P-CON: What is it?

Tue, Jan 31, 2006

So, some of you will be asking, what is a P-Con? Is it related to an Air-Con? Is it anything like a RomCom? What goes on there? What do people do and who goes? Relax, gentle reader – all these questions about Ireland’s premiere SF convention will be answered by that stalwart of both the convention organisation and the Irish SF community, Mister Pádraig O Méalóid Esquire, who shall illuminate all (and if asked nicely will even point out the best bars for good Guinness):

What’s this P-CON thing all about, anyway?

Basically, it’s a two-day meeting of writers and readers, all with a common interest in the fairly broad spread of literature that is handily covered by the term SF. This more or less stands for Science Fiction, or Speculative Fiction, but also includes Fantasy, a lot of comics writing (which, as a medium, tends to cover a lot of these genres anyway), and also various TV shows and movies. P-CON is concentrating more on the written end of things, rather that on TV or movies. This is not to say we’ll be avoiding them entirely, as one of our guests wrote one of the episodes of Doctor Who that was shown on TV recently.

Who’ll Be There?

Our Guest of Honour is Susanna Clarke, whose first novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been winning virtually every award it has been put up for, including the Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. We also have Special Comics Guests in the person of Leah Moore & John Reppion, whose current series Albion is doing nothing less that reviving loads of old UK comics characters. Other guests include Paul Cornell, who wrote the Father’s Day episode of Doctor Who, and simply loads more. The con’s guests cover every area of the genre, and are quite happy to talk about it to anyone who wants to listen.

So, What Happens?

The convention primarily consists of two streams of panels, with various people discussing whatever the panel’s topic happens to be.Topics are likely to be anything from ‘Hobbits’ to ‘How To Write That Bestseller’, and from ‘The Rise of the Graphic Novel’ to ‘The Demise of the Book Trade’. There’ll also be quizzes, panel games, and a few special events, involving things like displays of swords, and UFOs in Ireland. The con also has a dealers/fan room, where you can buy new and second-hand books, videos, DVDs, magazines, and so on.

But where a lot of the real stuff of any con happens is in the bar, or wherever it is that people gather to talk and to relax. Probably more than any other creative people, SF writers love to meet their readers, and you’ll always find it easy to get to talk to anyone you want. Remember, pretty much all SF writers started off as SF fans, and enjoy going to cons to meet not only their readers, but also their fellow writers. As often as not, their going to meet writers that they in turn are big fans of.

The thing with cons is, once you go to one, you’re hooked. There’s nothing else quite like the sense of fellowship and belonging that you get from being amongst your fellow SF fans. We all like the same stuff, and even if we don’t agree about a lot of things, we generally see the other person’s argument, and enjoy discussing our interests.

Without wishing to be maudlin or soppy, it really is just like a big annual family gathering, and there’s always going to be room for one more. Just come along, and you’ll be made welcome.

Pádraig is a carbon based lifeform; he is a regular reviewer of SF&F and graphic novels, an authority on the works of Alan Moore, a contributor to FPI magazine and a direct descendant of Brian Boru. The third Phoenix Convention will take place in the Ashling Hotel, Dublin on the 11th and 12th of March; full details and updates are available on P-Con’s main site.