FanWorks Con Planning Update #1
Jun. 4th, 2017 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trelkez posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fanworksNow that we've given the con announcement a day to settle, here's a snapshot of where con planning is so far:
Where the con will be: We haven't decided this yet. We're currently scouting hotels in Chicago and Pittsburgh, and may do additional scouting in other areas based on recommendations. If anyone has places to suggest (you've traveled to a given city and you know the airport is great and the area is nice, you've been to a particular hotel and know the facilities are great, etc.), please do! It seems most likely the con will take place in Chicago or Pittsburgh, but we're still in the early stages and nothing will be settled for a while yet.
When the con will be: We particularly want to avoid scheduling conflicts with Escapade (February/March), Wiscon (May), VidUKon (June/July), expensive holiday travel times, and the school year; it seems pretty likely the con will be held in August. That may wind up depending a bit on hotel availability, but it's a safe bet.
What con staff currently looks like: We're working on building a concom, and will be working on it for a while yet; we didn't want to fill too many positions before announcing, and we want to take time to make sure anyone who might be interested has a chance to get involved. Our current staff lineup includes:
- Trelkez, con chair
- sweetestdrain, creative director
- AbsoluteDestiny, web design and software development
- verity, accessibility chair
- thefourthvine, publications editor
- elipie, panel programming coordinator
- revolutionaryjo, podfic advisor
Right now, we're looking to fill positions including social media coordinator; galleries curator; auction, assistance & scholarships coordinator; and several logistics coordinator positions. If you're interested in any of those positions or in others that may come up, please email jen@fanworkscon.com.
We want a con staff representative of diverse viewpoints and backgrounds, and also want to make sure different kinds of fan crafts are represented on staff. Prior experience working on a con isn't required, but we would prefer our staff to have at least attended one before.
If you would like to be involved in the con planning process but don't want to join staff (or don't have the time to commit), there will also be opportunities to get involved by giving feedback individually or in discussion groups. If you're interested in providing feedback on planning, please shoot an email to jen@fanworkscon.com.
Our logo: We chose the magpie to be our con mascot, so you'll be seeing a lot of them. The magpie logo artwork that appears on our website and platforms was designed by artist Ed Franklin.
Our approach to accessibility: We're a ways off from setting down final and specific access policies, but we've been working to lay a framework on which the rest of our con planning will be built. We want to design our con with access in mind at every step of the way, and welcome input on any topics related to accessibility and building safer spaces. Our accessibility chairperson can be reached at access@fanworkscon.com.
What kinds of programming we want to have: We want to have at least three simultaneous tracks of programming – ideally four; whether we do three or four will depend on the kind of hotel space we wind up with. We'd like separate programming tracks for fiction (fanfic & podfic), vids, and art, and if possible, a fourth track for mixed/additional topics.
(If we find ourselves with only enough floorspace for three panel rooms, we'll mix topics like cosplay, filk, knitting, podcasting, and so on into those three programming tracks – but we'd like to have a dedicated panel room for these!)
Daytime con programming is envisioned as a mix of technical/demonstration panels and discussion panels – one hour might be a how-to panel on specific techniques in Illustrator; the next might be a topical panel on fanart culture on Tumblr. On the vidshow track, panels will be mixed in with themed vidshows and one or more premiering vidshows. We're looking at things like how we want the different rooms to be set up (as a classroom with tables, for following along on tablets? as a theater, for watching vids?), kinds of panels we might want to do every year, and opportunities for us to do things we haven't seen other cons do yet.
The way programming will be set up, if you wanted to attend and spend the entire con in just the vidding track, you could – or the fanfic/podfic track, or the fanart track; if your focus is on one particular craft, that's fine! If you would rather bounce around between kinds of fan crafts and do a little bit of fic programming, a little bit of art, etc., you'll be able to do that too. The schedule should be big enough to focus down as much as you want and flexible enough to spread out as much as you want; that's one of our primary goals.
We haven't gotten too far into brainstorming for programming yet, but when we do, we'll be particularly interested in suggestions/input from fanartists; fanart is often something that gets overlooked in con programming, and while we want to create opportunities for our artist attendees to have vendor space and run commissions if they wish to do so, we also want to have a full slate of programming for fanartists to attend.
Vidshows: The exact number of premiering vidshows hasn't been decided, but at the very least there will be opportunities to premiere vids in a featured FanWorks Vid Premieres show and in the vid dance party, as well as in themed shows.
All vidshows will be available streaming online as part of the attending and supporting memberships. Our plan is to have streaming-only themed vidshows in addition to the shows included in the programming track, to provide more hours of vids than our panel room could hold. All vidshow streams will have optional subtitles.
Con zine: There will be an official con zine, available in print and digital versions. It's our current hope to produce a podfic version of the con zine, which would be available with the digital zine to attending and supporting members. (We're still working out whether the print version will be included with membership or extra.)
The zine will be open to submissions from fanauthors and fanartists. We haven't gotten too far into zine planning; any and all suggestions are welcome.
Art gallery: We want to have a dedicated space on site for an art gallery to showcase work by member artists: prints, canvases, textiles, jewelry, clothing, life-size replicas of BB-8, as many kinds of fan artwork as we can fit. Chances are good we'll have an art auction as well, but materials submitted to the gallery won't be required to be auctioned off.
*
That's it for our first con update! We'll be putting out more updates like these periodically as con planning progresses; if you want to follow along, you can subscribe to our mailing list or Dreamwidth, or follow us on twitter or tumblr.
