March 6-8 SPN Con Ideas!!

[kowaiyoukai]

Okay. Look. We all know that it sucks that Jared's not going to the con. I'm assuming it's because he's getting gay married to Jensen, because otherwise what possible excuse could he have? None. That's my thoughts on the issue. I know this depresses everyone, that Jared's not going, but I think we should all hold off on selling our tickets and trying to get refunds, both of which most likely aren't going to happen anyway.

There is still hope to make this a good con!

siriuslyyellow, jelost, and I have all come to agree on an idea. We all are used to going to anime cons, and anime cons are focused on fandom like WHOA. So, hey, why not use this con as a fandom gathering, just like anime cons do?

There are four things I definitely want to do at this con.
1 – Meet up with shippers to talk about our ships. This is a great opportunity to learn more about areas of the SPN fandom that you may be unfamiliar with. I love discussing ships in a non-threatening manner. So yes, please! The rules are that you can't say anything negative about any characters or pairings, and also that you can't have any crossover ships. Only characters from SPN can be discussed, so that everyone's on the same page.
2 – Meet up with wincesters to fangirl ridiculously loudly. I mean that. Anybody who ships Dean and Sam, let's get together and talk about how awesome they are and how much they love each other.
3 – Fanfic drabble contest. Everybody brings a 100 word drabble in and reads it aloud, then people vote on their favorite in various categories. The categories would be something like Best Angst/Drama, Best Comedy/Crack/Fluff, and Best PWP/Smut.
4 – Fanvids!! We can totally have a fanvid contest where you bring in a fanvid you made in the past year, and we vote on the best in each category. Yes!!

I'll be looking to set up these four panels, probably in between midnight and four or five a.m. Friday and Saturday night. At anime cons, they've got activities lined up 24/7 so there's always something to do. I'm kind of surprised about the amount of time they don't have stuff going on, from what I've heard. When will that schedule be up for perusal, anyway?



- Pairing Panels. These would consist of a group of people who all like the same pairing getting together and talking about it. These are fucking fabulous, if you've never been to one before. Let your fangirl shine through! We could also have pairing debates, where people who like different pairings get together and talk about what makes each pairing inspiring to them. The one rule for debates is that no character/pairing bashing is allowed, which means everyone actually can have their say, even the Henrickson/Ellen people. XD

- Fanfiction Panels. We can have a fanfic reading, where people volunteer to read a shorter one-shot they wrote, probably a thousand words or less. We can also have a how-to panel, where people discuss how they write fanfic, the troubles they have, how they can improve, and how to find good betas. A beta panel could come up about how to keep the author's original intent while still improving the work. And we could have a fic rec panel, where you rec your favorite fics/authors to people and maybe bring in a short sample of the fic for people to read. We could also do a fic contest, where people post up one-shots before the con to LJ, or else hand out copies of their one-shots at the con, and people vote on which story they like the best for different categories, like Angst, Fluff, Drama, Horror, Comedy, etc. Winners could get banners for their LJs!

- Fanart Panels. We could have fanartists who are looking to sell or display their work. Artists can bring in copies of their work and sell them—this works out really well for everybody involved, btw. Also, we could have some kind of gallery, where people show their work but it's not for sale. Or, bring in one piece and auction it to the highest bidder! Also, we can have fanart how-to panels, where artists discuss how to create a great fanart. We can do something similar for icons, banners, and wallpapers too, if people are interested.

- Fanvid Panels. We can have a screening of everyone's favorite fanvids. If people bring in a few vids on travel drives, we can set it up so that we can watch them. We could also watch vids attendees made themselves. And we could also have a fanvid contest, which anime cons do all the time and they rock, which entails a few people bringing in vids they made and then the viewers voting on what's their favorite in each category. The categories are generally things like Best Action, Best Romance, Best Comedy, etc. The winners get a prize, perhaps cake or a banner for LJ!

- Game Room. These are such fun. People bring in favorite strange games, like games that aren't popular and most people wouldn't know about. Then you sit around and play them. I'd bring in Apples to Apples and Stupiduel, maybe a few other things as well. Popular games are also welcome, but if you've got a weird game, this is your chance to share it! Also, I'd like to start up a game of Are You a Werewolf, which is a great game for at least ten people.

- Restaurant Meet-Ups. Okay, these are also such fun. Since everyone's got to eat over the weekend, you get a group of fans to meet up at a nearby restaurant to talk about something. These can happen spontaneously too, and either way they're mad fun. Imagine, a McDonald's full of SPN fans freaking out! You see the awesome there.

- Fanfiction Round Robins. These are great for when you're waiting in line. A group of people go around, saying one sentence each until a fic is completed! The fics are always ridiculous, of course, since they're on the spot, but that's really the fun of it.

- Favorite SPN Episode Screening. Another possibility: we could put up a poll on LJ and have everyone going to the con comment with their top five favorite episodes. Then we could tally the results and show the top three or five winners.

- Video Games. A lot of fans play video games, that's just facts. So, hey, we could bring in a Wii, PS2, Gamecube, what-have-you, with some party games and enough controllers. Super Smash Bros. tournament, Resident Evil 4, Guilty Gear, whatever games people have that they don't mind sharing over the weekend. This is very big at anime cons, and I figure it's a great way to spend time in the middle of the night—shouting and killing your friends. XD

A few other ideas: drabble contests (people are given half an hour to write a 100 word fic and then the best in various categories is chosen, or else people bring previously written fics), art contests (people bring art and viewers vote for their favorites in various categories – Best Sam, Best Dean, Best Coloring, Best Line Art, etc.), karaoke (sing along to the greatest hits of mullet rock), role-playing (go through your own SPN-esque adventure against a supernatural baddie), and fan songs (make your own fan song to be posted on LJ and passed around for hilarity).

