Maybe it’s just my frame of mind, but I didn’t get a lot of actual sf experience out of Octocon. There were good things – dinner on Saturday evening with mizkit, chefted, captainlucy, and irishkate; dinner on Sunday evening with bellinghman, bellinghwoman, jemck and natural20; ending up in the bar last night with Alastair Reynolds and others; catching up with various other old friends, too numerous to mention all individually; the David Stewart remembrance panel, and the auction which followed; the quiz, where mysteriously only one of the three university teams actually turned up (and even they had to have their arms twisted to appear), and I led a scratch team of mature fans to a symbolic victory – thanks particularly to Julian West for doing the questions.

But, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the rather laid-back style of the programming, and attended only ten minutes of any of the thematic panels (a discussion of religion which did not appear to have a moderator). The programme item descriptions did not list the panellists (an error also made by MeCon in August); I make my choice of what to attend based at least as much on the participants as on the actual subject, and at Octocon I felt curiously unmoored. The fact that the website had been updated so late in the day with details of the actual convention (the “What is Octocon” page still says that the event will happen “on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of October 2006”) gave me the feeling even before I arrived that the actual programming was an afterthought, and this impression was frankly reinforced by my experience (and what I heard of other people’s experiences) at the convention itself. As noted above, only one of the three teams billed to appear at the quiz actually showed (and they were not so much a team as just the students from the college in question who happened to be in the room).

Perhaps I am spoiled by my experience of conferences in my day job, where intricate programming, carefully prepared presentations, and vigorous chairing are the order of the day. I realise that running cons is a hobby rather than a profession, but I am surprised to see it (sometimes) done so casually.

I will not come to Octocon next year, but I will listen out for reports as to whether things have improved – it doesn’t take much, all it requires is actual planning ahead with the aim of ensuring that guests and participants have a good time. They have booked George R.R. Martin for the 2009 2010 event which will be a real challenge.

Many many thanks also tobellinghman who facilitated a bit of historical research for me. More on that when I get back home.