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sarrenI didn't realise until I filled in the questionnaire that this was my 9th Swancon. Wow!!! I've come a long way from that first year when I timidly turned up to that dingy little hotel and got a day membership and everything was so new and strange and I didn't know anything. I mostly remember accidentally sitting next to Robin Hobb at dinner and having to make small talk about Perth because I hadn't read any of her books.
It was a whole new world. The next year I went for the full membership, and have only missed one Swancon since. I've come a long way since then. And so has Swancon - it's bigger and more shiny and most of all - more accessible.
Stuffs about Swancon 2009:
- The most outstanding thing as far as I'm concerned was the amount of new people who showed up, the diversity of ages (where DID all those well behaved teenagers come from) and the welcoming atmosphere. I can only say, the committee outdid themselves promoting Swancon. (I hear it was advertised in City of Stirling libraries for the first time?).
- No doubt the diversity of interests represented in the programming contributed to the greater community interest in Swancon as well, so yay. For me, it meant fewer panels that I was interested in going to. But because Swancon has become something I feel a part of now, it wasn't an issue for me - it meant I had time to chat to new people, man the registration desk a little bit (less than I meant to) spend time with friends I only see once a year, be on a few panels and Kiddycon related activities, abscond with other people's children, and still have time to retreat to my room for downtime occasionally. I would have liked more spec fic panels, but I also figure if I'm going to bring that up, I should probably put my money where my mouth is, so I'm thinking I might put up an idea for a panel next year which may or may not involve metalking intelligently about fangirling Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.
- I cannot emphasise enough how awesome the committee and everyone who volunteered were - everything ran super smoothly as far as I could see. I heard hardly any complaining or grumpiness this year.
- The guests were interesting and friendly, even though I haven't read their books. This is pretty much par for the course though, except for the year Lynn Flewelling cameand I fawned embarrassingly over her. Slash has RUINED me, I say. RUINED ME. However I did score a Trudi Canavan novel at the closing ceremony though, when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kremmen won a pile of books and gave it to me on the grounds it was too big to pack *g*. Then he urged me to go and get it signed, so I did and Trudi was lovely and chatted to me a lot about how I should come to Worldcon next year which is in Melbourne. Which, I do like Melbourne a lot...but I find the thought of a con with several thousand people VERY intimidating...
- Kiddycon was the culmination of years of parents talking about how we should get organised to take turns looking after the kids and having the committee go well okay, here's some people to organise that, go for it. (The last few committees broke new ground with allocating child space, with growing acceptance of children's place at Swancon, last year it was even in (a tiny room) in the main drag, which meant a whole new lease of Swancon life for us parents). This year really marked a whole new era though. Just, wow!
- I've heard glowing reports of the gaming stream -dragonfly8 pretty much disappeared in there on the Friday and didn't stagger out until Monday, as far as I can tell. I brought her food occasionally. I'm not sure she noticed.
- One thing I've discussed with a few people at Swancon is the lack of an AV stream this year. I was aware of the issue of acquiring permission to show media and it has since been pointed out to me that it's also a huge hassle for the committee in terms of manpower, first in programming the stream and acquiring the media, and then in having to have someone stationed there at all times. I feel having the AV room is important not necessarily for the actual shows, but as a place that people can go to chill out, to get away from it all. I have used the video room for alone time often in the past. I find being with a crowd of people non stop from 8am in the morning to midnight somewhat overwhelming, and had I not had my hotel room to retreat to for at least an hour or two each day, I would have had to go home for a break. Maybe manning the video room could be yet another thing volunteers could be helpful with - I'm putting my hand up. It's not like it would be a hardship, being forced to watch telly *g*
So, to recap, MADE OF AWESOME!!!!
It was a whole new world. The next year I went for the full membership, and have only missed one Swancon since. I've come a long way since then. And so has Swancon - it's bigger and more shiny and most of all - more accessible.
Stuffs about Swancon 2009:
- The most outstanding thing as far as I'm concerned was the amount of new people who showed up, the diversity of ages (where DID all those well behaved teenagers come from) and the welcoming atmosphere. I can only say, the committee outdid themselves promoting Swancon. (I hear it was advertised in City of Stirling libraries for the first time?).
- No doubt the diversity of interests represented in the programming contributed to the greater community interest in Swancon as well, so yay. For me, it meant fewer panels that I was interested in going to. But because Swancon has become something I feel a part of now, it wasn't an issue for me - it meant I had time to chat to new people, man the registration desk a little bit (less than I meant to) spend time with friends I only see once a year, be on a few panels and Kiddycon related activities, abscond with other people's children, and still have time to retreat to my room for downtime occasionally. I would have liked more spec fic panels, but I also figure if I'm going to bring that up, I should probably put my money where my mouth is, so I'm thinking I might put up an idea for a panel next year which may or may not involve me
- I cannot emphasise enough how awesome the committee and everyone who volunteered were - everything ran super smoothly as far as I could see. I heard hardly any complaining or grumpiness this year.
- The guests were interesting and friendly, even though I haven't read their books. This is pretty much par for the course though, except for the year Lynn Flewelling came
kremmen won a pile of books and gave it to me on the grounds it was too big to pack *g*. Then he urged me to go and get it signed, so I did and Trudi was lovely and chatted to me a lot about how I should come to Worldcon next year which is in Melbourne. Which, I do like Melbourne a lot...but I find the thought of a con with several thousand people VERY intimidating...- Kiddycon was the culmination of years of parents talking about how we should get organised to take turns looking after the kids and having the committee go well okay, here's some people to organise that, go for it. (The last few committees broke new ground with allocating child space, with growing acceptance of children's place at Swancon, last year it was even in (a tiny room) in the main drag, which meant a whole new lease of Swancon life for us parents). This year really marked a whole new era though. Just, wow!
- I've heard glowing reports of the gaming stream -
dragonfly8 pretty much disappeared in there on the Friday and didn't stagger out until Monday, as far as I can tell. I brought her food occasionally. I'm not sure she noticed. - One thing I've discussed with a few people at Swancon is the lack of an AV stream this year. I was aware of the issue of acquiring permission to show media and it has since been pointed out to me that it's also a huge hassle for the committee in terms of manpower, first in programming the stream and acquiring the media, and then in having to have someone stationed there at all times. I feel having the AV room is important not necessarily for the actual shows, but as a place that people can go to chill out, to get away from it all. I have used the video room for alone time often in the past. I find being with a crowd of people non stop from 8am in the morning to midnight somewhat overwhelming, and had I not had my hotel room to retreat to for at least an hour or two each day, I would have had to go home for a break. Maybe manning the video room could be yet another thing volunteers could be helpful with - I'm putting my hand up. It's not like it would be a hardship, being forced to watch telly *g*
So, to recap, MADE OF AWESOME!!!!
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-17 01:06 am (UTC)Also, I am 100% going to WorldCon in Melbourne. We can share a room if you like!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-17 12:48 pm (UTC)I am so easy, omg.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-17 11:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-18 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-18 05:09 am (UTC)