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fanworksHello, all! While you’re sharing your con feedback with us, I wanted to share some of our post-con notes with you. Most of these notes are very vaguely formed at this point, but it should give a general idea of things we’re already talking about for next year.
(I personally am going to take a rest-and-recharge vacation from con organizing for most of September, so you may not hear much from us before fall! If you need to contact us, you can always email jen@fanworkscon.com.)
Dates for 2020
For next year’s con, we’re currently looking at the weekend of August 7 - 9, 2020. We have a soft hold on those dates, but may not have a final confirmation on them for a while yet.
(There’s a possibility that, like this year, we may have to do the later weekend of August 14 - 16, but we know this is inconvenient for people on academic / school year calendars.)
We will announce dates as soon as we have them, no later than by the end of the year.
Location for 2020
We will most likely be back at the Sheraton at Detroit Metro Airport. We can’t guarantee this until the ink has dried on our next hotel contract, but at present we have no plans to move for next year.
(If something did happen to necessitate a move for 2020, as other cons have sometimes experienced with surprise hotel renovations etc., it would most likely be to another hotel in the Detroit Metro Airport area.)
We’re hoping that the issues with the front desk this year will be a one-off, as we learned after arrival that nearly the entire front desk staff this year were new trainees. That said, please continue to give us hotel feedback in the survey, as it is highly useful to us when communicating with our hotel reps about this year and in planning ahead for next year.
Weird temperature zones within the hotel should definitely be a one-off, as the hotel just installed a new HVAC system and (we’re told) they’re still working on temperature balancing different areas of the hotel. They prioritized keeping hotel rooms cool over keeping the hallways cool, which we generally support, but hallways and other areas were definitely sometimes uncomfortably warm. The temperature situation within the con space on floors 1 and 3 was a bit of a dance, but we’re hoping that by next year all new HVAC systems are running smoothly and temperature won’t be as much of an issue.
Con Suite and Info Desk
We were already considering moving the Info Desk off the first floor, and feedback so far is overwhelmingly in favor of this -- next year, the Info Desk will most likely be on the 3rd floor in the Metro space.
We’re currently planning on putting tables in there for people who prefer an in-room con suite experience over the social tables on Metro Terrace, and will likely label this as the “official” con suite. The tables on Metro Terrace were a big hit and we’re planning on keeping them for next year.
The suite in 924 will also remain for next year (under a new name), and will again have coffee, tea, and sodas available. We know it’s removed from the main con floors and that may not be ideal for everyone, but there is no (affordable) option for us to provide beverages throughout the weekend closer to the con space. We’ve also received feedback from attendees who enjoyed having a space to hang out in that was removed from the con space, and want to continue to provide that for those who need or prefer it.
(We know many, many people want the info desk / con suite spaces to be open during breaks, and we’re hoping we can do that next year! It will be dependent upon getting volunteers who are willing to give up their breaks to staff the rooms, so we can’t guarantee it, but it’s currently in the plans for next year.)
Programming Hours
The overall scheduling format will be decided later on this year, but at this point, it’s likely that the format will be very similar to this year’s: starting at 10am each day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), with four hours of breaks, and running at least until 10pm and some days until 12am.
We know not everyone can stay up for late night programming or make it through all hours of Sparkle Motion, that people may wish to do other things / socialize in their hotel rooms at night, that schedules may require leaving on Sunday rather than staying for Sunday night, and so on. The flip side of this is that there are many attendees who would prefer to have things to do at night, and/or might be coming in without knowing anyone (yet) to socialize with away from the con space; for those reasons and others, we are likely to err on the side of too much programming rather than not enough.
We encourage everyone to attend only the programming they want to attend, and to feel free to pick and choose (to the extent you can) when to attend con programming vs. when to socialize in rooms, get sleep, and so on! No one is obligated to attend programming just because it’s on the schedule (we promise).
