I’m off to see the Wizard …
The 2015 Chicago Cubs Convention kicks off tomorrow afternoon, bringing with it tons of fun, weird, fandom ridiculousness, but also usually quite a bit of interesting information. I tentatively expect it to be extra nuts this year, what with the building excitement within the fan base.
I’ll be covering as much as I humanly can here at BN, so there should be plenty to follow here. You’re also going to want to follow me on Twitter if you aren’t already, because this is the kind of event that is just made for Twitter. You will see a lot of #CubsCon tweets.
Also, if you can’t make the Convention, the good news is that this year, several of the panels on Saturday will be live streamed by CBS Chicago, details here.
Friday, January 16th
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Opening Ceremony
7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Friday Night with Ryan Dempster, presented by Budweiser
Saturday, January 17th
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Ricketts Family Forum
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Cubs Jeopardy
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. A Recent Look Back: The Cubs of 2007-08
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Meet Cubs Baseball Management
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Meet the New Cubs
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Joe Maddon & His Coaching Staff, presented by Wintrust Community Banks
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. For Kids Only Press Conference, presented by Advocate Children’s Hospital
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Cubs Business Operations Update
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. New Kids on the Block
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Cubs Family Feud, presented by Mastercard
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. What Lies Ahead
5:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. #CubsSocial
8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Cubs Bingo, presented by Budweiser
Sunday, January 18th
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. 30 Years of Cubs Convention Memories
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Down on the Farm
Looks like I won’t be eating lunch on Saturday. Also, you’ll have to forgive me, but the “Meet the New Cubs” is going to get short shrift, because I’m not going to miss any of the Baseball Management panel or the Coaching Staff panel (those ones tend to offer more useful, as opposed to just fun, information than the player panels).
Otherwise, I hope to see many of you there. I’ll let folks know on here and on Twitter where I am from time to time if they want to say hey. This is what I look like (though I’ll look better rested and won’t be wearing that sweater (sorry)):
Late nights + early mornings + Winter Meeting + burgeoning insanity + ugly sweater. Still at it. pic.twitter.com/bZPO4ASDl1
— Brett Taylor (@BleacherNation) December 11, 2014
So, yeah. Say hey to that. I’ll be wearing my trust blue and yellow shoes, and I round up to 5’8″.
We’ll also get together Friday night after the Opening Ceremonies at Lizzie McNeill’s – a bar next door to the hotel – and Saturday night at a place and time TBD. Stop by. It’s fun. There’s usually a lot of other bloggers/writers/fun people.