[Steppes] DEMOS AT CONVENTIONS

[Wilkerson, Glen D]

Since there was much conversation on subject of doing demos at
conventions last night at business meeting, I thought I would offer an
overview of the four science fiction / fantasy conventions that
currently run in Dallas.

www.a-kon.com - A-Kon is THIS WEEKEND, and is currently the largest
Japanese Anime and Comics convention in the United States.  The last
time I attended they FILLED the downtown Dallas Adams Mark hotel
convention space.  Considering the main interests of this convention and
it's location in the middle of downtown Dallas, I do not consider that
it might be our best venue, but when it was much smaller and still at
the Hyatt at DFW Airport Elfsea did have moderate success doing demos
there.

www.fencon.org - FenCon is the weekend of September 23 this year, up
against Elfsea Defender.  It is a straightforward literary convention,
which means a lot of writers and artists - but when FenCon was organized
they were looking for a slightly different niche than other local cons
so they focused a great emphasis on filk, so there are also a lot of
bard and musician types attending.  This is a fun party con and I think
we would do well here.

www.condfw.org - ConDFW is the weekend of Feburary 24, 2007 and is up
against the Coastal Invasion down in Corpus Christi.  It is also a
literary convention and pre-dates FenCon by about three years I think,
and it's the one I have been to the most.  It's a little less of a party
convention, they don't put on the big masquerade and costume contest on
Saturday night that most other cons do - but there are usually several
room parties and its still a lot of fun.  I did organize a small demo at
this convention it's second year, and it was moderately successful.  I
know several of the regular attendees (Don Valentyne for instance) and a
lot of us fence, and we usually manage to get together to fight on the
back lawn for a little while every year.  There was a martial arts
organization that did a demo this year and it was fairly well attended.
I think it would be a pretty good venue if the weather is good enough to
fight out back on the lawn, otherwise we would need to one of the larger
panel rooms inside.

www.all-con.org - All-Con is on the weekend of March 17, 2007 and there
is currently nothing on the Ansteorran calendar against it.  It was
originally conceived as a big regional tie-in convention to the "Star
Wars" movies but almost bombed the first year.  (They actually had us
scheduled on that Sunday for a FOUR HOUR demo, but somehow NEVER managed
to get in touch with the demo coordiator, or any of the other baronial
officers to make arrangements...)  It was reorganized this year as a
multi-media and literary / comics convention, and while it was much
smaller it met with a little more success than the first year.  Like
ConDFW, there were also a couple of martial arts organizations that did
demos here this year.  I think this con would also be a pretty good
venue.

The other thing I think we should consider is combining forces with
Elfsea for the two big annual demos we both do.  Steppes does North
Texas Irish Festival and Elfsea does The Texas Scottish Festival and
Highland Games.  I think both of these demos would be much more
successful if we combined our efforts, as we do at joint fighter
practices, instead of trying to do them both solo.

Respectfully Submitted,

Don Alaric Greythorne