As I wrote the post title I was struck by the number. The 53rd convention from BSFS. I know I’m the “new guy” to many, having only really started at Balticon 27 but this convention has always seemed like my ‘home con’ if that could even be such a thing (that’s 26 years for those that don’t want to ‘math’). I’m not joking about the ‘new guy’ thing either. I know at least one person that has gone to every Balticon. Part of my recounting of number of visits to the convention stems from how many people I didn’t see there this year. I came up with a dozen folks off the top of my head that, through various circumstances or choices, simply didn’t make it to the con this year. It felt oddly empty. Logically it wasn’t, but it felt that way.
I will say that I was very impressed with the con team this year. Registration *always* has problems with my wife and daughter. I don’t know why – but the mistress of registration remembered me and it was much smoother this year than in years past. The con added a ribbon option this year for people that wanted to have a clear definition of what pronoun they prefer. I think this was an excellent option for those that were interested in having one or felt they needed it. While I did not use one myself (moving rapidly toward the land of the dinosaur) I did find it useful from time to time. Thankfully I didn’t see anyone abusing it. The art show was bigger than I’ve seen it in some time. There was a lot of great work on display there – and I ended up coming home with two new pieces. Programming was very strong. They got information out early, had the schedule posted ahead of their normal time and were quite active at the con itself… more on that in a minute.
It was an adventure to get to the hotel. The interstate we take to get there was shut down and all traffic diverted off to side roads. We managed to avoid the worst of the traffic, but it sent us off into the wilderness for a while. A longer ride there than normal.
I started the weekend off with 3 panels on Friday night. I felt like the panels were decent and that I contributed without being super awkward or out of place. Writing military campaigns was my weakest of the day. Genre in the age of binge watching was decent, but uneven. Bad movie adaptations could have been better (I’m not a fan of throwing it to the audience right away). On the upside I was told one of my statements / arguments actually inspired a panel for next year.
Saturday brought all kinds of weird with it. At loose ends with no panels for the entire day I could do as I pleased. I took some time to wander the con and check things out. I got to spend a lot of time in the art show. I checked out the vendor tables. I got to sit and chat with my friend Jay and get started on an upcoming project (totally a secret for right now). While we were sitting and working, Jay needed to go and be on a panel. I decided I would be supportive and headed to the panel with him.
I’m not going to recount all the details here, but that particular panel was not good. Jay told me I was ‘not contractually obligated’ to stay, but I felt as if I was abandoning him to a terrible fate. It devolved so quickly that I bailed out after about 15-20 minutes. Apparently my fears were not unfounded. I was told it got worse after I left.
This is the part where I explain how the programming team was active during the convention. I was approached later in the day by the head of programming (after being pointed out by the con safety team and flagged down). I gave my view of the events of the panel. The head of the convention was called over. I was asked to recount my view of things again. The problematic individual was subsequently pulled from all panels for the remainder of the weekend. I’m not going to call that person out. I was a witness and not directly involved with the event in question. I gave my view on matters and that was enough for the incident in question. I’m certain there were lots of hurt feelings over the whole thing. I hope the person in question gives the whole thing some thought and uses it as a learning experience rather than fuel for some kind of grudge.
Quick tips from my point of view about
convention panels:
1: Being the moderator of a panel does NOT
mean you’re the primary speaker
2: The audience is there for ALL the panelists generally, and sometimes for ONE in particular – and that might not be you
3: There are panelists that know more than you and people that have different experiences than you – let them speak ( please note that the gender of said individual plays no part in that statement)
4: Stay as focused as you can (difficult, I know) on the actual topic of the panel and the stated level of expertise it’s aimed at
5: Panelists are volunteering their time. Being angry at them, talking them down, demanding they defer to the moderator is generally the path to a really bad experience
That list is not all inclusive, but relevant to the past weekend.
Saturday night featured a riot in the streets of Baltimore – in front of the convention hotel. No, I’m not joking. Thankfully I was able to avoid any issues with that, but a handful of other con goers were not so fortunate. To my knowledge, everyone came out the other side OK and relatively unscathed.
My Sunday at the con featured two more panels. I got to talk about traumatizing your characters in your writing (and why you don’t necessarily need to) AND I got to talk about the future of energy. The trauma panel was really interesting and I’m glad I got to be part of it. It was really well moderated and the discussion was far ranging with many different opinions and story telling tidbits.
The future of energy panel was an up and down thing for me. I’m going to do a separate write up for the actual content from my point of view because it was far more interesting than I initially thought it might be. I’m also going to see if I can use some of the notes from my fellow panelist Jim. He had some great points and information. I hope the audience enjoyed the panel as much as I did.
There was also shopping, chatting with friends that were there, games in the game room and a fantastic dinner out with amazing ice cream immediately following.
I had a nice, relaxing weekend. The convention itself felt a little like things might be shifting or changing, but that’s something to think about for next year. This was a really good con.