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WisCon: Day One
[Note: this was written on Saturday morning but I forgot to hit post so it's going up at midnight.]
It is now the next day, and I am typing this in the lobby after having picked up a cinnamon roll and cold-brew iced coffee at the Madison farmer's market, as well as some cheese curds for later. The farmer's market is huge and surrounds the state capitol. I only scratched the surface of it, but I expect to go back for lunch. Now I am sitting in the lobby, drinking the coffee and waiting for the 10am panels to start.
Yesterday was good! I lead the gang to breakfast at Michelangelo's, then met with Jed and Mary Ann to prepare for another opening ceremonies round sing (like the one we did at FogCon) After a quick food truck lunch, I spent a little time wandering around the Gathering and dealer's room, and then went to my first panel, on the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We had a great conversation, which is well captured by the hashtag. (Note, Twitter was twitchy as I typed this, so I hope the link works.) After that was the opening ceremony, which was held in an abbreviated form. We opening with the song, a setting of The Creation of Ea as a round, in honor of Ursula Le Guin; it went well, and was lovely, and I got several thanks afterwards. Oddly for my little bit of stage fright, I wished that a few more people had been there.
Next up was dinner: the new WisCon attendees dinner, which![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
renay asked me to host with her. We got together a group of almost 20 people and went to a local pub (HopCat); one of the brilliant attendees thought to call ahead, so they were ready for us and service was excellent. That was a fun time. When you have dinner with that many people, it's impossible to get to know everyone, but each end of the table had good conversation, and they seemed to have a good time. I really like this tradition and am considering suggesting something similar to FogCon.
I spent the next couple of hours popping in and out of the Vid Party; my favorites were a multi-fandom vid focusing on actors of color, a couple of Wonder Woman vids, and another about the women of Black Panther. Then was my second and final panel of the night, about generational differences. Unfortunately only two of the five assigned panelists were able to be there -- the perils of the 10:30pm panel slot -- and there was no one in the room under 30, so it was all Boomers and Gen X talking, although a few attendees had Millennial children, and another is regularly involved in activism with Millennials and the as-yet-unnamed generation that's coming up after them. Still, I wish it could have been a truly multi-generational conversation, and I wonder if a future con can manage one. Given those conditions, we had a pretty good conversation -- what are the roots of these generational differences, is there any coherence to these cohorts, is it all a marketing ploy, how can we better learn to work together, do these generations have any meaning outside the white middle class?
Between the late panel, and the half hour I spent afterwards chatting with some of the attendees, it was late by the time I got back to the room, and my roomies were already crashed out, so I decided not to keep them up with my typing. Which is why I'm coming to you now, the next morning, breakfast finished and ready to hit the next round of panels. Time for another day!
It is now the next day, and I am typing this in the lobby after having picked up a cinnamon roll and cold-brew iced coffee at the Madison farmer's market, as well as some cheese curds for later. The farmer's market is huge and surrounds the state capitol. I only scratched the surface of it, but I expect to go back for lunch. Now I am sitting in the lobby, drinking the coffee and waiting for the 10am panels to start.
Yesterday was good! I lead the gang to breakfast at Michelangelo's, then met with Jed and Mary Ann to prepare for another opening ceremonies round sing (like the one we did at FogCon) After a quick food truck lunch, I spent a little time wandering around the Gathering and dealer's room, and then went to my first panel, on the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We had a great conversation, which is well captured by the hashtag. (Note, Twitter was twitchy as I typed this, so I hope the link works.) After that was the opening ceremony, which was held in an abbreviated form. We opening with the song, a setting of The Creation of Ea as a round, in honor of Ursula Le Guin; it went well, and was lovely, and I got several thanks afterwards. Oddly for my little bit of stage fright, I wished that a few more people had been there.
Next up was dinner: the new WisCon attendees dinner, which
renay asked me to host with her. We got together a group of almost 20 people and went to a local pub (HopCat); one of the brilliant attendees thought to call ahead, so they were ready for us and service was excellent. That was a fun time. When you have dinner with that many people, it's impossible to get to know everyone, but each end of the table had good conversation, and they seemed to have a good time. I really like this tradition and am considering suggesting something similar to FogCon. I spent the next couple of hours popping in and out of the Vid Party; my favorites were a multi-fandom vid focusing on actors of color, a couple of Wonder Woman vids, and another about the women of Black Panther. Then was my second and final panel of the night, about generational differences. Unfortunately only two of the five assigned panelists were able to be there -- the perils of the 10:30pm panel slot -- and there was no one in the room under 30, so it was all Boomers and Gen X talking, although a few attendees had Millennial children, and another is regularly involved in activism with Millennials and the as-yet-unnamed generation that's coming up after them. Still, I wish it could have been a truly multi-generational conversation, and I wonder if a future con can manage one. Given those conditions, we had a pretty good conversation -- what are the roots of these generational differences, is there any coherence to these cohorts, is it all a marketing ploy, how can we better learn to work together, do these generations have any meaning outside the white middle class?
Between the late panel, and the half hour I spent afterwards chatting with some of the attendees, it was late by the time I got back to the room, and my roomies were already crashed out, so I decided not to keep them up with my typing. Which is why I'm coming to you now, the next morning, breakfast finished and ready to hit the next round of panels. Time for another day!