If you’re a Sigler Junkie, you’ve heard of SiglerFest. If you’re not; get on that.

SiglerFest is Empty Set’s fan appreciation weekend. We spend a long weekend in Las Vegas, goofing off, drinking beer, screaming at football (and at karaoke, and at bowling, and as part of the programming during the day. We scream a lot.), Scott gets to the hotel on Thursday, and doesn’t leave until the event is over, maximizing the time he’s around to hang out. While there are two days of programming, it’s safe to say nothing at SiglerFest will qualify for Continuing Education Credits.

So how much work is a weekend full of playtime? Surprising more than you’d think, but not so much that it’s overwhelming. Any event is really all about the planning. For many events, day-of work is also hefty and can be hard. In this case, mostly all of the work happens before we get to Las Vegas, and once the event starts it’s much smoother sailing (and more beer than most events).

Starting early in the year, there’s work to be done: contract with the venue, pick a theme, make registration live, manage questions and concerns from a customer service perspective, build a fun few days of programming, get wardrobe for Scott, source vendors for karaoke, contract for food and beverage with the hotel, manage the budget, make travel arrangements, arrange for any rentals required, get collateral art created, then banners and t-shirts and step & repeats made. It’s not a super heavy list by any stretch, but it is work that needs to be done right.

Around one month before the event, meaning right about now, everything gets finalized and locked down. The group rate expires and I get a master list of folks who have booked and make sure all of them have registered. A handful of paperwork finalization with the vendors, double checking with some of the attendees, and starting to collect all the physical stuff we bring with us to Las Vegas. We bring a hearty amount of stuff to the party: t-shirts and some books for sale, all the stuff for the goodie bags, all the electronics we gear we need for recording the goodness, and the majority of the “Hall of Fame” of Siglerverse stuff seen in the photo above.

Seems like hanging out at the coolest family reunion/birthday party/bar mitzvah/holiday party ever should be less work, right? Truth be told, SiglerFest could be three times this much work and still totally worth it in any case. Y’all should come check it out!