Category Archives: Conventions

Death of a Convention

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I posted this initially on my Facebook page, but I am not really a fan of that place. Safer to keep a copy here where I can come back to it with less issue.

The convention has been canceled. This is the last event the company behind Regeneration Who, Potterverse and Intervention had scheduled to my knowledge. This cancellation is unfortunate and difficult to process for many. I am still trying to decide how I feel about the whole thing. Instant reactions are not often the best reactions.

Running an event like this – any event really – is a lot of work. It’s a lot of logistics and arrangements and contracts and… you get the idea. It takes a team of dedicated people. Events like these can be really magical to those involved and to those making it happen. The key part of that is ‘magic’.

It is exceedingly rare to see events create and capture that kind of magic over and over again. Magic is fleeting, it is ephemeral. The misty parts at the edges of your memories about all the great things going on tend to cover up those hard working corners and the dusty bins containing all the pain and the sweat and the frustrations. Sometimes the best possible thing is to allow the magic to float and drift and remain as a fleeting vision. Perhaps that vision will inspire others and another beanstalk will grow from the magic beans acquired at something we created.

As part of the children’s program team (and then head of the department) it was always my goal to create a place where any of the young fans could create, express and enjoy all the things that their imaginations wanted. When asked to provide a job description for my position to the leaders of the con I told them simply, “Children’s Programming is the creation of a lavish 8 year old’s birthday party that needs to be sustained for an entire weekend. It really isn’t more difficult than that.”

It was more difficult than it sounds. The ideas, the planning, the craft testing and the clean up were a lot of work. It was worth it. Teaching young fans how to imagine and create with their fandom and then act in a way that will allow others to join and follow in their footsteps was vital. Regeneration Who 5 would have been my 14th convention doing this. Over the years of work there was always the hope that we were doing it right, but it was just hope. This year I got the best result I could have hoped for. I was approached by a young fan I knew that had attended many of our events and spent a great deal of time creating and imagining things in our program room to ask me a question. This young fan had passed their 18th birthday – and could they now become a staff member and join the team to help create the magic.

That was the goal. Achievement unlocked. Level up. I could not have been happier.

Now, particularly given current circumstances, I think it’s time to allow others to carry on the magic. I don’t believe I will be part of con staff any more. I want to keep a little of that magic and let the fuzzy edges soften things. I want to see what others come up with. It will take an awful lot to make me reconsider at this point. Change is inevitable. Magic is fleeting.

Things are a mess right now. I have no answers for any of that. There are a lot of angry and hurt people out there. Hold on to the magic and give time the chance to soften the edges. Keep some of the magic within yourself but pass a spark on to others so they can enjoy it too.

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of the team. Thank you to my team – you were amazing (and totally made me look good!). Thank you to all the folks with kind words and encouragement. Please share this post if you feel the need to. I look forward to seeing you out and about in the magical world of fandom.

Philcon 2018 – A Review

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This was previously published in Watch The Skies (November 2018)

I was once again happy to be a participant at the convention put on by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society this year. I was given a number of different panels to be part of and as a bonus got to talk a couple of folks who had never been to Philcon along for the ride. Having friends along was a difference maker this year. It helped me to see the con with fresh eyes. It’s very easy after years of participation to become jaded and treat an event like this as work.

Attendance this year felt like it was slightly more. I have absolutely no basis for this observation other than feeling. I could (and likely am) totally wrong, but part of why I might have felt this way could be that I saw other con tracks that I don’t normally see. I paid more attention to the Anime track. There was more than one costuming related panel and there were even events for kids. I know the Anime track has been solid for years, but having somebody along with me who was interested in it gave it a fresh look.

My panels were well attended – except for one. Everyone who does panels at cons will eventually get a clunker. Having a friend walk to the panel room with me was the only reason I wasn’t there alone. Eventually the person that suggested the panel be on programming arrived. We had a nice chat and then she left early (can’t compete with the masquerade after all).

