Open Thread: Minicon 54

Open Thread: Minicon 54

My involvement with Minicon started early this annum, as I was approached by one of the co-chairs about becoming head of Programming. Citing my entire lack of managerial experience and continued inability to organize, I declined. But I did agree to help the Programming department out.

I pitched a bunch of panel ideas, some of which were picked, participated in a couple of meetings, and found a panelist. Also, I was asked to be the name tent guy at the convention. More on that momentarily.

With both Thursday and Friday off, I was able to come in the day before the official start to help a bit with set-up. I had to leave early due to needing to finish necessary chores, and the vast bulk of set-up happened in the evening.

My busiest time was actually Friday morning. After stopping at the print shop to copy some flyers, I arrived at registration and was handed a box of name tents and room schedule posters. I spent a couple of hours getting the tents in the right order for the convention schedule, then putting up the room schedules for the day and arranging the first set of name tents. Throughout the convention, I took away old name tents and put up new ones, cleared off used water glasses and other detritus, and rearranged chairs as needed. Light work, but it helped the convention run smoother.

I had just enough time to enjoy the Dover’s Dodo (chicken strips and tater tots) special before programming began.

The first panel I went to was “Art and Copyright” where special guest artist Tom Fleming described his successful lawsuit against art thieves and suggestions were made as to how artists can best establish and maintain copyright over their works. My brother Shaun, a law professor, enjoyed the panel.

This was Shaun’s first science fiction convention; he’d been lured in by my description of one of the panels. He preferred the colorful member badges and program to the stuffy nametags and agendas of other conferences he’s been to.

I enjoyed the “History of Fannish T-shirts” panel, especially its focus on Minicon shirts, and am in the photo for that.

Opening ceremonies were as always fun to be at. I went to the “Rites of Passage” panel but didn’t pay enough attention so missed quite a bit of the byplay. After making sure that I’d left off any needed materials, I visited some room parties (I especially liked the Great Geek Giveaway) and then retired to my hotel room for sleep. I was next door to the Consuite, but the noise level was acceptable.

Speaking of which, the Consuite felt much better organized and less cramped this year, some of which may be down to the rule not to loiter on the plastic. (Did you folks have the staging area last year? If not, that definitely helped!)

First panel Saturday morning was “How Young is YA?” where one of the points that interested me is how the younger edge of the publishing category seems to be pressing into the elementary school market, so that books aimed at older teens might not be considered suitable by some publishers.

Then the first of the panels my brother was on, about commercial genetic testing and the possible upsides and downsides of the technology and how it might be used. Some fascinating stories.

I made some time in my schedule to visit the Yangtze restaurant nearby and have some very nice egg foo yung; I should have made more time and brought a couple of friends as they were having a dim sum brunch.

In between things I had conversations with friends and acquaintances, and made sure to visit the dealer’s room and art show. My niece had a piece in the art show; it didn’t sell, but she’ll get better at it I’m sure.

I don’t remember too much about the Three-Toed Shoes panel, but I know I was there. Afterwards, I caught the end of “The Doctor’s Case” and the first couple of episodes of “My Hero Academia” in the film room. (I only caught bits and pieces of the concert room activities, and the Rumpus Room folks always seemed to be having fun.)

I passed by the Dave de Vries live art demonstration several times, my brother said it was fun to watch but he couldn’t stay for all of it.

The Year in SF Television panel spent quite a bit of time on The Orville, which it seems I will have to watch at some point. I mentioned The Promised Neverland, which was on television in Japan this year and therefore technically counts.

Then it was the panel that convinced my brother to show up in the first place, “Artificial Intelligence Best Practices” (which I had suggested at the programming planning meeting–never underestimate the power of showing up in person to make your suggestions.) Bottom line: Artificial intelligence is less scary than human stupidity in using robots and computers.

After making sure the late panels had their tents, I went to the parties again (I spent the most time at the Social Media party, which had once been the Livejournal party.) And thus to bed.

First panel in the morning was “The Year in SF”–lots of good books this last year. Then “Cats in SF” which was another of my suggestions–there are a lot of good stories about cats, and we discussed a number of border cases where the only fantastic element is how smart the cats are.

Then it was “Fanfic Writing Is Writing” where four of the five panelists are professional authors who’ve also written fanfic, and the fifth hasn’t yet sold her first book but keep watching the press releases. My brother tells me he was impressed by how well this panel went into the topic.

At last it was time for “Toastmasters Presents SF Table Topics” in which we invited audience members to answer speculative fiction questions such as “Is using time travel to make yourself wealthy ethical, why or why not?” in two minutes. I have never before seen Minicon attendees so at a loss for words or hesitant to put their hands up. (Seriously, most of them are downright loquacious and unafraid to speak their minds at any other time.) Fortunately, we had a couple of Toastmasters in the audience, and eventually got most of the folks to participate.

The closing ceremony high point was Nate Bucklin singing a song for an attendee who he written that song about years before. The assassination of the old MNStf president was underwhelming this year. Long live the new president!

I won a bid in the art show so I had a birthday present for a certain lucky person. I’d left some books on the freebie table, and picked up others; plus I bought “The Best of R.A. Lafferty” at the Dreamhaven table (support independent bookstores!) and Blake Hausladen’s latest, “The Vastness” at his room party. (I admire his sales ethic.)

Volunteering for the convention was fun, I had just enough to do. Fan-run conventions need lots of volunteers, so thank you to those who served.

I hear that next year’s GoH is Jo Walton, time to start planning panels!

How was your convention? Any fun stories?