There's obviously a lot more we could do, so really it's up to you guys. What kinds of things would you like to see happen at the con? I think we should all take it upon ourselves to make it kick ass.

There are two main problems to do any of these. The first is the amount of interest for each idea. Obviously, siriuslyyellow, jelost, and I won't be in charge of everything. We'll have to spread around who does what, so other people who are going to the con can take control of some areas. And if there's not enough interest in an idea, we won't even set it up. But if we get, say, at least five people who are definitely interested in something, we can set up a time to meet up for that activity. The second problem is where we'd do everything. There are two solutions to this: the first is in someone's hotel room. siriuslyyellow, jelost, and I got a room in a hotel down the street, so it's close by but it would be better to have a room in the actual hotel to do stuff in. At Anime NEXT, there were a few empty rooms that the con attendees were given to just do whatever in, and it would be great if we could get an empty room or two for stuff like this. Not hotel rooms, but like convention rooms or what have you. Meeting rooms, I guess.

Truly, we would most likely need people staying at the main hotel to agree to lending their rooms for panels and whatnot. So, for instance, if you're way into Dean/Castiel, why not agree to hosting a Dean/Castiel panel in your room from, say for example, 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday night? Or if you really love fanart, your hotel room can be turned into a gallery from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday morning for people to ogle art and possible buy some. This really is only going to work if people volunteer to take part, and I do truly think that we can all benefit a lot from these kinds of activities. If anyone else has any ideas, spread the word around! You want to have a panel for how to make the best Dean action figures? GO FOR IT.

Also, not related to SPN, but there are two other fandom events going on that weekend in/around Cherry Hill. Watchmen the movie is coming out, and a bunch of theaters in the area are having midnight releases. If you're going to be in town Thursday night, look up a midnight release and go see it! It should rock. Another idea is that a museum is having a Narnia exhibit. I'll have to get the exact details on this, jelost knows more about it than I do. Still, if you like Narnia, this is a cool thing. And you all should check it out! We could also totally have discussions about Watchmen and Narnia, if that's something you guys would be interested in. Who watches the Watchmen, indeed? Is wincest or Narnia-cest more canonical? YOU CHOOSE!! (LOL, I feel like the Joker now.)

I guess my main point is that we can all still have an awesome time at this con. There's no need to be completely depressed over this. We can rock this out. So, if anybody's got any ideas, let's start talking about it! I'd love to have activities planned during the time the con's got nothing. I know the schedule won't be out until a few days before the con, but that's cool! If we know what we want to do, we can schedule it around them. For instance, fangirling with near-strangers over wincest at three in the morning? That's something you can only really do at a con like this.

We all paid a lot of money to get together, so I really do think we should get our money's worth. So, what say you, SPN fandom?

P.S. – I know people get together at cons and do this stuff. I don't think this is a new idea for anybody, really. But I think we should focus on making stuff happen ASAP, if we want to do anything more fandom-related.


EDIT: I've linked this on dean_sam, spnnewsletter, and spn_njcon (the official con LJ comm, which violettestars was kind enough to point me to). Hopefully that'll be enough! As long as people start talking about activities, I think we can get some stuff together. :D

EDIT 2: OK, our seat numbers are F20, F21, and F22 (I think). But I'm easy to find. I've got green hair, paper clips in my ears, glasses, I wear all black (usually bondage pants), I'll almost definitely be wearing my "Sam/Dean: gay love can save the day" shirt all weekend long. siriuslyyelow is my twin, but she's got contacts and blonde hair and more colorful outfits. So we'll be easy to find at the con, if you need to find us. ^_^*

Comments

[kowaiyoukai.livejournal.com]

Dude, that is so fricking awesome. I'm English Writing, so it's totally different. That's awesome, you should totally post your thesis up on LJ for people to peruse--unless you can get it published in a journal, of course! ^_^*

[sinnerforhire.livejournal.com]

I was an English Lit undergrad and I'd really like to teach college-level writing someday. And right now I'm working on a paper for an online journal about Dean-centric h/c fanfic, which is a total blast and hardly feels like work (except when I have to cite Chicago style, which I've never used before).

Oh, and can I request to have an RPS panel in my room? That's one of the topics I want to talk about in my paper. Because my prof is 60-some years old and I want to give him nightmares. :P

[kowaiyoukai.livejournal.com]

Yes, RPS for sure! obsessed1 and juice817 both seem really into RPS, and I know me, siriuslyyellow, and jelost would be all for it.

[sinnerforhire.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Now, how do we set that up?

[kowaiyoukai.livejournal.com]

Well, it looks like the schedule won't be up until Wednesday, which sucks. But once the schedule's up, we can figure out what time nothing's really going on and meet up then. Or else, we could do food together. Like, order a pizza for lunch/dinner/whatever one day and meet while we eat. That seems logical to me. Plus, pizza! XD

[sinnerforhire.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me. I think my seat number is A8, if that helps.

[kowaiyoukai.livejournal.com]

OK, the con sched's up: http://www.creationent.com/cal/supernatural_nj.htm#sch (http://www.creationent.com/cal/supernatural_nj.htm#sch). And I'm thinking maybe dinner on Saturday around 6-8:30-ish? B/c autographs start at 4:45 and then nothing until Dessert Party at 9, and I think Game Night is after that. So, what say you?!

[sinnerforhire.livejournal.com]

That sounds good to me!