![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cruising the Con
Aug. 19th, 2019 09:13 pmThis was a very big event for Dublin, around 5,500 participants: many of them are travelling on to the European SF Convention in Belfast 22/24 August and most of the overseas guests we met had combined their visit to Dublin with a tour of Ireland. Plenty of income for Ireland, north and south.
The Dublin Convention centre - new since our last visit here - was a great meeting place. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the communal space and in many of the rooms, with views over the city or the docks. Food and drink available throughout most of the day and evening. Speedy movement between the 5 floors by escalators and lifts, (plus stairs). Big auditorium, several large meeting rooms and a range of smaller rooms.
Someone had done their sums and worked out that this would not be big enough for the expected attendance so a deal was done with the Odeon Cinema (2 stops on the tram from the Convention Centre) plus a hotel next door to it, to provide another suite of rooms, some of them very large.
Nevertheless, there were queues for the popular events, especially on the first couple of days, and these were managed politely but very firmly by the volunteer staff. As someone who can stand easily for only a few minutes, I asked for and was given a precious 'Access' sticker which entitled me to sit down and queue and to be allowed into the room first (along with the other people with mobility issues): very civilised. Events all started on the hour or the half hour: talks and discussions usually lasted 50 minutes, readings only 20 minutes. In general terms, you could attend something every 90 minutes but queues for popular events started up to 30 minutes before the start, so you might need to go straight from one event into the queue for the next, especially if it involved a tram ride. In other words, to get the most out of what was on offer, you needed to be Organised.
A feature of most large SF Cons is the kaffeeklatsch (or the evening version, the literary beer): an opportunity for a small group of guests to meet a writer and chat for 50 minutes. These are free but you must sign up in advance: some klatches with popular writers are filled up the moment the list goes out. This year, there were lots of klatches, responding to popular demand. Mick and I decided not to enter the scrum when the lists first go out but to drift along later and see where there were spaces: in particular, we looked for events with writers we had never met or knew nothing about. This turned out to be a very good approach because we met some really interesting people!
Of course, people do not just attend a Convention to zoom from one event to the next. It is an incomparable opportunity to meet new people, find people who share some of your particular interests or catch up with friends and relations, in congenial surroundings. There is also the opportunity to sample the delights of Dublin, although I think most people were doing that before or after the Con. Given that a great many guests are writers, editors, publishers, film-makers etc, as well as being SF fans, it is a good time to learn more about what sells and who is marketing it and make good connections for your own creative career. Most people were doing all of the above!
The Dublin Convention centre - new since our last visit here - was a great meeting place. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the communal space and in many of the rooms, with views over the city or the docks. Food and drink available throughout most of the day and evening. Speedy movement between the 5 floors by escalators and lifts, (plus stairs). Big auditorium, several large meeting rooms and a range of smaller rooms.
Someone had done their sums and worked out that this would not be big enough for the expected attendance so a deal was done with the Odeon Cinema (2 stops on the tram from the Convention Centre) plus a hotel next door to it, to provide another suite of rooms, some of them very large.
Nevertheless, there were queues for the popular events, especially on the first couple of days, and these were managed politely but very firmly by the volunteer staff. As someone who can stand easily for only a few minutes, I asked for and was given a precious 'Access' sticker which entitled me to sit down and queue and to be allowed into the room first (along with the other people with mobility issues): very civilised. Events all started on the hour or the half hour: talks and discussions usually lasted 50 minutes, readings only 20 minutes. In general terms, you could attend something every 90 minutes but queues for popular events started up to 30 minutes before the start, so you might need to go straight from one event into the queue for the next, especially if it involved a tram ride. In other words, to get the most out of what was on offer, you needed to be Organised.
A feature of most large SF Cons is the kaffeeklatsch (or the evening version, the literary beer): an opportunity for a small group of guests to meet a writer and chat for 50 minutes. These are free but you must sign up in advance: some klatches with popular writers are filled up the moment the list goes out. This year, there were lots of klatches, responding to popular demand. Mick and I decided not to enter the scrum when the lists first go out but to drift along later and see where there were spaces: in particular, we looked for events with writers we had never met or knew nothing about. This turned out to be a very good approach because we met some really interesting people!
Of course, people do not just attend a Convention to zoom from one event to the next. It is an incomparable opportunity to meet new people, find people who share some of your particular interests or catch up with friends and relations, in congenial surroundings. There is also the opportunity to sample the delights of Dublin, although I think most people were doing that before or after the Con. Given that a great many guests are writers, editors, publishers, film-makers etc, as well as being SF fans, it is a good time to learn more about what sells and who is marketing it and make good connections for your own creative career. Most people were doing all of the above!
