SMOFcon Europe will be held in Lisboa, Portugal from December 3-5. The venue will be the VIP Executive Art’s Hotel.

SMOFcon is a convention for people who run conventions or are interested in doing so. 

The SMOFcon Europe team is: Cristina Alves, James Bacon, John “JC” Clarke, Tammy Coxen, Vincent Docherty, Sara Felix, Anna Gryzanova, Miguel Jorge, Marcin Klak, Elizabeth McCarty, Ricardo Pinto, Rogério Ribeiro, Carlos Silva, Paul Anthony Shortt, Marguerite Smith, and Paul Taylor.

The team’s vision for this year’s event is detailed in “Our approach”.

There will be a virtual component to the convention, and the team encourages everyone who wants to participate but is not yet sure about the feasibility of travel to visit the registration page and obtain Supporting/Virtual membership(s). It is possible to upgrade later to an Attending Membership. They say —

Knowing how many virtual members to expect will allow us to better plan for the online part of the convention. Our goal is to have a fantastic in-person convention but we know in these times things can change quickly. We will be sending out periodic updates to our members about travel and COVID related topics as they solidify more.

The current membership list is here.

Program suggestions can be submitted here.

Information and social media addresses:

• Website: https://www.smofconeurope.com/
• Twitter: @smofcon39
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SMOFcon39

[Notes from Kevin Standlee, Marguerite Smith, Jannie Shea, and Vincent Docherty, and James Bacon.]

SMOFCon 37¼ went well. 

This year’s event SMOFcon 38 in Montreal moved to 2022 and with next year’s 2021 event, SMOFcon Europe in Lisboa. Both SMOFcon’s agreed to host a small one-day virtual event, with two panels and three question and answer sessions for future conventions and bids. 

The event was well attended with 288 memberships were taken through Grenadine and 312 unique individuals logged into Zoom. 

It is important to us, to learn and develop, so we have messaged members and asked them to do a survey. 

We will amalgamate the information from feedback and publish the information in about a month, on our our website https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/conzealand/en/smofcon-37-14/ in late January 2021.

We have uploaded the video recordings of all programme items to the SMOFCon 37¼ YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLum0yU7zV-UHPMI_OO7XLg

All the questionnaires submitted for seated Worldcon, Future Worldcon bids, Seated SMOFCons and future SMOFCon bids can be found linked to their programme listing or you can find them all here: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/conzealand/en/smofcon-37-14/documents

They will remain online until August 2021. The known contacts and URLs for the various conventions and bids have been added into the programme descriptions for the individual Question Time Session. 

Members joined Zoom from 21 countries, with some uncertainty because the Zoom report does not indicate VPN usage. The list of countries participating, ranked in order of the number of individual logins from that country, is as follows:

• United States of America    
• United Kingdom    
• Canada            
• Israel                
• France                
• Poland                
• New Zealand            
• Ireland                
• Australia            
• Portugal            
• Germany            
• Hong Kong SAR        
• Sweden            
• Norway            
• Belgium            
• Finland            
• Japan                
• Croatia                
• Netherlands            
• Italy            
• China            

For those of you  who enjoy it, here are some Grenadine/Zoom stats 

• Zoom practice – 35 interested – 34 attended
• Con Suite – 141 interested – 143 attended
• Question Time for Future Worldcon bids – 147 interested – 139 attended
• Question Time for Seated Discon III and Chicon 8 – 126 interested – 119 attended
• Question Time for Seated Smofcons and Future Smofcon bids -98 interested – 91 attended
• CoNZealand Chairs Chat – 92 interested – 89 attended
• Pivot to Virtual Conventions and Best Practices – 120 interested – 113 attended

(“Interested” = those who added the item to their personal schedule in Grenadine. “Attended” = those who used the Zoom link in Grenadine.)

The Con Suite host, Terry Fong, estimates that at peak, there were 80+ members in various break out rooms. Enthusiastic discussions were had about virtual art shows, new Grenadine features, planning for Westercon 74, the Tel Aviv in 2027 bid, and much, much more.

