Con-Cept 2011 = Great Fun
By Angela Roberts
Oct. 17, 2011
This weekend, we attended Con-Cept, Montreal’s long-running fan-run SF convention. It’s our second time attending at all as The Gloaming, although it was still a little incognito as we didn’t have the chance to arrange renting a table this year. For that, we’d probably need more staff since if there was anything we learned at Ad Astra besides that we love fans and we love meeting new readers, it’s that conventions like Ad Astra and Con-Cept are a lot less fun when you’re chained to a table. There’s always so much to see and do. Even this weekend, it’s sheer luck and discipline (and lack of sleep) that gave me the opportunity to get the three awesome interviews that we’ll be publishing for your reading pleasure very soon. Basically, I had a fantastic weekend, and much of that is due to the particular feature of a small fan-run con that you don’t get at the bigger commercial cons: the people you meet.
I started on Friday evening right after work; grabbed a burger on the way and trekked through the rain (sadly, the weather was pretty miserable this weekend with unexpected bouts of sunshine) to the Hotel Espresso where the convention was being held. I made a tour of the dealer room, met some interesting new people, looked at some pretty jewelry, and reconnected with some people I hadn’t seen in a while. One of our former writers, Christopher Olson, had a table to promote his web and print series, Tremendous Tales, collections of short, often humorous SF micro-fiction. I also got to chat with Karen Dales and Marie Bilodeau, two delightful authors who I’ve encountered more than once at conventions and never had the chance to spend any time with before this weekend. In between crazy fun conversations that you’d only ever have at a convention (a great discussion of Star Wars was had with numerous fans and panelists who were drawn inexorably to our circle, for one), I attended an interesting panel on vampires.
On Saturday, co-editor Ludmila Rishkova joined me at the con, and we attended numerous interesting panels. I also managed to fit in interviews with both Karen Dales and Marie Bilodeau separately (and served as a bit of seat warmer too, I suppose. LOL) They were both plenty of fun and should turn out to be great reading. Certainly I got to share in the peach phenomena surrounding Marie Bilodeau as fans dropped off peaches, peach cakes, peach Jell-O, and peach cocktail as part of the amusement of an anecdote she’d once told about her enjoyment of peach juice. Saturday was also Masquerade day, and I got to see plenty of intriguing costumes, including the impressive and attention-grabbing Furries who wandered the con full of vim and vigor. Panels rounded out my day and evening on Saturday. Sunday, I came in for some readings and to interview Alan Draven, a local dark fiction writer. That was my third interview, and that I’m sure will be of great interest as well. I also attended Nina Munteanu’s workshop on world-building, which was quite informative and certainly made me think.
Attendance seemed lower than expected this year, and whether it was the weather or a waning of interest or both, I don’t know. Con-Cept doesn’t really advertise, and I suspect that they like keeping the con relatively small and easy to manage and a little bit exclusive. There’s not really anything wrong with that. After all, for a writer or editor, this is still your audience, still the people that you get to really connect with at these smaller cons where you hopefully can speak without shouting. It’s the experience and the social aspect that really hold the value. That’s what makes it fun.
Due to some production delays, the new issue will actually launch on Wednesday October 19th. Please visit us then!
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