Immediately after the first Open Sauce Convention ended, William Osman announced the second annual event: Open Sauce 2024 at the Cow Palace.

Now, this immediate ticket sale could be viewed as a bad sign. Yearly events sometimes sell advanced tickets in order to finance the next event, making the continuation of the species possible. The fact that Open Sauce was immediately selling tickets for next year was a red flag that the event had lost money, and might not ever return!

However, enthusiasm was high! The event had happened without tragedy, with unprecedented access to 50 Youtube celebrities. And those Youtubers had gone home excited to come next year.

Spoiler Alert: It happened.

The second Open Sauce convention actually happened, and it was held at the larger, more famous venue: The Cow Palace, just south of San Francisco.

I didn't want to show the same Wheel of Fortune from 2023, so I submitted a proposal to exhibit the "MRI of Fortune", a flat table that worked like an MRI machine, but had a whimsical spinning wheel that determined your ailment/superpower.

I loved this MRI machine idea. I was happy about the interaction, asking people to lay on a table and to slide their head into a dark plastic cylinder at the end of the table. Then I could have one of their friends spin the wheel to determine their fate. The MRI would be decidedly low-tech, which was not ideal for Open Sauce, but it would be uniquely interactive, probably the only exhibit that asked participants to put their heads in a bucket.

As I got closer to finishing the MRI machine, I realized that I was building a version of those dopey "Love Tester" arcade machines from the 1930s, where your grip strength determines if you are a "Red Hot Lover", "Cold Fish" or a "Herpes Superspreader".

This year, my friend Jason offered to transport the giant wheel, because he and his son Milo were bringing their own "DDR Frogger" exhibit and had room in his truck. Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) Frogger was a game of Frogger controlled by jumping on a footpad. it was fun! It was exhausting!

We made the 100-mile trip to the Cow Palace, just outside the southern border of San Francisco, checked in as exhibitors and wheeled our creations into the Cow Palace!

Frogger DDR had a spot right in the thick of the convention, in Building A, at the top of the hill, close to the Open Sauce entrance. Because it was a small exhibit, it was situated amongst other small exhibits. The MRI Wheel of Fortune needed a larger footprint, and had been given a booth in Building D, at the bottom of the hill. When I was first setting up, it felt like I was way out in the sticks.

Would anyone even venture out this far to see my exhibit? Luckily, I was a right next to my old friends RCADE, with their giant keyboard! They were back for 2024!

For anyone who read my report on the Exhibitor Party last year, this was an event I was really looking forward to. EVERYONE had been there last year. It had been the red carpet Vanity Fair Oscar's party for Youtube Makers. I really loved drinking toasts with Styro Pyro and Michael Reeves! I could meet Daniel Riley or Alan Pan, or talk with Nile Red again!

Being an exhibitor earned me just two bracelets for this exclusive event. In 2023 I had brought my son, this year I invited my girlfriend Mary. As party time approached, everyone was shooed outside of the Exhibit Halls, to enter back through the building entrance, so they could check our bracelets and run us through the metal detectors.

I met Mary out front and soon we were back inside the building with the other exhibitors. I immediately got in line for a beer, where I noticed that the beer was available, but priced as if I was at a Concert - $18. This was a let down. Last year the drinks had been free. I can understand not providing free beer, but to charge $18 for it felt like a scam. Was this a party or a bar? Wasn't I part of the team that made this event successful?

Almost as quickly, I realized there also weren't any Youtubers.

Sigh.

The event space was bustling with exhibitors, who were exploring the event space we set up in earlier in the day, some of us holding beers we had paid too much for. Everyone had their eyes peeled for someone special, someone Youtube famous, but they weren't here.

Eventually it became clear that the Youtube talent had been given a special party room in the "Round Up Room" Cocktail bar. They _could_ exit the bar, and come mingle with us, but if they came out alone, they stood a chance of being mobbed by adoring fans (like me) out in the exhibit hall. And because only one or two would come out at a time, they stood a greater chance of getting overwhelmed, so they tended to stay inside the bar with their peers. We had them surrounded!

