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Convention Spotlight: Icon 34

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The round-up of convention spotlights and ideas is here.

Icon is a long-running convention in
Cedar Rapids, IA, so it's no surprise it came up in my continuing
research on conventions with fan-to-pro elements.

In
fact, Icon is one of those smaller, intimate cons with a serious
pedigree.  Started by a University of Iowa's writers group, led by Joe
Haldeman himself, it stays firmly rooted in its literary/writing
background while expanding over time to cover more genres and media.

Icon stays old-school, delivering the kind of fan-to-pro events that never go out of style:

  • It delivers a writer-heavy experience by having panels covering all
    sorts of writing aspects – starting out, presentation, and more.
  • It goes out of its way to do events on how to get published in the first place.
  • It's recently experimented on adding portfolio preparation for
    artists to their lineup, expanding the offerings available.  Many
    conventions do portfolio reviews, but preparation is often an area
    forgotten.
  • It leverages it's smaller size (perhaps 350-400 people) to have intimate discussion groups and heavy audience participation. 

Icon
hits the classic notes for writers by delivering a broad range of
events to help them out – and isn't afraid to experiment and add new
ideas.  If you're in Iowa – and if you haven't ALREADY heard of them –
it sounds like they've got some good events, and know how to deliver. 
I'm going to keep an eye on what they're doing as it sounds like
they're looking to add new ideas . . .

– Steven Savage

Convention Spotlight: WindyCon

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You can find the summary of the Convention Ideas here.

WindyCon is one of the older
conventions in the United States (I attended one in 1986).  As I've
been researching conventions and their "professional events" I was glad
to go and see what was up with the convention.

WindyCon is a convention held near Chicago,
currently held in Lombard, IL.  Indeed if you're a fan, geek, what-have
you in the area, you probably know about it.

WindyCon's
fan-to-pro events put a large emphasis on writing  – there are
workshops, panels, and soforth for writers interested in
science-fiction.  What really stands out is their manuscript review,
modeled after the Worldcon Writer's Workshops.  This is something other
conventions could definitely emulate.


It works like this:

  1. Beginning authors send in manuscripts.
  2. WindyCon arranges professional authors and editors to critique them.
  3. There are face-to-face meetings between those who submit manuscripts and the pros themselves.
  4. There's live feedback and Q&A.

This
is a model I think could be extended to any number of profan activities
– art, game design, website design, cosplay, etc.  It gives the experts
time for review, gives solid feedback, and encourages a professional
approach from the start.  My guess is it also would be good for
networking or networking could be added to and encouraged at the events.

WindyCon has been doing this for several years.  It sounds like it's worth giving a try at your own convention.

Of course if you're in the area, you could also attend WindyCon and get the full experience yourself . . .

– Steven Savage

Convention Ideas: Pay a Visit

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You can find the roundup of other convention ideas here.

When we plan convention events, there's a tendency to keep events focused ON the convention itself – doing things there at the hotel, building, etc.  You paid for that floor space, youíre going to bloody well use it.

Floor space aside, for professional events, you might want to think out of the box (or the hotel).  Depending on where your convention is located, you may want to think about doing some professional events outside of the convention.

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