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Ten Things About CONvergence
The best thing about CONvergence is the average age of the audience. One of next year's Guests of Honour, Chicks Dig Time Lords editor Lynne Thomas, said to me: 'Normally at a convention I feel like the youngest person in the room. Here I feel like one of the oldest.' And on my own behalf I could only agree. I felt like this lot's elderly British uncle, pampered and indulged and assumed to be funny because of his accent. There were loads of twentysomethings, loads of teenagers, loads of children. The convention is based in a single hotel, with, at night, two floors of parties (more like highly specialised bars) in cabanas set around a central atrium. This space comes to resemble an evening at Glastonbury Festival: dance music drifting past and youthful craft and costume everywhere. There's a dedicated movie theatre, Cinema Rex, which shows modern and classic movies all weekend, to an auditorium of comfy sofas. There are themed graphics everywhere, largely of CONvergence's gynoid, Connie.
The dealers' room boasts both serious SF novel stands and costumiers selling corsets. A lot of the panels were thematic, rather than media-specific: 'The Differences Between US and UK SF' for example, where TV, movies, books and comics were discussed. The male/female ratio is close to 50/50, and the audience is more diverse than many SF audiences too.
I made a lot of friends very fast, my usual reserve blindsided by how much I admired this young, energetic and talented bunch. I shared in several drunken rampages in the company of uber party girl Eryn Hildebrand, always in a screwball comedy (whose ability to cajole and pry open led us to last orders at every party from zombies to Klingons, and me into singing karaoke) and comedian Joe Scrimshaw, who somehow marries wiseguy lines with a sad level of Doctor Who trivia. They were at the heart, at times, of an army of costumed young ladies, many of whom had taken advantage of mighty corsetry. I hardly knew where to look. Well, I knew where, but tried not to. My handler, Mark Tempel, dilligently tried to stop me getting into trouble, but didn't get very far, because Eryn seems to regard him as a big brother/doggie toy. His charming fellow guest liason was Shelley Gilbert, who took me out to see the culture of the city via breakfast. And of course there was Michael, Windy, Lex, Kelvin who played Simon Bar Sinister from Underdog at the Iron Artist contest... I quickly started to see how they fitted together, how this gang, a bit like the Eavis family at Glastonbury, have made a festival of their life together. So many of them, so many! All so young and excellent!
I thought the best way to cover what, to me, was a blur of love and joy (I don't often do convention reports, because they tend to be tales of a great party that most of you haven't been to) was to pare it down into a Ten Things blog, especially since there are various talented people I want to mention. So...
1: Professional Performances. One hopes for a certain level of professionalism, even from fan run events. What one doesn't usually get is professionalism in terms of not only organisation, but also graphics, writing, media and even performance skills. I first realised that the talents involved were considerable at the Supervillain Smackdown event, where I competed against what turned out to be comedy professionals (damnit!) to represent the case for one villain over another. To give you a taste of what I mean, here are the videos shown at the opening and closing ceremonies, which formed part of multi-media fan art performances. These depict, in tune with the villainy theme of this year's convention, the usurpation and revenge of the heroic Connie, and are written and directed by Christopher Jones:
But, as revealed onstage, Connie Mark II is finally led into a trap, designed by a 'resistance movement' that was run as a live action role playing game amongst the convention attendees that weekend.
The end ceremonies also saw an excellent spoof of Avatar, as a restored silent movie, through the media of captions and onstage drama. Performance and presentation skills were at the heart of many of the events which I'm sure attract this young audience, such as the Iron Artist contest, based on the Iron Chef TV show. I was honoured to be a judge, and to provide the surprise ingredient which a panel of different artists, included the filk band The Dregs and some stop motion animators (!) then had to work into pieces which they only had an hour (!) to complete, in front of an audience who were kept entertained in the meantime by the characters of the host and his assistant, and some specially-filmed video inserts. Here's what the artists came up with (and where I remind them of the Doctor Who themed ingredient):
And if you're wondering how anyone can come up with any stop motion animation at all in just one hour:
I'm still in awe, frankly.
2: Cosplay. The influence of anime fandom on all other fandoms now is undeniable. It seems frankly ridiculous that Doctor Who fans used to boast that at our conventions 'nobody went in costume'. CONvergence boasted a whole bunch of excellent cosplayers:
That last one is Tara Reich, who's also a fashion designer. Check out her pictures of models in Doctor Who-influenced designs standing next to police boxes. You never know, given how Britain feels about the show, this could be the next big thing.
