Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
There’s serious about something and then there’s SERIOUS. When I encountered the Costume College run by Costumer’s Guild West, it was time to go all caps. This is a costuming event that earns it’s capital letters for SERIOUS, and one that I profiled. Fortunately the Dean, Natalie, was kind enough to let me interview her.
Frankly, the convention is a case study in taking an interest and treating it in a very serious, organized manner.
Mythicon is a convention in Orlando Florida that draws quite a cast of guests, runs a variety of events, and does their best to serve the fans, geeks, and otaku in Florida and beyond with one big convention. They’re in their first year and are hitting the ground running – you may have heard about them if you’re in the area.
But what you may not here is how they make sure there’s great career-oriented events.
First, they do open casting stage events – and the people who make it in get 3 to 4 months of training. That’s right, actual training and experience they can use (and put on a resume). It also helps when your convention is near, say Disney and Universal!
That’s the kind of practical work I like to see – and it goes beyond the convention’s 3 days. It’s about making a real comittment to the attendees and their ambitions – and taking advantage of the local area.
But that’s not all. Mythicon also relies on their guests and helps them create good events.
Each guest is specifically asked about how they can do panels to help the attendees reach their goals and their dreams. It may be a guest who’s a big name speaking on how to get known. It could be a well known actor explaining how they broke in. Mythicon cultivates the guests to find what they can share – and encourages them to connect with the fans.
Between the long-term commitment of the show to cultivating guests’ panels, Mythicon sounds like a convention a lot of us could be following. Come to think of it, a lot of us should be attending as well . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.
Just finished up my latest visit to AODSF, a con in San Francisco I’ve been doing events at for awhile, and wanted to give my latest report.
Sadly I didn’t get to to do much as my day and life was pretty busy. Though I did note I was up to my armpits in Homestuck characters. Not literally. Much.
The convention was as usual quite fun. It’s a tight, focused affair that runs in a hotel next to Japantown San Francisco – which cleverly means the con basically triples it’s size. It’s friendly, crowded, and pretty active. This year was no different, and as usual, it was a lot of fun – the convention runs smoothly.
In fact it’s an odd convention to review as it’s consistently high quality. However there’s a trend I’d like to note . . . so let’s get on with that . . .
Anyway, I ran three events there, two progeek, two for fun – and what went on was pretty interesting to observe.
Fanart And Careers: Based on my Focused Fandom book, this was a panel on my findings about, you guessed it, fan art and careers. Attendance was a little higher than I expected, and the amount of professional interest was definitely higher. More on this later.
Fan To Pro: The panel I always do – this one was even more packed and a lot of people were sharing stories and participating. The stronger attendance was pleasing of course, but as noted, I think there’s a trend . .
Crossover Mania: This is my gameshow of creative crossover creation. Not professional, and in fact by the end pretty damn unprofessional, but that’s not the point. Also the phrase “Timey-Wimey Scooby-Doobie” was used.
So what’s the trend I’d been noting all along? Basically that AODSF in particular seems to be getting more and more of a “professional” orientation in its events, because I certainly wasn’t alone with my panels. There were other panels on similar subjects, and interest was high.
Lately, the last few years, I think cons and fandom have become more “progeeky” over time. Things that I once said that were unusual, about how hobbies can affect careers, are now normal and mainstream. Maybe it’s the economy, the internet, culture changes, but hobby-merged-with-job is a lot more normal in the geekosphere.
This pleases me greatly of course, but at AODSF it’s the first time I’d really felt it viscerally. I’ve seen them take a lead on organizational techniques and base-broadening, so it fits . . .
I’m quite pleased with that . . . and it just means I have more to do . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.