Kevin Standlee (kevin_standlee) wrote,
Kevin Standlee
kevin_standlee

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Why SMOFcon Isn't a Relaxacon

I was on the first panel this morning, SMOFCon 101. It appears that the panel was set up with one first-time attendee (Cass Marshall), one who has attended a few (netmouse), and one who has attended 18 of the 25 SMOFCons (me). Note that there is only one person who has attended all 25 -- Ben Yalow -- and that's because he's one of the handful of people who had non-refundable airline tickets and therefore attended the canceled SMOFCon 2 in 1985.

Like all of the panels I've attended so far this weekend, it was a strain to keep the subject within 50 minutes. We talked a little bit about SMOFCon's history, but more about the nature of the convention and "why is this convention different from other conventions." We spent the second half of the panel asking the audience -- most of whom had not actually attended SMOFCon before -- what they hoped to get out of the convention, and (I hope) setting in motion post-panel discussions between people with like interests in learning different things about specific con-running topics.

We made a point of wrapping up at ten minutes before the hour so everyone could get back to the Con Suite Ballroom for the keynote address from Dr. Gloria M. Boone on the subject of Branding Fandom (and no, hot irons are not involved, so you can save the witty comments).

After that, the Taming the Digital Wilderness Committee established by the WSFS Business Meeting met over lunch to discuss the issues referred to it, specifically the Best Web Site proposal and alternatives to it. Nothing to report here, because the committee needs to spend more time hashing out the specific proposals and reduce them to alternatives that can be discussed without endless arguments on technical side-tracks, which was one of the challenges we had when the proposal came before the Nippon 2007 Business Meeting.

While I was interested in some of the early afternoon panels, particularly "Finding Your Focus," I instead took the time to upload photos from last night and catch up on e-mail and LJ.
Tags: smofcon
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