Thursday, October 8, 2015

Our Program Guide & Its Inevitable First Update

With JOFCon starting tomorrow, we have The JOFCon MSP 2015 Program Guide.

Of course, given that no battle plans survive first contact with the enemy, we do have one exciting addition! We've added a program item at 3 pm on Friday! Jessica Jutz from the City of Bloomington Health Department will be presenting to us on "How to neither kill your guests in the ConSuite, nor make them wish they were dead."




Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Our Schedule!


Here is our schedule! We aren't listing participants here, and by the nature of the con I expect people in the audience will get drafted! Note that even when we don't have panels we will have open discussions!

Friday
-4 pm- 5 pm- Opening Ceremonies

5 pm -7 p.m.- Dinner.  “No One Eats Alone.”

7 pm- 8 pm- Getting To Know You.

8 pm-9 pm- Disability Access.

9 pm-10 pm- Code of Conduct Violations:  Pros & GoHs.  How does a con that has invited a guest deal with guests public behavior after an invitation has been extended and accepted.  Does the Con-running community play a role in informing
publishing houses about unacceptable behavior on the part of its writers?  How to avoid a “situation” and have a policy in place to deal with it if it happens anyway.  Missing stair problems (Geek social fallacy).

Saturday

10 am-11 am – The Future of Fan-run conventions.  Fandom is becoming more profitable, and big commercial cons are getting more and more popular. Amidst this landscape of for-profit/ticket-based/company-run cons, how do fan-run/non-profit/membership-based cons maintain their niche?

11 am- noon- The Rise of Professional Cons: Even without competition from for-profit cons, more of us are feeling pressure to have our own legal departments, complex insurance and other expensive but increasingly necessary services. Where should the boundary between fannish fun and full-featured competence be?

Noon- 1 pm- Lunch

1 pm-2 pm- How To Corporately/Organizationally Apologize: “Mistakes Were Made.” Whose job is it to apologize when?

2 pm- 3 pm - How To Deal With Management/Ethical Problems when You’re Not The Boss- Determining Your Limits, Understanding Your Organizational Structure and Your Options For Redress When Senior Staff Are Problematic.

3 pm- 4 pm- Promotions and networking: What are better ways to build networks between different conventions and individuals? Are there better ways than fan tables, or what if fan tables aren’t possible due to space or people limitations?

4 pm- 5 pm- 101, 201, 301- Keeping programming fresh when it’s natural to address certain topics several (many) years running.
5 pm- 7 pm- Dinner

7 pm- 8 pm- Convention running in Europe

8 pm-9 pm- “But That’s Another Panel”- extemporaneous panel, topic to be chosen from list of topics suggested throughout previous programming.

9 pm- 10 pm- “No S*it, There We Were”- Convention running horror stories/ghost stories.  S’mores provided.

Sunday

10 am- 11 am- E Pluribus Hugo: explanation of how the EPH resolution was constructed and how the math works.

11 am- noon- Crowd Control & Line Management

Noon- 1 pm- Lunch

1 pm- 2 pm- Dealing with Disasters:  What do you do when the con starts falling down around your ears? Norovirus, big harassment cases, GOH fail, Registration system failures: how can a concom work together to solve sudden problems?

1 pm- 2 pm- Nature Walk- Theodore Wirth Park-

2 pm -  3 pm- Closing Ceremonies

Unofficial Events:

MnStf Board Meeting – 7 pm Friday, Room of Requirement
CONvergence Programming Brainstorming- 10 am- 1 am Sunday- Room of Requirement