How to Convention: What They Don’t Tell You About Being in Charge of Something
There is a certain level of convention management where a volunteer is in charge of making a piece of the convention work. Sometimes this position is part of the convention committee, sometimes it’s considered a high-level staff position, and sometimes the con has entirely different terminology. But this is the point at which you have some actual authority and a degree of freedom in deciding how to deliver.
If it is a well-run convention, you’ll have a clear understanding of what you need to deliver, some access to institutional knowledge of how to deliver it, and a rough idea of how much of your time delivering it will consume before, during, and after the event. But there are two things common to every position at this level that no one might think to mention to someone doing this for the first time.
One is that your experience of the convention is fundamentally altered when you are one of the people responsible for delivering it. As a staff member with scheduled shifts, you can just kick back and emjoy the convention when you’re off duty. Once you’ve moved up a level, the thing you’re in charge of is your first concern throughout. You’re always on call (or mostly, if you have a deputy who can handle emergencies when you need to be at a committee meeting or are attending that one program item you absolutely didn’t want to miss). Your time at the con starts with “Is everything set up?” and ends with “Did we move everything out on time?”
The other thing is the effect of knowing what’s going on behind the scenes in other parts of the convention. You can gain a lot of knowledge and a greater appreciation of what people in lesser-known jobs contribute to the convention. But it can also cause secondhand stress, worry, or cringe as you watch other departments navigate their own crises. You will learn a lot of things that you don’t get to talk about, either because it’s someone else’s place to decide how they want to talk about it or because it wouldn’t help anything to talk about it in public, and that can cause its own stress.
Even with all that, knowing at the conclusion of the con that you’ve done your job the best you can and contributed to an actual event that managed to happen can wash a lot of that stress away. That’s what keeps people coming back.
In Brief
Ward Christensen, a founder of the Build-a-Blinkie organization that brought DIY electronics to Chicago-area conventions, died on or before October 12th. In tech circles, Christensen is remembered as the co-inventor of the dial-up BBS.
Kawacon: 4 Honor (San Antonio, Texas, January 17-19) has added Lotus Juice and Kaiji Tang.
The Great Con-Junction (Borehamwood, UK, February 8-9) has added Kiran Shah.
Game On Expo (Phoenix, Arizona, April 4-6) has added Erica Schroeder.
Trek Long Island (Hauppauge, New York, May 30-June 1) has added Celia Rose Gooding, Amy Pietz, and Susan Diol.
Event Calendar
Weekend of October 25-27
MileHiCon 56, Denver, Colorado, USA
Hallowcon 2024 (fantasy/horror), Dalton, Georgia, USA
3rd Annual Sturgeon Symposium, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Ohio Valley Filk Festival 40 (music), Worthington, Ohio, USA
GLC 14: Toffee and the Argonauts (anthropomorphic), Hasliberg, Switzerland
Infurnity (anthropomorphic), Taichung, Taiwan
Reffurence: Howl-o-Ween (anthropomorphic), Rotterdam, Netherlands
Carnage 27: Children of the Con (gaming), Killington, Vermont, USA
Zilele Jocurilor (gaming), Târgu Mureș, Romania
GaelCon 2024 (gaming), Dublin, Ireland
Big Bad Con 2024 (gaming), Burlingame, California, USA
Phantasm 34th (RPGs), Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
LAN All Night X: X-LAN LANs of Future Past (video games), Grapevine, Texas, USA
GDEX 2024 (video games), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Retro Palooza (retro video games), Arlington, Texas, USA
YumeCon USA (anime), San Jose, California, USA
DerpyCon 2024 (anime), New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Destination Tokyo (anime), St-Maurice, Switzerland
Ramencon (anime), South Bend, Indiana, USA
Winnipeg Comiccon, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The Penti-Con 2024 (media), Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, UK
VoltCon 2024 (Voltron), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Weekend of November 1-3
Fantastika 2024 (Swedish national sf convention), Stockholm, Sweden (Swecon)
Les Utopiales, Nantes, France
ArmadaCon, Plymouth, UK
LodgeCon 2024, Peotone, Illinois, USA
Doxacon 2024 (sf and Christianity), Arlington, Virginia, USA
Can*Con 2024 (Canadian sf), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Furry Blacklight: Ride the Retro Wave, Tremblay-en-France, France
Wüellas FurFest (anthropomorphic), Santiago, Chile
Furpocalypse 2024: Astrophobia (anthropomorphic), Stamford, Connecticut, USA
Kee Con VII (gaming), Cherokee, Iowa, USA
Lucca Comics & Games, Lucca, Italy
Tampa Nerd Con (gaming), Tampa, Florida, USA
Rock-Con (gaming), Rockford, Illinois, USA
Effing-Con (gaming), Effingham, Illinois, USA
Dice Fest 2024 (gaming), Bellevue, Washington, USA
NewGame 2024 (gaming), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
LoBsterCon XXVII (boardgames), Eastbourne, UK
TORG Gaming Expo 2024 (video games), Columbus, Ohio, USA
Fall In! (miniatures gaming), Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
