Skip to main content

On Universal FanCon


Guys, I am really sad and mad right now about Universal FanCon. I hadn't heard of it before it was postposed/cancelled one week before it was to occur, but seeing tweets from so many people who were planning to go was heartbreaking. So many artists and vendors losing their first shot at sales/networking and cosplayers and other attendees who never felt accepted at other cons losing a safe space for geeking out. 

I'm proud to be an exhibitor and co-creator of the Manga Reading Lounge at Anime Detour and my July staycation at Convergence is a highlight of my year. I can't imagine having an experience like that taken away so suddenly. 

The other sad thing is, it might not have failed if the founders hadn't 1) tried to make their first con some huge, money-making endeavor when most cons barely break even, 2) failed to vet one co-founder who had been involved in failed cons before, and 3) they had asked for help from experienced con people. The Twitter conversation made it clear that there was a deep bench of experienced con administrators who would have been happy to help. I'm not one myself, but my limited experience creating a miniature library con tells me that it's a very complex endeavor with a lot of moving parts that requires constant back-and-forth communication, not just asking Starbucks to donate stuff at the last minute. 



WHAT WE CAN DO TO MAKE THINGS BETTER:
  • Support your local, volunteer-staffed con. Unless you are super into getting celebrities to sign stuff, skip those traveling things Alexandra Erin calls "autograph mills". Local cons are way more fun, you have more input in their content & policies, plus it gives volunteers/staff more experience to start more cons to fit your interests. 
  • If your local con sucks, start your own, but start small. Comic-Con wasn't built in one day
  • Make your con safe for diverse attendees. Ask them what policies would help them enjoy the con. Have diverse panels and panelists. Ban harassers. 
  • Attract and mentor diverse con volunteers and employees. Then, they can learn and start their own cons. Geek culture is big, we can have cons for everybody. 
  • Don't be a dick. Don't tell a marginalized person they "aren't allowed" to cosplay as someone.
  • Give these artists some money. They lost a major source of income, so support them if you can. 
  • Attend this pop-up convention. if you can afford it and are near Baltimore, attend this mini-convention for people who were coming to FanCon.
  • Make your Con transit-accessible. Not everyone can drive or has a car, and some people may fly or bus in. I'm looking at you, Con of the North!

Comments

JethSeux said…
You tell em Sweetie, why have a Con if people can't get there!!

Popular posts from this blog

TOP TEN LIPSYNCH FOR YOUR LIFE SONGS FOR A DRAG KING EQUIVALENT OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE

 The Advocate has suggested that the greatest (i.e. only good) reality show ever, Rupaul's Drag Race , have a drag king contestant.  That's fine, but it would be much more entertaining to have a whole drag king competition. One of the best parts of Drag Race is seeing all the different types of queens compete: beauty queens, funny queens, conceptual queens, androgynous queens, scary queens, singing and dancing queens.  I want to see punk kings, gangsta rap kings, cock-rocking metal kings, panty-dropping R & B kings, country kings, baggy-pants burlesque comic kings, and of course, Elvis. I picked out some songs that make me think of different aspects of masculinity:  swaggering men, heartbroken men, lustful men, romantic men, philosophical men, and suicidally depressed men (interesting fact: I can think of dozens of songs by men about suicide, but only one female one: "Gloomy Sunday". What's up with that?) "That's Life" - Frank Sinatra

WOMEN IN, ON AND AROUND FILM

Over at the Bitch Blog , they were talking about female movie directors, so I had to make sure psychotronic faves like Stephanie Rothman and Doris Wishman were given their due. I hadn't known that one of my favorite female badasses, the Kill-Bill -influencing Dag from Bury Me An Angel (introduced to me by Dr. S ), was also a woman director's creation (should've known). Then I put in a word for the woman who started me on my movie-obsessed path, the fabulous Pauline Kael . She taught me to own my loves and hates and call 'em as I see 'em. Maybe some people wouldn't consider her a feminist icon because she didn't always like the "right" movies, but read her review of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore for some keen feminist insight. She totally terrified those guys in the movie boys' club. I mean, George Lucas named the villain in Willow after her! Here's Kael on the New Testament: Pasolini's The Gospel According To St. Mathew

Things I Learned in 2020

Well, this has been quite a year, yessiree bob. But I’m being thankful right now of what I have and how my powers of Super-Introversion were activated by the current crisis as a laser-focus on learning stuff. Not that there weren’t many long hours of being too tired and paralyzed to move from the couch to the bed and vice-versa. And dusting and many other cleaning activities that didn’t aid in bodily sanitation were left by the wayside. Anyway, I hope that you too can make a list of things that you learned other than the details of the Electoral College.  How to make quick pasta sauce with canned tomatoes How to make instant oatmeal How to make creamed spinach Basic ASL Basic Inkscape Video conferencing with Zoom/Teams/Webex/Meet/Jitsi How to make ink-jet Shrinky Dinks Basic screencasting with Screen-Cast-O-Matic and Camtasia Online training creation with Niche Academy Online playlist transfer with Soundiiz Mask making Cuttlebone casting Intermediate Tinkercad Slide digitization Basic