As someone who also attended (both as a table and speaker) this last VCF Midwest. The biggest problem that event has is the base mercantilism. If I'm attending

As someone who also attended (both as a table and speaker) this last VCF Midwest. The biggest problem that event has is the base mercantilism. If I'm attending that event, I want to see cool machines doing cool things and hear the stories and things people love about them. I don't wanna see a bunch of AI slop coffee mugs and tee shirts of various old video game consoles taking up an entire fucking wall