Program for a Lost Convention
Nov. 10th, 2020 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petrea_mitchellSmofcon is an annual get-together for the people behind the volunteer-run fan conventions to share their knowledge and wisdom. Smofcon 38 was scheduled for Toronto this year, but for the usual reasons, it's been moved forward. For the less usual reason that the one planned for next year wasn't able to move a year, we get Smofcon 39 in Lisbon next year, and then Smofcon 38 in 2022. Which means I have two extra years to tell people that Smofcon 38 has my favorite theme ever, Cirque des Smofs!
This year, we get Smofcon 37 1/4, a virtual event put on by the Toronto and Lisbon committees. Fandom has a ton of new information to share about what worked and what didn't in the move to online cons this year, so you would expect the program to reflect that. Instead:
It feels like huge opportunities are being missed here. I mean, Worldcon is my favorite convention, and I'm glad this year's Smofcon runners think it's important. But not only can you fill more than an hour about virtual events, this would have been a great year to reach out to fan organizations beyond the ones usually in contact with Smofcon.
The traditional rejoinder to complaints in a volunteer community is that you should be offering to do some work yourself, but Smofcon 37 1/4 didn't put out the usual calls for volunteers, program participants, or program ideas, and I don't have the social capital to pull together an entire alternate event. So, yes, all I can do about it is whine on my blog.
Anyway, I'd like to imagine that in some alternate timeline, this year's Smofcon program includes stuff like:
Building the Virtual Convention: Access Management
Building the Virtual Convention: Panels & Presentations
Building the Virtual Convention: Large Events
Building the Virtual Convention: Social Spaces
Building the Virtual Convention: Dealers
Building the Virtual Convention: Art Shows & Exhibits
Same questions for each area: What is its purpose in a virtual convention? How did you try implementing it? What did the tools you chose make easy, and what did they make difficult?
Imagine There's No Con Crud
Illness has long been accepted as a side effect of congoing. Could this pandemic lead to a change in attitudes? Will greater popular understanding of how viruses spread help to encourage people to rethink attending while sick? What can conventions do to nudge people toward not being the person who causes a superspreader event?
(I'm guessing that the overall answer is YMMV depending on what part of the world you're in, but it would be an interesting conversation to have.)
Hybrid Conventions
As conventions move back to being physical events, what features of virtual ones could be kept and integrated with a traditional convention? What can we learn from conventions which already had an online component?
Coattail Events
Without the constraints of physical space, anyone can create an add-on to anyone else's event. What is the evolving etiquette of doing so?
Local Flavor
When everything's happening in cyberspace, how do you maintain a tie with the physical milieu your event springs from?
I'm sure there are lots more good topics I haven't thought of.
This year, we get Smofcon 37 1/4, a virtual event put on by the Toronto and Lisbon committees. Fandom has a ton of new information to share about what worked and what didn't in the move to online cons this year, so you would expect the program to reflect that. Instead:
This year we will have five Programme items. Three "Question Time" sessions for seated and future Worldcons and SMOFCons, a discussion on this year's pivot to virtual events and a chat with the chairs of CoNZealand.
It feels like huge opportunities are being missed here. I mean, Worldcon is my favorite convention, and I'm glad this year's Smofcon runners think it's important. But not only can you fill more than an hour about virtual events, this would have been a great year to reach out to fan organizations beyond the ones usually in contact with Smofcon.
The traditional rejoinder to complaints in a volunteer community is that you should be offering to do some work yourself, but Smofcon 37 1/4 didn't put out the usual calls for volunteers, program participants, or program ideas, and I don't have the social capital to pull together an entire alternate event. So, yes, all I can do about it is whine on my blog.
Anyway, I'd like to imagine that in some alternate timeline, this year's Smofcon program includes stuff like:
Building the Virtual Convention: Access Management
Building the Virtual Convention: Panels & Presentations
Building the Virtual Convention: Large Events
Building the Virtual Convention: Social Spaces
Building the Virtual Convention: Dealers
Building the Virtual Convention: Art Shows & Exhibits
Same questions for each area: What is its purpose in a virtual convention? How did you try implementing it? What did the tools you chose make easy, and what did they make difficult?
Imagine There's No Con Crud
Illness has long been accepted as a side effect of congoing. Could this pandemic lead to a change in attitudes? Will greater popular understanding of how viruses spread help to encourage people to rethink attending while sick? What can conventions do to nudge people toward not being the person who causes a superspreader event?
(I'm guessing that the overall answer is YMMV depending on what part of the world you're in, but it would be an interesting conversation to have.)
Hybrid Conventions
As conventions move back to being physical events, what features of virtual ones could be kept and integrated with a traditional convention? What can we learn from conventions which already had an online component?
Coattail Events
Without the constraints of physical space, anyone can create an add-on to anyone else's event. What is the evolving etiquette of doing so?
Local Flavor
When everything's happening in cyberspace, how do you maintain a tie with the physical milieu your event springs from?
I'm sure there are lots more good topics I haven't thought of.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-11 05:53 pm (UTC)Indeed, I think originally the idea was to just include Question Times, because there's no other likely place to do them. The two other items were shoe-horned into a one-day mini-convention. The alternative to what's happening this year isn't a full multi-track, multi-day virtual SMOFCon, but no convention at all, which I think would have been worse.