As I was sitting in the airport having my final meal of the convention I spent some time thinking about Adepticon 2025 and my overall impression of it. Let’s dive in!
I know it’s not the most impressive meal I had, but it wouldn’t be a Wachtmeister post without at least one food picture!
I know there were some people who were disappointed with the location change, and in some ways I was one of them. After a few years of going to Schaumburg I had finally figured out how to best get around the venue and the area, where to eat, and what to do. I knew I’d miss Kuma’s, Portillo’s, especially the nice lady who was always so excited to see us every year, Lou Malnati’s, and Mikerphone Brewing.
Still, like many others I got over the disappointment of the change and the fear of the unknown and went with the flow. I already fly so the extra drive almost everyone had to contend with didn’t bother me, in fact the smaller airport of Milwaukee was a nice change of pace, and it was a less than 15 minute Uber ride, compared to 30 minutes to an hour depending on which airport I used in Chicago.
I can honestly say Milwaukee was a place I never considered visiting before. Heck, I couldn’t even spell Milwaukee, even with spell check! I had no idea where to go or what to eat. Thanks to the Basement of Death YouTube channel I got some really wonderful food recommendations, as you probably saw in my daily Adepticon posts. You might not know the name but if you’ve been to Adepticon you’ve certainly seen their beautiful Space Hulk board before. Every year it seems to get better!
The highlight of their recommendations was definitely The Swingin’ Door Exchange were I ate three meals!
There were a ton of great restaurants all within walking distance of the venue which was terrific. While I did discover you could take the shuttle from the main venue to the auxiliary location and get lots of food options that way in Schaumburg not having to catch a shuttle, or add an Uber tax to every meal was very nice indeed. The 3rd St Market Hall was a terrific option with a lot of different choices.
Depending on your personal situation there were a few negatives. It appeared the in venue food prices were higher in this venue than Schaumburg, the beer prices were definitely higher, and the food lines were longer so if you needed to stay in the venue for meals the new venue might have lost a few points in your book. I didn’t try any of the in hotel food or real hotel bars so I can’t compare that to the Schaumburg location. For me this shows the wide range of easy to get to food and drink options in Milwaukee as I didn’t ever have a time I needed to eat at the venue.
There was no free parking for attendees, and while there appeared to be plenty of fairly inexpensive parking garages in the area, especially compared to most major cities, parking was an additional expense.
The Baird Center (not the Baird Conference Center which I learned on the first day after walking an extra mile because I went to the wrong venue….) is a large, clean, well maintained building that allowed Adepticon to have all of their events in the same facility. I didn’t say building as the Baird Center has two towers, Orthanc, and Barad-dûr. Wait. That’s something else. North Tower and South Tower. The two towers (see what I did there?) are connected by a walkway so you don’t need to leave from one to go to the other with a slight exception. The two towers are separated by a street so in order to stay in the building when going between the first floors you needed to go to the second floor, cross over, and go back downstairs. As the only open entrances to the buildings were on the opposite side of the building it was worth going up to go down. It also saved you from having to go through security again.
Speaking of security the Baird had security checkpoints at the entrances so attendees had to walk through weapons detectors and in the later part of the convention all bags were being searched. It wasn’t a particularly good search but you still had to be searched. This was never a problem for me as I was never in a rush to get inside and never went a peak times so it only cost me a few seconds. I did read about people cautioning others about the long lines at security so if you were in a major event I’d caution you to be on time.
As always the swag bag was out of control. If memory and google serve me right the swag bag cost $110, by my reckoning it was easily worth over $500. Obviously you never know what you get but in my case I easily got my moneys worth in things I’d actually want. Plus I was able to pick up a few things people didn’t want for a really nice discount so that’s a benefit to those who didn’t get a swag bag and want to just cherry pick a few items!
I managed to get a decent pile of loot, thanks to the Arena Rex tournament I got some prize support, and I picked up a few things I wanted, as well as a few things I didn’t know I wanted until I got to the show! I did hear Games Workshop had the Empire War Wagon with them and I didn’t see it to ask for it so that’s probably my only disappointment from the whole show.
Overall the new location is an amazing success. The walkability of Milwaukee is a great feature and the local food scene is vibrant and full of choice. I only scratched the surface and can’t wait to go back next year! The new venue allows for all of our activities to be centralized with no need for an off-site shuttle. Due to the walkability of the area there is no need to panic if you don’t get into one of the attached hotels. My hotel was one of the further hotels and I was only half a mile from the convention center. Even the weather was beautiful, with one day hitting the mid 70’s! I’m going to try to forget the beautiful weather though as I doubt we will get this lucky again next year! I’m hoping to walk on over to Lake Michigan next year as it was the only thing on my list I didn’t get around to this year.
I can’t thank the convention staff enough for the wonderful show they put on and I hope they get enough rest before tackling next year. If you have a chance to volunteer I recommend you do so, they last two years I’ve shown up early so I helped with swag bags and it is a terrific time, and a wonderful way to get involved. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the next convention!
-Wachtmeister
PS I determined I am not a fan of the Wisconsin Old Fashioned. I had hoped having it in the actual place of origin it would have a transformative process, and I would love it, much like a Mojito when I went to Miami, but I didn’t. There is one place in town. I want to try one again next year, I’ll be sure to report back!
PPS I set myself the goal of learning how to actually spell Milwaukee without needing talk to text or AutoCorrect, and I’m proud to say I did! I’m not sure if that skill will last until next year, I guess we will see….
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 