FanWorks Convention

FanWorks is going ahead in Chicago, IL this year, August 12 - 14, 2022!

There's a lot to cover in this announcement, but we'll try to keep it brief (for now). More detailed info will be coming soon!

( What to expect from FanWorks Chicago 2022 )

( Registering for FanWorks Chicago 2022 )

( FanWorks Minicon, April 9th - a one-day virtual con event! )

Event dates!

• FanWorks Chicago: August 12 - 14th 2022, at the SpringHill O'Hare and online
  Panels, vidshows and events in-person, plus a con Discord, vidshow streams and online-only content!
  Registration opens in March

• FanWorks Minicon: April 9th 2022, online
  Discord! Panels! Premieres show! Come hang out online and help us fundraise to support FanWorks!
  Registration opens Saturday, February 19th

There will be much more info going up in the coming weeks and months, so keep an eye out here or follow us on twitter at fanworkscon for updates. In Chicago or online, we hope to see you at FanWorks this year!

FanWorks 2021 will be happening online, October 1st - 3rd!

Registration for the virtual con will be $20. The cost of attendance pays for the platforms, panel captioning services, and other paid features we use for the virtual con, and goes toward defraying annual overheads in years without physical conventions.

We'll make an announcement here and on the con twitter (@fanworkscon) when registration opens; we plan to open registration in July.

Some things to know about this year's con:

●

Vidshows

This is an overview of shows that vidders can submit to this year! This is not inclusive of every vidshow or vid event we'll be having, so check back for future announcements on other shows, including themed vidshows. (If you're interested in submitting a themed vidshow topic for con programming, check the programming deadlines below.)

( Non-premiering shows )

( Premieres )

The con zine

( Deadline and submission info )

Programming submissions

( How to submit a themed vidshow )

( How to submit a panel )

Deadlines

( Deadlines for programming and vid submissions )

FanWorks 2022

( A brief update on next year's con )

●

We're currently in the process of updating our website for this year's con, so please pardon our dust while we do so!

We also had some construction dust in the off-season: if you sent an email to any of our fanworkscon.com inboxes during the con hiatus (between November 2020 and June 2021), your messages may not have been received, as we had a mail server switch along the way. Those issues should now be resolved, so any email you send from this point forward is going to active email inboxes. (Apologies! It's been a long, exhausting off-season for all of us.) If there's anything you sent an email about that you did not get a response to, and you still need or would like a reply to your message, please email us again and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Four ways to contact us about the information in this post:

jen@fanworkscon.com for questions about registration, policies, or FanWorks 2022, and any other messages for the con chair
fanworksvidtech@gmail.com for vid technical support and questions about Premieres, vid deadlines, or VJing
fanworkszine@gmail.com for anything related to the con zine
fanworksprogramming@gmail.com for questions about programming submission, panels, or vidshow topics

You can also leave a screened comment here, but please be aware that it may take longer to get a reply that way, as sometimes comment notifications can be hit or miss.

There are many ways to contribute to and participate in the virtual con, and plenty of time to do so. Make vids and art! Write and record fic! Brainstorm panels and vidshows! We look forward to seeing what you come up with. And we look forward to seeing you – no participation required; if lurking is your thing, please come lurk with us. Even when we're all just usernames in a con Discord, coming together as a community of fans is something we look forward to every year. We can't wait to see you in October!

We're pushing registration back a week so that we can spend more time working on a new code of conduct for the 2020 con and updates to our access policies that will address our new digital spaces.

Registration for FanWorks 2020, October 23 - 25th, will now open on Sunday, September 6th.

Programming submissions will open later today, and con planning surveys will be rolling out later in the week.

As the con approaches, so too does the digital con! All attending and digital members will have full access to the digital (website-based) side of the con weekend. (If you purchased anything that says "supporting" membership on the receipt, that's the same as a digital membership.)

Accessing the Digital Con

The digital con kicks off on Thursday, August 15th at 8:00PM Eastern. Access for all members is through your FanWorks dashboard.

You'll need to log in to see your dashboard. If you have purchased a membership of any kind, you already have an account on the FanWorks website; make sure you use that account to log in. If you have an account but don't have a membership, you still have a website dashboard, but you won't have digital con access.

Once the digital con goes live on Thursday night, attending and digital members will automatically gain access on the dashboard. You don't have to enter a code, get a second password, etc. -- just log in to the FanWorks website with your membership account, and you'll see live updates on your dashboard throughout the con weekend.

Schedule and Streaming Vidshows

The con zine, featuring fic, art, and podfic, will go live on Thursday night, as will a full copy of the con program. Streaming vidshows will go live individually, timed to start when the vidshows start at the con. (For example: Introductions, which starts Friday at 1:00PM at the con, will be available for streaming starting Friday at 1:00PM Eastern.)