3: Alumni. CONvergence takes care of former Guests of Honour, listing their panels seperately in the programme. I was proud to be on a panel with, for instance, the great SF author Lois McMaster Bujold, who showed the audience the Star Trek fanzine she edited in 1968. But one of CONvergence's alumni is rather alarmingly young. Emily Hagins was a CONvergence Guest of Honour at the age of 14, having directed her first full-length feature film, the zombie movie Pathogen two years previously. At 17, she's now working on a new movie, My Sucky Teen Romance, a vampire romance parody. In person she's incredibly together and level-headed, obviously someone the CONvergence family view with paternal pride, and very much a symbol of their ethos. She'll go far. And doubtless make me feel ever older.
4: Outreach. The Geek Partnership Society is an organisation allied to CONvergence and sharing a lot of the same personel, which takes geek-friendly activities out into the community and uses them for charitable ends in schools and youth groups. They've just got themselves a permanent headquarters, shared by CONvergence and its sister convention, Anime Detour, making geekery a productive and sharing experience in Minneapolis. That's not just knocking down the walls of our ghetto, it's building something good out of the pieces. 'You lot make me proud,' as I said at the closing ceremonies, 'to be a geek'.
5: Action. I loved how swiftly the convention responded to my desire to add new things to the programme, for instance, two rounds of Just A Minute (where DC comics artist Chris Jones devastated Joe, Eryn, and Guest of Honour (and absolute sweetheart) urban fantasy author L.A.Banks). The game seemed to catch on, being played afterwards in the bar. The organisers were equally open to the idea of getting audience members to perform my first issue of Action Comics as a reading. I got the cast together by announcing at the opening ceremonies that the first eleven people that approached me were in. We ran through it once in the wings, and then went straight on. I think they did brilliantly, as you can see in these two videos (spoilers for the comic, obviously!):
The woman with only one line is a professional actor, dragged in by a mate. I think she wondered what she'd gotten herself into. I especially like our Lex and Lois. And hey, Superman!
6: Guests. Amongst the Guests of Honour was actor Jeremy Bulloch, who I got a chance to chat about cricket with. His next gig was the weekend after, in my hometown of Faringdon, where he appeared in a reading of a play about the town's eccentric Lord Berners, performed, as the surrealist Lord would have appreciated, in our local Budgens supermarket. From Minneapolis to Budgens in seven days! L.A. Banks, as I've said, was also a delight, traumatised by the mechanics of Just A Minute in a way which made the audience both laugh and sympathise. Another excellent Guest of Honour was Bridget Landry, who both delivered a lecture about her work on the Cassini space probe and, as a fervant cosplayer, judged the masquerade, running through seven costumes over the weekend. That's CONvergence in a nutshell: the guys in costume are also the rocket scientists! Hey, you like Thunderbirds, right? Who doesn't like Thunderbirds? (No, don't put it to a vote.) Well, I was on a panel with Joan Marie Verba, who both publishes and writes original, award-winning, officially-licensed Thunderbirds novels. Which is a different approach to self-publishing and spinoffery, and shows how complicated publishing is getting these days. I think, given the love of the British for the series, her work should be better known over here.
7: Signage. I often go around a convention taking pictures of the signs fans put up, because I think this is one of the great sources of Fan Art. At this event, the winner, out of a very competitive field, was House of Toast, who provide con goers with things on toast all weekend, and who produced over a dozen different signs. For instance:
8: Graphics. Thanks to CONvergence's resident graphic designer being the professional comic artist Christopher Jones, as well as the animations and the standing sets which frame, for instance, the dealer's room and the cinema, each Guest of Honour got a personalised badge. Here's mine:
And here's Chris' cover for the convention booklet. How many villains can you name?
Chris' website, where he displays art from his various ongoing comics projects, can be found here.
9: Dance. Connie's Space Lounge is a venue for various hip geek activities over the CONvergence weekend, and it was one of the many places in the evenings where everyone seemed to be dancing. You know I love convention discos for the ecstatic release of bad dancing (which I join in with, and as now practised by Matt Smith's Doctor), well, this is a slightly hipper take on that: where the possibility of disco-related judgement has now vanished to the point of not being an issue any more. (That's an index to the whole event, if I had the time to pry it out and consider it.) But where you might well decide to play full size Connect Four instead. Take a look inside Connie's:
Connie's Space Lounge from E Sophia on Vimeo.
10: Oh Snap and Magic Ponies. CONvergence went so far as to have its own language, in that young American slang is everywhere. 'Oh snap!' seems to be 'why sir, you really had me there, I have been grandly pwned'. And there was all sorts of other stuff that went by me too fast to note. I feel that I've barely scratched the surface of describing this amazing event to you. In short, dears, OMG, you have to go! For this is a young convention. Which has squared the circle of putting media and prose interests together. (Another of next year's Guests of Honour is Catherynne M. Valente.) And we desperately need those. Especially in SF fandom. I say they should make a Worldcon bid. For one thing their bid parties would be amazing. I'm not sure how the matter of Magic Ponies came up (that's between me and my agent), but no sooner had I mentioned the issue in passing than someone was sent running to the shops, and...
