Levitation – con report for Eastercon 2024

3/4/24 13:18
eledonecirrhosa: Astronautilus - a nautilus with a space helmet (Default)
 

Had a fantastic time at Levitation. Came back knackered because I don’t think I’ve done so much socialising in aeons.

There were minor travel woes getting there and back – rail replacement bus on the way there, broken down train blocking our route on the way back. However, once I got there, all was well. The hotel was about 3 mins walk from the Telford International Centre. When I went for an explore on the Thursday afternoon, I spotted a cinema only a further 6 or 7 minutes’ walk away. So that was my Thursday evening entertainment sorted – I’m pining for movies since the local multiplex closed. Went to see Nasty Little Letters.

Breakfast at my hotel was allegedly continental when I booked it, but there was bacon and beans, so I availed myself of that, and the bread warming machine. I hesitate to call it a toaster. It did the usual hotel thing of once through just warms the bread, twice through cremates it… Had a lovely breakfast chat with various fans which didn’t finish until about 10.30 when the hotel staff were hoovering around us!

In fact, I had lots of nice chats with old friends and with random fans I hadn’t met before, including prior to the Past Isn’t Straight panel, on the train on the way home, and in the Games Room when in search of the water cooler (the newsletter almost wasn’t kidding about it being down a long, dim corridor past the sign saying ‘Beware of the leopard’).

Food – I didn’t venture out to the restaurants or in search of Asda, and just stuck to the venue food. The chips were awesome! Hot food adequate but not much variety. If the vegans didn’t like chilli, they were stuffed.

LOVED the venue – spacious, airy, lots of little nooks with a few chairs and tables to sit and chat, as well as the main fan/food/bar area.

FRIDAY PANELS

·      Cats are real but dragons are hard (craft workshop) – I know now that (a) crocheting is fun but (b) it makes my eyes go funny if I wear my glasses!

·         Contemporary Pakistani Speculative Fiction – a streamed event. Great discussion of an academic study the panellists had done, which touched on things such as the Islamic attitudes to djinn. The moderator kindly emailed the reading list.

·         What happened to SF/F as a force for good?

·         Book launch – Dawn & Dave of the Dead by David Wake. Which I’d already read as David did a pre-launch at Armadacon.

·         The Past Isn’t Straight – and Neither is the Future.

·         Can We Walk Away from Injustice?

 

SATURDAY PANELS

·         Scientists in the Media Imagination – terrific fun.

·         Climate Friction: Solar Punk and Environment Justice – went for some recommendations because most of the climate fic I’ve read so far were all character portraits and no plot.

·         BSFA Awards

·         What is the appeal of Libraries for F/SF readers (I was on this panel – fun discussion).

·         Tade Thomson GOH interview

·         The Good, The Bad and the Buggy (tech glitches)

·         Invertebrates in Space! Again, I was on this panel, fun, informative and we continued in the bar until the Telford Centre kicked us out.

 SUNDAY PANELS

·         Art materials & techniques: picturing the future.

·         Business meeting/bid session. There will be a 2025 bid at Belfast. No location information yet. Useful Q&A from Belfast committee. Someone asked if there was a Supporting Rate and they realised it was not on their list. I signed up as Supporting.

George Hay Lecture: Battling Cancer in 2024. Fascinating.

·         Meta-fandom and Transformative works – went down a few rabbit holes, but was entertaining.

·         The Impact on Space Opera of Diverse Voices.

·         Doctor Who in Audio.

 MONDAY PANELS

·         Detectives in Fantasy & Science Fiction. Neat, but reinforced the notion that stuff gets forgotten so quickly. A question was asked about science fiction detectives (as opposed to the fantasy ones discussed) and I was thinking Alien Nation and another audience member said Star Cops, but the panellists didn’t mention those and couldn’t think of many others.

·         GOH Dr Srinarahari talks about Indian SF – pre-recorded talk. Tech issues at the start before they got it up and running. Interesting, but not what I expected, as it was less about Indian SF and more about SF becoming a pervasive force in modern culture as a whole.

Tags:

Eastercon (Confusion 2021) - Day 4

6/4/21 13:45
eledonecirrhosa: Astronautilus - a nautilus with a space helmet (Default)
 I had a gaming thing scheduled with my brother for 3pm, so I only did a half day at Confusion on Day 4.

The Exoplanets panel had no tech issues. They wandered off topic a lot but it was entertaining nevertheless. 

