WhimsyCon 2020

The Con:

This was my first time attending this convention. From my understanding the con was supposed to focus on steampunk and fairy themes. When I got there it was on point. I was helping to table at this con and was only able to get to one full panel. One thing I did notice was a lack of attendance. Near the end of last year I attended Daku con at the same hotel and it was packed. At this convention it seemed like hardly any one was there. While working the table I was able to watch the flow of traffic and the only time you had more than one or 2 people in the hall way was between panels when people were traveling. There was very little interaction between people in the halls. This was a little weird to me since I am used to people hanging out in the halls interacting with each other. Everyone seemed nice though and nothing really bad/annoying happened to me at this con. I do really mean this. I’m used to at least one bad thing happening to me at most events I attend and it was nice to have a smooth experience for once.

The one full panel I got to see was amazing. “Why We Need Diversity in Entertainment” presented by Olivia Wylie, Ian Brazee-Cannon, and Vennessa Robertson. These people helped remind me that people who are truly aware of diversity issues do not believe in stereotyping. With my work in education I am constantly being hit with IE (Inclusive Excellence) and most of the messages I experience there is that you have to fit in a type and that everything is binary. IE as presented in education is very biased and to be truthful racist. Most people are not binary and taking this view cuts out all people that come from mixed races or backgrounds. You cannot put people into little boxes. They need to be able to establish their own boxes or say to hell with it and make their own amorphous shape that fits their needs, not yours. Wylie (who presents as white) spoke about being mixed race and growing up on an Indian reservation. Many times people would not associate her with her family because of how light skinned she was. This lead to negative experiences for her that impacted her life and views. Many people that do diversity work will not acknowledge these experiences because people like her do not fit into their nice perceived boxes. An interesting quote from her was “If you can pass, people don’t understand when things go wrong and you are not given any slack.” This goes back to the concept that if you appear white then everything in your life must be good. Robertson also made some interesting points like that you can be a part of a culture and not experience all of the key experiences of that culture and that living close to other cultures can influence your culture. One thing that all the panelist said they wanted to see was more mixed race/background characters. I think their key point though from the writing perspective was that if you are going to write about a character that is different from you that you do your research and be ready to cite your sources. This panel was a breath of fresh air and reminded me that not everyone has messed up views on what makes a person.

I also got to jump in on the tail end of the Trivia contest. Many of the questions were really hard and obscure. I think even with the other contestants jumping in on wrong answers, the correct answer rate was about 1 out of 4. It was fun and I learned about some B horror films I have not seen, but will be looking up just because of how ridiculous they sounded.

The hotel (Radisson):

I’m not sure why conventions use this hotel. They never have the staff they need in the bar or restaurant area. One person ran to get food for themselves and one other person from the hotel restaurant  and was gone for over an hour just trying to get some fried food in a to go box. After my shift I went to the bar to get a drink and it took 20 minutes before the bar tender could get to me, then he gave me the wrong price for my drink and ended up charging me $1.50 more than it was supposed to be, and they had ran out of coke so he had to use diet coke instead. I’m not sure why conventions let the hotel get away with this bad service. The hotel needs to staff itself better when they know they have an event going on.