I'll be going along to next year's Anime Detour to see how that lot are doing. And I'll be back later today with my schedule for the San Diego Comic Con. Until then, Cheerio!
Labels:
Action Comics,
Convergence,
Doctor Who,
Emily Hagins,
Thunderbirds
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I've been attending CONvergence since it's first year and can verify everything you've said. The con is run by a tight group who have the good sense to a)run the con like a serious business, b)learn from their mistakes, c)treat their volunteers well, and d)avoid stagnation by introducing new events while keeping what works well. They also bring in great guests, such as yourself! I enjoyed your panels (I still don't "get" cricket, tho') and that game you moderated for the masquerade half-time. I hope they ask you back again for you are a talented, funny guy!
We were so glad to have you, Paul! CONvergence is, for many of us, our home, our family, and our tribe. The best part about it is that it is constantly growing and evolving. I think I'm one of the old farts (or "grey-muzzles" as the furries call them) with the con who co-runs the Gaming Suites.
Everyone was so happy by your presence and contributions to our annual event. The Action Comics reading was one of those things that happened so organically -so expressively- that everyone just was blown away by it!
Please come back soon: you'll always be welcome!
Yours,
David J Rust
That TARDIS costume is exactly what would happen if Sterling Cooper started doing the marketing for Who.
Paul, thanks so much for all your enthusiasm about CONvergence! We dearly loved having you to our little party. Of course now you're a Guest Alum you've a standing membership to CONvergence; we'd adore hosting you anytime!
-- Lex
I will personally make a concerted effort to say "why sir, you really had me there, I have been grandly pwned" rather than "Oh snap!" going forward as a symbol of my commitment to cultural exchange.
Thanks Paul!
Well that feels great: what a wonderful gift from a Guest of Honor!
Convergence is an amazing Convention! The best four days of the year according to my brother. Thank you so much for featuring my Who designs. They are part of a fashion show here in Sept. So I can send you pictures of all the finished designs if you like. Also I just want to make a small correction that the Dalek dress pictured isn't my design. The girl was really nice, although I didn't catch her name. I do have a Dalek dress design, but it is still in construction at the moment. I didn't want to take credit for her work ^^
It would be amazing to see you at Detour. I have been to every one so it's been great to see the con grow.
Even us old types have fun at Convergence.A friend and I started going 20 years ago when our assorted kids were all under ten. Now they are the 20 and 30 year olds that you mentioned but they do still tolerate letting their old moms attend too.
hey, you never out grow your need for a great party.
Moira
Well, this IS one of those "cool party you missed" descriptions, because I'm left a little maudlin after reading it! This really does sound wonderful.
I'm likely to have to limit my convention travel to Gally for the foreseeable future, and in many ways I feel like I found *my* tribe there. But then, I also recall us not being quite as kind at the disco. The positive spirit at CONvergence seems so unique, so refreshing. I hope it can be carefully nurtured until I get the chance to experience it myself.
CONVergence is truly a great convention. I'm already registered for next year (it was a present from a friend) and I'm looking forward to seeing what the committee comes up with next.
BTW: I was also at the cricket panel. And I don't know if you remember me, but I was the one at LACon that waggled my finger at you when you doubted that Doctor Who was going to win the Hugo that year.
Glad you liked this year's Convergence. I've been at every one (and go to several Mpls conventions as well) and agree with what you say. I made some movies at the con, including on on costuming, on Baron Dave's YouTube Channel, and took a bunch of pics which can be seen on Facebook: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Saturday & Sunday.
Hope to see you back!
*is embarrassed to be a Whovian and still admit she didn't know who you were before the con, but is REALLY glad to admit that now she knows EXACTLY who you are and is truly honored to have met you*
You were an unexpected and unrivaled delight as the moderator of the "Going Pro" panel, in which you offered suggestions and fielded questions with a grace, ease, and spirit of inclusion that is EVERYTHING CONvergence is about. Speaking as someone who was there at its genesis in late '98, its birth in 1999, and has been a supporter ever since, we were lucky to have you. This year was kind of a turning point in terms of recognition both in and out of our community, and I'm well chuffed beyond words to have so lovely a review of the con as this, especially because you saw just about everything that makes me love it so passionately.
*takes Jo's promise about "why sir, you really had me there, I have been grandly pwned", because it is all kinds of awesome, all at the same time*
I sincerely hope you'll return next year. *grins* If you thought your welcome was warm, just imagine your "Welcome back"!