Annoyingly, as usual the previous panel crashed into the next panel, and so the buffering thing meant I didn't get into it until it had started. It was the In Memory of Storm Constantine panel and it had no audio. I really, really wanted to hear this, so set off to log onto Slide to tell the moderator that.

And discovered that I had no idea which of the 7 channels was the Storm Constantine one!  (I hadn't written it down like I had with some other panels). No problem, I thought - I'll go look at the list of what's on today and that will say.  But it didn't say on the "now happening" page, and the 12.00 panels had all vanished from the Monday programme page - it only had future panels showing, not current ones. I went round and round in circles trying to find the "whole of the programme" page which I knew had the info on it.  FFS stop making vital info difficult to find. 

So I jumped in and out of all the Slide channels until Kari posted a moderator message in one, indicating it was the Storm one. 

Kari and Tech sorted the audio after a few minutes, so I got to hear most of the panellists stories about Storm. It was sweet and funny and made me cry in places.

The final panel I watched was New Keystones in SF. Again I missed the start, due to (1) the previous one not finishing until bang on 1pm; (2) the buffering thing lasting a minute or two; and (3) I am a human being who sometimes needs to pee! 

I think the tech issues for this con would have been a lot less frustrating if the communications had been better. Stuff like:
  • Don't assume everyone and their dog is constantly glued to Facebook and Twitter. Put everything important on your website. Especially "how to" summaries and links to platforms/channels.
  • Don't send out emails at the last minute. (If there is some sort of last minute emergency, fair enough). 
  • Repeated information is better than lack of information. 
  • Too much information is better than lack of information.
  • If the platform to ask questions is different to the platform to watch the panel, it needs flagged up in LARGE FRIENDLY LETTERS in multiple places, so people don't have to go hunting thru emails to find it.
  • If there are multiple channels/rooms for questions with generic names like "Room 1", then you need to include the channel name in the title of the panel EVERYWHERE that title is mentioned. e.g. Exoplanets in SF - Room 5. 
  • If the panels all start bang on the hour, then the panels need to end at 5 to the hour. Those 5 minutes are vital for meat space activities like comfort breaks, making cups of tea, feeding the cat, etc. As well as providing 5 minutes to get over the buffering issues. (Having 5 minutes for buffering from 12.55 to 13.00 is no use if the last panel I went to ends at exactly 13.00). 
Tags:

Eastercon (Confusion 2021) - Day 3

5/4/21 10:42
eledonecirrhosa: Astronautilus - a nautilus with a space helmet (Default)
 The Confusion lack of understanding how efficient comms works continues...

I wanted to go to the Bid Session. So I pootled about, doing things like CHECKING MY EMAIL (this will be important later), then logged onto the site about 15 mins before the Bid was due to happen. Then jumped into the Bid as soon as it let me... and it buffered... and buffered... and I finally got into it after a couple of minutes after it had started...

Only to find a sign saying "we've moved to Zoom - check your email for the login". 

FFS. Don't put that info inside the session which is difficult to get to. Change the bloody title of the session! 

Checked email again. Yes there was now an email about the Zoom Bid. It had arrived at 10.50 for a session that started at 11.00. 

Again FFS.

When the bid had finished, I caught the second half of the Xenos in SF panel. Might go listen to the start of that if they recorded it.

The 2000AD panel buffered for 5 mins, but I finally got into it. 

I watched the recording of the 80s pop lyrics vs Warhammer 40K quiz. One of the contestants had terrible tech issues, but everyone seemed to be having fun. 

I couldn't get into What's Not Being Published, but my second choice of Love & Gunships was a great discussion. 

The Fanfic lecture was really good and had no tech issues. 
Tags:

Eastercon (Confusion 2021) - Day 2

4/4/21 10:49
eledonecirrhosa: Astronautilus - a nautilus with a space helmet (Default)
Things have improved on the tech front, but still not 100%.

I couldn't get into the 10am panel I wanted to see - just a black screen, not even any buffering. Same for the others running in the same slot. So I wandered off to do other things.

At 1pm I tried again for Dan Abmett's GoH interview - and everything worked! Yippee!  As did the lecture on Medieval Forensics. And both were excellent events.

However there was no audio on the 8pm panel I wanted to see - 80s pop music & space marine dialogue. I tried my second choice of Working Class Heroes and that had audio... and some very fine discussion. I have a few book recommendations jotted down.

