Finncon Gets Competitive

Finnish fandom is normally very calm and civilized about selecting the venue for Finncon. There has never been a contested vote for the site — until now.

For the first time in Finncon history there will be a site selection ballot. Fan groups from Helsinki and Tampere are both bidding to hold the convention in 2012. When news of the election became public they were soon joined by two more bids: one for Espoo, a city to the west of Helsinki, and one for the Moon.

I know which bid I’m supporting. I want to see Eemeli make that happen.

There will be bid presentations on the Friday night at Sohwi. Sadly I think I am having dinner with Pat Cadigan and her Finnish publishers at the time. The results will be announced on Sunday.

15 thoughts on “Finncon Gets Competitive

  1. The bids have promised also to be present at the Saturday evening party, and give short presentations Saturday afternoon, so there should be plenty of opportunities to catch them.

  2. Will any of the contending bids welcome anime fans? It’s likely to be a key issue in assessing the size and footprint (and hence funding) of Finncon in 2013.

  3. I’m sure they will welcome anime fans. There is no membership fee — everyone’s welcome. However, I don’t think either bid committee is planning programming for 8000 teenagers with very little interest in science fiction, as the committees themselves are not especially much into anime. Why should they?

    1. Actually, nearly all the really popular anime is science fiction or fantasy. And anime fans generally are interested in sf in other forms. I’ve been noticing lately that some of the better-established anime cons in the US seem to be slowly drifting toward becoming more like general sf cons.

      1. The “problem” here is that the anime fans are very young (11-17 most of them) and not interested in the general sf programming at all. I’m not saying they couldn’t be, I’m just stating the fact that they aren’t. And they have been sort of getting a “free ride” on the sf part of the convention, because the anime people have been notoriously difficult to get to assume their part of the organising work. So the sf crowd have been forced to do almost all the work, including taking security responsibility for many thousands of legal minors. They don’t want to have to do that any longer. They would be happy for Animecon to go on and providing a lot of fun for the anime fans, but they want to get out of having to arrange the anime stuff themselves.

        It’s not that they have anything against anime.

        1. Believe me, the Finnish anime fans wouldn’t want Animecon to stay with Finncon any more than the other way around. The tandem convention has lived its time, and it’s time to let it die.

          The Finnish anime fandom has long seen Animecon as a mammoth-sized convention that the Finncon organizers have slapped together with minimum effort to rake in thousands of teenagers and, subsequently, cultural grants – whether it’s true or not. The con is seen as something that has always been organized by “someone else”, not the anime fandom itself, so there’s no drive to participate. People don’t even want to hold programming there, let alone take responsibility…

          Not that it matters much. There are anime conventions held almost every month nowadays, so there’s no really need for Animecon anymore. It’s time to let it die and let the young fans realize that there are *other* conventions around – ones that are run by actual anime fans.

          So yeah, why *should* the Finncon organizers organize something that they’re not particularly interested in?

  4. Because, Johan, as I just said: “It’s likely to be a key issue in assessing the size and footprint (and hence funding) of Finncon in 2013.”

  5. No, “Because it’s a key issue” is not an answer to “why should they include programming for something they’re not very interested in?”.

    But never mind that quibble; my understanding is that with the exception of next year’s Finncon, the Finncon people hope to have successfully left the Animecon part of the event behind them, which is the answer to your question (provided I’m correctly informed).

    1. You are. And i hear there will be a standalone Animecon in 2012. Here’s hoping it will be a great success!

  6. All I know is this bit of folk wisdom, courtesy of serafinowicz:

    Red sky at morning, sailors take warning
    Red sky at night, sailors delight
    Black sky at noon, you’re on the moon

  7. I know I’m just a grumpy middle-aged fan, but I think this voting stuff is just stupid. We’ve managed to select the Finncon venue without resorting to bid camapaigns before, so for me this all feels very constrained.

    I will vote for Espoo just as a protest and I hope they win!

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