Shamrokon, this year’s Eurocon, begins August 22 in Dublin.
Going into the weekend, Shamrokon had 1,038 members from 34 countries – with the U.S. holding a very thin lead as the country with the most members, one that Ireland presumably will overtake after the doors open.
Shamrokon offers a full schedule of panel programming and an international slate of guests, including two people involved with Game of Thrones, actor Miltos Yerolemou (sword master Syrio Forel) and Emma Andrews (who does production work on drapes, banners, tents and all kinds of things).
Shamrokon also will host the Golden Blasters, the Annual Irish Genre Short Film Festival (that usually takes place at Octocon), and the European Science Fiction Society Awards ceremony.
The con committee has thought about how it will approach Diversity Issues as part of the program and made this decision —
Fandom is wonderfully diverse both in how humanity is portrayed in genre and the people who love it. We have made the decision to not separate out panels to focus on diversity issues, as we feel these issues are part of the general discourse and should be just part of the discussions.
And I am intrigued by its direction to program moderators —
Also we’d ask that Moderators please when selecting people to speak from the floor they describe what the person is wearing and where they are sitting, when calling on them to speak with out using gender as a descriptor as this can be problematic.
While I haven’t been trying to overcome that particular problem, I think my own practice as a panel moderator works, too: to use the person’s name if I know it, and otherwise, make eye contact, point at who I’m recognizing, and include the word “you” as I call on [him/her/whoever].
