![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerOver dinner tonight Molly said, "When are you going to get around to organizing that kid's gaming convention you said you'd organize?"
I said, "What?!?!?"
Just to be clear: I am immensely grateful that there are people out there willing to organize and run science fiction conventions, because I very much enjoy going to them. I do not ever want to organize one myself.
Molly tried for a little while to convince me that I'd agreed to this (HA! I had her there: there was NO WAY she had not either misunderstood or cheerfully decided to misrepresent whatever it was that I said in this conversation I don't remember) and then switched to talking about how cool it would be if, you know, I decided to.
Ed suggested that maybe SHE could be the con chair and could start by finding a venue.
"Oh, I figured we'd hold it at Amah and Grandad's house," she said cheerfully. "Don't you think it would be big enough?"
"You've been to Marscon," I said. "You've been to Convergence. And you think a con would fit at your grandparents' house?"
"Well, it would be a small con," Molly said. "How many people do you think would actually come?"
What I found really entertaining was what Molly considers absolutely essential in a con.
* Gaming. That's key. At least two rooms worth of gaming, for starters. Which I suppose makes sense as she'd imagined this as a kid's gaming convention and not a kid's SF convention despite never having actually been to a gaming convention.
* A consuite. That could go in the kitchen. She didn't say this specifically, but I'm pretty sure that her definition of "consuite" is "a room full of junk food that Mom lets me eat in large quantities."
* Room parties. This is where the whole "holding it at the grandparents' house" thing gets highly impractical. Her favorite party at Marscon was the Minicon party because that had (a) Peeps, (b) people sitting around playing German-style board games who don't mind Molly scooting up right next to them to watch intently for hours, and (c)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jiawen. Her favorite party at Convergence was the Steampunk Century party because that had more gaming (of the LARP/mystery solving variety).
* She somewhat reluctantly suggested that a programming track would not be a bad idea, but it should be a single programming track solely made up of things of interest to kids, since this is, after all, KidCon. She suggested a craft panel (she went to one at Convergence last year where they showed you how to make pipe cleaner dragons), a Lego panel, a panel where kids talked about really good books, and a panel where kids talked about really good games.
* Since our parents have a nice setup for watching movies down in the basement, she suggested we could use that as a media room. Although I think that was kind of an afterthought. She has never shown much interest in the media rooms at the cons I've taken her to, she just drags me to the gaming rooms as quickly as possible and leaves only under duress or when extremely hungry.
* A masquerade, but she specified that (a) you wouldn't have to register in advance, (b) only kids would participate, (c) you could do a little routine if you wanted but would be told to keep it short so that people wouldn't get bored, and (d) audience members would be allowed to leave at any time as long as they were quiet. I noted that (a) meant that your routine couldn't include a soundtrack, since part of why they do registration for masquerades is to set up the technical stuff like music. She thought that was fine. Also, we could hold it in the media room.
I was impressed by her attention to detail and suggested that clearly, she has a future in conrunning. You know, when she's older. Twelve, at least. Also, when I take her to Marscon this year, clearly we should arrange for her to do some volunteering.
Ed told her that if she wanted a con-themed gaming party for her friends ("and maybe we could have them invite friends?" she suggested, so clearly she understands the essence of publicizing a con...) we would consider it but it would be INSTEAD OF a birthday party. Also, she would need to lower her expectations as this sounded awfully elaborate.
I said, "What?!?!?"
Just to be clear: I am immensely grateful that there are people out there willing to organize and run science fiction conventions, because I very much enjoy going to them. I do not ever want to organize one myself.
Molly tried for a little while to convince me that I'd agreed to this (HA! I had her there: there was NO WAY she had not either misunderstood or cheerfully decided to misrepresent whatever it was that I said in this conversation I don't remember) and then switched to talking about how cool it would be if, you know, I decided to.
Ed suggested that maybe SHE could be the con chair and could start by finding a venue.
"Oh, I figured we'd hold it at Amah and Grandad's house," she said cheerfully. "Don't you think it would be big enough?"
"You've been to Marscon," I said. "You've been to Convergence. And you think a con would fit at your grandparents' house?"
"Well, it would be a small con," Molly said. "How many people do you think would actually come?"
What I found really entertaining was what Molly considers absolutely essential in a con.
* Gaming. That's key. At least two rooms worth of gaming, for starters. Which I suppose makes sense as she'd imagined this as a kid's gaming convention and not a kid's SF convention despite never having actually been to a gaming convention.
* A consuite. That could go in the kitchen. She didn't say this specifically, but I'm pretty sure that her definition of "consuite" is "a room full of junk food that Mom lets me eat in large quantities."
* Room parties. This is where the whole "holding it at the grandparents' house" thing gets highly impractical. Her favorite party at Marscon was the Minicon party because that had (a) Peeps, (b) people sitting around playing German-style board games who don't mind Molly scooting up right next to them to watch intently for hours, and (c)
jiawen. Her favorite party at Convergence was the Steampunk Century party because that had more gaming (of the LARP/mystery solving variety). * She somewhat reluctantly suggested that a programming track would not be a bad idea, but it should be a single programming track solely made up of things of interest to kids, since this is, after all, KidCon. She suggested a craft panel (she went to one at Convergence last year where they showed you how to make pipe cleaner dragons), a Lego panel, a panel where kids talked about really good books, and a panel where kids talked about really good games.
* Since our parents have a nice setup for watching movies down in the basement, she suggested we could use that as a media room. Although I think that was kind of an afterthought. She has never shown much interest in the media rooms at the cons I've taken her to, she just drags me to the gaming rooms as quickly as possible and leaves only under duress or when extremely hungry.
* A masquerade, but she specified that (a) you wouldn't have to register in advance, (b) only kids would participate, (c) you could do a little routine if you wanted but would be told to keep it short so that people wouldn't get bored, and (d) audience members would be allowed to leave at any time as long as they were quiet. I noted that (a) meant that your routine couldn't include a soundtrack, since part of why they do registration for masquerades is to set up the technical stuff like music. She thought that was fine. Also, we could hold it in the media room.
I was impressed by her attention to detail and suggested that clearly, she has a future in conrunning. You know, when she's older. Twelve, at least. Also, when I take her to Marscon this year, clearly we should arrange for her to do some volunteering.
Ed told her that if she wanted a con-themed gaming party for her friends ("and maybe we could have them invite friends?" she suggested, so clearly she understands the essence of publicizing a con...) we would consider it but it would be INSTEAD OF a birthday party. Also, she would need to lower her expectations as this sounded awfully elaborate.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 07:51 am (UTC)Hmm, didn't know I was a draw of Minicon room parties. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 01:40 pm (UTC)I can remember no other details of this.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 05:35 pm (UTC)Although when Molly says that "someone" needs to do X, Y, or Z, she means me or Ed, so I'm not surprised she thought that when I said "someone" I meant me.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-16 08:59 pm (UTC)