If schedules necessitate missing programming on the bookends of the con, we definitely sympathize (I myself missed a lot of programming this year). We hope that as the con moves forward and the schedule becomes more established, people have a better idea of what to expect in terms of con weekend start and end times.
Things On Our “Year Two” List
As packed full as the con weekend was, there were many things we wanted to have this year that logistics, finances, and the sheer time intensive nature of first year con planning simply did not let us do. We can’t guarantee these things for 2020, but to give you an idea of some things we didn’t get to this year that we’re hoping we can do next time:
Other Known Issues
These are just a few of the things that we put on our lists during the weekend to try to improve for next year. This is a sample, not an exhaustive list (we have many notes, and our list is growing with your feedback!):
(If you are interested in volunteering to caption vids for next year’s FanWorks, please email jen@fanworkscon.com! We’ll be putting out an official call for this next year, but early planning doesn’t hurt.)
In Case You Missed It
Finally, a round-up of notes and links you might have missed over the past few days:
Thanks again to everyone who helped make the first FanWorks a success!
(I personally am going to take a rest-and-recharge vacation from con organizing for most of September, so you may not hear much from us before fall! If you need to contact us, you can always email jen@fanworkscon.com.)
Dates for 2020
For next year’s con, we’re currently looking at the weekend of August 7 - 9, 2020. We have a soft hold on those dates, but may not have a final confirmation on them for a while yet.
(There’s a possibility that, like this year, we may have to do the later weekend of August 14 - 16, but we know this is inconvenient for people on academic / school year calendars.)
We will announce dates as soon as we have them, no later than by the end of the year.
Location for 2020
We will most likely be back at the Sheraton at Detroit Metro Airport. We can’t guarantee this until the ink has dried on our next hotel contract, but at present we have no plans to move for next year.
(If something did happen to necessitate a move for 2020, as other cons have sometimes experienced with surprise hotel renovations etc., it would most likely be to another hotel in the Detroit Metro Airport area.)
We’re hoping that the issues with the front desk this year will be a one-off, as we learned after arrival that nearly the entire front desk staff this year were new trainees. That said, please continue to give us hotel feedback in the survey, as it is highly useful to us when communicating with our hotel reps about this year and in planning ahead for next year.
Weird temperature zones within the hotel should definitely be a one-off, as the hotel just installed a new HVAC system and (we’re told) they’re still working on temperature balancing different areas of the hotel. They prioritized keeping hotel rooms cool over keeping the hallways cool, which we generally support, but hallways and other areas were definitely sometimes uncomfortably warm. The temperature situation within the con space on floors 1 and 3 was a bit of a dance, but we’re hoping that by next year all new HVAC systems are running smoothly and temperature won’t be as much of an issue.
Con Suite and Info Desk
We were already considering moving the Info Desk off the first floor, and feedback so far is overwhelmingly in favor of this -- next year, the Info Desk will most likely be on the 3rd floor in the Metro space.
We’re currently planning on putting tables in there for people who prefer an in-room con suite experience over the social tables on Metro Terrace, and will likely label this as the “official” con suite. The tables on Metro Terrace were a big hit and we’re planning on keeping them for next year.
The suite in 924 will also remain for next year (under a new name), and will again have coffee, tea, and sodas available. We know it’s removed from the main con floors and that may not be ideal for everyone, but there is no (affordable) option for us to provide beverages throughout the weekend closer to the con space. We’ve also received feedback from attendees who enjoyed having a space to hang out in that was removed from the con space, and want to continue to provide that for those who need or prefer it.
(We know many, many people want the info desk / con suite spaces to be open during breaks, and we’re hoping we can do that next year! It will be dependent upon getting volunteers who are willing to give up their breaks to staff the rooms, so we can’t guarantee it, but it’s currently in the plans for next year.)
Programming Hours
The overall scheduling format will be decided later on this year, but at this point, it’s likely that the format will be very similar to this year’s: starting at 10am each day (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), with four hours of breaks, and running at least until 10pm and some days until 12am.
