Nova Albion and the Future of Fandom

[kevin_standlee]

I didn't hang around after the main convention ended around 5 PM. Too tired, too hungry again. Going to try to get to sleep early.

I had someone ask me yesterday, "How can we inject the energy and spirit at this steampunk convention back into Worldcons?" He's right about the issue. I remember Worldcons, when I started attending in them in 1984, as high-energy, high-excitement events. Now they're much less so.

I gave the person as long-winded answer to his question, but I think it boils down to a single, cold-hearted answer: "Some significant Worldcon SMOFS are going to have to die." Or at least retire from the field of active convention running and participation in Worldcon organization.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not wishing death on anyone, neither literally nor figuratively. But to a great extent our collective conrunning brains at the Worldcon level are suffering from calcification of the neurons as we continue to keep things frozen into the form that we consider ideal, and in some individual cases, effectively working toward mummification, with a stated opinion that amounts to, "I want Worldcon and fandom to die when I do, and it must not change in the slightest until then, either."

It's not that we don't need experience. We do. What we need to do is not be straightjacketed by it. We need people who have the energy and drive to make events like Nova Albion and the other steampunk events and like the anime conventions want to work on general-SF/F events rather than getting discouraged by the entrenched interests who are more concerned with making sure that the Wrong Sort of Fan doesn't actually get involved. We certainly don't need the people making the decisions passing rules that effectively preclude those who actually are willing and able to get things done from even participating. (And that's not an academic, theoretical statement, as the WSFS Mark Protection Committee did exactly that this past year, even in the face of evidence that the members of the WSFS Business Meeting wanted something different.

Comments

Re: also

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

What Cheryl said. In retrospect, I realized that we could have, for instance, improved the perception of parts of ConJose for the (not trivial) cost of enough pipe-and-drape to drape off the back half of the exhibit hall and squeeze everything in tighter. Nothing else would have changed, but many people would have perceived it as better just because of the density.

And the considerable resources that Worldcons have poured into minimizing registration queues has had the unexpected side effect of people saying, "It must not have been popular because I didn't have to wait long to get my badge" or "There was no line to get in to the Masquerade, so it can't have been good," when what happened is that we opened the doors very early to improve traffic flow. Talk about your unexpected consequences!

Re: also

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

Can I ask a dumb question? What kind of numbers are you seeing in terms of people using assistance scooters, walkers, etc--things that enable older fans to get around? Because that unfortunately has a big impact on how wide/narrow your facility space can be.

When my wife and I went to WDW last November I was stunned by the number of people riding those scooters around the parks. I never noticed them on prior trips. And I've been seeing more and more of them at Archon.

Re: also

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I also know that I considered the aisles in the Nova Albion dealers room much too narrow. If people stood in front of facing tables, such as they would while looking at those dealers' stock, there was effectively no room to get by, and that's before considering people with hoop skirts or big jackets or what-have-you (not to mention the Tiki Dalek trying to make its way through the room). I'd say NA was lucky a Fire Marshall didn't happen into the room and shut them down.

A bit more buzz is a good thing, but sufficient aisle room so that people can stop and look at dealers' merchandise and not have to keep dodging traffic is good, too.

Re: also

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised the *hotel* permitted that sort of tight layout, never mind a fire marshall inspection. They're going to get yelled at, decertificated etc. if a snap inspection calls them on it.

I was peripherally involved in the layout for the art show and dealer's room at Intersection in 2005 (Big Dave did all the AutoCAD juggling required). The fire lanes in the chosen hall were absolute and documented as such on the official convention centre plans, no encroachment by tables, fixed exhibits etc. permitted. They were wide enough for a fire truck to drive down if needed.

That resulted in big open spaces which we couldn't cram down to make the place more intimate if we had wanted to but that's the breaks.

Re: also

[totient]

In doing the most recent Arisia dealers room layout (which used 10 foot aisles instead of our usual 8 because we were trying to make the 20,000sf+ room look smaller), I checked what the fire codes require. Answer: 4 feet. This is of course absurd; my point is that the fire marshal is not always the limiting factor.

Re: also

[totient]

[the number of people using scooters] has a big impact on how wide/narrow your facility space can be

Quite the opposite, in fact. The more spread out your facility is, the more people need scooters. 3500 people at Anticipation needed 20 or so scooters between them. 1/3 of those same people at Boskone (and that's probably the con with the most overlap) needs two or three.