Åcon3

Posted by jukkahoo

Refreshments were needed to quench the thirst.

And so it went. Everything happened like in them olden films: things rushed upon you at lightning speed and the whole thing ended in a sudden halt. *sigh*

"Punch-Out-and-Play"! Hah! That would devalue this important piece of Star Wars memorabilia.

How was it? Can you explain a rose? A sense of elation for a well argued point, followed with a witty remark and a sip of good ale? Yes, perhaps that does it. A laughter, too.

 


Iron Sky? Sounds interesting! What is it?

It was cold and damp, for the first time and this was the latest one ever (it all happens during the Ascension weekend). The number of us was more than last year, can't remember the first one. 70+, and yes, I never got the actual number of warm bodies from the organisers. Shurely someone did knew?

 

Ah! It's a re-release!

The weather withstanding, everything was more or less the same: the Fen, the Guest of Honour (the wonderful Steph Swainston), Adlon (though we were less than thrilled about the closing of the bar at 9PM), Mariehamn (only short visit to the center this time, but I did see Alandica and the Thai restaurant), Saturday Dinner (which we keep calling banquet), Tax Free booze and Room Parties. And the program, mustn't forget the program.

OK. Everybody behave now. Or else...!

Some of you may remeber that I did the programming before, but since we Elders were kicked out of the committee, other people were in charge of the programming. Which I think was fine, if not really geared toward me. I missed the mix of fluff and seriousness, which I like to call "idea-entertainment". There was serious items, like stuff about copyrights, worldbuilding and innovations in SF. All good, solid ideas. There was some seriously fluffy stuff like "Do Not Disturb" -sign workshop, Never Mind the Buzzaldrins and SF-Babbel -quizzes. I especially liked the workshop, since the rooms weren't equipped with said items and last year them cleaners did came and woke us up rather early...

Oh my, I hope I am not disturbing you gentlemen?

I can't say too much about the quizzes, since I hosted the first and participated the second, but to my mind, they went well. Although I must register a complaint to the Accountess, I agree I might have lost to JohanA, but certainly not by four points!

Single bedroom for half the convention.

I think we could do with a little bit more programming in the future and serious items might be better served, if the participants would make some preparations beforehand. After three years of unpreparedness, we ought to aim higher next year. Personally, I blame the first year, where I participated to almost every single program item, which more or less meant, that there was alt least One person, who knew where the program at hand was going. I may have set a bad example. My bad.

Who did you say was the Guest of Honour of Eurocon 2011?

I didn't visit Stallhagen Brewery, but if we're doing Tjudö Winery next year, count me in already! I heard only good things about the brewery and I think that such trips are the way of the future conventions. While the cameraderie and pub and programming is good, such little extras will add a dash of evenbetterness to the whole thing. 

Ms. Swainston! One question, please!

I missed some regulars, was delighted to see quite a few new faces, but in the future, we ought to diversify. We need more Swedes, more Norwegians, Danes, Brits, Russins, Balts, Germans, Dutch, French, all the rest of the world. The aim may be too lofty (yeah, I know, it is that), but wouldn't it just be even More Fun? A Finnish relaxacon with a dozen or so Swedes is nice, don't get me wrong, but I believe the original idea was a bit more international. How do we achieve this? Beats me, but I'm hoping.

Wait a minute! There was a Green Man?

I hope to write more later. There may be a few things I might've forgotten to mention here...

Comments

[Johan]

More programming, yes (I'd go for one more serious item per day, compared to this year, or something like that). More preparation, definitely. That we can do: it's all about planning. More Swedes and other inhabitants of the world outside Finland, yes. That might prove a bit trickier, but we ought to work for it. Åcon is great fun, I personally don't have less because the number of Finns compared to, well, other people (I see the Swedes at Swedish cons, so ...), but it doesn't really live up to the internationality of the original idea.

//JJ