Back from NewCon4

We're just back from the NewCon 4 convention in Northampton and I have to say, it was pretty good.

Attendance was fairly good (final membership not much under 200) and with guests of honour including both Paul Cornell and Iain Banks as well as Ken Macleod, it was going to be a fun one. The programme was single track, but good, with the last item before the closing ceremony being a hilarious SF version of Just A Minute (in which Paul C lived up to his namesake P Merton and won handsomely).

The venue was interesting, being the old fish market. This is an L-shaped covered hall, with small shops off it. It's extremely well lit by natural light, and the effect was the comfort of being inside, with the open feeling of outside. It was also almost impossible to lose anyone. However, the one shortcoming was that, with brick walls and hard roof interior above rafters, there was little to absorb sound, and the acoustics were not good for the panel area. However, once the seating area had been turned through 90 degrees (fjm's initiative, I understand), it became possible to get the sound levels such that the entire audience had a chance to make out what was being said.

Overall, a success. Not expensive for us (we blew a bit on books, and some more on CDs from one of those interior shops), and there was good buzz by the end. It was a nice size, too, fitting the venue well. We had good chats with jemck Juliet McKenna and Paul Cornell, and I got introduced to that Northampton legend Alan Moore and his wife by slovobooks. We saw plenty of friends (too many to list), and left after the closing ceremony to grab a bite to eat, before ferrying slovobooks and ephiriel to Stansted airport.

Back from NewCon4

We're just back from the NewCon 4 convention in Northampton and I have to say, it was pretty good.

Attendance was fairly good (final membership not much under 200) and with guests of honour including both Paul Cornell and Iain Banks as well as Ken Macleod, it was going to be a fun one. The programme was single track, but good, with the last item before the closing ceremony being a hilarious SF version of Just A Minute (in which Paul C lived up to his namesake P Merton and won handsomely).

The venue was interesting, being the old fish market. This is an L-shaped covered hall, with small shops off it. It's extremely well lit by natural light, and the effect was the comfort of being inside, with the open feeling of outside. It was also almost impossible to lose anyone. However, the one shortcoming was that, with brick walls and hard roof interior above rafters, there was little to absorb sound, and the acoustics were not good for the panel area. However, once the seating area had been turned through 90 degrees (fjm's initiative, I understand), it became possible to get the sound levels such that the entire audience had a chance to make out what was being said.

Overall, a success. Not expensive for us (we blew a bit on books, and some more on CDs from one of those interior shops), and there was good buzz by the end. It was a nice size, too, fitting the venue well. We had good chats with jemck Juliet McKenna and Paul Cornell, and I got introduced to that Northampton legend Alan Moore and his wife by slovobooks. We saw plenty of friends (too many to list), and left after the closing ceremony to grab a bite to eat, before ferrying slovobooks and ephiriel to Stansted airport.