UK PonyCon announced the first details of this year's convention on its website yesterday. One of the answers we now have was no surprise at all, the other perhaps a slight one. The first is that the con will, for the fifth year in succession, be held at Nottingham Trent University. The venue seems to suit everyone reasonably well, so I'd have been quite startled had it been changed. The con weekend, however, will be slightly earlier in the autumn than we've become used to: 30th Sep/1st Oct. That won't make much difference in terms of weather etc, but I suppose it might be slightly warmer!
As to whether I will be going... same answer as every year: I don't know, and I won't know for months yet. Looking up hotel prices just now has not been an especially cheering experience, though: we all know high inflation is a thing, but seeing it so starkly is sobering. Want three nights at the "con hotel", the Premier Inn in Goldsmith Street? Right now on a Flex tariff that'll set you back £319. The word "ouch" comes to mind – it's very nearly as much as I paid for hotel and travel and meals and merch last year Yes, PI will let you can cancel and rebook later, but I do wonder whether that particular price is going to go down much, if at all.
If I go, I'm already almost certain I'll be staying out of town again. The ever-inflating hit to my bank balance is just getting harder and harder for me to justify, and that's the only way I think I still have a fighting chance of coming down on the "yes" side. Everyone here knows how much I like UK PonyCon, but that doesn't change the fact that cons are very expensive long weekends and getting ever more so. If I lived closer, I'm fairly sure I'd be commuting this year and accepting missing out on late nights. Since that's not a realistic option, it's going to need some hard thinking. It's a good job there's plenty of time for me to do that!
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