There were also a number of artists displaying their work in the art show. I recognized many of them and their work, but there were also one or two that I hadn’t seen before. I hadn’t been familiar with the artwork of Gary Lippincott, but I have realized my mistake after looking at his amazing water color work in person. Do yourselves a favor and go check out his work.

As always it was wonderful to see various members of my ‘convention’ family that I don’t get to spend enough time with. Jokes about alien abductions just don’t play as well anywhere else as they do there.

It was a fun filled and fast weekend. I was on the way home almost before I realized it. I hope to be invited back again next year. IF I go, I want to bring more friends. That, after all, is how we’re going to keep the things we love rolling along.

Save Against Fear

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I spent the weekend at a local game convention with my daughter. It was time well spent. The folks at the Bodhana Group really put together an excellent weekend. This year was the second time in their location at the Harrisburg Mall. It was also the second time I got to attend the convention.

Great stuff – it’s local to me, affordable and filled with activity. Added bonus, I was only an attendee. I wasn’t part of the team putting the show on, I wasn’t working or speaking or any of the other things that I’ve come to associate with conventions. I was simply attending and enjoying the time with my daughter.

More Great Stuff – we had the chance to put in for door prizes each day, could pick up tasty tasty treats from the bake sale and got the chance to participate in the “play to win” promotion. Play to win is a super cool idea. Game companies donated a number of games to the convention. You could check out a game and play it. When you did, put your name on the list and you’re entered for a chance to win. Call them out on social media and get an additional chance to win. We came home with two FREE games this weekend just because we took the time to sign them out and test drive them. Combined with the door prize I won I think the winning balanced out what we paid to attend this year.

Even more great stuff – it really was a fantastic little convention. The people attending were nice and friendly. We got to play games with new folks and both learn and teach new games. We got to meet and talk to game designers. Test drove 3 different games that are still in development. Couldn’t pick them up as they’re still in development, but signed up to be notified when the games come out so we can get them then. All kinds of fun.

Really, the only down side to the whole thing involves the location. Being at the mall is excellent. It’s a ton of free parking, easy access and short walk to the food court when we chose to break for something to eat. Close to the house and easy to get to any time. The space itself is one of the large stores that hasn’t been rented out yet. It’s not pretty. It is as unfinished and worn out as you might think. The temperature was all sorts of out of control. It got hot enough in there to make a number of folks not feel well on Saturday afternoon – and I don’t know if the HVAC system was something the con could control or not, but it was a real issue. Also – just on a personal level – I HATED the chairs that were provided. To be fair, they DID provide chairs and tables for around 400 people. NOt easy. I still hated them.

If you’re in the area I highly recommend looking this convention up next year. They’ve already announced it – and as soon as registration goes up I’m signing up to go again!

Schedule!

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For around 25 years now I’ve been attending the Baltimore Science Fiction Society‘s annual convention. It’s the convention I consider “home base” as it was the first one I ever went to.

Once again this year I am delighted to be an invited guest and will be speaking at a number of panels and attending a book launch (GO JEFF!).

IF any of you are headed to Baltimore this weekend and are interested, here is my schedule:

Finding Your Space in Fandom
[7] Room 7029, 5pm – 5:55pm

Fandom can be big, but we can find each other based on our specifics interests, mutual friends, and online hangout spots.

SMOFing for Fun (But Probably Not Profit)
[12] Club Lounge, 10am – 10:55am

Running conventions is fun, but it’s also akin to herding cats or nailing jello to a wall. Come talk to SMOFs about steering the group, organizing events, and keeping afloat.

What Makes a Good Book Review?
[12] Club Lounge, 11am – 11:55am

There are many ways to approach writing a review. How much do you recap? How much do you focus on the themes or characters? Should review from your own experience or that of the average reader, and how much of a review is just the rating?

Reading Outside Your Genre
[5] Mount Washington, 6pm – 6:55pm

If you only stay within genre you love to read, it can be hard to figure out where to best start exploring outside your comfort zone. How can you learn to enjoy books you might not otherwise be interested in, and how do you approach difficult-to-read and older styles of writing?

