The YachtCon II was exceptionally successful from just about every angle. There were more than 300 people who showed up to Queen Anne Beerhall, we hit our $5,000 fundraising goal for the Seattle Children’s Autism Center and, most importantly, everyone seemed to have a really great time. The event went so well, we’re seriously considering making this an annual event.
But we’re also quite aware that a lot of people that wanted to go, weren’t able to. Above, you’ll see a video of the full event. We also wanted to make sure to release the audio version of the full event as well. Rather that weigh you down with one massive file, though, we decided to break it up into three episodes. That’s what you’ll find here.
Episode 243 is the introduction and runs through the Seattle Reign panel that included UW women’s soccer coach Lesle Gallimore and players Haley Kopmeyer and Lindsay Elston. The second segment, episode 244, has the presentations from the Autism Center and Washington State Legends of Soccer, the Nos Audietis Q&A and the raffle. The final segment, episode 245, is mainly the Sounders panel that included Stefan Frei, Cristian Roldan, Chris Henderson and Garth Lagerwey.
We also wanted to take this chance to thank everyone that made YachtCon possible. Bootstrapper Studios made sure our webcast was very professional looking and Adam Wygle was a huge part of our creative process. James Woollard sang the YachtCon intro song, as well as donated a voicemail recording to the raffle. Steve Zakuani, Alexi Lalas and DeAndre Yedlin donated signed memorabilia. The Sounders went above and beyond to help us put together that panel and also donated a signed Erik Friberg jersey. The Reign also were very helpful in filling out their panel, and Gallimore was an especially good sport about it all. Richard Farley stepped up big time in running the Reign panel. Tim Foss did a great job doing the ascot presentation. Top Pot Doughnuts gave us as many sweets as we could possibly eat. Constellation and Co. printed gorgeous tickets. Emily Cummings made a beautiful poster. Designers Marble built a custom coffee table. Mark Nesteroff again stepped up by donating a yacht cruise as our grand prize. So many other people donated their time and energy on the day of the event.
It was a true group effort and you all made it possible. Thank you so much and hopefully this is just the beginning of what becomes an annual tradition.