ConFusion

[elizilla]

It was a good weekend at ConFusion. I don't know what I did with all that time. It seems like it flew by in about half the time of a normal weekend.

I spent Friday in a disorganized orgy of packing and last minute tasks. I still had to make the Stilyagi party schedule flyers, and do two loads of laundry, and pi3832 wanted to make a cloak to wear, and then I decided I needed something new and fancy for myself so I whipped together a new skirt out of some nice sheer purple fabric with velvety black flowers on it, that I'd had here waiting to go into the sewing machine for years. Just as I was finishing up with the packing, I got a call that treebones had had some sort of ride snafu, so I detoured up to her place to pick her up and bring her to the convention.

This was pi3832's first ever convention. I sent him along on his own in his own car, since I had to go get treebones. By the time I arrived, he had jumped in headfirst. thatguychuck hooked him up with a bunch of gopher shifts and a sleeping space in the gopher hole. I barely saw him all weekend, and when I did see him he looked like a regular. It suited him well. I need to remember to let him know that there is a good convention in Cincinnati, Millenicon, that he might like to attend. It's coming up in March.

I was Guest Liaison for Emma Bull and Will Shetterly. They hardly needed me; they are fannish and there were many people there that they knew. They drove in so they didn't even need a ride to and from the airport. I served as a human calculator for the Flash Girls, and I fetched Emma some coffee, and I located a Thai restaurant, but other than that there wasn't much for me to do.

I was on two Saturday panels: The AASFA Board Meeting panel, which was kind of odd considering I'm not on the board this year. And the "True Meaning of Stilyagi" panel which was basically a discussion of the history of the word Stilyagi, and the history of our club.

I arranged to go to the Thai restaurant with Emma and Will, and between me and them we managed to have quite a horde of people in our group. Fortunately with the weather, the restaurant was empty, so we had no trouble getting as much table space as we liked. xtatic1 and mistrtoad met us there. They'd been househunting but they wanted to come out for a while on Saturday night. They had an exciting trip out, due to the foot of snow we got on Saturday, so they decided to stay in the hotel instead of going home Saturday night. Fortunately the hotel had screwed up and given me and M a room with two beds instead of a king room, so we had space for them.

We got back to the hotel and dressed up for the dance. I had almost decided to give up on the pirate thing and wear my garb, instead, but in the end I decided I just couldn't face being laced into that bodice all evening. So I went ahead with the pirate outfit. xtatic1 had a perfect vest, she looked great. Other people who looked spectacular in their Saturday finery were dagibbs and devon. I had fun flirting and snuggling with erikted, who very sensibly wore a nice warm sweater. The hotel was as cold as a refrigerator.

The masquerade was awesome! kgkofmel did an awesome job of organizing it and getting people to participate with such enthusiasm!

I joined tlatoani's crew, for the Pirate Party. It was excellent. They had put together a rolling cart made up to look like a ship, with party refreshments and music. They raided other parties, stormed the Masquerade and were the terror of the Marriott elevator lobbies. Who woulda thunk it was possible to win the room party contest without getting a room?

I spent several hours over the course of the convention handing out the flyers I made Friday, with the upcoming Stilyagi events. I made the flyers two sided, and I think maybe that was a mistake, because people had to be told to look at both sides. One side advertised the spring dance we're having on March 18, and the other side advertised the other events between now and Penguicon. It will be interesting to see if we pick up any new faces. I hope we do.

---

Today I was on one panel, the art show panel. I had forgotten all about it when minnehaha K came up to me and asked what we were going to do for this panel. I then remembered Krysta asking me about it, and I said I believed it was my job to be the anti-art person, so we could generate fireworks and make the panel exciting. I did my best, but Randy Asplund told me afterward that I wasn't mean enough. Oh well. :-)

I'm not quite hostile enough, I guess. My main gripe about art show is a cost/benefit analysis argument. If we eliminated the artist guest, the art show, and the storage and transport of art show hangings from the convention's budget, took back the relatively large piece of function space it occupies, and stopped providing gophers to set it up, tear it down, and guard it, we could save a couple thousand dollars and do something else in the space, something that would benefit more people.

If the only reason to do the art show is because that's what everyone does, and no one is on fire with passion to run it well, it's a big waste of money, space, and human capital. "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." IMHO, if the art community was unwilling to pull up their own socks, it was time to just give it up. Better not to do it, than to do it as badly as we did it during my tenure as conchair.

Since that time, the art show has experienced a bit of a renaissance. I guess someone decided there'd been enough pain in that area, and stepped forward to pick up the ball. It looked really good this weekend! All the panels were full and there was a lot of great stuff in there. But I took the opportunity to speak to the audience members a bit, about the importance of active participation on their part. If there's an area you're interested in, then work to make it happen, don't just saddle the poor conchair with a bunch of "shoulds". Or you just might find your function space getting reallocated.

Comments

Art Show

[encorecrazay.livejournal.com]

I've suggested the same thing for ArmadilloCon, and it comes down to 'everyone is expecting it' and 'everyone else is doing it'. We spend nearly $1000 per year on storage, truck rentals, not the mention the cost of the new metal stands we had made a few years, and have loaned to another convention and didn't even charge for their use. If we're lucky we get 10 people to the art panels including the ones with the artist GOH. The only year it made a profit in the past few years was when I ran it and we sold a $3,000 painting that gave us a $450 commission (we charge 15% plus a hanging fee and a shipping fee) and still we lose money as we pay for the shipping fees for the artist guest (not the commission), hotel room, airfare, etc, etc. I think we're lucky if 10% of the attendees go to the art show.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Amen to that! "If the only reason to do the FILL IN THE BLANK is because that's what everyone does, and no one is on fire with passion to run it well, it's a big waste of money, space, and human capital." You're right, but expand it! For illustration, I was assigned to a couple of events at a different convention last year, without receiving answers in advance to my inquiries of what they were about or how I was expected to prepare to help them succeed. No one asked me if I cared or if it was a tedious obligation. Needless to say, those events were not successful, although I enjoyed that convention on the whole. When I've looked for people to take on the cool projects I thought up for Penguicon, I talked with them at length to see if I could get them excited about their own vision of it. Emotional investment and personal ownership is key.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Sorry I missed the panel, I would have wanted to see what you had to say.

I agree that any major convention activity should depend on people wanting to do it, not just because people want other people to do it.

I saw Matt Ragsdale helping at the art show. I strongly suspect he made a difference. (One notes that he is not from Detroit, but whatever.)