Philcon 2017 Review

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Taking off for another convention within about 18 hours of departing Philcon this year has delayed my normal post con review. Traveling for about a week straight was tiring and it is taking me a while to recover and get all my things back in order.

I was really happy with Philcon this year. The team managed to get a great guest line up and some really interesting panels. Above and beyond the normal comings and goings of the convention, it was fantastic to be able to reconnect with friends and colleagues that I don’t get to see as often as I’d like.

I got to be the moderator on one of the most entertaining and exciting panels I’ve seen in a while. The future of sports. More than one person looked at me with skepticism when I told them this was a topic for a science fiction convention panel. You shouldn’t be shocked, there are numerous references in movies and other media that tie directly to science fiction. There’s also a ton of actual science behind all this too. It was one of the best panels I’ve had in a long time. I’m actually going to recommend snatching the idea for another con in the spring – I think it’s worth running again.

Next, and most importantly to me, Don Maitz was the artist guest of honor this year. I first encountered his artwork during my very first convention. Balticon 27 he was the artist guest of honor. He’d hung the picture 40 Thieves right in the entry. I walked in and was blown away. That was 25 years ago and this convention was the first time since then that I’ve been a part of the same con where he was attending again. I grabbed my copy of his book and practically ran to meet him. I was NOT disappointed. He brought amazing art, fun stories (jogging with a steer?) and tips on creating artwork! I went to a drawing demonstration he lead in the art show area and got to sit next to him as he created and doled out little things he’s picked up over all the time he’s been working. Words don’t really do it justice. I just sat there and took it all in, desperate to remember as much as I could.

When I got the chance to chat with him later he was at his sale table. I explained about Balticon 27 and just what an impact his art had – and he pulled out one of the samples of that exact painting, signed it and gave it to me. Then, as if that wasn’t nearly enough he graciously signed my copy of his book AND added a sketch. It was awesome.

A sketch and a signature!

For those who recall a little thing that happened a few years ago where a bridesmaid was defending a pizza… sadly there were no shenanigans of that level. I suspect it will be a long time before we see something like that again, but given that brides do show up from time to time…

there’s always the chance there will be another brawl.

Interesting panel topics, great guests and the chance to get up close and chat with folks in the industry – if you’re not signing up to go to your local convention you are missing out. I’m already looking forward to the next Philcon!

2049 – Special Screening

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I don’t miss many Watch The Skies meetings. Getting together with my friends, spending time debating a novel we’ve read and dishing on all the latest we’ve found out about our collective interests always makes me feel better.

I was unable to attend the meeting this month. I was disappointed because we were lined up to do something we hadn’t done before, namely discuss a novel AND the movie(s) that accompanied the novel. Blade Runner was a fantastic pick for this – and I wasn’t going to be there.

I reigned in my disappointment when I found a monumental bit of coincidental timing. I was going to be out of state at a conference for work. The software company putting on this conference also happens to be the same company that makes and supports the software that many film makers use for their CG special effects shots. There was going to be a special showing of Blade Runner 2049 with a warm up talk given by the lead special effects director on the exact same night that I would have been at the meeting back home. I may have squeed a little – but it was very manly.

When that night came around I was in line for the “overflow” folks. I couldn’t get one of the few reserved seats much to my dismay. I had to stand in line and hope. Hope can be cruel. I was the next person in line to get in when they cut the line off. I was literally next up and they said “nope”. So I didn’t get to listen to the effects director then watch the show.

What I did get to do was be first in for the second run the next night. The director couldn’t be there to speak again, but I did get to see Blade Runner 2049 in the room they had set up for the showing. Then I got to go to the special “after party” set up the conference had lined up at one of the restaurants where we were staying.

I could see her in that version of LA.

I really enjoyed watching the film. It would have been an awful lot more fun to have had all my friends there to break it down with and discuss all the finer points. The party afterward had some fun aspects. All in all it was a very memorable way to “miss a meeting”. I look forward to sitting down and chatting about the finer points of the whole thing at a later date.

