Yes, I Will Be at the Confusion Convention Next Weekend
Posted on January 13, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
Because people have started asking: Why, yes, I will be at Legendary Confusion (as it is called this year) this next weekend. It’s going to be a very excellent convention, with many excellent writers and fans. You should totally come to it.
What is my schedule for the convention? It is thus:
Hanging About: Friday 4pm – Sunday 2pm (Hotel Bar) — John Scalzi slouches agreeably in a chair while all his friends run around doing programming. Ha! Ha! Ha!
I should note I will take occasional breaks from that schedule for things like food and sleep. But otherwise, yeah, that’s the plan.
Why aren’t I doing any programming? Because I forgot to tell the Confusion folks I was willing to do programming, and they didn’t ask me if I was interested, and to be clear it’s my job to do the former, not their job to do the latter.
So no panels/readings for me this year. I may ask to sit in on the mass autographing session on Saturday afternoon, but otherwise I’ll just be there as a fan. Do feel free to come up and say hello, if I am not already previously engaged.
Cool. I am probably going to be there, depending on how snowy and disgusting the drive looks. I have never been before, but it looks like an excellent convention indeed.
My son, Ian, and I are planning on going on Saturday. I’ll look you up. Depending on the mood she’s in, my wife says I look like Bruce Willis (unlikely), Billy Joel (very possible), or Rick Henderson from Pawn Stars (yeah, pretty much). :)
Do you ever attend programming and sit on the other side of the table?
Wow, that sounds like the best Scalzi-fan con EVER. Too bad I won’t be there.
I attended only one ConFusion (it was before they stopped numbering them, but I can’t remember the number), and that was because the couple I was marrying that weekend had deliberately booked on the con weekend so their wedding guests (very few of whom actually lived in Michigan) could get cheap hotel rates—the convention membership plus hotel was cheaper than just staying in a hotel, and most of the guests were fans, including me.
My fondest memory of the convention is of picking up drums in the con suite and playing a complex interlock of baladi and fanga on a doumbek (and an improvised doumbek, if memory serves). Baladi and fanga have the same bass, with the same spacing—but the one is a completely different place. So it’s interesting, to say the least.
Um.
OK. So, have a great time at the convention!
Mike:
If you’re asking if I go and watch in the audience as an audience member, yes, I do that from time to time.
It’s weird to me that the only place on the ConFusion website that says where it is is the Hotel page, which gives the location of the hotel.
That I can find, anyway. But my mental acuity might not be at its highest, especially considering how I kind of went Postal on that last comment, reminiscing about Days Of Old. Sorry about that, btw.
I suspect they could still get you on a few panels if they really wanted too. Now that they know you’re willing and all.
Unless monies would be involved, in which case, maybe they can’t.
The web site is definitely lacking in some details. Even if John was participating in programming, the panel details do not include the panelists nor is there any listing of participants other than the Guests of Honor and the additional authors noted on the page. The unprominent (the very first entry at the very bottom of the page does say where) mention of where the convention actually is happening. Yes, I have chaired a number of conventions and done the web pages for them. I have also brought almost all (except for Mike Carey) of the author guests listed out to Phoenix for an event or two and would encourage anyone able to go to the con to do so. Having John hanging out in the bar is a bonus!
Really? That seems counter to everything I’ve ever heard, experienced, and expected. (E.g., you said that if asked to participate in a con, you would require clear harassment policies.)
Sounds like it’s time for a pop up ukulele recital.
How much of ESC4P3 can you cover?
M. Cook:
It would be presumptuous of me to ask them to do that at this late date, and inconsiderate of the people who did make an effort to get onto programming and went through the usual channels to do so. It’s not just about what I could do, but what I should do. And anyway, I don’t mind just hanging about.
Sean Eric Fagan:
It’s my job to let them know whether I’m interested in doing programming, if they have no otherwise contacted me. I’m not sure how that ties in with harassment policies, actually.
Sean Eric, I read that as meaning that Our Esteemed Host believes that if he wants to do programming at a con, it’s his responsibility to let the con organizers know that, rather than their responsibility to ask him if he does. It doesn’t have a lot to do with his other requirements for attending, like the clear harassment policy.
Personally if I were organizing a con, and Scalzi (or anyone comparable, not that there IS anyone comparable*) were attending, I’d at least drop him a line asking timidly if he’d be willing to be on panels. But Michiganders are practically Canadian in their diffidence, and perhaps felt that they should just let the guy relax and be a fan if he wanted to, rather than “nagging” him to be on panels. I know. I used to be one. Now I’m a brash New Jerseyan, and I’d ask. Once. Then not bother him again.
*Not to† suck up or anything.
†With the usual meaning of ‘not to’.
Sorry about that, John. Asked and answered, not my place etc.
OK– I am officially po’d. When do my favorite author’s come up to the North East to bestow their lovely and divine presence upon (the apparently unworthy) citizens of the largest city in the country. I mean really– why always the south, mid-west and the west!!! (no seriously, when are you coming to the northeast… it would be fun to see you speak and such…)
The only tie-in to harassment policies was that, in your statement about it, you’d said that if asked to appear at a con, you would be checking their harassment policies. Not, “before I offer my services to do work at a con.”
It’s confusing to me, that’s all. But then you said, “if they have [not] otherwise contacted me,” so I guess what you’re saying is that you don’t expect to get asked about every single con, so if you are planning on attending, you would let them know? (That makes sense, although I honestly assumed you’d get asked to pretty much every con within a couple thousand miles.)
Sean Eric, ConFusion has a defined harassment policy. That was Scalzi’s requirement (and that of those of us who cosigned his pledge).
Asking someone to a con generally means inviting them as a guest. This costs money. Cons don’t have money to invite all the writers. Scalzi is attending this one as a fan, presumably paying his own way, and doing just exactly what he feels like doing when he’s there.
I don’t see any inconsistency, or understand your confusion (npi).
Hey, feel free to stop by the DC in 17 early Friday party, 8pm-midnight. I’ll even have some Coke Zero for you if you want…
Have fun John, I’ll buy you a drink if I see you.
Sean Eric – I think part of the confusion (heh) here is that if a con wants John to be Guest of Honor, then they would send him an invite. But if he’s just attending a con and is willing to be on programming, then it’s his job to say that he’s willing to be on programming. Cons generally don’t send out emails asking people to be program participants. And, as a con runner, if I knew an author was coming to my con primarily to relax and hang out, I wouldn’t ask that person to be on programming, I would wait for them to approach me.
John – I will see you there!
On the Confusion website, look under the Programming schedule list thingy, you can download a PDF. there’s more complete info in there about who is on what panel, what the panels are about, etc.
(I was mighty cranky until I found that PDF)
As a former ConFusion webmaster, let me say that (1) yes, the website is a bit lacking this year (compared to last year), and (2) it nonetheless looks better than when I took care of it way back in the day when Geocities was still a thing and CSS wasn’t.
See you all this weekend!