Once vidshow streams have gone live, they will be available on demand; any vidshow that has debuted at the con will be available for playback at any time.

All digital content will remain available for at least 90 days following the con.

How to Purchase a Digital Membership to FanWorks

Digital membership sales will remain open at least through the con weekend, so if you haven't yet purchased a membership, you can do so at any time up to and during the con itself. If you purchase a membership during the con weekend, your dashboard will automatically update with access to the digital con.

(If you already know you want to purchase a digital membership, we recommend that you do so by Sunday, August 11th. This is so that if you have any questions, we can take care of them for you before the con begins. Digital membership registrations are welcome at any time, but support for the registration process may be limited once the con begins, as staff will be busy on site.)

Digital memberships to FanWorks can be purchased here.

FanWorks attending registration has officially closed! 

That said: instead of entirely turning off registration, we've temporarily set it to go to the waitlist. If you meant to / want to register to attend FanWorks and missed the registration window, you can add yourself to the waitlist, and we'll be manually approving registrations from there any time between now and when we finalize our catering figures (which will happen no earlier than Wednesday morning).

This extra registration window is a very short one, so if you want to take advantage of it, please do so ASAP!

Add yourself to the attending registration waitlist

Reminder: FanWorks attending registration closes this coming Sunday, July 14th!

(Digital membership sales will remain open at least through the con weekend.) 

*

If you are attending the con, you can personalize your con badge by bringing your own lanyard!

Solid color lanyards will be provided for all attendees. (Badge clips will also be available for anyone unable to wear their con badge around their neck.) But if you would like to bring your own lanyard(s) to use with your con badge, you're welcome to do so! Lanyards are a fun way to display your favorite fandoms, characters, Hogwarts houses, and so on.

If you bring your own lanyard(s), make sure the lanyard has an attachment suitable for holding/wearing your con badge, such as a hook, clip, or lobster clasp. Remember that your badge will need to be visible, so if your lanyard has charms hanging from the clasp, keep in mind you might need to remove them if they will cover your badge name.

(Many, many fannish lanyards are available through Amazon and other retailers. If you decide to buy a fannish lanyard to wear to the con, check the length before buying to make sure it's the length you want! Lanyards provided by the con are 32" total length from end to end; printed lanyards are often much shorter.)

If you can't wear a lanyard around your neck or prefer not to do so, you can also bring fannish badge reels to use in place of con-provided badge clips! (Keep in mind these will need to be worn somewhere on your upper body so your badge can be easily spotted by staff members.)

FanWorks bar wristband sales close tomorrow (Sunday, June 30th)!

If you have not yet registered and want to purchase a bar wristband, please register by the end of the day on Sunday (in your local time). Attending membership sales will remain open until Sunday, July 14th.

Attendees who have already registered and want to add wristbands can do so by editing their registration through the dashboard.

Registration for FanWorks 2019 will be closing on Sunday, July 14th! 

If you haven't yet registered to attend this year's con, you have about a month left to do so. (We hope you'll come! Even if creating fanworks isn't your thing, there will be plenty of day and night activities.) We encourage registering as soon as possible rather than waiting until July if you don't have to, as space in the hotel block may become limited as time goes on.

Another good reason to register in June: bar wristband sales will close on Sunday, June 30th. If you plan on buying a bar wristband at registration, please plan on registering by June 30th.

Digital membership sales will remain open at least until the end of the con weekend.

Key dates: 

June 30: Bar wristband sales close
July 14: Attending registration closes
August 1: Cut-off date for hotel reservations at the convention rate

FanFund: Member Assistance Fund

If you would like to attend FanWorks but have financial barriers to doing so, FanFund, the con's member assistance fund, may be able to help. Anyone with need is welcome to request funding. More information is available on our website:

- Click here to make a FanFund request -

When making a funding request, you can request both the absolute minimum it would take you to get to FanWorks (registration, hotel lodging, travel, or any combination of the three) and the amount of funding that isn't a requirement for attendance, but would significantly help.

How much funding is available will depend on how many requests are submitted and how much is donated to FanFund. If you would like to make a donation to the fund, you can do so when you register or any time here.

The deadline for requesting funding has been extended until Sunday, April 21st.

Gift a Registration

If you want to gift a registration to a specific individual, you can do so via the registration page. Select the option to "buy a gift registration for someone else," choose the membership type you want to purchase (attending or digital), and select any additional options you want if available (bar wristbands or a vendor table).

The form will ask you for an email address to send the gifted registration to. The person you gift it to will receive an email with instructions for how to claim their registration on the con website.

- Click here to gift a registration -

You can also purchase a gift registration when you register yourself for the con; the option to purchase a gift registration will automatically come up after you complete your own registration form.

(If you want to gift a registration but don't have a specific individual in mind, you are welcome to donate the amount of a registration to the FanFund.)

Registrations can be gifted at any time while registration is open.