Futuricon/C’Monfluence

Doing two virtual conventions the same weekend is easier when both have significant differences in timezones, like these two – Croatia and Pittsburgh respectively.

Futuricon is the one I spent the most time at, given it was only an hour off. It followed the website-streaming-video plus Discord model, although the streaming video platform they used was buggy and had the (dis)advantage that it also provided a chat form. Obviously it’s useful for folks who can’t or don’t want to use the Discord to be able to chat, but it also can dilute things by splitting the conversation. There were three video “programs rooms” with corresponding Discord channels, Futuricon 1, 2, and 3, but the result was mixed, either because things didn’t always start on time, or because less of an effort was put into staffing the Discord chats, so sometimes there was no discussion in Discord (but some on the website) or the discussion was for something else. Still, it was all friendly and relaxed and there were good conversations to be had.

Some of the programming I checked out were a quiz, which I was bad at, Alison Scott’s TAFF trip report, and a Deep Sea and SF talk recorded by someone in the Arctic Circle – which was pretty cool.

For C’Monfluence I mostly just popped into the Discord for the occasional chat. I was amused by randomly running into someone living in Pittsburgh who had just attended a Professor Elemental show streaming from the Art House, which is a half hour walk from here.