Brief Apollocon Report
Jun. 24th, 2007 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaI have got to get better organized about the local cons. I keep managing to get myself in situations where I miss the Friday events, and it takes me too long on Saturday to get into the swing of things.
Overall, it was a good con; I enjoyed the Guest of Honor's participation in the panel discussions, I was thrilled with the diversity of the panel topics, and there were several panels on gaming and gaming-related topics, which is always a big plus for me. There were a few slots when the schedule was packed, and several others where it was almost empty, but that always happens and even a great schedule coordinator can't always fill in the gaps. (Similarly, almost all of the panels were either gender-skewed - either one token woman or one token man - or single-gender, but again, I don't think that's due to a conscious decision on anyone's part.) I never stepped into the media room, which also happened last time, and I feel a little bad about that.
The art room was both fantastic (in several senses of the word) and a bit saddening. I saw a lot of great art, and bought much more than I normally do (including a couple-two-three pieces intended as gifts, and I'm now kicking myself for not having gotten a particular piece for my mother's birthday present). There was also a fair amount of Celtic-themed art, which I, of course, appreciated. However, there's still a lot of skinny-white-chicks-with-elf-ears in skimpy costumes - I imagine it sells, or there wouldn't be so much of it, but I'd like to see a little more diversity represented and less stereotyped representations of female sexiness. I also got outbid on a piece that I really wanted to give someone else as a gift, and I'm sort of kicking myself that I didn't just suck it up and buy it outright.
The dealer's room seemed a little toy-heavy this time. There was more garment-based stuff than last time, other than just the t-shirts (which were great as always), and I did like seeing that, although clearly I wasn't the target market price-wise. There wasn't anyone selling beads like last time, and there were a few other things like that that I was sad to see weren't there, but I'm guessing that wasn't profitable enough to bring back this year.
One big cheer and two big boos:
Cheer: There were two panels that I made a point of going to that were about aspects of eroticism, sexuality, alternative sexuality, etc. in speculative fiction, its fandoms, and its audiences. I haven't seen a lot of that sort of discussion at this con before, and I'm really thrilled that there are fen interested in having those discussions and confronting, conversing about, and even celebrating those topics. That there are people with broad minds (and, potentially, similarly broad libidos) in spec-fic fandom is part of what draws me to the "con scene," as it were.
Boo #1: In both of those panels, the moderator of the panel specifically stated that she did not want the discussion to get anywhere within two miles of bawdy, which had a distinctly repressive effect on both the rest of the panel and on the audience's comments and questions. Quite frankly, in both panels, and especially the one on vampires and other erotic fantasy creatures, the conversation was IMHO stifled by that requirement. That discussion should be bawdy, darn it! In both cases, I suspect that at least part of that moderator request was for the moderator's comfort, and partly because the panel was being held not only during daylight when there were children running about, but before noon. The first may be a bit difficult to fix, if moderators who are comfortable with a bit of raunch and a pinch of kink are not available. (I think they could be found in this community, though.) The second is a scheduling issue that ought to be very easy to fix - just run the potentially bawdy panels at ten at night! (And if anyone on next year's concom is reading this, yes, I realize I just volunteered.)
Boo #2: There has got to be a better option for the gaming room. Yes, I realize that this isn't a gaming con, that gaming is no more or less a component of this con than the media room is or the art show is. However, in both of those cases, they seem to have found them a room that mostly meets their needs. The gaming room is always either near-empty or ear-crushingly noisy (especially when the RPGA rounds were going on). The tables are also crowded too close together, so much so that getting across the room to the water table this time was an epic journey in and of itself. If there is any way, any way at all, that we can get a bigger room, even if the layout is awkward - say, a longer but slightly thinner room, which I think one of the back panel rooms is - it would improve the gaming component immensely. (And it would free up the current gaming room for use as a panel room, so they wouldn't get shortchanged.) Barring that, perhaps some sort of acoustic dampener - dividers, curtains on the walls, anything - would help?
Despite the minor gripes, I had a great time at the con, and I'm looking forward to next year's already!
Overall, it was a good con; I enjoyed the Guest of Honor's participation in the panel discussions, I was thrilled with the diversity of the panel topics, and there were several panels on gaming and gaming-related topics, which is always a big plus for me. There were a few slots when the schedule was packed, and several others where it was almost empty, but that always happens and even a great schedule coordinator can't always fill in the gaps. (Similarly, almost all of the panels were either gender-skewed - either one token woman or one token man - or single-gender, but again, I don't think that's due to a conscious decision on anyone's part.) I never stepped into the media room, which also happened last time, and I feel a little bad about that.
