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UnCon 2004 reviews/discussion

The Virgin Queen (and me in the far right of the picture), from the karaoke night at the generator
 
Stormkhan said:
I thought that the FT stand could've done more on the merchandising front. The giant-size cover art posters were great, the Fortean books and Digests were alright. But they could've done more in the line of mugs, badges, t-shirts etc. I did get my natty "UnCon2004" shirt, but they should've plugged the magazines merchanise a tad more.
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Yes. I'd kill for a Fortean times mug, really I suppose society would prefer that I bought one, so make one available or someone gets it. Gets death that is, cos they can't get a mug if they're not available. Good, I'm glad that's cleared up. Fortean studies, XXL tee shirts, sew on patches, half pint beer glasses (or was that Farnham beer fest) anyway, you make it, we'll buy it!
 
My favourite second-year junior school teacher was called Mr Claw. Top chap and interested in the Knights of St. John/Malta...

That would be too much of a coincidence. And it would make you quite aged by now.

edit: Broadstairs? He was living in Kent... :eek:
 
Toilets (we are British and so its always worth a category) - adequate but I'm unsure what we Forteans 'do' but the toilet roll was nearly all gone by lunchtime Sunday

Well, don't know about you, but I reel off metres of the stuff, scrunch it up, stuff it into the bowl and ram it down - with my foot, if I have too.

I also wee in phone boxs.
 
Colin said:
Except with less people going on about the Hotel California or Shrek porn ;)
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I'm glad you got back. I was woried that you'd have peoblems checking out of your hotel...

OK first off it was lovely meeting everyone and Fallen's party was lots and lots of fun (even if I and Escargo had to wait so long on a taxi (and then it cost £15!)

The talks...

Warner: an interesting talk ruined by delivery. I'll buy the book when it comes out but I'll avoid hearing her speak again (it was like being back at uni...)

Pye: entertaning but with more holes than a swizz chese that had been shot at. His crap about evolution nd the recent discoveries...I thought he was talking about something else.

Bondeson: a good talk well deliverd. He exibited great reserch methords and a fine dry wit.

Lamont: again lots of fun and informitive.

Devereux: where to begin? He started off well and then went off into 'bitter and twisted land.' I was incredably disapointed. Most anoying is that he had some good points but he smotherd them in bile. If that's how he wrote his book it's not suprising he can't get a publisher. I also found his coments on alternitive publishers insulting to say the least. If he'd have given us more data and less opinion it would have been a better talk.

The boys from the CFZ: they seemed to have a thing about Mongolion Death Worms and getting them out at Uncon. Most worrying...verry funny presentation. JD's reflections on how reserchers can go off on one should be remewmberd by all.

Fanthorp: it sufferd from being writen in such a hurry. It had no naritive but the song was good.

Gail Nina Anderson: a great talk, good slide show and yes she did have wonderfull breasts :rolleyes: :D

Lachman: OK perhaps reading his peice for FT was a bit off but he deliverd it well and I realy like his talk. AND just as we had the wonderfull Miss Anderson I'd have to sy I found his voice rather sexy ;) - perhaps it's more to do with being involved with Blondie than anything else :D

Simmons: he may have been on the verge of loosing his voice but he gave a funny and informitive talk.

Campbell: he was just boaring. I and Escargo left the hall and went wandering untill he finished and I must admit to finding his language a little corse for a religious location.
 
If there were tent sised fortean times t-shirts I'd buy them...

I thought the venue was perfectly located although warm in the vinal chairs. I had visions of attempting to stand up to go out for the lunch break (AKA the first availible lecture involveing aliens ;) ) and not being able to move because of some sweaty adheasive sticking me to the chair. So a good idea for merchendise on the ft stand would be fortean times mini fans.

like most forteans there are subjects I enjoy more than others so I was pleased to see a good mix of subjects, one of the best things about uncon, I think, is when you go to that lecture on a subject that dosen't seem paticully interesting when writain down but turns out to pleasently surprise and tell you things you wern't aware of before. P.D.'s talk was one of these, I found the anacdotal tales of the antropologist that had members of a tribe walking though her dreams very interesting but i wish that he had spend more time on that topic than whinging about the new scientist and the fact that he is having dificulty finding a publisher for his new book and having a pop at rhichard wiseman. He talked of Richard Wiseman as if aproching fortean studies from a sceptical veiwpiont was somehow less valid than being a near blanket beleiver (although new agers had a few pops made at them too, dispite P.D.'s personal veiwpoint not being too different to their own, he just dosen't use meaningless buzz words as much), IMO the best way to aproch fortean studies is with an open mind, not a closed or empty one so to me his argument there was a bit like feng-shoeying a pigsty by flinging a few cow pats in.