Until then, I will stick with being inspired by peeks behind the scenes.

Potterverse

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Just as last weekend held a convention, this weekend holds one as well. This convention is a little different than last weekend. It’s all about Harry Potter. If you’re in the Baltimore area and you’re a fan you should definitely stop by our little shin-dig and check things out! I’ll be doing all the children’s programming things! Come see us!

Connections

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I’ve come to realize that I’ll never be one of those super consistent bloggers. I tend to wander away and not stay connected to my technology. I turn my phone off at night ~ and yes, I hear some of you gasping out there when I say that. It’s not such a big deal to me.

This weekend is a fine example. It’s Labor Day and I’ve avoided being on the computer since about Thursday. What have I been doing? Glad I asked myself…

Spending time with my kiddo. Doing work around the house. Going to cook-outs. Playing games! That’s the one that has taken up a whole bunch of time this weekend. Social interaction LIVE and in person! There was role playing, card playing and board gaming – why put limits on fun?

One of the cool parts of all this game playing was getting out to a local game convention. IF you’re in the Harrisburg area you should definitely check out the Gamers of Summer. I think they’ve got a winter version too – I just can’t seem to lay a hand on the link right now. I’ll update that when I track it down.

It was a lot of fun. I dragged some of my games along with me to share with new friends. I got to play a game I was interested in to see just how much I liked it. I got to PLAYTEST a game too! Looking forward to when Cup Full of Lies is finished and out there for public consumption (from Frugal Mule Games).

An enjoyable, relaxing weekend across the board (see what I did there?) and it didn’t require being connected to the computer or the tablet or the phone. Get out there and play a game!

Balticon 51

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I made a quick note on Facebook about giving a longer and more detailed review of this year’s convention. IF you’re seeing this connected to FB – here it is!

I started going to Balticon back at number 27. Yup, that puts me at about 24 years for this one. Sounds impressive until you realize that I know at least one person (Hi Ray!) that’s been to them all. Yes, all of them. That’s impressive.

First and I think most importantly credit where credit is due. Programs this year were smooth. Really smooth, not simply as juxtaposed with the struggle of last year. Got my invitation early, got my survey and panels early, and the schedule was posted and available before the week of the convention. WELL DONE!

I had 4 panels and 2 book launch events over the weekend.

The panels I had were editing the short story, reading outside your genre for SFF writers, being a fan of problematic things and the xenoarchaeology road show.

I think editing the short story went relatively well. I also thing reading outside your genre went well – I did my best to toss ideas out there of things I’d read that I felt could be of interest to folks. I got the biggest reaction when I mentioned Devil in the White City as apparently some others have read it. All in all, not bad.

Being a fan of problematic things was going to be a contentious panel. Intellectually I knew this. Emotionally it took a lot bigger toll on me than I thought it might have. It was a difficult panel. I have written about this topic before (Your Protest May Vary published in Watch the Skies and again here at my site) and given the topic a great deal of consideration.
I thought I was prepared. I wasn’t. Part of it was the audience. There were a couple of attendees that talked over almost everyone for the duration of the panel. It can be a very personal subject, but I felt it was a disservice to the rest of the folks in the room to do what they did. The moderator struggled against them the entire time. The other struggle was sitting between two panelists with definite thoughts on the matter. I could feel tension just sitting there. I can say that S.M. Stirling impressed me with the depth of knowledge he could bring to hand without notes or references. While I don’t know that I shared his opinions, he recalled the specifics of an example I pulled from a very old novel. I pulled the example based on the clarity of the language that might show it to be problematic. He knew the context of the characters and brought all that out in defense of his position on the matter. Agree or not, he had that information rattling around upstairs. By the end of the hour I was just done. It took a lot of effort to stay level and calm for me in there – and it didn’t really have much to do with the topic itself.

