SMOFCon 38 was supposed to take place this year in Montreal but it was rescheduled because of the pandemic. Yet it was decided to hold a smaller online event on the first Saturday of December. It was named SMOFCon 37 ¼. I managed to not only attend it but also help a little bit.
Filking at Philcon
When I learned that Philcon would go online I knew that I had to try attending it. The history of the con is really long and I was curious how the convention would look like. When the day came I took some days off work so that I would be able to rest before and after the con due to time zone differences.
PunctuationCon – The Phosphine on Venus and The Bar
Wow! That was a weekend! I must admit that I immensely enjoyed my time at PunctuationCon – “A small British SF convention”. It was a good mix of programme, volunteering and enjoying the company of other fans in a (virtual) bar.
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Octocon 2020 – A Virtual Trip to Ireland
I really like to travel to Ireland. I was even hoping to do so this year but the world had different plans for me. Still, thanks to Octocon going virtual, I was able to visit the green island in some way. It was my second time at The National Irish Science Fiction Convention and I enjoyed my time – again.
Futuricon – The Future is Now
Kontakt (Eurocon 2012) in Zagreb was my first convention abroad so I was really looking forward to Futuricon in Rijeka (Eurocon 2020). I had plans – I checked what are the options to travel, what can I see there and nearby. And then, the March came and I had to stop planning. When it was announced that Futuricon will be held online, I was able to start planning again. And, of course, I planned to attend it.
Necronomicon and a Fair Amount of Socializing
So I recently complained more than once that the conventions were really good but I missed the social aspect. Necronomicon managed to resolve this issue. I did not spend too much time on the programme and instead I had plenty of time to meet people and I enjoyed it!
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Kapitularz 2020 – (Virtually) coming back to Łódź
In 2013 and 2014, I visited the Kapitularz convention in Łódź in central Poland. I really enjoyed the con but somehow I hadn’t have the chance to come back. In the meantime, a lot changed about the con. Among other things, it moved to a different venue and became bigger. I was planning to visit it again but as they said – so many cons, so little time…
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CoNZealand – the first ever virtual Worldcon
When in March it was announced that CoNZealand would go virtual I thought it was a really brave decision. I also believed that it was the right decision made in time to allow people to rearrange their plans. Some fans shared my opinion, others believed that it was unfair as they wanted to attend the convention in person, and lastly, some people even stated that it wouldn’t be a true Worldcon.
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Wirtualkon – an experiment
Wirtualkon was a very short manga and anime convention. It was an experiment for organizers (and I also treated it as such). The whole event was much too short for me to write a longer report but I have a few thoughts to share. Also, I decided to concentrate more on the platform that had been used to make this con.
AmazingCon and what was missing there
Some virtual conventions (like Balticon) were just regular cons that moved online because of the pandemic. Others (like Konline) were created with the purpose of being online. AmazingCon falls into the second category. It was organized by the Amazing Stories Magazine and it had strong impact on the programme.