Leadhead's Tread: DC Supershow Report

As I’m sitting here, at 6:00 in the morning getting ready to make the long drive back to Ohio, I’m suddenly finding it difficult to describe this year’s DC Supershow in Washington. Maybe it’s because so much is going on in my head about the show that I don’t know where to start. Maybe it’s the sheer exhaustion.

But I think mostly it’s because for me, the DC Supershow is the high water mark of the year. I spend most of the year looking forward to it, and it’s kind of hard to admit it when it’s over.

As far as the hotel goes, I was pretty sure going into this show what I was going to say about the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, the same venue for the show as long as I’ve been attending, but I am pleased to report that everything I thought I was going to say about the hotel I’ve had to take back. The hotel, long overdue for a renovation, has finally received the updates that it has sorely needed in the past – a nicer bar and restaurant area, an updated registration area, and the rooms have been updated and redone.

Nicer still is that all the positive changes have also carried over to the staff’s attitudes. This is the first time in years that I’ve actually felt like a guest here rather than an annoyance to the help! Well, ok . . . mostly. The manager and his rent-a-cop were pretty annoyed with those of us enjoying our traditional evening of scotch and cigars on Friday night. We did receive quite a lecture on Virginia liquor laws, which left me imagining the cover of The Pennant Magazine with a shot of us all being loaded into a paddy wagon and hauled off to jail (being the hardened criminals we all are).

While each of the shows I go to in the course of a year has its own flavor, what makes the DC show different from all the others isn’t surprising. Since it’s the biggest, and more of my friends come here than attend any of the other shows. And this year was a little bigger yet than any of the others. Here’s a shot of the main ballroom from my table on Saturday, way back in the back corner next to Roger Cromwell’s traditional place (he was there as always this year) . . .

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