View from the bar ...

[gaspode]

I have found myself musing the nature of the relationship between media and Lit fandom over the last few days spent at eastercon.


It was an enjoyable weekend - but I felt it had to work hard to be one. There’s no Bid for 2007 yet - Some people are saying it’s the end of Eastercon.

On reflection I don’t agree - I think that between now and Glasgow next year (if not sooner) someone will step up. I am almost tempted myself as some of you know, but I have several reservations, although the feelings I have expressed to you still stand - but I don’t think now is the time. EC needs to evolve but I think it needs to work out which way for itself, I have some fairly drastic ideas, but I'm not convinced EC is ready for them (In fact I know its not). Who am I to judge? No one special but I am regular attendee (not every year - but certainly most since Confabulation in the docklands in 95 (or 94 - I can’t remember) and 4 or 5 before that over the previous 10 years.

The problem is always going to be how to change for the better without losing your core attendees - and that’s something that is going to be very hard for EC. But if it doesn't it is going to continue to shrink - it may take a few years or it could be as soon as 2007. EC doesn’t market itself - it takes the 'If we run it they will come' attitude. It needs new blood (like so many other conventions - it is by no means the only con guilty of this - certain established Media Cons take the same stance and have the same problem). New Blood - New Attendees - found from new sources. EC can be difficult for an 'Outsider' to crack. It has all the right ingredients - a good selection of relevant guests, several streams and lots of panels and the games and 'fun items'. But it can be difficult to get accepted into the established 'cliques' - This con has been running a long time after all and many of the attendee’s have been coming for 30 years plus. While most are not rude (though some are) many are very disinterested in embracing new people – or even engaging in conversation with them.

The main thing that needs to be addressed I think is the negativity some have towards the inclusion of a media strand (something that is still minimal). Should EC become a media con? Certainly not. That said having a panel called 'Have Media fans fecked Fandom' may not be the way to go (incidentally the conclusion was 'No'). The inclusion of more media related panels - (but still small scale ones) can help bring more fans in to the true SF fold - god only knows nowadays people need to be encouraged to read - Have items that will help bring these people in and make the con more accessible to newbie’s - more smaller interactive items - two of the most enjoyable panels for me over the weekend were the ;Have I got books for you' and 'SF Charades panels' - oddly enough an awful lot of redemption faces were at these panels. Also the Galactica and HHTGH panels were literally overflowing from their room – the interest is there - so give the media strand more depth.

Sorry – Its probably not my place to go on like this but I class myself as a Sci-Fi/fantasy fan. I don’t make a distinction between Lit and Media and why should I ?

No, EC shouldn’t become a media con – We have Redemption which does that well (and embraces the lit side too). But it needs to realise it needs to sell it’s self and make people outside the established con circuit aware of its existence. Bring people in and give them a good time they will come back – and bring their friends. The Exec of Eastercon always do a sterling job - and I take my hat off to anyone who takes a con on and succeeds (i'm wayyy too lazy). As i said this is just my opinion and I have no answers.



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Comments

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

Hm, maybe we should just stick with Redemptions in odd-numbered years, and Eastercons in even-numbered years?

If I can step on your soap box...

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

When I was running a sci-fi society, I tried to encourage the members that it was their society hoping they'd give feedback. We're members, and your criticisms are constructive so I figure there's no reason to apologise for going on like that.

Not sure if it should go more media based though. The argument is valid. I do see the danger that lit will get pushed out.

I don't know why we should lump all media together if we're going to split books from Media. Movies are really quite under represented in conventions. Eastercon did touch movies. The horror panel was all about films, Hitchhikers was also about the film and the radio series with only a passing mention of the books. Both panels I enjoyed. I'll probably add more on this in my LJ.

Eastercon (R)?

[dev-iant.livejournal.com]

I agree with you generally. Many of the same points were made in the future of Eastercon panel at the con.

I wholeheartedly endorse what you say about marketing, but it's not a particularly easy thing to do, nor a particularly cheap thing to do, due to the spread-out nature of the potential fan base.

I've thought a lot about this today and I think that we're not helping ourselves when it comes to "branding". Every Eastercon has 3 names: "Eastercon 200X", "The British National Science Fiction Convention 200X" and whatever the committee decides to call it (e.g. "Paragon 2"). I understand the reason for all three, but it's confusing for outsiders. We need to standardise on one and use that one primarily in all advertising. That one should be "Eastercon 200X". It's short and snappy and it tells you when it is. In short it's a name for the society we live in, like it or not. We do need to use the BNSF Convention in the advertising because it's the USP, but not in the name. Likewise, committees like to use their own name because it feels more like their own con and it helps the cognoscenti to know who's running the con. However, we should not be aiming at the cognoscenti; they'll find out who the committee is soon enough.

