Journey Planet Journey Planet 35 - Programatic - Nov. 2017 ~Editors~ Chris Garcia, James Bacon, Steven H Silver Page 4 - Introductions/Editorials/Whatever You Want Page 30 - The Ops of Program Ops by Janice Gelb to Call ‘em by Steven H Silver & Christopher J Garcia Page 36 - Space Ships on the White House Lawn by Page 5 - Convention Programming by Mike Willmoth John Scalzi Page 8 - Interfacing Programming and Tech for Region- Page 39 - Send. Update. Tweet. Post. Boom. —When al Conventions by David Ifversen Social Media Attacks Programming, And What Con- ventions Should Do About It by Meg Frank Page 9 - Thinking About Programming (with Endnotes) by Priscilla Olson Page 41 - The Thin Line Between Fan and Pro by Ale- thea Kontis Page 11 - The Windy City Gang by Mike Resnick Page 44 - On Balance... (Some Considerations) by Page 14 - Expanding Your Program Participant Base by Priscilla Olson Steven H Silver Page 46 - Anthologies A Go-Go by Rhonda Eudaly Page 16 - Great Expectations: Panelists Read & Dis- cuss Favorite Stories Openings by Nancy Kress Page 48 - A seed that became Grenadine (a brief history and some notes).... by Henry Balan Page 18 - To Track or Not to Track by Jim & Laurie Mann Page 50 - Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed... by Rich Horton Page 20 - Time Travel: Can You Really Get a Second Chance by Michael A. Burstein Page 54 - Running a Children’s Program by Lisa Hertel Page 23 - I Dream of Post-Its: Musings on Program- ming by Helen Montgomery Page 57 - Surveys: The Keys to a Program Planner’s Kingdom by Erin Underwood Page 25 - Mixed Marriages by Terra LeMay Page 60 - Enditorial by James Bacon Page 27 - Sharing Your Love with Family by Kate Baker 2 3 Introductions/Editorials/Whatever You Want to Call ‘em Steven H Silver Christopher J Garcia The issue of Journey Planet you hold in your More than anything else, these days, I’m a Dad. hands, or more likely are reading on a tablet, phone, or It’s weird. It’s really weird. I mean really, really, really computer, has its genesis in two ideas. weird. There are two tiny humans, both with the world’s In 2009, I published a special edition of my fan- most adorable noses, who think I’m their Papa. zine, Argentus, entitled Argentus Presents the Art of the And at times, it gets in the way, but with co-ed- Con, in which I asked several con-runners to talk about itors like Steven, it makes these issues happen! So the ins and outs of putting together a science fiction thanks to y’all!!! con. It isn’t exactly a how-to guide, but it offers sugges- I should also mention, as we’re talking about tions, warnings, and lessons learned. cons in this issue, I’m going to be the Fan Guest of Earlier this year, I began compiling a list, with Honor at BayCon next year! I’m going to be pushing descriptions, of all the panels I’ve participated in since ideas, as I always do, for programming to make happen. I showed up on fandom’s doors back in the 1980s. I There’ll also be significant fanzine content. began to wonder how authors would approach those I wanna thank all the incredible contributors topics today if they were given the chance to expound Steven managed to strong-arm! It’s a pretty impressive without the interruptions of other panelists or audience list of folks! members. One of the authors, Nancy Kress, included a So, with this final bit of build-up, we present the note with her submission stating “It felt strange writing Programatic issue of Journey Planet! what I would have said on a panel, with no panel. I kept waiting for [James]Patrick Kelly or [James] Van Pelt to On the Art - The Cover is by Dick Jenssen, aka Ditmar! So, I interject something,” which is exactly what I was hop- took or composed all the art in this issue, largely taken with ing for. my iPhone. Pages 4, 7, 25, 33 I took at the Cantor Museum I discussed these ideas with James Bacon and of Art at Stanford, Pages 3, 8, 9, 14 and 18 I took at the Chris Garcia and we decided to do this programming Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA. Pages 29 and 49 issue of Journey Planet, with articles on running pro- were from BayCon 2017 (and have I mentioned I’m the Fan gramming provided by con-runners with experience in GoH in 2018?). The rest are from SFMoMA. Page 47 is a the area interspersed with essays responding to panel still from my appropriation short film TechTrai20196717, topics by a variety of authors. Page 13 is my photo Collage Serra Bowl, Page 27 is Panic at For each of the essays, I’ve included the original the MoMA, and Page 29 is Gilbert & George