We Are ALL SF Con Is Moving Forward

We Are ALL Science Fiction ribbonThe guest list for the first We Are ALL SF convention, November 4-6, currently includes: Jennifer Brozek, Drew Hobson, David Gerrold, Keaton Weimer, Mike Resnick, Chaz Kemp, Beth Meacham, Jody Lynn Nye, Jeffrey Veregge, Nancy Kress, William F. Nolan, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, James Gunn, Raven Oak, Scott Hungerford, Angela Korra’ti, Dara Korra’ti, Sunni Brock, Sebby Aguilar, Jamie Mason, Greg Smith, Donna Barr, Carolyn Kay, Elizabeth Guizettui, Pam Binder, Dr. Vicka Rael Corey, Duane Wilkerson, Jason V. Brock, and Alaina Capoeman.

Karen Junker wants fans to know that work continues on We Are ALL SF Con 2016 although it did not hit the target with its first crowdsourced funding campaign.

Thanks for the mention on File 770 about the Indiegogo campaign for We Are ALL SF Con 2016.

Just an update…we raised 490 of the 9000 we had as our goal.  Indiegogo does fund even if you do not reach your goal, so we will go ahead and do other campaigns soon, as well.

Someone at a party the other day said “Oh, too bad about your con!” and when I asked what they were talking about they explained that they thought that if our campaign did not fund we were cancelling. But we are not.

We are looking for support from fans and the SFF community to help defray expenses. Some of the costs will be covered by Memberships, donations, and sponsors. But the con will not be cancelled. We’ve got our venue already, and I am paying for that as a donation. We have a budget which is graduated to add stuff to the event when we reach certain amounts in our coffers. But even if we don’t, we will be able to cover the costs by personal donations if we need to. We are just hoping that the news will spread and we will get even more support and people will come to the coast and have a great time making history at our con!

So, to dispel any rumors, we’re good. Some of our Guests of Honor and other presenters are paying their own way just so they can be there for our first. They volunteered for this, we did not ask them. It’s going to be one fantastic party, if nothing else — and kids/teens/families will be especially welcome.

The convention website is up and online registration is live.

The con plans to launch the Torus Awards, a juried award whose longlist will be nominated by convention members. The Torus Award categories will be:

  • Art
  • Costume
  • Games
  • Media (TV, Movies, Podcasts)
  • Music
  • Writing

The winners in each category will be selected by an “Academy of Judges” made up of a Guest of Honor in the field and six convention members chosen at random from those who have volunteered to serve as judges in that category.

17 thoughts on “We Are ALL SF Con Is Moving Forward

  1. Ocean Shores in winter–cold, drenching wet, and sparsely populated. Sounds…not exactly delightful.

  2. Hampus Eckeman: I have chopped Raven Oak’s twin from the list. Thanks for catching that.

    By the way — didn’t there used to be an “r” in your name?

  3. Ocean Shores CAN be rainy at that time of year, about the same as the rest of the entire Pacific Northwest. Better than 3 feet of snow in below freezing temps, not as good as Honolulu. This year it was 70 F. and sunny on that weekend, I was there scouting the hotels. Besides, we’re not going to make you stand outside to hear the amazing lineup of speakers we’ll have…and we just added Cat Rambo and Kevin J. Anderson.

    Yes, the nearest airport is SeaTac, and we will have shuttle service available, or carpools. Go green, and leave the driving to the professionals!

    I hope you can join us!

  4. They do say they’ll arrange shuttles from area airports, fwiw. And I could actually drive it in a few hours. But it seems like an unattractive venue, however much they got really cheap out-of-season rates.

  5. “We’ve got our venue already, and I am paying for that as a donation.”
    Conventional SMOF wisdom says never put your own money into a Con. On the other hand, i’m guilty of that particular fannish indiscretion myself…
    Good Luck!

  6. @ Karen Junker–
    Erm. Ocean Shores gets twice as much rain (12″) in November as either Seattle or Portland (and nearly five times as much as we get here in Port Townsend); the Washington coast is easily the soggiest place in the PNW. Which would make it–for me–a hard sell as a great location for a “family” event unless every single member of the family is thrilled at being indoors the entire time.
    As you say: possibly you’ll get lucky and have a warm, dry weekend. But some years ago I attended a conference there in October with weather that was simply dreary most of the time, which has left me more than a little wary of rainy-season events on the coast. There’s a reason we’ve got a rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula.

  7. Regarding the weather: I lived in Victoria, BC for eleven years, and spent eight months in Redmond, WA on work term jobs while at University. I think I can handle rain just fine.

    Oooh, Donna Barr will be there. Don’t think I’ve actually had a chance to see her since when I lived in Redmond and attended a Seattle con then (CenterCon? In around 1988-1989. Donna had a big Desert Peach banner up, and the series was about to be launched). I remember her sitting in a back corner of the convention hall along with Roberta Gregory and someone else whose name I’m blanking on, which even back then I saw as a bit of a statement on the marginalization of women in comics.

  8. I’ve lived in Ocean Shores…and as I say, it can be sunny and 70 as it was for a lot of October and November this year. Or it can be 40 and raining sideways. We’ll have shuttles, and we’ll have a discount at the Family Fun Center (Playlive, GoKarts, Ice Cream) and a lot to do INSIDE, where most cons happen in most cities. We have a whole kids’ programming room set up with activities for kids of all ages and teens, too.

    It may not be the con for you. But to me, the difference between 1/2 inch of rainfall and 1 inch of rainfall is negligible. The Ocean Shores Convention Center is very nice inside…and some of the hotels in our block are condo units that are very nice..some with 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, fireplace, ocean view. Even in November, when many people do go to the coast for storm watching, the ocean is still the ocean. I know that may not be a draw for the folks that live within an hour’s drive of it all year long, but for someone from Iowa, that can be a destination.

    Oh, and we just added Cat Rambo, Rebecca Moesta, and Kevin J. Anderson to our GoH list.

  9. Eh…sorry to sound like a grouch. For me, the difference between 12 and 2.5 inches of rain is large, as the cold damp triggers ugly arthritis attacks.

    Ultimately, though, I’m waiting to be sold on spending my available time & money on an unknown con whose mission statement seems a bit nebulous, as opposed to, say, Norwescon, where I’ve gotten a lot of bang for my buck in the past.

  10. I love Norwescon…it’s really a great con. For me, it’s large, and I like a more intimate event…so this one will be capped out at 1500. What do you find nebulous about the mission statement? It’s a con, it’s small, it’s new, and we’ve got 40 of the top names in SF coming as speakers…and counting. Might be fun.

  11. Mike, I generally expect that an item about a convention will mention the city in which the convention is to be held.

    Granted, since you provided a link, I was quickly able to determine that the town is Ocean Shores, Washington. Best of luck to the organizers.

  12. Bill Higgins — Beam Jockey: Mike, I generally expect that an item about a convention will mention the city in which the convention is to be held.

    That’s perfectly reasonable. However, I had run a previous announcement about the We Are ALL SF Con earlier, with location. This story was about new stuff — the GoHs, and that it was going forward unimpeded by the low response to its Indiegogo appeal.

    (If I thought leaving out the location might spare me from reading more comments about Ocean Shores being farther away than Cathay, that would have been a foolish hope… It doesn’t seem to be discouraging their guests, anyway.)

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