I was being honestly curious in my last post, but it appears I have been taken with a different meaning. :roll:
I moved out of San Jose 3 years ago and am no longer up on the events that take place. The first time I'd ever heard of Bay Con was on this messageboard last week. And now people are talking about ditching Fanime for it, so I'm just wondering what the hell is BayCon anyway?? Somebody...anybody??
BayCon, from what I've heard/read, is more of a science fiction/fantasy convention held every year. Since many cosplayers also create costumes depicting sci-fi/fantasy stuff, this is one of the big venues where they get to show off their work.
You can read about the programming/details of their most recent one at www.baycon.org
BayCon is indeed a sci-fi/fantasy convention, but it's quite skewed towards the literary portions of that fandom. However, they were also well-known for their anime screening rooms and one of their anime guides was published by Books Nippon for other fans across the country. This was in the mid-to-late 80's (yes, BayCon has been around for that long).
However, once AnimeCon and eventually AX came onto the scene starting in '91, anime fandom became an even smaller part of BayCon. Anime fans went to the dedicated anime conventions that were slowly popping up, insteead of going to more general sci-fi/fantasy cons where they were in the minority.
BayCon has become an issue because for well over a decade-and-a-half, it has been held on Memorial Day weekend, and will share that weekend with FanimeCon next year. While many don't see much of an overlap between the two fandoms anymore, there are still some fans and cosplayers who have their feet in both fandoms. On top of that, it seems (according to reports by others) that several on the FanimeCon staff also works BayCon. This is why there is a conflict for fans and staffers, and why the decision to move Fanime to Memorial Day weekend was something of a surprise. True, most fans won't be affected, but there are some who will be.
Given that BayCon has *always* been on Memorial day, I'll probably be doing BayCon next year, and if I do Fanime at all, it will only be part-time.
Question answered. Thanks!
It's a shame people are planning to blow off Fanime next year. The last four day Fanime was the best Con I'd ever been to. '04 should be a lot of fun. But to each his own, right?
I'm going to try to go to both. Apparently the light rail has stops right next to both cons, so I guess I'll be becoming friends with the VTA very soon ^^
Not quite. While the SJCC does have a light rail stop right in front of it, the Doubletree Hotel (where BayCon is) is off of 1st St. That means that you'd have a walk between the nearest light rail stop and the hotel. Considering VTA's woes of late, I'm not even sure they'll be running the shuttle between light rail, the hotels/office parks, and the airport, particularly during a holiday weekend.
Quote from: "Stormfalcon"BayCon is indeed a sci-fi/fantasy convention, but it's quite skewed towards the literary portions of that fandom.
I know this thread is rather old, but I had to quote and comment this one.
To significant portions of fandom, calling BayCon (http://www.baycon.org/)a convention "quite skewed toward literary fandom" is grounds for gales of laughter. Really. I guess it all depends on your point of view.
Indeed, BayCon can be viewed as the convention from which things like AnimeExpo and FanimeCon were spawned, depending on exactly how you look at it.
Quote from: "Kevin Standlee"Quote from: "Stormfalcon"BayCon is indeed a sci-fi/fantasy convention, but it's quite skewed towards the literary portions of that fandom.
I know this thread is rather old, but I had to quote and comment this one.
To significant portions of fandom, calling BayCon (http://www.baycon.org/)a convention "quite skewed toward literary fandom" is grounds for gales of laughter. Really. I guess it all depends on your point of view.
In comparison to the other cons in the area (such as the late, lamented TimeCon), BayCon is seen as more of a literary con. There's a lot more focus on writing and authors than on media such as TV and movies. That's not to say that there is no focus on those media, but the perception is that the focus is more on literary sci-fi and fantasy, judging from the typical guest lists.
Quote from: "Stormfalcon"In comparison to the other cons in the area (such as the late, lamented TimeCon), BayCon is seen as more of a literary con.
It is, but only in comparison to those events. To people whose exclusive preference is for conventions like Potlatch (http://www.potlatch-sf.org/) or Readercon (http://www.readercon.org/), things like BayCon (http://www.baycon.org/) might as well be Dragon*Con (//www.dragoncon.org).
Quote from: "Stormfalcon"There's a lot more focus on writing and authors than on media such as TV and movies. That's not to say that there is no focus on those media, but the perception is that the focus is more on literary sci-fi and fantasy, judging from the typical guest lists.
It's all relative. BayCon is what I would call a
general science fiction convention. ("Science Fiction" in this context includes fantasy, just as it does for the Hugo Awards.) This is opposed to specialist conventions like FanimeCon, the
really literary cons like Potlatch, or even conrunning conventions like SMOFcon (http://www.smofcon.org/). To me, Worldcon (http://www.worldcon.org/) is the ultimate general SF convention; it can be viewed as "the gathering of the tribes" with a little bit of everything. (For those who didn't know it, last year's Worldcon, ConJosé (http://www.conjose.org/), was in downtown San José over Labor Day Weekend 2002, using the entire San José McEnery Convention Center and all the downtown hotels (except the Marriott, which was still under construction then).
If you're interested in one and only one thing and actively uninterested in everything else, a general convention isn't going to be your taste. It's sort of like if you were a fan of only one anime series and hated everything else anime and manga related, you wouldn't like FanimeCon because it would have too much stuff from other series.
Me, I'm a generalist and enjoy conventions where I can experience lots of different things. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying smaller specialist conventions.