at the Movies. title and description, the names of the panelists (where I actually heard from their people on that one. They liked it! known), and the date and convention which featured the discussion. The one constant for all of the panels is that I was one of the participants. A couple of the articles are reprints from Ar- gentus Presents the Art of the Con. Re-reading the issue while preparing for this issue of Journey Planet, I asked a few of the authors if they would be willing to let me include their articles, giving the authors the chance to revise and update what they wrote eight years ago. And, to demonstrate that all ideas can lead to a programming item, I’ll also be using the list of panels I’ve participated in as the jumping off point of a panel on writing panel descriptions and titles at this year’s SMOFCon in Boston the first weekend of December. 4 Convention Programming by Mike Willmoth I first entered sf/f fandom in 1987 with using more people. Worldcons need even more staff CactusCon (NASFiC 1987) in Phoenix, AZ. My first and recent ones have used dozens for everything from position was Senior Staff for Computer Gaming with track liaison (one person concentrates on costuming my then-girlfriend, now-wife. In 1988 I became involved while another handles filking, etc) to room monitors. with the database support for pre-con Programming If you’re just starting out, then how do you begin? that a friend was running for Westercon 41, also in Assuming you’re doing a local con, find two others who Phoenix. The next thing I knew I had volunteered to run want to help. They can take turns doing stuff or they Programming in 1989 for LepreCon 15. Since then I’ve can be dedicated to one of the tasks mentioned above. been Program Director or Program Division Head for As Program Director you should be the ring-master, CopperCon 11 (1991, Scottsdale, AZ), Westercon 45 so do the contacting and communicating. But whom (1992, Phoenix), and ReConstruction (NASFiC 2010, do you contact? Pre-privacy-concerns days we used Raleigh, NC). I’ve also been Science Program Liaison to pass around participant lists between organizations or the equivalent for ConJose (Worldcon 2002, San and conventions to share the information. I remember Jose, CA), TorCon 3 (Worldcon 2003, Toronto, ON), receiving Westercon 43 and 44 participant data for LACon4 (Worldcon 2006, Anaheim, CA), and Chicon 7 use with W45 and, in turn, I sent ours along to W46 (Worldcon 2012, Chicago, IL). and W47. Nowadays that may violate your privacy Programming is all about managing resources statement. Social Media sites, such as Facebook, or to produce an optimal program schedule. What are websites, such as author pages, can produce contact those resources? People, function rooms, equipment, information for many potential participants. Make sure and the program items you want or need to offer. It to have a way for folks to contact you via your own con sounds simple enough, but it can also be a lot of work. website if they’re interested in participation. Although I’ve done most of the work myself (with local cons) and some conventions call these folks “Guests”, I always I’ve outsourced most of the work to my team (with use “Participant” to differentiate between them and NASFiC, for example). I recommend getting as many the Guests-of-Honor. The former usually attend on folks involved as possible to help you run programming their own dime while the latter usually are partially to prevent burnout. It also gives you a number of people or totally covered by the convention. Sometimes to cross-check your (or your team’s) work to prevent conventions subsidize participants if they want to get errors or conflicts. The minimum number of people someone special; W45 did this when we had a female to handle a local con should be three: one to contact astrophysicist from Italy come out to talk about using and communicate with potential program participants; radio telescope data to produce music (you don’t get one to provide database support, such as data entry or that every day). reports; and one to generate the program schedule. For While you’re reaching out to potential program a larger event, such as Westercon or NASFiC, consider participants, have your team work on possible program 5 item topics. Don’t be shy about stealing from other At this point you’ve got someone contacting events, including Worldcon or even the larger ones. potential participants and you’ve got someone For W45 I used specialists in specific areas (comings, generating program item ideas.