Entry tags:
FogCon 10: Days 2 & 3
I am now home!
Saturday was a busy day, with interesting programming in almost every slot (including a panel on archiving at 9am, but it's very difficult for me to get myself to a 9am panel). I started my con day by attending a roundtable of black women writers, many of whom are members of a local writer's workshop. Although Guest of Honor Nisi Shawl was unable to attend the con in person, they called in via videoconference for a few events, and this was one of them. One of the other writers participated in the teleconference as well. The technology worked out quite well -- the only difficulty was that Nisi wasn't always able to hear, so the camera and microphone setup needed to be constantly adjusted. Still, it was so much better than not having their participation at all, and it felt like a proof of concept for using technology to allow more people to be able to attend conventions. The roundtable participants talked about their process and their influences and asked each other questions, which sparked an excellent conversation.
After lunch, I went to Mary Anne's talk on organizing and managing non-profit organizations, and came out of it with good ideas and food for thought. Next up was a panel on AI: Friend or Foe?, which provided some good discussions about the possibilities and dangers of AI systems. I asked a question, bringing up "Cat Pictures Please" and the question of whether AIs can and should learn ethics (I also rec'd Catfishing on CatNet, although I left Person of Interest out of it); the big concern of the panelists was how an AI might learn the exceptions to the rules of ethics, which made me recommend CatNet even harder.
My panel on Cities in Specfic was in the last programming block of the afternoon. One of the planned panelists was unable to attend the con at the last minute, so Marie Brennan stepped in, which was fantastic. Beyond how much I love her stories, she's also one of my very favorite panelists -- I will seriously attend a panel I'm not otherwise interested in just because she's on it. So actually being on a panel with her was easily a highlight of my con. It was a good conversation with a lively audience; I got to rec everything I really wanted to rec, and got nods of agreement almost every time I mentioned a title. And a few people came up to me afterwards to complement me on the panel, which is always nice.
I had dinner with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
forestofglory -- actually we did almost everything together throughout the con, which was fun; it's always nice to have a con buddy -- and an old friend of hers. We then wandered by the con suite for a little bit before she signed off for the night and I went down to ConTention, which is one of my favorite FogCon traditions. And it was a particularly lively conversation this year. I didn't actually participate all that much, largely because more of the debates than usual were about topics I don't feel strongly about (including several Doctor Who questions), but I did jump in to the Marvel vs. DC conversation.... to defend DC. Because of the way the conversation turned, I wanted very much to bring up some points about the Arrowverse's strengths in worldbuilding and representation. So I did, and others backed me up, and I felt very satisfied in my performance. I then took a brief spin through LobbyCon before heading for my room, where I worked on my ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
marchmetamatterschallenge for awhile before going to bed.
I only attended one programmed event today: a panel on hopepunk, which was a good conversation. I appreciated that it was a panel on a topic that was not, on its face, about race, for which the majority of panelists were people of color, which is still too-rare an event at most cons. After our now-annual trip to the farmer's market for lunch (although we actually at at a Mexican restaurant next door) and another visit to LobbyCon, I headed home, early enough to beat the worst of the weekend traffic.
I'm so glad that the show went on, although I also don't fault anyone who chose not to risk it. I really enjoy my little home convention, and I'm looking forward to seeing what next year will bring.
Saturday was a busy day, with interesting programming in almost every slot (including a panel on archiving at 9am, but it's very difficult for me to get myself to a 9am panel). I started my con day by attending a roundtable of black women writers, many of whom are members of a local writer's workshop. Although Guest of Honor Nisi Shawl was unable to attend the con in person, they called in via videoconference for a few events, and this was one of them. One of the other writers participated in the teleconference as well. The technology worked out quite well -- the only difficulty was that Nisi wasn't always able to hear, so the camera and microphone setup needed to be constantly adjusted. Still, it was so much better than not having their participation at all, and it felt like a proof of concept for using technology to allow more people to be able to attend conventions. The roundtable participants talked about their process and their influences and asked each other questions, which sparked an excellent conversation.
After lunch, I went to Mary Anne's talk on organizing and managing non-profit organizations, and came out of it with good ideas and food for thought. Next up was a panel on AI: Friend or Foe?, which provided some good discussions about the possibilities and dangers of AI systems. I asked a question, bringing up "Cat Pictures Please" and the question of whether AIs can and should learn ethics (I also rec'd Catfishing on CatNet, although I left Person of Interest out of it); the big concern of the panelists was how an AI might learn the exceptions to the rules of ethics, which made me recommend CatNet even harder.
My panel on Cities in Specfic was in the last programming block of the afternoon. One of the planned panelists was unable to attend the con at the last minute, so Marie Brennan stepped in, which was fantastic. Beyond how much I love her stories, she's also one of my very favorite panelists -- I will seriously attend a panel I'm not otherwise interested in just because she's on it. So actually being on a panel with her was easily a highlight of my con. It was a good conversation with a lively audience; I got to rec everything I really wanted to rec, and got nods of agreement almost every time I mentioned a title. And a few people came up to me afterwards to complement me on the panel, which is always nice.
I had dinner with
forestofglory -- actually we did almost everything together throughout the con, which was fun; it's always nice to have a con buddy -- and an old friend of hers. We then wandered by the con suite for a little bit before she signed off for the night and I went down to ConTention, which is one of my favorite FogCon traditions. And it was a particularly lively conversation this year. I didn't actually participate all that much, largely because more of the debates than usual were about topics I don't feel strongly about (including several Doctor Who questions), but I did jump in to the Marvel vs. DC conversation.... to defend DC. Because of the way the conversation turned, I wanted very much to bring up some points about the Arrowverse's strengths in worldbuilding and representation. So I did, and others backed me up, and I felt very satisfied in my performance. I then took a brief spin through LobbyCon before heading for my room, where I worked on my marchmetamatterschallenge for awhile before going to bed.I only attended one programmed event today: a panel on hopepunk, which was a good conversation. I appreciated that it was a panel on a topic that was not, on its face, about race, for which the majority of panelists were people of color, which is still too-rare an event at most cons. After our now-annual trip to the farmer's market for lunch (although we actually at at a Mexican restaurant next door) and another visit to LobbyCon, I headed home, early enough to beat the worst of the weekend traffic.
I'm so glad that the show went on, although I also don't fault anyone who chose not to risk it. I really enjoy my little home convention, and I'm looking forward to seeing what next year will bring.