I attended for my first time and had very conflicting feelings.
I stayed at the Hyatt on-site (so I didn't have to mess with the Shuttles), and I very much enjoyed meeting up with my friends who were exhibiting there (Tom Stillwell, Brian Crowley, and Gail/Scott, of course).
It was very convenient for bringing the TONS (25 in all) of (mostly Marvel) Hardcovers that I picked up for $5 each, back to the room so I didn't have to haul them around all day. Even if I had no way to get the dang things home . . . luckily Tom was willing to mail the ones that made my bags too heavy to me.
but the hotel *wasn't* convenient for getting to Downtown Chicago. . .I didn't realize just how off by itself it is!
As to the con?
I thought the Dealer's room was phenomenal (tho I think it was poor planning to put the Marvel Booth so close to the entrance, as it caused traffic jams thruout the con, every time they had a signing or stage presentation).
But still. . nice, wide aisles, a great section in the middle (called "the block") for non-comics specific retailers -- I bought some signed record albums, and some great art prints in this area.
I also absolutely loved the HUGE -- bigger than I have ever seen -- artist's alley, that was an amazing mix of well known pros and indie creators all mixed together side by side. It was incredible to see someone selling RuPaul's Drag Race Prints (Chad Sell) sitting next to folks like Mark Waid, Gail, Nicola Scott, Adam Hughes, etc.
I did *not* like the "panel" portion of C2E2 -- thought it was very crowded and for the size of the crowds? The Panels were organized TERRIBLE, and absolutely something they need to fix before I'd consider coming back for that.
seriously, I only got into ONE panel the whole con (Gail's) and that's because I basically bullied my way in.
Wasn't even CLOSE to getting into the Saturday Night cosplay panel, despite arriving very early. They turned away literally THOUSANDS of folks (lined up all the way down the hall).
Really.
the *only* programming on Saturday evening, and not only could 9/10ths of the crowd not get into the room? They had no overflow or viewing rooms to watch the Cosplay contest from any other place.
and I found this to be true of several of the panels I was interested in (full rooms).
disappointing.
if I were to go back? I'd come just for the Dealer's room, and to visit those folks I know in Chicago:
Really just need 1 day for the show (dealer’s floor), and then go sight-see in Chicago (which is what I did on Sunday instead of even bothering with the Con).
Again, I thought the Dealer's room was among the best I've ever seen (way better than Dragon*con's, or SDCC). And the main hallways and Fan Village were nice too. But the disorganization in the panels killed it for me.
the CBR Bar was a nice attempt, but as I was by myself the layout was terribly non-conductive to meet folks you didn't already know (majority of the bar was tables to serve food, with "open seating" across the hallway, but no waitresses that I could ever find). I think this was purely the Hyatt that did that, not CBR, and I did stick my head in a couple of times thruout the weekend, but never really had conversations with folks I hadn't already met earlier in the day.
What did others think of the con?
I can Highly recommend sightseeing tho. . . Chicago has some amazing Museums, and I had a blast doing those the day before, Sunday, and day after C2E2