AggieCon Will Skip A Year

Cepheid Variable, the Texas A&M University student group that hosts AggieCon, says university has requested that the convention take a year off. No explanation was given for the request.

The group, which says AggieCon is the oldest, largest student-run fan convention in the world, will host AggieCon 49 at the Hilton College Station & Conference Center over the March 22-24 weekend in 2019. The past two cons were held at the Brazos County Expo Complex.

They concluded, “Sadly, this means there will be no convention in 2018, but the good news is that this allows us to put together a bigger and better convention for 2019.”

2 thoughts on “AggieCon Will Skip A Year

  1. This is actually a very good move for AggieCon, especially coming back to the Hilton Hotel and Convention Center. The Expo Center is located practically in the middle of nowhere – a prairie area on the north side of Bryan, Texas, which is adjacent to College Station – with no place to stay or eat nearby. Being at the Hilton puts the con back on University Avenue with its wealth of hotels, motels, shopping, and a wide assortment of restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, and fast food joints, plus it makes AggieCon much more physically accessible via highways, and University Avenue is a major drag between Easterwood Airport and State Highway 6, and the Hilton is very close to TAMU itself.

    Cepheid Variable also needs to regroup and redefine the direction and components of AggieCon. It has shrunk in size – usually only a few hundred in attendance at each of the last few – and its heavy gaming and media influence has pushed people away. Club members need to spend the next year going to All-Con (San Antonio), ArmadilloCon (Austin), and ConDFW and FenCon (both in Dallas/Fort Worth) to see how these more successful sf cons balance everything. I hope they do because that would really help AggieCon make a comeback. The last five years has felt like it was in a death spiral.

  2. They also need to attend SMOFCon to get more con-running knowledge. Since they have a high turnover rate of staff more knowledge from outside sources is desperately needed.

    I’ve attended, strictly on momentum these past few years, since 1984 without missing a year. I’d love to see them bring back the quality guests similar to those they’ve had in the past to get me as an enthusiastic attendee.

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