Book Crazy: My Journey to UTOPiA Con 2016!

Thursday, 30 June 2016

My Journey to UTOPiA Con 2016!

UTOPiA Con took place from the 22nd to the 26th June in Nashville, TN. I was lucky enough to attend the 2014 convention (known then as UtopYA), and I knew that I wanted to go back and do the experience all over again. 2016 was that year for me. After a very long 16 hour plane journey that took me on three planes (Glasgow to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Detroit, MI, and then finally Detroit to Nashville, TN), I arrived tired, but super excited!

Now, the con as a whole was a lot of fun and I didn't attend any panels because I had so much on lol, but I heard that people learned a lot at them. A lot of authors also pulled out of attending the con at the last minute, which was upsetting because I was hoping to meet them there. The organisers of the con handled it well though and they organised tables to make it look better and less empty (Trust me, quite a few authors pulled out last minute, so the organisers had a lot to deal with). The only complaint I would make is that I didn't get all the books signed that I took over with me. Authors that were supposed to sign after their panels weren't where they were supposed to be, so I ended up not being able to find them. This is the only criticism that I have of my entire time at the con.

Myra McEntire, Alessandra Torre and Alex Flinn were the Keynote Speakers this year, and their speeches were inspirational and funny and heart-breaking. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to meet Alessandra, but I did get to meet Myra and Alex!