A Young Wizards Convention

[wolf_wizard]

Well... if you advoided the part that you met the majority of people online, then it might be OK... but I still think i would have a difficult time talking my parents around going to it. expecially if it was the only reason that we would go to Iowa.

And Christmas- there are some people here who are under high school age- and their parents would probably be even more protective- mine for example.

you also have to consider the fact that the forums are all open to the public- meaning that anyone can see what we write and everything- one reason why it would probably be better if they weren't open.

[tori]

Wolf, just out of curiosity, you don't have to answer, are you in middle school? I don't think elementary, so I'm guessing 7th grade? Maybe 8th? I don't think you much of a 6th grader.

Iowa... hehe. Traveling from AmSam to Iowa would take two and a half days for me. About 7,000 maybe more miles.

Would still be ubertactical though. :] The convention and all.

[Emi]

I thought that the forums were closed (to the public)??? Only open on certain times? Maybe I didn't understand it fully. Oh well. Yeah I get the whole meeting people online and then meeting them in person problemo. My parents actually sounded excited when I was telling them about it. I don't know, maybe they just assume that you're all around my age so it shouldn't be that bad. I've been to conventions, like anime, that people have come up to each other and are like "are you soandso from (insert site here)?" and then they get all excited because they finally got to meet. I don't know, a convention does sound pretty fun though.

But does it _have_ to be in Iowa???

[Kathy Li]

I'm still thinking step 1 is to plan on being around for an official chat, and treating it as a virtual convention. Because, in essence, that's what it is. And that's what this board is. If you can't come up with decent forum topics, what the heck makes you think you can come up with decent panel topics and hall conversation?

And the second step is to simply begin attending cons. See what they're like and what kind of activities are on offer. Volunteer to help run one to see what's involved. Find a local convention you can bring your parents to. Typically, parents are ok with the "I met this person online" thing, if you also mention that when you meet in the Real Life, these other weirdos invited your parents along, too.

[Dragon Writer]

Maybe it should rotate states? or be held in many states, at once, so that all can see the people in their area, and people who wish to see friends from online can have a safe place to go see them....

[mysss]

ooh! simultaneous video-chat-connected conventions across the globe!

*waits patiently to learn the many problems with that idea*

[tori]

Kli, kudos. I loved the second paragraph.

You're I met this person online thing and the parents. Wow. I laughed, and haha, still am!

Mysss, I like you're idea. I think there could possibly be things wrong with your idea, but I don't, personally, see too many. Just maybe spam and ... badness or something. But if everyone abides to make that possible. Then, yay.

How about once or twice a year, in a different state in a popular area. People vote on a state that is close for them to get too, maybe have a poll with a few places. Four or five to pick from on the East and West coasts. First time that year they do East or West, next .. you get it.

I, hopefully, would be able to attend one in a couple years once I'm back on the mainland/ states. I'd possibly be willing to help set one up in the southern states. Around Florida. I've got a year off before college to burn cos I wanna go into college with my age group and yah. Anywazzzz. Cos, its not like some of the younger kids can fly places and its not like us teenagers have the money, some of us, or have the permission. Unless, like Kli said, the folks come along too.

Emi. I so wish there were conventions here. I went to one in Panama for RuneScape. Kinda cool, all in Spanish though, so I was a bit lost. There weren't many people though. It wasn't offical. xD

Or maybe, one every three months have a convention in a different, populated of YW.net-ers area, and have a little convention thing there. Then, if people from around that area want to join, they can. Then... but, the majority of people in one area have the home base... if you get what I mean, and may that not cause ... disagreements? If anyone understands... It is way too early in the morning.
Night all. I hope this can happen, even if not very soon.

[Dragon Writer]

I just think if we had many conventions at once, we'll no longer have to worry about where exactly to hold it each year. you won't see as many people-but that also means less worrying from your parents, and it means more people will get to go to one convention or another.

[wolf_wizard]

YR, I think that it would cause there to be less people, so it wouldn't be as fun unless the majority of people here are in like, little groups in the country. I think that mysss' idea was good, although we wouldn't get to actually meet each other, we would still see each other, and there would be less worry from your parents. If you saw less people, I don't think it would be that much fun, and I personally don't think that there are enough YW readers and YW.net people to spent the kind of money doing it; unless you mean in different countries.

[Dragon Writer]

It might be slightly less fun, but the people you met it might be slightly less fun, but the pople you met there would be people you could actually go ons eeing in person if you wanted too.
You could do both i suppose- Have many conventions, and then have booths allowing people to go and see other people in the other conventions. Intermingle with eachother in person, then see other people long distance.

[wolf_wizard]

yes, but is it realistically possible to do that? I mean, we would have to raise a decent amount of money to do that, and it would still be rather difficult. I think that if you did one for different countries- maybe two in larger ones such as the US, then it might be possible...

I hope I'm not ruining anyone's ideas or anything- I'm just trying to be (slightly) realistic.

[Tuttle]

The problem I see with having lots of little gatherings is just plain that its not really a convention then. You couldn't pull off a lot of little conventions with all the planning, the speakers, the booths and everything. Especially as it'd be really hard to get a Young Wizards one started in the first place.

However, having meetings that are just social, lets get together see each other, do something interesting related to the books, does seem reasonable. It'd not be the same as a convention, but it'd allow people to see the others on the board which seems to be one of the main goals.

The issues with parents do seem important to think about. Make sure parents would be fine with it if planning starts. Kathy's suggestion of saying they're invited along too and having them come along too is a good one. There are problems with the internet and people pretending to the people they're not and we want to avoid those issues in any meet up that happens.

That said, I'd probably be interested in seeing people depending on what is figured out. The XKCD meetup was a lot of fun, and while I don't think we could pull off anything like that, we could manage something interesting.

[Dragon Writer]

I could see little meetings occuring....maybe groups of people from certain areas, could agree to go and meet somewhere public. Doesn't cost any money, unless you want to buy food from somewhere near wherever you go, there'll be more then a couple of people, so it should be safe. Parents won't worry too much-and you could always bring them a long, as suggested, the first couple meetings until their comfortable with it.
An entire convention is nice-but no matter where you hold it, there's always going to be people disappointed because they can't make it.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

It looks like Tamora Pierce has been thinking down the same lines that we have. She's trying to organize a general kid/young adult fantasy/science fiction con: go to the LiveJournal community for more details.

[wolf_wizard]

Ooh, that looks really cool- thanks for the link Garrett! Yeah, I like that idea young reader, although I kind of doubt any of you guys live where I do... and Kathy- I hadn't seen your post before, but I think that take-your-parents-with-you idea is pretty good, although i'm still not sure...