Well, to start — I’m glad it’s over. As I’ve been catching up on sleep, fighting a cold and rewiring my brain back to being a clinical data coordinator, I can’t help but feel relief that Expo 2011 is done so I can enjoy the occasional weekend free of responsibility and fanboy entitlement like this past Labour Day where I got to spend time with Deb’s family and later my own. Life goes on as they say, and I want to get back to mine. Aside from some paperwork and hopefully some naval-gazing at what worked and what didn’t work, FanExpo 2011 is history.

After the low point in the show’s history in 2010 – where fans were extremely critical and alienated by the line delays, overcrowding and lockout problems with the Fire Marshall. To think the show was successfully able to fix those problems in 2011 is a testament to the planning and number of people involved on the show side and at the convention centre. I am not one of those people. The 2011 event was spacious and never felt too crowded. So no “epic fails”. The expansion to four days was a good call – one I was in favour of, and seems to be permanent.

Did I enjoy the show? I can’t really say I did or didn’t. Unlike the attendees and reporters covering the show for various sites and blogs I don’t get to experience Fan Expo. I see it as a blur of room crossings, costumes and conversations — some positive, some negative – this isn’t right, that pass isn’t there, and so on. There are sections of the floor I did not see at all. Unlike other members of our team, there are no pictures of me posing with celebrities because I simply did not have the time to do so. My prizes: blisters and joint pain.

On Sunday around 5:15 (45 minutes before close) I did manage to snap some pictures of the show floor from the Comics Workshop room:

I have no idea as to how many people attended. One staff person said in passing we had matched the 2010 numbers mid-afternoon on Saturday. 2010 saw approx. 68,000 people visit.