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Convention Spotlight: Odyssey Con

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The convention idea roundup is here.

For ten years Odyssey Con has been running in Wisconson, providing a
diverse amount of events to the fannish community.  They're very much
in the vein of the general SF/Fantasy convention, with a great deal of
diversity in both events and guests.  Odyssey Con is one of those
conventions that takes me back to my first conventions such as Atlanta
Fantasy Fair, WindyCon, and other "super-diverse" cons.

They also work on serving their fan-to-pro audience with an equally
diverse and interesting mixture of events.  Including a few ideas that
may be useful to other people trying to do more career tracks at cons:

  • First, they share tracks with other con.  They have an entire track
    from another convention focused on film and the film industry,
    including cutting-edge CGI (though sadly it appears that it may not be
    around next convention – if you're in the area maybe you can help out).
  • They focus on very diverse areas for "profans" especially writing,
    getting beyond the same-old same old with panels on topics like writing
    for RPG universes and other things professional writers do – but
    aspiring writers may not think of.
  • They also focus on taking people's professional skills one step
    beyond, with a panel on networking at conventions for professionals and
    potential professionals.

I
was especially impressed with the attempts to cover various challenges
facing writers and ways to make a living, as well as the networking
events.  There's a lot to being a professional writer – and many things
you have to do or consider to be a success and pay the bills – and
Odyssey Con's programming staff knows this.

Odyssey is in April.  So if you're in Wisconson, see about going –
or volunteering.  It sounds like it'll be educational and fun either
way.

– Steven Savage