Of course, Worldcon will bring in new fans, but I think that the main problem is persuading fans to try Eastercon. Time and cost are two big factors and these aren't helped by hiding away in the Leicestershire countryside, no matter how ideal a hotel it is (and it does have drawbacks - the primary one being the shortage of easily accessible program rooms).

We need to run cons in the cities and we must run a con in the London area if we want to bring in the fans. Fans are more likely to go for a day if it's near by and they're only risking a day. They won't get the full experience (the 'bar' experience!), most likely, but hopefully enough of them will like what they do find.

Apologies for the length of this reply; perhaps I should have posted it on the Eastercon LJ, but I saw the link to yours and in my post-con, post Queen concert haze, thought "What the hell!"

[cherylmorgan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the input folks. Concussion is following the discussions with interest. I'm going to post a link to this on concussion_chat and then open up a thread there where hopefully more Eastercon regulars will see it. Some official response will follow when we have had a chance to discuss some of the issues amongst the committee. For now I think it is safe to say that we intend to make Concussion a highly successful convention, drawing many different strands of fandom, and take advantage of whatever "Worldcon bounce" effect we might get, to help revive Eastercons in general.

One small point on branding: there is an eastercon.org web site, which should be the focus of marketing the way that worldcon.org is for Worldcons, but there are some issues with the ownership of the site. See Alex McLintock's gopherit journal for details.

So what happened in the Forum?

[kilbswhitecrow.livejournal.com]

I did plan to attend the Eastercon Forum session on Monday, but breakfast took precedence. :-/ Could anyone post a summary, somewhere? Possibly over in paragon2.

The "Media Fecked Fandom" session raised a lot of interesting points, though.

- One person had been coming to Eastercons for years before discovering that it's much cheaper if you (a) join early, rather than on the door, and (b) book a hotel room through the con rather than directly. If it takes years to infer this, the information dissemination during that member's first cons can't have been great.

- The name-change doesn't help. Something like Starfury has a clear brand; all the SFX ads look exactly the same. Eastercons are hard to spot.

- The biggest piece of advertising Eastercon gets is Dave Langford's mentions in SFX. Give the man another round of applause.

- Don't claim that media cons are not "sf cons"; the vast majority of media con attendees are sf fans. To claim otherwise is just insulting.

- The important distinction between lit cons and most sf cons is the motivation behind the con organisers: passion vs profit. The profit model drives the pay-for-everything model and encourages the autograph and photo queues. The passion model encourages talking about what you love.

- Eastercon panels have a rep. of being less interactive. For the majority of the session, it's talking heads chatting to each other. Only at the end are questions invited from the audience. The Redemption approach, which tends towards a circle if possible, is more involving, but more difficult to support in the larger rooms with higher attendance. Judith made some good points on how successful moderators can break down the barriers. Alas, good moderating is a rare and difficult skill.

- The green room. It's another boundary between those in the clique (being on a panel) and the ordinary member.

- Eastercon is still clique-ish. Look at the terms: Lally Vision. Beyond Cyberdrome. Groats. Gophers. Filk. It's generally assumed you know what an Eastercon is, and all the information presented is to tell you how this one differs from the last.

- There was no first-timers session at paragon2.

- Eastercon is very interested in nostalgia. A recent eastercon had programme items on great fan wars of the past. There's much discussion about why things aren't the way they used to be. The principle guests are fan-guests. If you're a new fan, or new to eastercons, this is all (a) confusing (b) irrelevant and (c) exclusionary. Everyone else is talking about shared experiences you didn't have. It's like being the only person in the pub who wasn't at school with all the others, and that's *all* anyone's talking about. Example: "5:30pm Life Laundry. Eve Harvey asks the question: 'What do we do with all our old fanzines if Greg Pickersgill changes his mind?' Which assumes you know Greg *and* his current state of mind.

Okay, so some of the points above weren't raised in the panel, but they were prompted by it. I've also been thinking a lot about this over the weekend...

[fjm.livejournal.com]

As no one else has mentioned it, I'll add in here: Concussion has a Media guest. There will be a media track. See: http://www.eastercon2006.org/.