From: Tavia tavia@btinternet.com
Well, yet again, perhaps I'm unusual. I went to my first-ever con, Redemption, purely for the workshoppy-type things as well as the opportunity to meet and re-meet fans encountered in cyberspace.
I don't know how typical I am either, but the first con I went to was partly out of curiosity, and partly because they were showing "Tomb of the Cybermen," which at the time had only just been rediscovered and was about a month away from video release. Mind you, I didn't object to getting one or two autographs as well :).
actually attend a single one of the guest-oriented events. And, for what it's worth, I thoroughly enjoyed myself... I got the impression that a lot of people at Redemption were operating under the same motivation set (but then, of course, I only met the ones who attended the smaller workshops or hung out in the bar...observer bias or what)
I have to say I like workshoppy things more than guest panels myself, just because you tend to get a better signal-to-noise ratio.
To my mind, fans are much more interesting than guests,
Hm, I find them both interesting but in different ways. At Panopticon, I had a lot of fun catching up with my mates from elsewhere in the country and listening to Alistair Lock talk about his work-- but there was also an element of fun in being able to ask David Collings about his upcoming projects over a whiskey.
I might well have had a different view 15 or so years ago. (I do recall a doomed attempt to persuade my parents to let me go to a play starring PD...)
15 years ago I was living in a different country, and had slightly more chance of seeing Santa Claus than of seeing Paul Darrow :)...
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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