The art room was both fantastic (in several senses of the word) and a bit saddening. I saw a lot of great art, and bought much more than I normally do (including a couple-two-three pieces intended as gifts, and I'm now kicking myself for not having gotten a particular piece for my mother's birthday present). There was also a fair amount of Celtic-themed art, which I, of course, appreciated. However, there's still a lot of skinny-white-chicks-with-elf-ears in skimpy costumes - I imagine it sells, or there wouldn't be so much of it, but I'd like to see a little more diversity represented and less stereotyped representations of female sexiness. I also got outbid on a piece that I really wanted to give someone else as a gift, and I'm sort of kicking myself that I didn't just suck it up and buy it outright.
The dealer's room seemed a little toy-heavy this time. There was more garment-based stuff than last time, other than just the t-shirts (which were great as always), and I did like seeing that, although clearly I wasn't the target market price-wise. There wasn't anyone selling beads like last time, and there were a few other things like that that I was sad to see weren't there, but I'm guessing that wasn't profitable enough to bring back this year.
One big cheer and two big boos:
Cheer: There were two panels that I made a point of going to that were about aspects of eroticism, sexuality, alternative sexuality, etc. in speculative fiction, its fandoms, and its audiences. I haven't seen a lot of that sort of discussion at this con before, and I'm really thrilled that there are fen interested in having those discussions and confronting, conversing about, and even celebrating those topics. That there are people with broad minds (and, potentially, similarly broad libidos) in spec-fic fandom is part of what draws me to the "con scene," as it were.
Boo #1: In both of those panels, the moderator of the panel specifically stated that she did not want the discussion to get anywhere within two miles of bawdy, which had a distinctly repressive effect on both the rest of the panel and on the audience's comments and questions. Quite frankly, in both panels, and especially the one on vampires and other erotic fantasy creatures, the conversation was IMHO stifled by that requirement. That discussion should be bawdy, darn it! In both cases, I suspect that at least part of that moderator request was for the moderator's comfort, and partly because the panel was being held not only during daylight when there were children running about, but before noon. The first may be a bit difficult to fix, if moderators who are comfortable with a bit of raunch and a pinch of kink are not available. (I think they could be found in this community, though.) The second is a scheduling issue that ought to be very easy to fix - just run the potentially bawdy panels at ten at night! (And if anyone on next year's concom is reading this, yes, I realize I just volunteered.)
Boo #2: There has got to be a better option for the gaming room. Yes, I realize that this isn't a gaming con, that gaming is no more or less a component of this con than the media room is or the art show is. However, in both of those cases, they seem to have found them a room that mostly meets their needs. The gaming room is always either near-empty or ear-crushingly noisy (especially when the RPGA rounds were going on). The tables are also crowded too close together, so much so that getting across the room to the water table this time was an epic journey in and of itself. If there is any way, any way at all, that we can get a bigger room, even if the layout is awkward - say, a longer but slightly thinner room, which I think one of the back panel rooms is - it would improve the gaming component immensely. (And it would free up the current gaming room for use as a panel room, so they wouldn't get shortchanged.) Barring that, perhaps some sort of acoustic dampener - dividers, curtains on the walls, anything - would help?
Despite the minor gripes, I had a great time at the con, and I'm looking forward to next year's already!
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 09:30 am (UTC)It sounds like lots of fun and I am glad, minor gripes aside, that you enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 05:06 pm (UTC)I'll try to get some of those board rooms for next year and move some of the RPG stuff into them, but I don't know if that'll be feasible.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 08:47 pm (UTC)Mark also had to make the point to one particularly insistent gamer that ApolloCon is not a gaming-con, and should not be expected to sustain the same intensity of gaming that one gets at OwlCon. We have some gaming because we want to be inclusive of gamers, but that's not our primary focus.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 05:36 am (UTC)I am well aware that this is not a gaming con, and I did in fact point that out in the main post above. I'm just annoyed that there appears to be no significant attempt to make the gaming room as comfortable and as navigable as, say, the dealer's room or the art room. The noise and the close quarters were my main gripe, not the quality or timing of the gaming (the quality issues I had were almost all due to the other players, and in no wise the fault of the con, and the timing issues happen at any gaming con, too).
no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 05:31 am (UTC)