Where the con will be: We haven't decided this yet. We're currently scouting hotels in Chicago and Pittsburgh, and may do additional scouting in other areas based on recommendations. If anyone has places to suggest (you've traveled to a given city and you know the airport is great and the area is nice, you've been to a particular hotel and know the facilities are great, etc.), please do! It seems most likely the con will take place in Chicago or Pittsburgh, but we're still in the early stages and nothing will be settled for a while yet.
When the con will be: We particularly want to avoid scheduling conflicts with Escapade (February/March), Wiscon (May), VidUKon (June/July), expensive holiday travel times, and the school year; it seems pretty likely the con will be held in August. That may wind up depending a bit on hotel availability, but it's a safe bet.
What con staff currently looks like: We're working on building a concom, and will be working on it for a while yet; we didn't want to fill too many positions before announcing, and we want to take time to make sure anyone who might be interested has a chance to get involved. Our current staff lineup includes:
- Trelkez, con chair
- sweetestdrain, creative director
- AbsoluteDestiny, web design and software development
- verity, accessibility chair
- thefourthvine, publications editor
- elipie, panel programming coordinator
- revolutionaryjo, podfic advisor
Right now, we're looking to fill positions including social media coordinator; galleries curator; auction, assistance & scholarships coordinator; and several logistics coordinator positions. If you're interested in any of those positions or in others that may come up, please email jen@fanworkscon.com.
We want a con staff representative of diverse viewpoints and backgrounds, and also want to make sure different kinds of fan crafts are represented on staff. Prior experience working on a con isn't required, but we would prefer our staff to have at least attended one before.
If you would like to be involved in the con planning process but don't want to join staff (or don't have the time to commit), there will also be opportunities to get involved by giving feedback individually or in discussion groups. If you're interested in providing feedback on planning, please shoot an email to jen@fanworkscon.com.
Our logo: We chose the magpie to be our con mascot, so you'll be seeing a lot of them. The magpie logo artwork that appears on our website and platforms was designed by artist Ed Franklin.
Our approach to accessibility: We're a ways off from setting down final and specific access policies, but we've been working to lay a framework on which the rest of our con planning will be built. We want to design our con with access in mind at every step of the way, and welcome input on any topics related to accessibility and building safer spaces. Our accessibility chairperson can be reached at access@fanworkscon.com.
What kinds of programming we want to have: We want to have at least three simultaneous tracks of programming – ideally four; whether we do three or four will depend on the kind of hotel space we wind up with. We'd like separate programming tracks for fiction (fanfic & podfic), vids, and art, and if possible, a fourth track for mixed/additional topics.
(If we find ourselves with only enough floorspace for three panel rooms, we'll mix topics like cosplay, filk, knitting, podcasting, and so on into those three programming tracks – but we'd like to have a dedicated panel room for these!)
Daytime con programming is envisioned as a mix of technical/demonstration panels and discussion panels – one hour might be a how-to panel on specific techniques in Illustrator; the next might be a topical panel on fanart culture on Tumblr. On the vidshow track, panels will be mixed in with themed vidshows and one or more premiering vidshows. We're looking at things like how we want the different rooms to be set up (as a classroom with tables, for following along on tablets? as a theater, for watching vids?), kinds of panels we might want to do every year, and opportunities for us to do things we haven't seen other cons do yet.
The way programming will be set up, if you wanted to attend and spend the entire con in just the vidding track, you could – or the fanfic/podfic track, or the fanart track; if your focus is on one particular craft, that's fine! If you would rather bounce around between kinds of fan crafts and do a little bit of fic programming, a little bit of art, etc., you'll be able to do that too. The schedule should be big enough to focus down as much as you want and flexible enough to spread out as much as you want; that's one of our primary goals.
We haven't gotten too far into brainstorming for programming yet, but when we do, we'll be particularly interested in suggestions/input from fanartists; fanart is often something that gets overlooked in con programming, and while we want to create opportunities for our artist attendees to have vendor space and run commissions if they wish to do so, we also want to have a full slate of programming for fanartists to attend.
Vidshows: The exact number of premiering vidshows hasn't been decided, but at the very least there will be opportunities to premiere vids in a featured FanWorks Vid Premieres show and in the vid dance party, as well as in themed shows.
All vidshows will be available streaming online as part of the attending and supporting memberships. Our plan is to have streaming-only themed vidshows in addition to the shows included in the programming track, to provide more hours of vids than our panel room could hold. All vidshow streams will have optional subtitles.
Con zine: There will be an official con zine, available in print and digital versions. It's our current hope to produce a podfic version of the con zine, which would be available with the digital zine to attending and supporting members. (We're still working out whether the print version will be included with membership or extra.)
The zine will be open to submissions from fanauthors and fanartists. We haven't gotten too far into zine planning; any and all suggestions are welcome.
Art gallery: We want to have a dedicated space on site for an art gallery to showcase work by member artists: prints, canvases, textiles, jewelry, clothing, life-size replicas of BB-8, as many kinds of fan artwork as we can fit. Chances are good we'll have an art auction as well, but materials submitted to the gallery won't be required to be auctioned off.
*
That's it for our first con update! We'll be putting out more updates like these periodically as con planning progresses; if you want to follow along, you can subscribe to our mailing list or Dreamwidth, or follow us on twitter or tumblr.