Much thanks to all those who joined, paricpants and back room staff who helped make the event successful. We hope that you consider supporting future SMOFcons and hope to see you there. 

/s/ Kevin Standlee, Marguerite Smith, Jannie Shea, Vincent Docherty, James Bacon

• Smofcon Europe (Lisboa, 2021) https://www.smofconeurope.com/
• Smofcon 38 (Montreal, 2022) https://smofcon38.ca/

SMOFCon 37¼ reports they are approaching 200 members. Fans are welcome to join up for this one-day virtual event about conrunning, and also encouraged to ask questions of the participating future Worldcon and SMOFcon bids. 

SMOFCon 37¼ will be on Saturday, December 5, 2020 from 08:00 to 23:59 Eastern Standard Time (UTC – 5; you can convert to your local time using online tools such as Timeanddate.com). 

Membership is free, but you must register in advance here. Most fans should select the regular registration option. The committee asks: Please do not select a Program Participant registration unless you are representing a Worldcon or SMOFCon bid or seated convention or have been invited to be a program participant.

The SMOFCon 37¼ program schedule is here.

The first three program items will be; Question Time for future Worldcon bids, then for the two seated Worldcons, and then for seated and finally  bids for future SMOFCons. 

The committee has sent questionnaires to all of the groups involved, and received many replies, and encourages fans to peruse and consider these FAQ’s. 

They also say:

We note the bidding calendar is busy! 

We welcome questions for the bids and if any member wishes to ask a question, we are collating them for the moderators, and have forms linked as follows. 

• Questions for Future Worldcon Bids
• Questions for Seated Worlcons
• Questions for Seated and Bids for SMOFCon

The form for each item is the link next to the words “Submit questions here” in the description of the program item. The deadline for submitting questions is Thursday, December 3, 2020. You must be a member of SMOFCon 37¼ to submit questions. The moderators of each item will select which questions to ask the bids/conventions.

Question Time for Worldcon bids will be taken in reverse chronological order, with bids for 2027 first, then 2026, and so on. Bids for later years will have less allocated time for presentations and questions, with the time increasing per year, ending with bids for 2023. The detailed schedule for each year is in the listing for the item, and includes planned time for internal breaks during the scheduled three-hour item.

The two other scheduled items are a session with CoNZealand chairs Kelly Buehler and Norman Cates discussing aspects of the change to virtual and experience that they had, and a panel looking at the pivot fandom has successfully made to virtual events.

In addition, the Virtual Con Suite has breakout rooms. If you are interested in holding a special-interest group discussion or a meeting in one of the breakout rooms, request a slot using the form linked from the front page of the web site: ReqConSuite  

Con Suite breakout sessions will not be listed as separate program items. They are listed in the program listing for the Con Suite.

If you have questions about registering for SMOFCon 37¼, the convention program, or other aspects of the event, write to info@smofcon38.ca

SMOFCon 37¼ is jointly organized by SMOFCon 38 (Montreal, Canada 2022) and SMOFCon 39 (Lisboa, Portugal 2021).

[Thanks to James Bacon for the press release.]

The committees of SMOFCon 38 (Montreal 2022) and SMOFCon 39 (Lisboa 2021) have announced the launch of “SMOFCon 37 ¼,” the online-only mini-SMOFCon event on Saturday, December 5, 2020.  

This small virtual event replaces the postponed Smofcon 38. 

Smofcon is an annual convention for organizers of science fiction and fantasy conventions, where there is a chance to share ideas, discuss solutions, talk, learn and develop skills  on matters relating to their passion for running conventions. 

THE PROGRAMME OF SMOFCON 37 ¼. There will be online Question Time sessions for currently seated Worldcons and SMOFcons and bids for future Worldcons and SMOFcons, plus two sessions focusing on the shift to virtual conventions. 

• Three Question Time sessions for Worldcon and SMOFcon committees to make presentations and answer questions:
  • The two seated Worldcons DisCon III and Chicon 8
  • Future Worldcon bids
  • The two seated SMOFcons and future SMOFcon bids 
• An opportunity for the “CoNZealand Chairs Chat” 
• A virtual panel on ‘Pivoting to a virtual convention and best practices’

As bids and seated cons complete the questionnaires, they will be placed on the site and linked to their relevant sessions. A simple question form for each Question Time session is linked in each programme description. The SMOFcon committee is offering bids and seated cons zoom practice sessions upon request.

