COPEing in Ohio

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Central Ohio Perversion Excursion. In keeping with Citizen Kink's policy of not using names and locations I will merely say that it was somewhere in Ohio. The event was organized by Adventures In Sexuality, aPansexual Polyamorous Kink/Fun Ohio-based group for kinksters of various shades. It's been around a few years. This was a very well-organized and attended event which impressed me to no end.
First of all, I want to elaborate on the superb organization that went into this event. It was held in a hotel, but the actual event site was restricted to those who had paid in advance. You could'nt even buy a ticket at the door, so as to keep it from being defined as a public event. Even the location was taken from the website in the days leading up to it. And although COPE was held in a facility also used by the vanillas, no one was allowed into the event unless they possessed a wrist band or ID tag. The event space was secured in a long corridor and every care had been made to ensure there would be no uncovered windows or compromised access to it. All which made the attendees feel safe and secure.
On entering the event, you were greeted by a table of volunteers who had your name tags all ready with a packet full of surprises. The vestibule where the greeters were situated was also filled with exquisite donated toys and artworks which were being auctioned off for charity. A cafe was set-up through one door, where event-goers could relax and converse. Through the other door you were taken down the main corridor where classes were organized in the day and play rooms in the evening. At the end of the corridor was the merchant area.
I did get a chance to sit in on some of the classes and I was impressed. The talk on "military" style interregation scenes was superb. There was also a "Meet And Greet " for new people.
In the evening the classrooms became the play zone. The play spaces were packed, requiring the air conditioning to work overtime. All the bondage furniture was supplied by SB Twisted Designs and Lockwood designs
So what was the play like? Organized and carefully monitored. I didn't see one clueless newbie try to walk into someone's zone. As soon as any couple (or more) had finished using the particular piece, it was carefully whipped down and sanitized. One of the more interesting scenes I observed that night was a lady hanging solo from a suspension rack while she tied and untied herself into different positions. I was a little surprised to see some actual sex mixed in with the bdsm. On the Eastern Coast, it's a little unusual for the sex to be interplayed with the bdsm, at least in a public scene. On the other hand, I didn't see any of the annoying fetish barbies who can make costal fetish events a bore.
And kudos for having the sense to have food catered into the cafe at midnight. There were plenty of hungry kinksters who were mighty grateful to all those pizzas.