On inclusion and exclusion in vidding fandom: personal reflections

[bop_radar]

I've been composing this post in my head for a long, long time. Months. But it's come to a head for several reasons. I've held back from making it because I thought it was just 'my' issue and because I have a great deal of love and respect for the Livejournal/VVC-centred vidding commmunity/fandom, both as a whole and the individuals who make it up

Comments

[marycrawford]

There's a lot to digest here, and I'm not sure yet how I feel on some points, but I have to leap on this:

I understand that most people in the community are in the US, but would it pay people to stop and check sometimes before assuming that? And stop and think about what that means.

THANK YOU. For me, US-centricity is is already an uncomfortable, frustrating and largely unacknowledged issue within the wider LJ-based media fandom, which I am not sure how to address -- being involved in fraught discussions and/or wank makes me lose sleep at night, so I tend to shut myself up a lot instead. And this general problem is made worse by the fact that VVC, as the central hub of this particular subset of vidding fandom, is physically based in the US, for all the reasons you name.

A small addendum to the flights issue is that it also really doesn't help that VVC is based in Chicago, which is a business flight destination primarily (at least, from the Netherlands, where I live). There are really good flight deals to be had now and then to other US cities that are bigger tourist destinations, like New York and San Francisco, but I've never seen one for Chicago, let alone in August.

[jagwriter78]

Before I delve into my reply to you, let me just say, we both live on the same continent (waves to the Netherlands from Germany). What I want to say is that I never really thought of Chicago to be a problematic city until you just pointed out the business flight aspect. I never even considered that. Things must be different though in the Netherlands when it comes to flights though because here in Germany, if you are flying to a big tourist destination, flights are usually more expensive than to smaller, not so much know airports. Like flying into Washington DC is more expensive than flying into Baltimore or flying to any of the New York airports is more expensive than flying to of the surrounding airports. And don't even get me started on flights to Florida, the big tourist attraction. Flights to there are way more expensive than anywhere else on the East coast, most of the time even more expensive than flying to somewhere in the MidWest.

What I mostly had and still have an issue is rather with the date, August. It's peak season, both national and international flights are more than double the price than they are during off peak times. I always wondered why such a date was chosen. People attending will have to take days off work no matter what time you place the con, so the whole August timeslot kind of baffles me. Maybe one of these days the concom or someone else can fill us in why VVC chose a time during peak season while usually con organizers try to avoid this time.

[musesfool]

I can't speak for the concom or anyone else involved, but just generally speaking as someone who used to plan conferences for a living (in the US), conference room space in hotels is generally cheaper in August in most cities, and hotel room rates in Chicago are slightly cheaper than hotel rooms in New York or San Francisco - in New York, for example, room rates are lower January through August; September through December is high season, and the rates increase accordingly. (This year has been somewhat different, due to the economy, with rooms at usually expensive hotels falling below $200/night for the first time in many years, because occupancy was falling in the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.) [/tangent]

[jagwriter78]

conference room space in hotels is generally cheaper in August in most cities

So you mean August is off-peak season for conference space? That makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

[musesfool]

Yeah. One organization I used to work for specifically started holding training meetings in August because of the lower rates for meeting space.

[0mindthegap0]

Thank you as well for explaining the cost of the actual con space - we do appreciate it. : )

[counteragent]

Yeah, no one would be able to stay in NYC, for example. Waaaaay too expensive!

[bop_radar]

Yes, thank you for the explanation! It does help to understand--I had assumed it was something like that.

[jagwriter78]

Yup, that makes sense. Though, having never been to any of those other cons, are they also vidding cons or fandom cons of some kind?

[bop_radar]

It's peak season, both national and international flights are more than double the price than they are during off peak times.
Hell yeah! Though this year, a new airline opened up routes from Australia (after VVC registration) and I cried with frustration to see that they had heaps of promo fares at a third of the price of a regular flight. On top of that, imagine my pain when it was revealed that Vividcon still had places! If I'd known a week or two earlier, I could have gone--on a cheap flight!--but by the time they announced that, I had booked myself up with work (I freelance) assuming that it was an impossibility.

[jagwriter78]

I feel your pain. I know flights from Oz to the States are a lot more expensive than from Europe to the US and missing out on such a bargain.....

[bop_radar]

Thank you! You have no idea what it means to me to have someone acknowledge that. And hell, from Europe to the States is still $$$!

[jagwriter78]

I always saw the majority of attendees not being students, so I left out that fact, but you are right, they are out of school. If that was a major factor in timing any con, I think they all have to be in August then XD

[elynross]

I don't know about the majority, but we have a significant number of college students, and a significant number of people who are teachers, both college and HS, and another signficant number of people who have children, and all of these are impacted by the start of the school year (including me! *g*) So it is a part of what goes into the timing of the convention, as well as hotel costs (both to the con and the individual members), and when other fannish cons are scheduled, both 'pro' and 'amateur.'