Olympus 2012 - my con report
This year’s Eastercon was held in the Radisson Edwardian near Heathrow - a venue that’s hosted the convention several times before and is memorable for its quirky, rabbit-warren layout interspersed with huge glass atriums and bizarre water features. I’ll keep my report brief as no one needs the minutiae of our day-to-day con experience, but I will just note that we’ve taken to staying in the Marriott next door as we like its huge, comfortable rooms!
It was certainly a busy, bustling con. I think I saw everyone I was hoping to see, but often managed only one conversation with them! There was so much going on.
The consensus seems to be that Olympus was a highly successful event. Membership was completely sold out, and they weren’t even taking walk-ins on the day, which is very unusual. This was largely due to the big-name attraction of GRR Martin, but Tricia Sullivan deserves a special mention for being a superb SF Guest of Honour. She’s a fascinating speaker on panels, and a warm, friendly person to chat to in the bar too.
The art show was one of the best I’ve seen, stuffed with great art from such acclaimed talents as Anne Sudworth, Jim Burns and Chris Baker (Fangorn) along with many others. I like to take part in the art show, because it lends an extra dimension to the convention for me. I don’t want or expect the con to be all about hoping someone will remember I’m an author! (Actually, it’s many years since I naively thought cons should be like that). For Mike and me, it’s about getting together with like-minded friends and having fun. Chatting with other writers, having a business discussion with your agent, and signing the occasional book are all bonuses, and pretty great ones.
Oh, and going to panels! The programme was amazing, almost too big - there were at least five different things going on at all times, making it difficult to cherry-pick what you most wanted to see. Mike doesn’t go to panels at all, preferring to wander about chatting and book-browsing, but I don’t feel I’ve properly been at the con unless I catch at least a few events. On the Saturday I made it to five panels (plus a signing) which was pretty good going. In the main convention hall, the ops had rigged up cameras and a big screen, so everyone had a great view of the panels, which were recorded for later viewing on the net. Great for catching up on anything you missed!
An interesting and welcome theme is taking shape, that of Gender Parity.
I blogged a while ago about the fact that while female authors were publishing very nearly as many books as males, we were getting only half the attention, review-wise - sometimes as little as a tenth of the attention, in SF publications. Now there’s a big push to get male and female authors/ editors/ academics/ fans and so on equally represented in all spheres, not least on panel discussions.
I heard a few of the inevitable moans, ‘What if brilliant male panellists are overlooked in favour of mediocre females?’ >>SIGH<<. It should hardly need pointing out that for countless years - not just on con panels, but in all walks of life! - brilliant women may well have been overlooked in favour of mediocre men, and yet this was taken for granted. Heaven forfend we should challenge the notion!
I don’t wish to get on a soapbox about this, but it seems to me it’s a never-ending battle for women to be seen as equal to men, even in the most supposedly civilised parts of the world. We make progress, then we slide back as society gets antsy and tries to push us back into our ‘place’. It’s like running up a down escalator. Is this going to be The Forever War?
I seem to have got right off the subject here but to sum up, a) we had a great con and b) I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been invited to be Fantasy Guest of Honour at next year’s Eastercon, Eight Squared in Bradford 2013. The others Guests will be Walter Jon Willliams (SF GoH), Anne Sudworth (Artist GoH) and Edward James (Fan GoH). More info soon.
Meanwhile, I’ve posted some links and some fun photos on my Facebook wall, www.facebook.com/freda.warrington. There’s one of Tricia Sullivan, Aliette de Bodard and Justina Robson that I love. Three of our best contemporary writers, folks!