Glad you came Paul. I have been to every CONvergence and it is one of the most professional cons around. It has something for everyone. The room parties are a blast. The theme keeps changing. There is always something to do. Plenty of places to hang out and plenty of places to do nothing at all. Moira, you may want to check your history, this was the 11th CONvergence. It hasn't been around for 20 years. P.S. I very much enjoyed your panel on cricket. I understand the basics on the game and can see your love for the game.
Something you didn't mention (likely out of modesty) is how popular you yourself turned out to be. The best demonstration of this is probably the "Paul Cornell Explains Cricket to Americans" panel which was in direct competition with the room parties in full swing late on one of the nights, which quickly overflowed the small room it had been scheduled for, and so moved to the largest room on the floor, and before long filled that too. And you held the audience in rapt attention for a full hour as you explained in good detail a sport we'd all had little experience of (apart from us Dr. Who fans who have sat through "Black Orchid" where all we really learned is that the Doctor's very good at it). Well done, Paul. Now, you just need to somehow bring Caroline over next time. :)
Hello Paul, I'm so glad you had such a grand time at CONvergence, it was wonderful both meeting you and getting to have you join the fun at Iron Artist.
Hope to see you in San Diego!
Perrin
p.s. I still think you are a Polish/Russian spy!
Great post Paul! Glad you had a great time at CON. Melissa Kaercher and I did the stop-motion together which was quite scary! We hadn't attempted it before Iron Artist, so the result was as surprising to us. :) If anyone is interested, I put up the opening and closing animated Connie videos without subtitles Part 1 here and Part 2 here. (Thanks to Bill Stiteler for the last minute subs, they were great!). I'm still amazed Chris Jones was able to provide us SO MANY drawings for the animation in so little time. Time to start preparing for next CON...
PAUL, AAA AS A GUEST, BECOME A REGULAR..
YOU ARE ALSO A GREAT FACE TO PHOTO..
www.flickr.com/photos/jflaneur/4806200506/in/set-72157624530265808/
FROM CONVERGENCE 2010 FACES
It was an honor to be your Lex, sir! Thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and hope to see you again as soon as possible!
My husband and I have been to every CONvergence but two since it split off from MiniCon. It truly is the best four days of the year! The only thing I would add is the Theater Nippon (around the corner from Cinema Rex) showing Anime All Day and Most of the Night.
You were a great GOF and I'm so glad you had a good time.
I just wanted to thank you for your great review of the "magic" that is CONvergence. It truely has something for everyone, even those with but the faintest interest in things geeky.
I'm a newbee when it comes to the CON. We have packed the whole family into the van for a 6 hour drive from Canada for the last 3 years to attend.
I too was present for your succinct presentation on the game of cricket. I think I came away with a better understanding of the game despite having a Brit for a wife who drags the whole family out into a field at least once a year during our annual Hols to chuck balls at wickets. Everyone in the family are WHO fans my wife has followed his adventures since she was a girl and I got interested in watching back when John Pertwee was the Doctor. Thanks for being a great guest and I hope you find opportunity in the near future to return.
CONvergence sounds like a con I would LOVE! :) I'll have to consider it for next year. ESPECIALLY if Lynne Thomas is a guest of honor!
Also, thank you for introducing me to Tara Reich. Her designs are made of win! I actually contacted her about collaborating on something for Tor, and she's totally down for it. Will keep you posted! :) Do you see how you're making friendships happen the world over?! :)
Lastly, I remember "Oh, snap!" :) That was part of my regular repertoire when I was a teenager right along with "Psyche!" and "That was so mint!" Oh, the early 90s...
You summed up CONvergence nicely. What you also need to know is once you attend you can't stop. We have friends that have moved away to the far reaches of the US and always return for CON. Also we've "CONned" friends from other states to give CONvergence a try and they have been back every year since their first.
Speaking as one of the loads of teenagers there, and as one who has attended Con since it all began, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've come to view it as home, even if it's only around for 4 days out of the year. I hope you come back next year. ^.^
And I hope to see you at Anime Detour. We teens don't bite... much. ;)
Hey, was just told about this post by a friend! Just wanted to pop in and say that, as Tara mentioned, she didn't actually make the Dalek dress--it was designed and made by me and my friend Alex, and worn by Alex's little sister, Tess. We were in the 5-person Doctor Who cosplay group; I was the female Captain Jack, and Alex was Lucy Saxon.
I don't think I can properly express how much we enjoyed all your panels and everything you did. The highlight of the masquerade for us was totally the halftime show! We really, REALLY hope you come back again next year! :)
Thanks, everyone. Tara: please do send me those when you get there. Bessy: will edit the entry, sorry! Terry: well done with the finger wagging. I'll definitely be back next year, and will be at Anime Detour too, with Caroline!