That registration number was so high it blew just about everyone on staff away... it almost seemed like I needed to tell staff members two or three times before they believed me when I was running around ranting joyously about the number of attendees (which I was affectionately referring to as the "body count"). I'd say that qualifies as a raging success, particularly when we were originally going into the weekend looking at 850-900 as our likely turnout.
In terms of registration closing, it literally made me ill to turn even one person (if you don't believe me, ask Nyco... she notified me today that I looked utterly pale after registration on Saturday afternoon, and it was the first time I felt like there was no color in my skin because I was so drained). We might have come close to 1500 if we didn't have to turn people away... We likely have the Oregonian to thank in that respect... the article really boosted attendance massively, even though it caught many of us off guard (myself included), as Friday was the earliest we heard of said article, and it came too late to allow pre-registrations from the article as a result.
To anyone who didn't get inside for whatever reason, I AM SO SORRY! Nobody wanted to close registration for even a moment, but insurance, fire codes, capacity limits and the like pushed us into a corner that we hope to be prepared for next year.
And for every single one of you who came to Kumoricon and spent any or all of the weekend with us, THANK YOU!!! To not give all 1200+ of you at least a little of the credit for making this con as much of a monster success as it was would be shortsighted indeed. THANK YOU!!!
PezCat