In-person cons, that is – I'll certainly be attending the odd online one! But I look at things like TrotCon's recent announcement and it gets me thinking. They're now hoping for some kind of in-person shindig in December – but even then, at the very end of the year, the event is "likely to include a mask requirement when not socially distanced" and may have various other restrictions or requirements that wouldn't have applied pre-Covid.
Not that I have anything against masks or social distancing in general as necessary evils in these dark times... but I don't really want to go to a convention, specifically, if those things are needed. In fact, I'm not at all sure that social distancing is really compatible with conventions; it goes against so much of what the con experience is about, for me, at least. Cons are such a big undertaking for me at the best of times that I don't really find a "halfway house" very appealing.
I'm well aware that there are no guarantees for the future either. But then I think to myself: I've been to nine Pony conventions, which makes me much luckier than many fans. Here in England at least, it's now possible once again to have small in-person meets when the weather's good enough. (Groups are currently only allowed outdoors.) And we've learnt to get around some of the limitations of online chat and even use a few of them to our advantage.
So... for 2021, at least, I think it's quite likely that small, informally organised meets will be my focus. They're just less pressure all round, and their smallness means organising (and when necessary rescheduling) can be done much more nimbly and straightforwardly than it can for conventions. You don't need to plan (and save large sums) months in advance for something that may never happen.
I'm not saying there's no chance of my going to a larger in-person event this year. It is still just about possible if everything goes really well and stays that way, and so I don't want to completely close the door at this point. I am saying that the odds are fairly substantially against my attending anything bigger than meets. And you know what? Right now, I find myself surprisingly okay with that.
I don't blame you for having that approach. A convention that possibly goes ahead isn't necessarily one we'd actually want to attend.
ReplyDeleteI'd already come to terms with not attending one this year; I've now committed to something else on the weekend of UK Ponycon. I didn't realise the clash at first, but when I did I felt pretty OK with it.
Yes... before posting this comment I had to look up the September UKPC dates, which says something in itself. I think for a full-scale, three-nights-in-a-hotel weekend, I would need to have a good idea as much as three months in advance. That'd be early June, when even in the best case scenario we wouldn't have reached the final stage of the reopening roadmap. That alone would make me highly doubtful.
DeleteA day trip might be a little easier if I could leave the decision later, and if so I could just about manage either Nottingham or Manchester like that -- but there'd still be the problem of "How much like a con will this really feel?" to contend with. Thinking back to past UKPCs, an awful lot of the parts I've most enjoyed have been things that might be restricted or even impossible: spontaneous singing, awkward hugs, all those packed pub meal gatherings, etc etc.
I still hope I get to another convention. They've been wonderful fun. But I don't honestly think I can say that I want to do that at all costs.
I was thinking specifically of Trotcon yesterday and realized... I really don't want to go. There are more reasons than health considerations for me, but that's honestly the big one.
ReplyDeleteI think in my case the health concerns aren't quite so much to the forefront. If an event that size was allowed to go ahead at all, I'd trust that the relevant risk assessments had been done. In my case it's more that the idea of a restricted, socially distanced convention isn't really a convention. Not in the ways that matter the most to me. And the cost of a con in both money and time is such that a compromised con doesn't appeal that much.
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