Eastercon 2013

[TheEndIsNigh]

I can't believe I'm missing so many free drinks. And people.

Sadly Bradford's far, far away from where I will be (in the frozen wastes of northern Scotland, sidling up to elderly fishermen and looking plaintive).

Hex: Having spent some time in Bradford in my youth, I can tell you its the centre of the universe for 'elderly' fishermen. (If that floats your boat - as it were)

 

[Ursa major]

I can't believe I'm missing so many free drinks. And people.

Eastercon 2014 is in Glasgow, I believe. (What this means for the availability of free drinks, I can't say.)

 

[Susan Boulton]

Really looking forward to Eastercon this year. Time to get sorted and off! Well 10.30am train

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Eastercon 2014 is in Glasgow, I believe. (What this means for the availability of free drinks, I can't say.)

Ooohhh, perks up ears. A mere boat ride away....

 

[Montero]

Thought folks might be interested in Juliet McKenna's blog on thoughts on running Eastercons. (She was the chairman of the 8squared committee.)

http://eightsquaredcon.wordpress.co...23-where-will-eastercon-be-in-ten-years-time/

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

A bit late but here goes...

We both went and I must say we found it most enjoyable.

Some of the panels were pretty rank and for these we made our excuses and left.

Of the others, some of the debates were pretty lively and special mention is deserved for the one on the Martian constitution. Special mention here goes to Ian Sales who threw himself manfully into semi chairing a great discussion.

Ian's, unlike the worst ones mentioned above, threw the debate open early in the process and as result the 'plebs' were able to get a word in. Whereas the worst panels consisted of the 'experts' (of which there were usually too many) spouting forth their opinions and by time they had all had their say the was only just time for one or two questions and then it was thanks for showing up, now p**s off (Ok a bit harsh but, well you get the idea).

There were only two panellists in the one Ian did and as a result, everyone that wanted to made a contribution. Excellent stuff Ian.

Of the others, the worst was by far the one on eastern SF for which the organisers had assembled a team of authors that seemed to know more about writing in French than anything east of the Pecos.

Dr Who screening was a fiasco - which helped me in that having half watched and not watch it gave me less to moan about with the plot. The main problem is that for some reason I think they used a digital box/sky think and it seemed to be that the recording ran faster than the live version so when it caught up it stopped replaying and then we all had to wait till there was more program in the buffer.

Anyway, we are seriously considering Glasgow for the full term. Are we mad.... Then again there is that drink they drink up there, what is now, Iron Brew?

 

[Nesacat]

Splendidly late but I do have a defense. I changed jobs and my Monster loved coming back to Malaysia so much he grew and grew. I'm just now settled down enough to get online for anything other than work.

Eastercon was lovely and I do apologise for not recognising Brian right off the bat but he really did not look like Brian at all. I think I actually attended some of the programme items including Ian's launches and a panel on editing.

I got to meet all my friends that I pretty much meet once a year at an Eastercon, buy Beeblebears (3), books and drink too much cider. And there was the dubious pleasure of snow in April and a climatically chanllenged Eastercon hotel.

I am looking forward to Eastercon 2014 in Glasgow and then Loncon.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Thought folks might be interested in Juliet McKenna's blog on thoughts on running Eastercons. (She was the chairman of the 8squared committee.)

http://eightsquaredcon.wordpress.co...23-where-will-eastercon-be-in-ten-years-time/

Cheers Montero, I found that a very interesting & illumintating read.
I didn't get the chance to attend the Eastercon but I'm sure it can't be an easy thing to organise and this article shares some of the frustrations in a light-hearted way.

I'm not sure there's any easy answer to the problems Juliet outlines and it seems odd to me that each year's organisers approach the same issues without any 'lessons' being learned from their predecessors in any structured way but it's a credit to them that they manage to pull it off.


As an aside, I'm still trying to imagine Brian in a rainbow jumper...