The Male Power Fantasy panel also worked fine.


Tags:

Eastercon - Day 1

3/4/21 10:35
eledonecirrhosa: Astronautilus - a nautilus with a space helmet (Default)
Was a total wipe out. 

The only thing I saw was the last 2 minutes of the Opening Ceremony. Because they didn't get me a username until it had started, and it took me a while to realise that the links in the email were invisible (white on white background), and not just missing.

I got into the Opening Ceremony on my third attenmpt.

After that, nothing worked. Panels just buffered endlessly.

So I spent the evening on the phone to a friend, chatting gaming and SF with him instead. 
Tags:

Follycon report

7/4/18 16:28
eledonecirrhosa: Astronautilus - a nautilus with a space helmet (Default)
Follycon was last weekend but I've only just gathered enough wits and free time to do this report.

Travel there was trouble free, though the first train (of 2) was packed. Fortunately I had booked a seat. As she was checking tickets the conductor remarked that Maundy Thursday is the busiest day of the year on the rail network. I chatted to Rosie Oliver and other fans on the 2nd train.

I was in the Majestic, which is old enough NOT to have air conditioning (yippee!), to have windows which open (yippee!), and a radiator which remains off when you turn it off (yippee!). So finally an Eastercon without me coming down with con crud! Thew downside of the room was:
(1) The only decently bright light was in the bathroom. I had to read my con programme by standing at the window using daylight, and thank Grud the kindle has an illuminated screen.
(2) My room was above main programming, which meant my Cunning Plan to get an early night on Friday was scuppered by the dum-dum-dum of bass from the band. Ah well, they quit about 23.00 and neither the Ceilidh nor the Disco was as loud as the band.

Went out to eat at a very nice Chinese on the Thurs evening. I stuck to hotel food the rest of the time, mainly because there weren't big enough gaps between panels I wanted to see to do a restaurant meal. The method by which you obtained and paid for con food seemed to vary every time I was in the dining area (pay first, pay afterwards, table service, self service). Quality varied from terrible to really very nice. All the staff were lovely. I was a bit bemused by the warning signs which said things like "Pork - contains meat" or "Eggs - contains eggs".

Lots of fun chats with folk I hadn't seen for ages and with some people I'd never met before.

Stuff I went to:
- The Future of Cities
- Games: Story vs Mechanics
- Transgressive Sexuality
- Generations: Bioscience
- Generations: Ecology
- Putting Science in Your Story
- Nnedi Okorafor GOH interview
- Christina Lake GOH talk - Utopianism & Eugenics in Fiction
- BSFA Awards (I failed to vote because I didn't find the BSFA desk in the dealers' room. I realised later it had been hidden behind a gaggle of people every time I'd been there).
- Economics of Terraforming
- Eastercon bid session
- How to Finish Your Novel (where David Wake finished his live on stage by typing 'The End' and hitting Save).
- Christina Lake GOH talk on her early years in fandom
- Negotiating the Otherworldly
- Reproductive Technologies. It was great that they had an anthropologist as well as scientists on the panel.

I was busy fretting about snow, floods and train cancellations on Monday (Andy Bigwood of Bristolcon was texting me with tales of reversing trains and replacement buses) so I didn't go to any panels prior to giving my talk: Aliens Ate My Baby.

The speaker giving the talk prior to mine didn't stop at 11.50 like she was supposed to. And she didn't stop at 11.55 ish when the gopher waved the Stop sign or at 12.00 when the gopher came back and waved it more vigorously. As a result, the laptop which tech had loaned me wasn't set up on time... and the only tech guy who knew the password to it had dashed off to do tech in another room. I started without pictures, whilst the room tech sped off in search of John-Who-Knew-The-Password. Note to previous speaker REHEARSE YOUR TALK and TIME IT. It isn't rocket science.

Fortunately I HAD rehearsed my talk and knew it was 36 minutes long in a 50 minute slot, so Ms I'm Too Pretty & Special To Stick To My Allocated Slot wasn't the complete disaster it could have been. I did, however, only have time for 3 questions, and that was only by finishing at 12.53 instead of 12.50. The audience laughed and cringed in all the right places, so it went well.

Grabbed a quick lunch, toured round saying bye to people and then left a couple of hours earlier than I had originally planned, in case there was more weather chaos on the railways. Met Ian Millsted on train 1 of 2 and had a nice chat there and while we waited for connections at Leeds.
Tags: