Current mood:	Cliquish
Entry tags:	cons

con ... nooga?
First Chattanooga, TN brought us political wank last fall when former mayor Bob Corker was involved in a throughly nasty Senate race with Harold Ford. Now it's bringing convention wank to us!

See, Chattanooga is host city to four cons: Chattacon, LibertyCon, HallowCon, and FantaSciCon. For a city the size of Chattanooga, this is nothing short of impressive -- especially since both Chattacon and LibertyCon are over twenty years old.

But some fans in the area, in their wisdom, became /convinced/ the city needed a fifth con. An "Ultimate Fandom Convention", in fact. From their website: "We want to bring the best event for the Fans of Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Gaming, Anime, Cosplay, Book Enthusiast, Fan Films, Artist, Celebrities, Comics... " Wait, this is kind of familiar, isn't it? It sounds an awful lot like ... Dragon*con. And that name ... it's hard to avoid noticing that the name "Con-nooga" is an inversion of "Chatta-con".

All this might seem like the usual con-fandom infighting Chattanooga fandom is locally known to support -- until you look at Connooga's forums. The nameless organisers of Connooga are wanking away, determined to ... well, I'm not sure what they're determined to do, but it seems to involve beating out Chattacon somehow. Unsurprisingly, therefore, they've chosen to site their con at the same hotel as Chattacon, barely a month after Chattacon closes.

Highlights: "We want to make this a Convention for YOU."

"I want horror!" "No, gaming!" "No, make it family friendly!" "More panels!" "Less partying!" "More partying!" "More celebrities! (Jewel Staite, Adam Baldwin, Lucy Lawless)" uh, guys, this is a first year con. with what money? "Fix registration!" "Child-friendly during the day, party at night!" "Horror!" "Gaming!" "Comics!"

The beat thread, imho, is entitled "Other CONVENTIONS! - What went Wrong? What went Right?!", and starts off with an eight-point bullet list of things Connooga's organisers disliked about ... oddly enough, Chattacon. Specifically. Mentioned in the post, even. Unsurprisingly, Chattacon's director shows up in the thread, concealing a rapier of snark beneath velvet curiosity.

Equally of note is this thread, started by the "family-friendly" guy on the forums, pushing his little red family-friendly wagon. Note how the thread closes (as of right now) with this gem: "Maybe we can get some lady to tattoo her boobs or stomach like that lady from the Super Bowl!"

That's very family-friendly, dear.

Edit: I forgot to include the best comment (iRL, sadly) on the wank so far: "They're in the Choo Choo? Well, at least they're in the right place for the train wreck this is going to be."

Disclaimer: I'm involved with Hypericon, and I think these guys are idiots. That tone may come across in this wank report.

And if this local wank fails to be of interest, I discovered this discussion of volunteerism at cons.

(Post a new comment)

	miss_eponine 2007-02-26 05:22 pm UTC (link)
	Wank from my hometown! I lived there until I was 25, and I never knew there were cons there until about a year ago. (Reply to this)

	jaseroque 2007-02-26 05:52 pm UTC (link)
	That rick_day guy in the last link is an a-grade wanker who makes me want to kick things. >___< I call troll for the sake of my sanity, though I fear I may be wrong... (Reply to this)

	sockpuppet_rat 2007-02-26 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, cons...there's a reason I don't go. Still, I want to hand it to Con-nooga for having the worst name I've ever heard! And the wankiest of beginnings! (Reply to this)

	onaga 2007-02-26 06:59 pm UTC (link)
	Ew, noogies. And... no, it's not just you on the "these guys are idiots" train. There's a whole lot of naive enthusiasm, and a very strange hate-on for Chattacon, but not much else. I somehow doubt that NoogieCon is ever going to get off the ground, much less be a second DragonCon in its very first year. (Reply to this)(Thread)

naienko
2007-02-26 07:15 pm UTC (link)

I do, in fact, know where the registration crap got started -- Chattacon prints out your badge on the spot; they don't do preprinted badges. This year, the computer system went bonkers, resulting in looooong lines -- Dragon*con style lines. You see the result.

What amuses the hell out of me is the fact that Chattaconners have been objecting to the ChooChoo as a con location basically since it went there, and yet this competing "protest" con is going to be in the same bad location. I can't wait to see how well that works for them.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	duraniedrama 2007-02-26 08:36 pm UTC (link)
	I somehow doubt that NoogieCon is ever going to get off the ground, much less be a second DragonCon in its very first year. Hell, DragonCon wasn't DragonCon in its very first year. It was a modest little convention in a medium-sized downtown hotel that had a pretty nifty consuite. It took many years for it to grow into the nexus of geekdom that it is today. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	smo 2007-02-26 07:03 pm UTC (link)
	Pardon me, boy. Is this the Chattanooga Con Wank? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	heurodis 2007-02-26 07:11 pm UTC (link)
	I have no words to describe how utterly awesome I find this comment. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)