WarFaire Weekend (wargaming), St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Sin City Anime, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Youmacon (anime), Detroit, Michigan, USA
YuniCon (anime), Schwechat, Austria
UwUCon (anime), Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
Comic Con Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
Anime Pasadena 2024, Pasadena, California, USA
NekoCon 2024: Mewths and Legends (anime), Hampton, Virginia, USA
Rhode Island Comic Con, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
FACTS (media), Ghent, Belgium
TFcon Baltimore (Transformers), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Weekend of November 8-10
Novacon 53, Buxton, UK
TusCon 51, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Windycon 50: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, Oak Brook, Illinois, USA
Imladris XXII, Kraków, Poland
OmegaCon Fall 2024 (relaxacon), Siren, Wisconsin, USA
Y/Con 10 (LGBT sf), Paris, France
GeekGirlCon (female geekdom), Seattle, Washington, USA
New England Crime Bake 2024 (mysteries), Dedham, Massachusetts, USA
TeslaCon: The Mystery of Kraken Island (steampunk), Middleton, Wisconsin, USA
Steampunk November, Venus, Texas, USA
The Surrey Steampunk Convivial, Epsom, UK
Lost Coast Steampunk Consortium Convivial, Eureka, California, USA
Vermont Steampunk Expo, Essex Junction, Vermont, USA
Flüüfff: Toxic Critters (anthropomorphic), Brussels, Belgium
PAW '24: The AF-Taur Life (anthropomorphic), San Jose, California, USA
Howloween 2024: The Bork Collective (anthropomorphic), Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Hexcon (gaming), Trondheim, Norway
Mythic Con (gaming), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Save Against Fear (gaming), York, Pennsylvania, USA
AcadeCon (gaming), Dayton, Ohio, USA
Spielwiesn (gaming), Augsburg, Germany
MEPACon: Covert Operations (gaming), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Spellen Spektakel (gaming), Utrecht, Netherlands
FLAG Con 2024 (gaming), Ithaca, New York, USA
BottosCon 2024 (gaming), New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Compass Games Expo Fall 2024, Meridien, Connecticut, USA
Spielewelt in Bielefeld (boardgames), Bielefeld, Germany
EuroQuest 2024 (Eurogames), Annapolis, Maryland, USA
TaKtiCon (miniatures gaming), Kansas City, Missouri, USA
The Long Con (RPGs), Longview, Texas, USA
AmberCon NW (diceless RPGs), Troutdale, Oregon, USA
KeyForge Celebration 2024 (KeyForge CCG), Roseville, Minnesota, USA
Music City Multi Con (media/video games), Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Sonic Expo (Sonic the Hedgehog), Mesquite, Texas, USA
Animaine XII (anime), South Portland, Maine, USA
Kumoricon (anime), Portland, Oregon, USA
HizashiCon (anime), Pensacola, Florida, USA
anime expo chibi, Ontario, California, USA
Nishicon 2024: Full Metal Nishi (anime), Eindhoven, Netherlands
Rocky Mountain Con (comics), Denver, Colorado, USA
Motor City Comic Con, Novi, Michigan, USA
Grit City Comic Show, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Twin Tiers Comic-Con, Horseheads, New York, USA
Comic Con Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Hal-Con (media), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
NC Comic Con, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Twin Cities Con (media), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Akron Comiccon, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA
SyFiPopFest (media), Leesburg, Florida, USA
Pony Friends Forever (My Little Pony), San Antonio, Texas, USA
Weekend of November 15-17
CONjuration (fantasy), Duluth, Georgia, USA
BGG.CON (gaming), Dallas, Texas, USA
U-Con (gaming), Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA
TimpCon (gaming), Provo, Utah, USA
Társasjátékok Ünnepe (gaming), Budapest, Hungary
Gridcon 5 (boardgames), Taunton, UK
RPG Alliance Con, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
SNAFU Con (anime), Reno, Nevada, USA
Omnicon: Full S.T.E.A.M Ahead (anime), Cookeville, Tennessee, USA
Anime Oklahoma, Midwest City, Oklahoma, USA
Anime Town Pensacola, Pensacola, Florida, USA
Anime Iwai: Zodiac, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
San Diego Anime Con, San Diego, California, USA
Thought Bubble (comics), Harrogate, UK
Nairobi Comic Con, Nairobi, Kenya
Grand Rapids Comic Con, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
PalmCon: Treasure Coast (media), Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA
Weekend of November 22-24
Loscon 50, Los Angeles, California, USA
Philcon 2024, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
MiniCon 2024: Polish Prosperity (anthropomorphic), Hlavatce, Czechia
Consequences Q: Quintessential Consequences (gaming), Christchurch, UK
Spel (gaming), Antwerp, Belgium
LFG Canberra (boardgames), Griffith, Australia
Asian Board Games Festival, Singapore
Milan Games Week & Cartoonomics (media/gaming), Milan, Italy
Free Play Florida (retro video games), Lakeland, Florida, USA
HotaruCon 3 (anime), Milton Keynes, UK
Akimatsuri (anime), Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
M.A.G.E (anime), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Miryokucon (anime), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Con Nichiwa 2024 (anime), Tucson, Arizona, USA
Colossalcon North (anime), Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, USA
Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Heroes Dutch Comic Con, Utrecht, Netherlands
Coda
Cats observed as liquids in home environments (Science News)
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