Program Notes

Program Suggestions

We have a few ideas, but a conrunning convention is most useful by giving people information they can use. Tell us you would like to see, or know about, or preset to your fellow conrunners. Please send email to co-chair Alex von Thorn.

Program Ideas

Some early, unedited program ideas follow:

Fandom Without Borders (Not!): What you need to know about the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. Tips for dealers, artists, costumers, authors, and other fans traveling to and from Canada and the United States (and elsewhere, if time permits).
From Fanzine to Blog: How to use fan history, fan writing, and fannish culture as tools to grow your convention.
Long-Tailed Fen: Filkers, furries, gamers, readers, GLBT, cosplayers, shippers, SCAdians, otaku, LARPers, readers, even SMOFs. How to pull appeal to disparate interests to build a fannish community.
The World Beyond the Parking Lot: Traveling fandom: Why you need to go to conventions outside your home town.
Supply, Demand, and the Myth of Fannish Poverty: The income panel: how to make enough money from your convention attendees to keep the convention afloat without annoying too many people. Basics of economics, discretionary income, wants, and needs.
Blood from Stones: The expense panel: Publicity, hospitality, insurance, function space. Basics of financial statements, budgets, and corporate governance. What are you spending money on that your members don't care about, and what can you cut?
Hotel-Hopping: The obligatory hotel panel: A convention has to be somewhere if it's going to happen. When should you stay? When can you leap? The obligatory hotel panel about things to watch for and/or demand in a hotel contract. Problems and opportunities in new facilities.
Playing Nicely With Others: The recruiting panel: The dirty secret of fandom--Finding people is easy, keeping them is hard. Does any individual or group "own" your convention? Do they allow new people to join the decision-making group? How to mend fences, find ways to work with people you don't like, rotate department heads, dismantle fiefs, and channel energy from fan feuds into discussion and then diversity. How to use mission statements, by-laws, and committee meetings to actually solve problems.
The Purpose of Programming: How do you come up with program ideas? Who are you creating a program for? Is your convention program helping your convention grow, or just building cliquish walls to keep out newcomers? Can the program have a positive effect even on people who don't attend?