CON SUITE. A Virtual Con Suite with breakout rooms for general discussions will also be available for the duration of SMOFCon 37 ¼. Groups may request time slots in breakout rooms. Request forms here.

OTHER INFORMATION. Full details of the event, including the schedule, free registration, participation information and contact details are now available online here.

They are using Grenadine and Zoom as their systems. Send queries to info@smofcon38.ca 

SMOFCon 37 ¼ committee Jannie Shea, Kevin Standlee, Vincent Docherty, Marguerite Smith and James Bacon say, “We hope that you join us,”

Due to the increasing impracticality of holding Smofcon 38 in Montreal as originally scheduled in 2020, SMOFCon 38 has been postponed until December 2-4, 2022. The only known bid for SMOFCon 39, SMOFCon Europe, will host SMOFCon in Lisboa, Portugal on December 3-5, 2021. The two committees are in discussions for jointly organizing a limited series of online-only events on the weekend of December 4-6, 2020.

Conditions with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic are such that CanSMOF (the parent non-profit corporation of the Montreal SMOFCon 38 committee) concluded that holding an in-person SMOFCon in December 2020 was unsafe. CanSMOF felt (and still feels) that the in-person element of a SMOFCon is essential to the nature of the convention and the event would be non-viable without it. Accordingly, they began to explore options for postponing the convention.

The SMOFCon Europe committee was the only group to express interest in hosting the 2021 SMOFCon. They did say, however, that it would be impossible for them to postpone their convention any later than 2021, due to many committee members being involved in the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon bid. Under the circumstances, and after extensive discussions on the SMOFCon email list, all parties reached a consensus that if Montreal could renegotiate its hotel agreement to 2022, Lisboa could proceed with their plans for 2021.

The Montreal committee was able to reach an agreement with the Le Centre Sheraton Montreal to postpone the event until December 2-4, 2022 at no additional facilities cost and with the same hotel room rates previously agreed for the original 2020 dates. Membership rates for the Montreal SMOFCon will remain frozen at the current level (CAD$80 / USD$60) until after the Lisboa SMOFCon in 2021.

In July, the Montreal SMOFCon committee contacted the previously announced SMOFCon bidders for 2022. Those bidders mutually agreed that if Montreal was able to postpone their convention, that they would postpone their bids as well. After agreements were reached, Montreal’s committee contacted the SMOFCon bids for 2022 and 2023 in early September to advise them that “Operation Leapfrog” was a go. The Montreal committee thanks all future SMOFCon bidders for their cooperation and understanding under the current worldwide pandemic conditions.

The Lisboa SMOFCon in 2021 will conduct the site selection for the 2023 SMOFCon. The Montreal SMOFCon in 2022 will not conduct a site selection for a future SMOFCon. Site Selection will once again return to one year in advance rotation starting with the 2023 SMOFCon.

The committees of SMOFCon 38 (Montreal 2022) and SMOFCon 39 (Lisboa 2021) have mutually agreed to jointly organize a limited online-only “mini-SMOFCon” event on the weekend of December 4-6, 2020. Dubbed “SMOFCon 37 ¼,” the initial plan is to have online sessions to allow current Worldcons, bids for future Worldcons, and bids for future SMOFCons to make their presentations and answer questions. The joint SMOFCon 37 ¼ committee will announce further details of their plans shortly, including contact details and participation information.

SMOFCon Europe will launch their convention, making rates, hotel rooms, their online proposition and further information all available in time for SMOFCon 37 ¼.

If you have questions specifically about the Montreal or Lisboa SMOFCons, please direct them to the individual committees through their websites:

• SMOFCon 38 (Montreal 2022): http://cansmof.ca/index.php/smofcon
• SMOFCon Europe (39) (Lisboa 2021): https://www.smofconeurope.com/

[Thanks to Kevin Standlee for the press release.]