A Tale of Two Natcons

[dalekboy]

In the early 90's the media Natcon was going gangbusters (300-400+ attendees), the lit Natcon was dying with a slowly decreasing (around 200) and aging membership. With the success of a couple of joint media/lit Natcons, it was suggested that Australia's population was so small the two cons should be joined.

It would mean a bigger overall Natcon with a larger budget. Everyone would win. The media fans had no reason to do this. Their Natcon was doing fine. The only reason they did it was out of a sense of community. It would be good for fandom as a whole to have a single, bigger Natcon.

Both Natcons had their own awards. The ASFMAs (Australian Science Fiction Media Awards) and the Ditmars. Having both sets of awards would be huge and unwieldy. The only reason we still have the Ditmars is because the media fans not only agreed to the joining of both Natcons, but agreed to continue the Ditmars and discontinue their own award since a lot of older fans were concerned about the loss of the Ditmars, and their history, if a new award were started.

The only real requirement media fandom had was that the Ditmars have categories changed or added so that the media side was adequately covered, and the new Natcon have a program that fairly represented both media and lit fandom interests.

In a short time, with no separate Media Natcon to compete against, the Natcon program became heavily lit based.

With no guest or programs that addressed their passions, the fan clubs and groups more or less stopped attending the Natcon, and with their own yearly Natcon and awards gone, there was nothing to hold media fandom together through other issues.

We stopped having regular cons and Natcons in Victoria as we approached the worldcon, and while Perth picked up the slack with regards to the Natcon, it didn't advertise in the east terribly well. With no experience of a Swancon, which does tend towards a more balanced program, the east coast media fans expected more of the same they had already been given - Natcons with nothing for them. Why spend all the money getting to Perth just to be disappointed again?

Having already been hurt by the Natcon, to then have someone loosely associated with the then upcoming WorldCon loudly state at a major pre-Aussiecon 3 event, "We don't need the media fans!" didn't help things. For a group than had already been well screwed, a group that had been far more active in con-running over the previous decade than the majority of the fans working on A3, this was telling them that they, and their expertise, really weren't welcome.

The lack of action on the part of the WorldCon committee to rectify the damage didn't help. Having the creator of Babylon 5 as a guest was all well and good, but other than that, the only answer received to the question, "Why should we attend?" was "Because it's the WorldCon." The attitude was that if you didn't want to come to the WorldCon, there was something wrong with you.

On top of all this, fan politics within and between several clubs further damaged things within the media scene.

The big media expo-style cons had tried to get a foothold in Australia a few times, but previously couldn't compete with the fan-run media cons. Why go to a con where you couldn't really talk to or interact with the guest?

The best of the fan-run media cons was Multiverse, which not only ran good cons (and tried with variable success to also cater to lit fandom) but raised thousands and thousands of dollars for charity into the bargain. That was one of the interesting things about Media fandom - the profits of most Media cons were donated to charity. Again, there's that attitude of trying to help and be a part of the wider community - the same attitude that lost them their own Natcon.

But eventually the folks behind Multiverse decided it was time to finish up. Once they did, in came the expos to fill the vacuum.

Media fandom in Victoria had lost their last interesting media cons, while media fandom in general had lost its awards, its Natcon, and its history. Even the Doomsday Book, a book filled with humourous advice, info, and illustrations from previous Media Natcon committees to future ones, was lost. I think it was later recovered, but couldn't swear to it.

Certainly for a time before the Natcons joined, the two media fandom centres of Australia were Melbourne and Brisbane. But it would be up to someone from Brisbane to tell what effects, if any, losing the Media Natcon had on Queensland fandom.

With this history in mind, take the time to find and go through the last decade of Natcon program books, and decide for yourself if you think Australian media fandom has been well-served by their selflessness.

One of the architects of the change, in light of all that has happened, has commented to me on several occasions over the last ten-plus years, that he thinks they killed the wrong Natcon.

