Information AboutEastercon |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EASTERCON | |
| science fiction conventions in europe | |
| science fiction fandom | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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ORGANISATION British SF Fandom is far too disorganised to have anything so formal as an organisation to arrange its conventions. The British Science Fiction Association does not have anything to do with organising conventions. Instead, groups of fans (typically 5-8 in number) get together as a "concom" ''(convention committee)'' to plan where they want to hold the convention in two years' time, who they want to be guest of honour, and what the theme of the convention will be. In theory there is nothing to stop any group of people forming a concom and arranging an "Eastercon", but by tradition the winning concom is chosen by competitive bidding at the Eastercon two years in advance. Until the early 1990s it was common for several concoms to bid to hold the Eastercon, and the winner would be chosen by show of hands, but since then the realisation appears to have grown that putting on an Eastercon involves hard work, and now it is normal for there only to be one serious bid (with the possibility of a number of spoof joke bids - although in 1989 it is rumoured that the joke bid for ''Inconceivable'' narrowly beat the serious bid for ''Speculation'' on the initial show of hands, but the chair arranged a lobby vote which then went the "right" way). In some years e.g. 2005, no concom appears to bid for two years' time, but one usually emerges in the following year (See "Two Year Bidding" below) It is rumoured that the concom for the 2003 ''Seacon'03'' was put together in the bar shortly before the bidding session at the 2001 convention, in the absence of any other bidders - the ''Seacon'' name was extremely ironic as the convention was held in Hinckley which is about as far from the sea as it is possible to get on the British mainland. In 2003 at Seacon, in a momentary lack of disorganisation, a fan offered to obtain the UK trademark for "Eastercon" on behalf of UK fandom and this was agreed by the small percentage of that year's convention who attended that programme item. This trademark was subsequently obtained and so any group that now wants to run an "Eastercon" and use that name must clear it with the trademark holder first. This clearance will be given to any fannish group that wins a bidding session at an Eastercon to run a future Eastercon. As Eastercons are fan-run/not-for-profit events, the money raised by membership, advertising etc. is spent on running the convention. It is traditional that any surplus is used for the benefit of the convention members, fandom in general or donated to charity. This may include sponsoring items at other conventions, buying equipment for use by other conventions, donating to the RNIB to get works of SF literature converted to talking books for the blind and funding international fannish visits (often through The League of Fan Funds ). The Eastercon goes through periods of returning to the same city/venue frequently, usually until either the venue/hotel changes sufficiently (new ownership, higher prices) or enough people get tired of (or annoyed by) returning to that location. For example, between 1980 and 1991 the Eastercon was held four times in Glasgow (and only twice more in Glasgow in the following 15 years). Similarly the Eastercon was held in Liverpool (at the Adelphi Hotel) five times between 1988 and 1999 and has not returned to Liverpool since then. However the Eastercon will return to Liverpool in 2007 ( Convoy ). The current repeated venue is Hinckley (in Leicestershire) where it has been held in 2001, 2003, and 2005. The Eastercon returned to Glasgow in 2006 in the shape of Concussion . The 2007 Eastercon Convoy will be held at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. The 2008 Eastercon Orbital 2008 returns to the Radisson Edwardian at Heathrow Airport in London, site of the 1996 Eastercon. Finding suitable venues for an Eastercon (enough function space, available at Easter and willing to agree low rates for the function space and hotel rooms) is a difficult job and every year someone says "there must be somewhere else we can go" and a new search is made ... usually with little success. The main Eastercon.org website is under revision at the moment and expects to have pages capturing the various hotel searches made by recent conventions. This should help to explain why some sites may not be ideal, and to give people a chance to suggest other places that may have been missed. TWO YEAR BIDDING Some people claim there is little need to actually have a two-year lead time as the convention can be organised in less than a year. Others point out it is hard enough finding venues with more than two years to go, so potentially losing some of those makes it even more difficult. It also means only one year to get people to join, so the committee can't predict the number of members (and hence their budget). This is a contentious issue and a frequent subject for debate. "Eastercon" is the registered trademark for Eastercon, an unincorporated society. LIST OF EASTERCONS Notes: Early conventions did not always have a particular name, and sometimes were given a name retrospectively when another Eastercon was held in the same town, e.g. ''Brumcon'' only acquired its name when ''Brumcon II'' was held in Birmingham. The 1957 convention held in Kettering has recently acquired a semi-mythical status among British Fandom , since at a distance of nearly 50 years nobody can remember actually attending it, and there does not appear to be any surviving contemporary documentation; however it is commonly accepted that it did, in fact, take place. The official numbering of the conventions has been somewhat adjusted, following the naming of the 1972 convention as "Eastercon 22" which necessitated the counting of 21 previous Eastercons, which is why the 1951 ''Festivention'' is not counted. EXTERNAL LINKS
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