One brave Youtuber showed his face. UK-based robot maker James Bruton ended up in line directly in front of me. I got a picture. I suspect that the lines for the Round Up Room were out of control, so James came out to get a drink in a more timely manner. I'm sure he was shocked to pay $18 for it.

In the next hour or so, I hung out with Jason and Milo and Mary, and we explored the other exhibits.

One crowd favorites was ASSCHESS, which was a training device which could help a player receive secret coded chess-related messages during a Tournament match.

Mark Rober's company was exhibiting there as well, where we got to see his CrunchLabs displays and products. We also got to meet “Science Bob” Plugfelder.

Mark had his Diamond Play button (Awarded at 10 million subscribers) out for people to touch and pose with.

Another UK Youtube Builder, Tom Stanton was also braving the crowds of exhibitors, checking out the show. Tom is famous for building his own electric bike, building solar bikes, designing a drone and bike to run on compressed air, and rocket, bike and R/C car powered by capacitors. He is one of the best at describing the engineering behind what he is doing and making it look like you build the same things.

https://www.youtube.com/@TomStantonEngineering

After I got a photo with Tom, Mary and I found the hot dog truck! This is where the party was. A turned-out hot dog truck was giving out jumbo hot dogs with fried onions. They were awesome! Party restored!

The party lasted for a couple of hours, and then it was time to go home and get some rest. Open Sauce opened tomorrow!

Mary and I arrived early on Saturday. Because one of us would be chained to the exhibit booth all day, the morning was a time for us to check out the other exhibits.

Upstairs there was another "Gallery of Youtube Creations" where the Backyard Scientist showed his gigantic man-size beartrap and William Osman showed off his weaponized toy collection.

At 10am I was stationed at my exhibit, and the first VIP attendees wandered down to Building D to take a ride on the MRI wheel of fortune. How do I know it was a great crowd? Because people had NO hesitation to jump onto the bed and slide their noggin into my creation!

Over the next two days, about 350 people came by and had their head examined in my Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-approved medical device.

Some of the favorite MRIs were: Vampire, .08, Slytherin and Walnut. Here's a bit of insight into pleasing a crowd: They don't want a good diagnosis. When it isn't real, they want terrible news.

My best MRI joke was to cheat the spin while a patient was inside. I'd have one person lie in the wheel, where they were trapped and couldn't see what we were doing. Then I'd ask one of their friends to spin the wheel. Then, after a few rotations I'd drag my hand along the spinning wheel, slowing the spin as something embarrassing came along and steer it to "Walnut". The "Patient" would slide out of the bucket and take a look at his diagnosis as their friends laughed at his bad luck. In a similar vein, I could give a little boost to the spin if a kid was about to get an adult diagnosis like .08 or Ink Deficiency.

If I had to guess, I'd say that I helped about 300 people get a fake MRI over the weekend.

This boat-car lightshow had six or seven musical lightshow sequences, which always drew a crowd of admirers. The sheer number of addressable LED lights put out a ridiculous amount of light.

The boat car was built as a project by Louis Weiss, but the lighting and music were the work of a Rob, whose full name I didn't catch.

Speaking to Rob, I learned that the lights array and sequences had originally been made for dressing Alex Choi's Lamborghini.

You haven't heard of Alex Choi? Yes you have. He's the guy who got arrested for shooting roman candles from a helicopter to a speeding Lamborghini (for a video).

As you may have realized, the lights needed a new home after that adventure.

A large group of cameramen and other press followed this one guy with the blue hood into the room, where he played with the giant keyboard.

I found out later that this was Slimecicle, from the corn video and the Dream SMP.

This was another reminder that there were really famous people at OpenSauce who I had never heard of.

At 6pm on Sunday, the show was over!

I disassembled the wheel and with help from Milo, Mary and Jason, we braved a rogue windstorm to get everything back uphill to the parking lot.

The parking lot was overflowing with joy.

It had been a successful, but long weekend, and people were hastily saying goodbyes and packing up their trailers or Mini Coopers.

Four hundred exhibitors, a hundred workers, 20,000 attendees. Job complete!

As an exhibitor, the first year of Open Sauce was magical. In 2024, the free exhibitor perks were a little more muted, but it was still a good time and a great event. I wasn't here for free beer, after all, I was here to show off!