Comments

[easterbilby.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. My last involvement (until now) with fandom was helping out with Hong Con many years ago. As a latecomer to the 2009 NatCon committee, my first question was about the Media NatCons and where they had gone. It is good to get a bit of a catch-up.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Must have been a bit of a surprise, huh?

At first I was surprised that I was one of the few who remembered. Then I realised that many who cared had left the scene and of the others who could remember, most have busy lives, and so trying to sort this out just isn't a priority. Which is fair enough.

But for me, cutting out or ignoring a whole huge chunk of fandom only lessens it for everyone. There's a lot of clever, wonderful, creative, vibrant people who don't turn up to cons anymore because there's nothing for them. And personally, I'd like to see them back.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

PS Hong Kong still goes down as not only one of the top five best conventions I have ever been to, but it had one of the most wonderful and inspired opening ceremonies I have ever seen.

[easterbilby.livejournal.com]

It was a surprise. Especially discovering that the ASFMAs are no more. (I still love mine - a massive wood and glass thing that made me nervous when I was carrying it home - what if I tripped and died by being impaled by it?) :)

From the programming front, the major hassle I found is the lack of programming slots. You can try to be balanced, but in the end covering enough for both media and literature fans over three days is going to be a challenge, unless the con is big enough to have 3-4 main tracks. I don't think the solution is to focus on one over the other, as that's a big loss, nor to go completely generic, so an attempt to cover both is necessary, but tricky at best.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I always thought that leaving the ASFMA in doorways if you were going away on holiday would work as an excellent man-trap for burglars.

I'm not sure about how tricky it is to cover the two main fandoms. If you've only got space for 12 panels, then a 6/6 split, or a 5/7 split is reasonable. Though in truth you'd probably looking at less than that, once you've allowed room for the panels that are neither lit nor media.

The biggest hurdle is going to be that most media fans have ceased to come to the Natcon. In fact I'd suggest that most of the current generation don't know it exists, or don't think it has anything for them. So the first few non-Perth Natcons to have a good solid media stream are not going to have the numbers of media fans there to make it worthwhile. But of course, if they don't have them, the fans won't turn up to begin with.

It's so easy to tear this stuff down, and so much work to rebuild it.

[easterbilby.livejournal.com]

I've tried the 50/50 split with Conjecture - how successful, I guess, is something we'll have to see. (Only one GoH, so there can't be balance there, but the FGoHs are definitely media fans, and I've tried to add one dedicated media event per dedicated lit event). But the issue remains somewhat more complex, and it is why I don't think we can be that successful at a combined con, unless it is very big. We have to appeal to at least four groups, not two. Established fandom, new fans, media fans and lit fans. That makes a 4 way split, and while you'll get some crossover, it is hard to see how any one group could be entirely satisfied with the programming in a smaller con. You can get close (it isn't a lost cause), but it will tend to be tricky.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Oh you'll never make everyone happy, someone will always complain about being short-changed, so best you don't try. I don't know how many times I've heard established fans say something like, 'A panel on such-and-such? But we've all seen it done before at other cons, we know all about that!'

Which ignores the fact that there will always be a percentage of newer fans who haven't been around for the last decade and so haven't seen this panel topic ever! Naturally you don't aim the entire program at the newbies, but I guess that's what you're saying about the tricky problems of balance.

I guess what I'm saying is, so long as at the end of the day you know you've done the absolute best job you could to make it a varied and interesting program for everyone, have taken on board advice and criticism, and have tried to take note of any mistakes so you don't repeat them in the future, that's what matters.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

black_samvara had a list of things she wanted to achieve for swancon, and wrote them down, and managed to achieve all of them. She wanted every area of fandom that felt unappreciated to have a slot or two, and be represented in the main programmes, and she did that.

Of *course* there was whining! Like Danny says, there is *always* whining. It's not a good programme unless people are arguing about it's merits... LOL