(Yikes, I'm getting cynical in my old age... I really did enjoy the uncon though :) thanks to everyone who organised it )
 
The Virgin Queen said:
The boys from the CFZ: they seemed to have a thing about Mongolion Death Worms and getting them out at Uncon. Most worrying...verry funny presentation. JD's reflections on how reserchers can go off on one should be remewmberd by all.

Fanthorp: it sufferd from being writen in such a hurry. It had no naritive but the song was good.
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Indeed, Jon downes is fantastic :yeay: a saint for putting up with me nattering to him on several occasions on the sunday and a great gitarist too, is there no end to the man's talents. :)
 
Lord_Flashheart said:
P.D.'s talk was one of these, I found the anacdotal tales of the antropologist that had members of a tribe walking though her dreams very interesting but i wish that he had spend more time on that topic than whinging about the new scientist and the fact that he is having dificulty finding a publisher for his new book and having a pop at rhichard wiseman. He talked of Richard Wiseman as if aproching fortean studies from a sceptical veiwpiont was somehow less valid than being a near blanket beleiver (although new agers had a few pops made at them too, dispite P.D.'s personal veiwpoint not being too different to their own, he just dosen't meaningless buzz words as much), IMO the best way to aproch fortean studies is with an open mind, not a closed or empty one so to me his argument there was a bit like feng-shoeying a pigsty by flinging a few cow pats in.

(Yikes, I'm getting cynical in my old age... I really did enjoy the uncon though :) thanks to everyone who organised it )
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More or less what i would say about him...
 
Emperor said:
Apologies to Bob and Gordon as I nearly got to speak to you - Gordon nearly got grabbed in a corridor but he was just out of reach and was terrifically busy on the Sunday (before sneaking off early).
<snip>Hope you all enjoyed the chaii
Venue - it seemed like a good one (its proximity to Euston being very handy) and the complaints are only minor - it was too warm in the main hall (hence the FTMBers largely taking over the balcony by the window) as I assume it probably wasn't designed for so many people to be in for such a long time. Lines of site all seemed good
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Sorry I didn't get to meet you Emp - I toyed with making an anouncement over the mike at one point, but "is there an Emperor in the House?" didn't seem right! Yep - the sneaking off early bit had everything to do with living in Edinburgh and the terrible state of the trains - I would have loved to have stayed on.
Hope you all enjoyed out chairing - from my point of view I enjoy doing it and being at UnCon is such fun.
Hmm - the balcony by the window - I guess I was staring at you guys a lot of the time without realising it!
Must try and meet more next year!

Cheers

Gordon
 
Niles Calder said:
Well if he hadn't had over nine seperate warnings while refusing to moderate his behaviour he'd still be here. He burnt his own bridges and the rules are quite clear: once gone; never to return.

You think I enjoyed having authorise the banning of a good friend? There's no way he's coming back; I'll not subject him to that!

If you care so much for him you should have done something to help him last year rather than bemoan his absence now.

End of discussion
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Well, thats me told then:D ,at the time though I think I was'nt subscribed to whatever thread or threads the "trouble" was on, first thing I knew he was banned.So anyroadup, as you say end of discussion.

Try to get to Unconn next year Niles (and Cujo),it was a very good weekend,not many places where you can meet the famous and infamous in the Fortean world and just go up and chat to them.None seemed to mind either !.
 
gordonrutter said:
Sorry I didn't get to meet you Emp - I toyed with making an anouncement over the mike at one point, but "is there an Emperor in the House?" didn't seem right! Yep - the sneaking off early bit had everything to do with living in Edinburgh and the terrible state of the trains - I would have loved to have stayed on.
Hope you all enjoyed out chairing - from my point of view I enjoy doing it and being at UnCon is such fun.
Hmm - the balcony by the window - I guess I was staring at you guys a lot of the time without realising it!
Must try and meet more next year.
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Yep I don't think I met half the people I was planning on and didn't speak to them half as much as I should (but possibly twice as much as they'd have really wanted ;) ). You should have made the announcement - I'd have found it funny anyway ;)

Swings and roundabouts on the train front, at least for me, as it was so bad on the way there (and pretty ropey on the way back) that it looks like I'll get the whole cost refunded :D

I assume, as it worked so well, we'll have another FTMB flag next year and we'll try and make it a little more prominent (like sneaking it over the edge of the balcony).

