He had lectures. He had dealers. He had artists. He had guests. Everything that one could want in a Con. Except maybe costume contests and perhaps a dance.
Established cons have a very hard time adapting and changing. Everything does cost money. But if you try to cut out the masqerade or dance (to cut costs or allocate funds to something more popular) you get people screaming bloody murder. It is easier for a new con to just not have them in the first place.
If I wanted to do work, I would join the concom. I pay $50 to have work done FOR me. I give you money; you show me things.
This isn't a next generation thing. I know people in my generation who have said exactly that. It's not that they don't understand the concepts of community or volunteering. It's more that in the current state of society their free time is rare and almost priceless. They are very careful where they spend it and it's certainly not for just giving away anymore. This is hard for us to see because fandom is so important to us that this is where we chose to "spend" our precious free time.
Perhaps the conventions we "grew up with" will die over time but there are newer, more specialized, cons that are doing gangbusters. Last weekend I went to our local Anime con that had over 11k attendes. Furry cons have popped up all over the place. We(fandom)are not doomed, we will continue to go on, just in a different form.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-05-13 06:30 pm (UTC)Established cons have a very hard time adapting and changing. Everything does cost money. But if you try to cut out the masqerade or dance (to cut costs or allocate funds to something more popular) you get people screaming bloody murder. It is easier for a new con to just not have them in the first place.
If I wanted to do work, I would join the concom. I pay $50 to have work done FOR me. I give you money; you show me things.
This isn't a next generation thing. I know people in my generation who have said exactly that. It's not that they don't understand the concepts of community or volunteering. It's more that in the current state of society their free time is rare and almost priceless. They are very careful where they spend it and it's certainly not for just giving away anymore. This is hard for us to see because fandom is so important to us that this is where we chose to "spend" our precious free time.
Perhaps the conventions we "grew up with" will die over time but there are newer, more specialized, cons that are doing gangbusters. Last weekend I went to our local Anime con that had over 11k attendes. Furry cons have popped up all over the place. We(fandom)are not doomed, we will continue to go on, just in a different form.