absolute delight!
I hope my review didn't seem too harsh, as I know it might've come off that way in the beginning, but I really did enjoy the convention! I suppose I meant this more as some constructive feedback for the convention showrunners, and a bit of a heads up for problems people may encounter as attendees if it's the same going forward.
Thanks so much for reading!
-Written By Lexi
*Click here for WNY Gaming's Facebook Page
Click here for my social media links