The organisation was remarkably smooth although it did involve a lot of rushing around on the part of the organisers. As you mentioned the only problems seem to have come from the AV and given the wide range of media (laptops, video, slides, OHPs, etc.) and mikes being swapped around at short notice I'm impressed it went as well as it did - I think we've all sat around at school/college/Uni/training while someone spends half an hour trying to get the video to work and so a few blips are to be expected.
 
another photo, this is the room we stayed in on friday night, which was about twice the size of the one we stayed in on thursday:eek!!!!:
 
escargot said:
Oi! :mad:
:D
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Yep after I'd escorted you from the train for upsetting the other passengers with your talk about Satan and his generosity it was delayed by a further 35 minutes due them trying (badly) to connect a deisel engine to haul it the rest of the way back to Liverpool (via Manchester). The 3 hour delay (to a 2 and half hour journey) on the way down seems sufficient to get the refund - the delays on the way home were clearly them getting their monies worth.
 
I thought that the whole event was fantastic. it was obviously a team effort- I saw David Sutton wiping down some tables at one point!:D

The only gripe I would have is the boring one about the stuffiness of the hall, however I'm not sure that barring remodelling and fitting aircon, there's anything that can be done about it. It was a great location, a brilliant weekend and we do appreciate the huge effort that went into making it so smooth. Hurrah for the FT team!

Anyway, enough of the sucking up. I think that there were some wierd forces at play on Saturday night. Although I took loads of photos of the group with the flag, not one of them came out. I've got the one of Fleeble wiping his nose with it and the one after of Jima snogging Colin, but not one of the millions that I took whilst you were all posing. I must talk to Soong about getting the few that I do have of the weekend on here. And I really must get a digital camera before the next meet.....
 
Cider said:
.... but not one of the millions that I took whilst you were all posing. I must talk to Soong about getting the few that I do have of the weekend on here. And I really must get a digital camera before the next meet.....
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Anti-thoughtography strikes again....:eek:
 
On the whole I preferred the new venue, although it was hot (it was unseasonably warm for October). The food was excellent and cheap too, and the courtyard was very handy. The place just had a better feel to it.
I was also glad to see no stalls selling silly things like replica swords, but that's just my opinion.
 
Timble said:
Anti-thoughtography strikes again....:eek:
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Its the Power of Melf - escargot should never have taken that sneak snap as he has had to use his strange abilities to blank out a whole swathe of pictures on various cameras!!!
 
Bullseye said:
not many places where you can meet the famous and infamous in the Fortean world and just go up and chat to them.None seemed to mind either !.
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although jan bondeson seemed quite nervous when we descended on him in the dark outside on sunday :tongue:
 
I found my long lost sister on Sunday morning. I can assure you, no collusion was involved at all.

And considering my feelings for my 'real' sister, I'd swap any day!! :D
 
Ravenstone said:
I found my long lost sister on Sunday morning. I can assure you, no collusion was involved at all.

And considering my feelings for my 'real' sister, I'd swap any day!! :D
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Creepily, I've just PM'd you, before reading this. :eek!!!!:
 
We're obviously on the same wave length, Beak. Maybe we're taking this Black Irish sisterhood too far!!! :eek!!!!:
 
Possibly. We should at least check before we go out to make sure we aren't identically dressed again.
 
Cider said:
Anyway, enough of the sucking up. I think that there were some wierd forces at play on Saturday night. Although I took loads of photos of the group with the flag, not one of them came out. I've got the one of Fleeble wiping his nose with it and the one after of Jima snogging Colin, but not one of the millions that I took whilst you were all posing.
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Now that's a damn shame! You didn't get any of the pictures of me, then? Told you I don't come out on film.

Must check if I have any of the ones I got of you, though. Haven't even plugged the camera in yet.

For the organisers, particularly Bob Rickard, I was told by the kindly gent on the ASSAP table (when I went beserk and spent aroung A$100 on T-Shirts for Fort's sake!) that you would be interested to know that I came all the way from Australia. I would actually be surprised to hear I was the only one who did, but I thought I'd mention it. (Although I did get to speak to Owen at the Mabel on Sunday night, however briefly.)

Another comment on the venue: the seats were quite uncomfortable for some of us at least. With the warmth of the room, and sitting down for up to about 3 hours at a time, you needed a spatula to stand up. There was one lecture I was going to watch, but couldn't stay seated for that long.

I understand that the problems with the availability of the venue were behind the tight schedule, but I think there was a need for a bit more of a break between talks. (As opposed to the lamented lunch break of fable and lore.)
 
"I wanna see all the pictures", she muttered to no one in particular.

:D
 
jima said:
another photo, this is the room we stayed in on friday night, which was about twice the size of the one we stayed in on thursday:eek!!!!:
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That was the 5 bed room wasn't it? Actually it looks much bigger than I remember!:D
 
Some of mine aren't work safe, it seems.

And some of them are very blurry.
 
well the room was L shaped so it turns the corner too, it was a bit narrow but quite long. still the genorator was good value for money... and from what I've heard it had the best breckfasts.

AND it had a haunted bog.
 
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