I’ve really enjoyed attending the Xenoarchaeology road show in the past. The panel pretends to be archaeologists digging up long forgotten things from a human world. See something come out of the box and make up a great explanation for what it obviously is. I signed up to be a panelist on a whim for this one. It was an hour after the problematic panel, and being funny at the drop of a hat is not easy. Clever, maybe. Witty, perhaps on a good day but not for an hour straight. I don’t know that I’ll sign up to be on that panel again because I just don’t feel like I brought the humor that panel deserved. It was something of a let down to me. I was disappointed in myself, I can only hope the audience had a good time. I know I enjoyed what my fellow panelists came up with as much as the audience did. The running gag of “it’s clearly a ritual item…” was pretty funny.

The launch events were Fortress Publishing (TV Gods Summer Programming – available now) and E-spec books (DTF – Man and Machine – available now). The Fortress launch was wedged into the hour between the problematic panel and the road show. I couldn’t stay nearly as long as I wanted to, but I did get to sign a few books while I was there. The E-spec launch was a pretty big shin-dig. It took over the con suite for 2 hours. It was really well done and it looked like everyone involved had a really good time.

In between all this programmed goodness was the chance to play test a game for a friend. I can’t give out details but I can say I think I’ll be jumping on a copy when it comes out! Lots of fun trying to break the mechanics of it and stretch the rules to see where the holes show up.

Surprisingly, I didn’t come away from the weekend feeling the creative charge I normally do. I really enjoyed having dinner with friends. I liked sitting and chatting with people that I don’t get to see nearly enough. It’s a silly thing, but I was extra excited to recognize a ‘Sky High’ cosplay and earn the pink ribbon you can see in the picture (hey – the preferred term is hero support). Somehow I just didn’t feel that juice flow, that battery charging jolt I usually have when I get back to the house.

I would call this year a successful year even without that jolt. It’s always good to see old friends and add new ones. I’m going to dive into some projects that have been waiting for me while already plotting and planning for next year!

All Quiet – Philcon 2016

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It has once again been a week since I returned from Philcon and I could almost just re-post last year’s review. I went back and read the post convention review I did last year before I started in on this one. This review and that will be remarkably similar.

There were differences and they were notable, but the portion that continues to worry me is the attendance. It was dead there. I mean to the point where I wondered if the convention was actually still open a couple of times. I can only believe this desperately low attendance drove some of the other factors. I know the sales numbers were crushingly low for a couple of the folks in the vendor’s area. There looked like a lot of no-shows in there. The art show was slim pickings, including a couple of no-shows. The artist guest of honor had 4 or 5 sections and beyond that there were only a handful of artists on display. I won’t disparage the quality – they were and are fine artists, it just seemed to be very small. The freebie and flyers area in front of the vendor room wasn’t full – and there’s ALWAYS somebody looking to get word of mouth out there that way. I continue to worry for this con, but they seem to survive.

My schedule was decent for the weekend. None of the panels had huge attendance. Lots of empty seats. My favorite panel was the first one on the list – the best of military science fiction. I was really looking forward to being on that panel with Barry Longyear, but alas he was unable to attend… no-shows are starting to feel like a theme here too. Anyway – if you haven’t ever checked out his work, see if you can dig up a copy of “It Came From Schenectady”. The forward of the book makes me laugh every time I read it. It’s from the early 1980s and still works. That’s just the forward. The stories are wonderful. There’s some really good stuff in there.

camefromschenectady

The programming was good. It was in fact better and more timely than the past 2 conventions I’ve been invited too. There was a dud of a panel in there that I consider a tremendous missed opportunity, but that had everything to do with the moderator and nothing to do with the topic itself. All in all I think I held my own. I have made panel suggestions for next year and I think the panels will continue to be strong.

I didn’t stay in the con hotel this year. It’s the first time I’ve stayed off site for a con. It worked and was a really good thing to save the expense of the hotel. What else it did was pretty much eliminate any shenanigans or chances for weird encounters late at night in the hotel. No pizza, no elevator roulette. Just quiet really.

I actually feel like that’s as much review as I need. There just wasn’t much. I hope to go back again next year – and I hope a lot of folks join me.