Day 3: Fuck me, we did it.
Rhade-rad asked: How about giving your perspective on Connotations? How did you get involved in creating/running the con and what did you learn/gain from the experience?
Oh boy.
We never really meant to do a con. In fact, I think the biggest single thing to understand about Connotations is we were as surprised as anyone that a/ we were doing it, and b/ it actually happened.
I'd taken to cons in a big way once I started going to them in 1996, and between 1997 and 2002 clocked up probably 20 to 30 of the things. I met a hell of a lot of fannish people, both online and off, and we couldn't get enough. In 1999 I went to the last ever Red Rose con -- a slash con run by Lexin and friends, I'd also been to Friscon in the US, and Claire & Seph had been to Connexions. Outside of cons and mailing lists there were slashbashes and houseparties, restaurant clearing outings and other fannish activities.
Claire and I started talking about fannish things, in person, on irc by phone. We collaborated on fic, stayed up till all hours talking, and the two of us had been joking for a long time that we should just organise a con for ourselves. When Red Rose shut its doors we started talking about it a lot more.
We roughed out a lot at one fannish gathering, unpicked the problems and then there was a phone call where we basically said to each other: we're really going to do this, aren't we?
We used a little hotel that Tash and Al had used before for a New Pros con, in Nottingham. The room would take no more than 30 people (we squashed 32 in there in the end :g:), one end of which was occupied largely by a pool table. We weren't allowed to use the pool table.
We posted it on LJ: I made a website, very basic and set up the bank account; Claire dealt with the hotel (It's about engagement with multimedia entertainment, in particular focusing on aspects such as male-male interrelationships, writing and --basically it's gay porn, okay? Okay.). We capped members at 30 people, and then 2 more begged to come along and we figured, ok, fine.
It was awesome. I knew all but about five of the people who came, the ones I didn't quickly became friends too, and we just had the best time. There was serious discussion and ridiculous, the five second rule on chairs (chairs were at a premium :g:), Pirates of the Carribean, and Ms Manna explaining that N*Sync fic was needed in order to make them cooler than they actually were (the video of them dancing in white sparkly jumpsuits was very cinvincing evidence that they were not in fact at all cool).
Claire and Seph and I made it through and at the end, at 2 in the morning, after one final session assigning BSOs to 'woobie' or 'bobblehead' (I remember arguing Jim Ellison could be classified as both), Claire and I kind of sat there and stared at each other. Will Scarlett may have been invoked.
We subsidised the event, we did pretty much everything ourselves, and of course it showed, it was the most Blue Peter of events and we were all in it together, and honestly, I couldn't have been happier.
Deciding to do another one was a no-brainer although finding a new hotel was such a sod that it was only when we literally could not bear the Park any more that we started looking for somewhere new -- though I still treasure the memory of that last weekend at the Park Hotel, just flat lying to everyone's faces for the entire weekend about not having any plans to switch hotels and then announcing the new hotel (Durham Marriott, so much better!!!) at the end of the con.
What did I learn or gain from the experience? In purely technical terms, skills in dealing with hotels, with finances, building and maintaining web domains, communication skills - trial and error isn't a great way to learn by you never ever forget.
Lots of very steep learning curves around serving buffets to large numbers of people :g: (separate out the vegetarian stuff and let the vegetarians through first, so the rest of the buggers don't eat it all before they can). Managing conversations, keeping panels on track, making sure everyone gets to speak, not just the brave but the person who almost puts her hand up and ducks down again, who you're probably going to have to catch the eye of and smile at before she'll say anything.
Best panel redirect ever was Grac's 'Meanwhile, back at the topic', and I've used a variation on that at work :G:
We made it happen. For ten years, between the three of us, assisted by friends and strangers, we made something happen. That was the goal, the aim, the purpose, and we promised ourselves we'd get to ten and see. And we got to ten, and saw, and it was good, but dear god, we'd lived some things during those years. I'd mostly stopped going to cons other than our own.
I met a ton of people with very different life experiences to my own. Made a lot of friends :) Cons are a fabulous experience for meeting and getting to know people, rather than the casual, somewhat disjointed communication that online tends to be.
It made me understand really clearly some of my personal boundaries and the difference between that and YKINMYATOK. The longer it ran, the more I understood about how unrepresentative of fandom we were, but that that was okay too: everyone gets to celebrate their experience in their own ways.
I did wonder over the years whether one day in person meets would fade away, in favour of friend groups and online gatherings, and that may still happen, but there's still room for cons, I think. I hope that the next torchbearer has as much fun as we did.
Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
Oh boy.
We never really meant to do a con. In fact, I think the biggest single thing to understand about Connotations is we were as surprised as anyone that a/ we were doing it, and b/ it actually happened.
I'd taken to cons in a big way once I started going to them in 1996, and between 1997 and 2002 clocked up probably 20 to 30 of the things. I met a hell of a lot of fannish people, both online and off, and we couldn't get enough. In 1999 I went to the last ever Red Rose con -- a slash con run by Lexin and friends, I'd also been to Friscon in the US, and Claire & Seph had been to Connexions. Outside of cons and mailing lists there were slashbashes and houseparties, restaurant clearing outings and other fannish activities.
Claire and I started talking about fannish things, in person, on irc by phone. We collaborated on fic, stayed up till all hours talking, and the two of us had been joking for a long time that we should just organise a con for ourselves. When Red Rose shut its doors we started talking about it a lot more.
We roughed out a lot at one fannish gathering, unpicked the problems and then there was a phone call where we basically said to each other: we're really going to do this, aren't we?
We used a little hotel that Tash and Al had used before for a New Pros con, in Nottingham. The room would take no more than 30 people (we squashed 32 in there in the end :g:), one end of which was occupied largely by a pool table. We weren't allowed to use the pool table.
We posted it on LJ: I made a website, very basic and set up the bank account; Claire dealt with the hotel (It's about engagement with multimedia entertainment, in particular focusing on aspects such as male-male interrelationships, writing and --basically it's gay porn, okay? Okay.). We capped members at 30 people, and then 2 more begged to come along and we figured, ok, fine.
It was awesome. I knew all but about five of the people who came, the ones I didn't quickly became friends too, and we just had the best time. There was serious discussion and ridiculous, the five second rule on chairs (chairs were at a premium :g:), Pirates of the Carribean, and Ms Manna explaining that N*Sync fic was needed in order to make them cooler than they actually were (the video of them dancing in white sparkly jumpsuits was very cinvincing evidence that they were not in fact at all cool).
Claire and Seph and I made it through and at the end, at 2 in the morning, after one final session assigning BSOs to 'woobie' or 'bobblehead' (I remember arguing Jim Ellison could be classified as both), Claire and I kind of sat there and stared at each other. Will Scarlett may have been invoked.
We subsidised the event, we did pretty much everything ourselves, and of course it showed, it was the most Blue Peter of events and we were all in it together, and honestly, I couldn't have been happier.
Deciding to do another one was a no-brainer although finding a new hotel was such a sod that it was only when we literally could not bear the Park any more that we started looking for somewhere new -- though I still treasure the memory of that last weekend at the Park Hotel, just flat lying to everyone's faces for the entire weekend about not having any plans to switch hotels and then announcing the new hotel (Durham Marriott, so much better!!!) at the end of the con.
What did I learn or gain from the experience? In purely technical terms, skills in dealing with hotels, with finances, building and maintaining web domains, communication skills - trial and error isn't a great way to learn by you never ever forget.
Lots of very steep learning curves around serving buffets to large numbers of people :g: (separate out the vegetarian stuff and let the vegetarians through first, so the rest of the buggers don't eat it all before they can). Managing conversations, keeping panels on track, making sure everyone gets to speak, not just the brave but the person who almost puts her hand up and ducks down again, who you're probably going to have to catch the eye of and smile at before she'll say anything.
Best panel redirect ever was Grac's 'Meanwhile, back at the topic', and I've used a variation on that at work :G:
We made it happen. For ten years, between the three of us, assisted by friends and strangers, we made something happen. That was the goal, the aim, the purpose, and we promised ourselves we'd get to ten and see. And we got to ten, and saw, and it was good, but dear god, we'd lived some things during those years. I'd mostly stopped going to cons other than our own.
I met a ton of people with very different life experiences to my own. Made a lot of friends :) Cons are a fabulous experience for meeting and getting to know people, rather than the casual, somewhat disjointed communication that online tends to be.
It made me understand really clearly some of my personal boundaries and the difference between that and YKINMYATOK. The longer it ran, the more I understood about how unrepresentative of fandom we were, but that that was okay too: everyone gets to celebrate their experience in their own ways.
I did wonder over the years whether one day in person meets would fade away, in favour of friend groups and online gatherings, and that may still happen, but there's still room for cons, I think. I hope that the next torchbearer has as much fun as we did.
Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.