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A few more thoughts on FogCon 5
I feel derelict in my duties for not having written up more of my FogCon experience, but maybe it's okay that I just experienced it this year, rather than feeling the need to write it down. I did get involved in an interesting conversation about cultural appropriation and assimilation tropes at the last panel I attended. We were a small group in a large room and would probably have been better off sitting in a circle, but it worked out. I got to recommend "The Goblin Emperor" and a Kate Elliott essay, so my work was done. (I also rec'd Goblin Emperor in a conversation in the con suite, and I rec it to everyone reading this post as well. It is just That Good.)
One sort of recurring theme for me at FogCon is that I'm not very good at making lasting connections. I make contributions to discussions in the structured context of a panel, and I'll force myself out of my shell to make conversation during unstructured time, but it's very rare for such an interaction to end even with the exchange of contact information. So I have no way to continue the connection beyond the con, and when I come back the next year, I feel as though I'm starting all over again, even after five years of seeing many of the same people around.
This year, I actually opened up to a few people on my feelings about this, and I discovered other folks who feel much the same way. So I'm glad it's not just me. At the post-mortem session, I thought about saying something, but my thoughts aren't well-formed enough on this point to say anything coherent, and I'm not sure there's much the con culture could do about it anyway -- I have similar feelings about the professional librarian conferences I've attended, after all, so it is at least partly on me! For one thing, I do intend to seek out more folks on social media and see if I can be at least a bit more engaged. So if you're reading this post because I've recently added you on some platform or another, and you're trying to figure out why, now you know. :) Also I renew my semi-regular pledge to attempt to engage on Twitter more, since that's where so much of the sf/f fandom action is these days.
Will it make a difference in future years? Maybe. It certainly can't hurt, and having more cool people in my online social circles is always a good thing. I have hope for it, anyway.
Do others of you who go to cons feel this way? If so, what if anything have you done about it? I'd be interested to hear about other people's experiences.
One sort of recurring theme for me at FogCon is that I'm not very good at making lasting connections. I make contributions to discussions in the structured context of a panel, and I'll force myself out of my shell to make conversation during unstructured time, but it's very rare for such an interaction to end even with the exchange of contact information. So I have no way to continue the connection beyond the con, and when I come back the next year, I feel as though I'm starting all over again, even after five years of seeing many of the same people around.
This year, I actually opened up to a few people on my feelings about this, and I discovered other folks who feel much the same way. So I'm glad it's not just me. At the post-mortem session, I thought about saying something, but my thoughts aren't well-formed enough on this point to say anything coherent, and I'm not sure there's much the con culture could do about it anyway -- I have similar feelings about the professional librarian conferences I've attended, after all, so it is at least partly on me! For one thing, I do intend to seek out more folks on social media and see if I can be at least a bit more engaged. So if you're reading this post because I've recently added you on some platform or another, and you're trying to figure out why, now you know. :) Also I renew my semi-regular pledge to attempt to engage on Twitter more, since that's where so much of the sf/f fandom action is these days.
Will it make a difference in future years? Maybe. It certainly can't hurt, and having more cool people in my online social circles is always a good thing. I have hope for it, anyway.
Do others of you who go to cons feel this way? If so, what if anything have you done about it? I'd be interested to hear about other people's experiences.
no subject
On the concom, we are discussing how/whether we can provide some good unprogramming space that could be planned/signed-up for at the con and beforehand that would provide some structural support for this kind of endeavor. I hope we can pull something like that off.
no subject
One thing that came up when I was talking to folks about this at the con was unstructured mealtimes. That's often when I feel most at a loss -- unless I happen to run into someone I know at a panel that ends right before lunch or dinner, I usually end up on my own. But on Sunday, I lucked into a group of people who were walking over to the Farmer's Market, and that was really fantastic. Professional cons I've gone to usually offer some sort of "dine with your colleagues" program, where you can sign up to go to a restaurant with a group of people; I don't know that it would need to be anything that structured, but something along those lines could be great.
BTW, we have really got to actually find each other at the con one of these years. :)