We know not everyone can stay up for late night programming or make it through all hours of Sparkle Motion, that people may wish to do other things / socialize in their hotel rooms at night, that schedules may require leaving on Sunday rather than staying for Sunday night, and so on. The flip side of this is that there are many attendees who would prefer to have things to do at night, and/or might be coming in without knowing anyone (yet) to socialize with away from the con space; for those reasons and others, we are likely to err on the side of too much programming rather than not enough.
We encourage everyone to attend only the programming they want to attend, and to feel free to pick and choose (to the extent you can) when to attend con programming vs. when to socialize in rooms, get sleep, and so on! No one is obligated to attend programming just because it’s on the schedule (we promise).
If schedules necessitate missing programming on the bookends of the con, we definitely sympathize (I myself missed a lot of programming this year). We hope that as the con moves forward and the schedule becomes more established, people have a better idea of what to expect in terms of con weekend start and end times.
Things On Our “Year Two” List
As packed full as the con weekend was, there were many things we wanted to have this year that logistics, finances, and the sheer time intensive nature of first year con planning simply did not let us do. We can’t guarantee these things for 2020, but to give you an idea of some things we didn’t get to this year that we’re hoping we can do next time:
- An art gallery in the con space, set up for many kinds of non-perishable artworks (e.g. prints, drawings, paintings, textiles, jewelry, props, models, and any other forms of fan art)
- Additional panel room technology so more panel mods are able to use visual aids on projector screens (we hope to add one projector/screen for next year, with the understanding that this equipment is !expensive! and it will take us some time to grow into having equipment for every panel room)
- More decorations! (The amount of decorations this year was limited only by budget; certain con chairs to remain nameless *love* decorations and fun colors and would happily decorate all over the place if allowed)
- Casual crafting -- things that we can do or make while socializing (or not socializing!)
- Additional interactive programming and things to facilitate getting to know one another
Other Known Issues
These are just a few of the things that we put on our lists during the weekend to try to improve for next year. This is a sample, not an exhaustive list (we have many notes, and our list is growing with your feedback!):
- Sound bleedthrough between rooms: there’s only so much we can do about this one as the dividers between rooms are not great at isolating sound, but we have some ideas and are crossing our fingers we can find a way to improve this at least a little.
- Food labeling: It was a bit of a struggle to get the catered food properly labeled, but we hope this will run more smoothly next year.
- Trash cans: The limited availability of trash cans wasn’t for lack of trying (our understanding is the hotel ran out of them?); for next year we will at the very least bring our own trash bags to put out just in case we run into this again.
- Vid subtitles: The website is set up to take subtitles with vid submissions. We had a plan in place to have Premieres be completely subtitled so that we could have both subtitled and not subtitled room options running simultaneously. Unfortunately, this fell through late on the captioning end, at a point at which we had to put it on the “for next year” list.
(If you are interested in volunteering to caption vids for next year’s FanWorks, please email jen@fanworkscon.com! We’ll be putting out an official call for this next year, but early planning doesn’t hurt.)
In Case You Missed It
Finally, a round-up of notes and links you might have missed over the past few days:
- Attendee feedback survey: If you attended the con, please take our survey to give us feedback on your experience! As with any con going from its first year to its second, programming may be tweaked here and there, floor maps/other logistical things may change, and so on -- your feedback helps us figure these things out, and we sincerely appreciate it.
- VJ and Mod feedback survey: This survey went directly to vidshow VJ and panel moderator email inboxes. If you moderated or VJed programming and didn’t get a survey, please let us know!
- Digital memberships still available: If you want to purchase a membership to have access to the digital con, do so by the end of the day on Friday, August 23rd! All members will have access to digital con materials including the streaming vidshows for at least 90 days (following the live con).
- AO3 collection: There is now an AO3 collection for works that premiered at or were created at FanWorks! More info here.
Thanks again to everyone who helped make the first FanWorks a success!
