Events

Anime
Art Show
Con Suite
Concert/FILK
Dance
Dealer Room
Fan Tables/Parties
Gaming
Guests of Honor
Guests
Hall Activities
Masquerade
Programming
Writer's Workshop

Also see information on 2010 Programming Plans

Final Programming Report for 2009

This year’s programming theme, “Heroes and Villains”, was embraced enthusiastically by our panelists. They volunteered to be on many of these subjects in numbers approaching those for panels of writing (an obviously popular subject for our authors). And the membership indicated a healthy interest in this subject matter was well. These panels were well attended, particularly, once again, such more philosophical panels as “But I’m the Hero: Justifying Villainy.” On the less serious side, there was good attendance at “The List: Best . . . Villain . . . Ever”. Quite a variety of villains were nominated but in the end the top villains were: 3) Lord Valdemort, 2) Big Brother and 1) Dracula.

However, even more popular, on average, was our secondary theme “Steampunk”. From a relatively slow beginning, attendance at these panels grew quickly to include many of our best attended, both those on gadgetry (always a steampunk favorite) and more literary subjects such as “Steam Pastiche”. Soon people all over the convention were working on Steampunk ideas, making the choice of next year’s main programming theme, “Tripping the Past Fantastic: Steampunk, retro future and early fantastic fiction”, an obvious choice. (And I expect to see some follow through on all these brilliant ideas.)

While missing many of our older established panelists, there was a particularly large crop of new and enthusiastic new panels, particularly in the area of young adult literature. I hope to see many of these new panelists again, in combination with more of our established guests

I want to thank Chris Marble for once again acting as head of Programming Operations, as well as the programming staff of William Stoddard, Val Ontell and Laura Luchau.