How did we ever run conventions...

[gerisullivan]

...without email, cell phones, and Google?

I wonder what next set of Real World innovations will make convention-running this much easier again...and when....

Comments

memories ...

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

... of kevin_standlee trying to persuade me to take a pager during ConFrancisco, and of my queasy refusal. Do I want to be burdened with an electronic leash?

Actually, if I'd had one, it would have saved me one fruitless two-hour off-site trip during the con ...

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

GPS maps of the convention?

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

That'd be good....

Re: memories ...

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Last night I was thinking about how so much of what we'll have at the Reno parties is thanks to Google-Fu, phone calls, and email. Ditto that for other parts of the convention. While I may boggle at the sheer number of email messages going into the mimeo demo and one-shot, I doubt it would have happened without blogs or email.

Conventiions in general

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

It's always good to hear from you, but one of the things I note when reading just about anything you say about cons is that I am very happy that these days, I do not work on conventions; the backstage side just seems to be more hassle than it could possibly be worth. (Then again, if cons had no volunteer labor, if everybody worked on cons as much or as little as I do, there would be no more cons. So maybe I should just decide it's my duty to do some work on some upcoming con, just to share the work.) I do note that Louie's day job is in so many ways dependent on her cell phone, so on the whole, I am glad cell phones exist. I am also glad that e-mail exists, but for different reasons.

Nate

[yarram.livejournal.com]

The next invention will be teleportation. Run two cons at the same time! ;-)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

cor I'd like that.

An FB style widget you sign up for where all your friends who have your mobile no can see where you are on the map of the con.
Virtual world/3d conferencing for con pre organisation. We should be on to tat already really. Set up the Worldcon hotel in 2L, and play with it!!

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

That would certainly be handier than airplanes. (Says the person who will be arriving at 10:30pm because the flight that landed at the more sensible time of 2:30pm was cancelled.)

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I remember using voice pagers in the earliest days of Minicon ops -- the bridge could page some department heads and the troubleshooters, who were then expected to call back from a house phone (or pay phone or whatever if away from the hotel). Then we went to two-way radio, and then to cell phones (many provided by the convention), and now we just assume everybody has a cell phone. (And, since the con is so much smaller and better-behaved, we don't have a bridge; we just publish a cell-phone list.)

As far back as 1991 I found having a cell phone made chairing Minicon MUCH easier at-con.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Ubiquitous wireless (of some sort, not necessarily Wifi as we know it) and PDAs (or smartphones) could do away with the pocket program *and* the updates published in the newsletter; it could be online, and kept current from program ops. ("Could"; at today's tech levels magically made ubiquitous, I don't think this would be a win yet. But maybe by the time the things *do* become ubiquitous they'll also become good enough.)

People attending via virtual reality instead of in-person; perhaps at first via a friend into wearable computing? Don't know if this would decrease the in-person attendance or not; might just increase the total and the visibility so much that it kept the in-person steady.

[guppiecat]

It won't make it any easier. It'll just raise the expectations of what cons can/should do.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

The answer is both -- it *will* be easier. It will also raise the bar. Just like it already has.

The easier is very, very real.

Of course, it also makes it easier to overload oneself with cool, fun things to do. Oh, yes....

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

And you know what you didn't mention that's made conventions so much easier? Desktop publishing :-).

Re: Conventiions in general

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Nate, it is a bit off topic but, seeing your post made me wonder how technology has aided in updating, maintaining and distributing 'the list'. Have you considering updating the song for the new millenium?

Re: Conventiions in general

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Hello there, maruad! Yes, I know who you are, and I did know that you were out there. I believe you're talking about "the Chart." My usual thought about revising songs many years later is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And although it doesn't contain any references to e-mail, texting, cell phones, etc., to me it just doesn't feel obsolete. YMMV, of course. And it is definitely good to hear from you.

Nate

Re: Conventiions in general

[maruad.livejournal.com]

You are right, it was 'The Chart'.

[drpaisley.livejournal.com]

Cloning is the next big step, so every con can have as many Geris as they need to make sure everything goes right.

And perhaps it will bring an end to the habit of putting people like {redacted}, {redacted} and especially {redacted redacted redacted} in positions of any responsibility whatsoever, despite all of them having repeatedly proven themseves unable to handle a task on the level of counting the spoons without assistance.

dd_b, I most certainly agree with you about desktop publishing. It might be the single most helpful technological innovation of them all.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The Gerbil Helmet. Best thing the Belgians ever invented. We could have had them in the 80s, but nooooo... damn Congress.

But seriously, tasers.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Keith had to loan Matt a cell phone this year because he and Kelly don't have them. (I have a cell phone, but not a landline, the cell phone turned out cheaper.)

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

And remember that the easy availability of some technologies has encouraged way too many con-runners to attempt solving what are essentially people-problems with technology.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

We wasted a lot of time and effort writing and mailing snail-mail letters and waiting for a response, or paying for expensive phone calls; wasted hours walking around looking for people, by which time the problem was already solved but you didn't know that; and we did without lots of cool stuff because there was no easy way to find it.

People coped before telephones, cars, and the printing press, too...

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Something I've been waiting to come down the price-performance curve is approximately a mini-PDA name badge. Program changes, party-coordinating, dinner expeditioning, etc., all wi-fied in.
Nothing that isn't already reasonably easy, just not cheap enough yet . . .

........

[(Anonymous)]

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