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A Few Words on SMOFcon
Dec. 17th, 2004 11:40 amI went to SMOFcon. (Other people are responsible for this. I think I've become WSFA's undergrad intern. Ack.) "SMOFcon" is a convention where people talk about how to run a science fiction convention,* almost a meta-con. I did not have a blow-out fabulous time, but I had a really informative time, so I was humming on an information high for a lot of the convention. It gave me lots to think about.
*SMoFs are the "Secret Masters of Fandom." They're secret mostly because they're too busy running conventions to be found at their cons. Once flushed from hiding they can be identified by their plethora of communication devices, the riot of staff ribbons adorning their badges, their distracted, harried air and the clot of people surrounding them, asking who negotiated what and why does the hotel say there isn't a corkage waiver for the consuite and what happened to the backup radios and... SMoFs would do well to stay secret, or more people might bring them more problems.
I got to the con at about 12:30 Saturday: I had fraternity events in the morning and then got caught in the usual Red Line chaos. So I missed everything that happened before that, but I did get to four or five panels on Saturday and Sunday.
( The first panel I made it to was Promoting Your Convention. )
( I crossed the hall to attend the Strategies for Handling Difficult Situations panel... )
( The next panel I hit was about Guests of Honor. )
I spent part of Saturday night picking hotel liason people's brains with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
samthereaderman. He thought of really good questions; I tried to help him get really good answers. The feeling I got from what I heard is that hotel liasons tend to be in a fair amount of demand, because it takes specialized knowledge that takes a while to acquire if you come in cold. Also, many conventions have some sort of committee or board that has oversight over the con chair.
( Sunday morning I hit the Regional SMOF Groups and Conventions panel... )
( The last panel I went to was the Care and Feeding of Volunteers panel. )
That was my Capclave. Eventually I'll get around to the "Applying SMOFcon" post. No, really.
*SMoFs are the "Secret Masters of Fandom." They're secret mostly because they're too busy running conventions to be found at their cons. Once flushed from hiding they can be identified by their plethora of communication devices, the riot of staff ribbons adorning their badges, their distracted, harried air and the clot of people surrounding them, asking who negotiated what and why does the hotel say there isn't a corkage waiver for the consuite and what happened to the backup radios and... SMoFs would do well to stay secret, or more people might bring them more problems.
I got to the con at about 12:30 Saturday: I had fraternity events in the morning and then got caught in the usual Red Line chaos. So I missed everything that happened before that, but I did get to four or five panels on Saturday and Sunday.
( The first panel I made it to was Promoting Your Convention. )
( I crossed the hall to attend the Strategies for Handling Difficult Situations panel... )
( The next panel I hit was about Guests of Honor. )
I spent part of Saturday night picking hotel liason people's brains with
samthereaderman. He thought of really good questions; I tried to help him get really good answers. The feeling I got from what I heard is that hotel liasons tend to be in a fair amount of demand, because it takes specialized knowledge that takes a while to acquire if you come in cold. Also, many conventions have some sort of committee or board that has oversight over the con chair. ( Sunday morning I hit the Regional SMOF Groups and Conventions panel... )
( The last panel I went to was the Care and Feeding of Volunteers panel. )
That was my Capclave. Eventually I'll get around to the "Applying SMOFcon" post. No, really.
