Irish DiscWorld Convention (IDWC)

idwc2009

Having been at the UK International Convention - and enjoyed it tremendously! - it has been decided that there is going to be an Irish discworld convention. That is, we were told we should do it. And we took them seriously!

So this thread is going to be where we (Nicola and Mary-Ellen) look for suggestions, ideas, comments, et al.

So please, check back regularly for news and information.

At the moment all we can tell you is that we hope to have it in late October 2009 in Co. Clare. The reasoning for this is that anybody hoping to fly over (and we do already have people from England looking to come) will be able to fly into Shannon quite easily.

So let us know: do you want to come or do you know anyone who wants to come?

We had this posted in the general literature forum and have now moved it so it would be easier to find. This will now be the place to post your replies.

Fad

idwc2009 wrote: »

Having been at the UK International Convention - and enjoyed it tremendously! - it has been decided that there is going to be an Irish discworld convention. That is, we were told we should do it. And we took them seriously!

So this thread is going to be where we (Nicola and Mary-Ellen) look for suggestions, ideas, comments, et al.

So please, check back regularly for news and information.

At the moment all we can tell you is that we hope to have it in late October 2009 in Co. Clare. The reasoning for this is that anybody hoping to fly over (and we do already have people from England looking to come) will be able to fly into Shannon quite easily.

So let us know: do you want to come or do you know anyone who wants to come?

We had this posted in the general literature forum and have now moved it so it would be easier to find. This will now be the place to post your replies.

Mary Ellen, tis Conor here
I ll come if you organise it,

idwc2009

Cool cool Conor! Can't wait to see you there- October 2009. And make sure and check the diary!

- Mary-Ellen

Fad

idwc2009 wrote: »

Cool cool Conor! Can't wait to see you there- October 2009. And make sure and check the diary!

- Mary-Ellen

I shall be in college so, i ll have no excuse (Hopefully :P)

idwc2009

So yes, the committee has been hard at work these past few days organising the different aspects of the convention.

Here is what we have so far...

- Volunteers for tech for various events.
- A web-designer working on getting us our own official page.
- A writer taking a look at one of the various plays adapted from pTerry's books by Stephen Briggs.
- One hotel looking desperately for our business (they heard just how big this will get).


And what we are currently working on:

- The attendance of the Man Himself (Mr Terry Pratchett).
- The attendance of other special guests.
- Even more hotel prices - we are working on the most competitve prices for you!
- A preliminary events lists.

What we need:

- YOU
This Con will not be as good, as exciting, as fun-filled, if YOU are not there!
We need your ideas, suggestions, comments and arguments.
But most importantly, we need you to join the friends list of The IDWC. This can be done by checking out Bebo (Irish Dwcon), Livejournal (IDWC) or Facebook. As well as this thread, this is where we will be updating with news and ideas.

I highly endorse this service/product.

idwc2009

Good! Glad to have you on board!

Zageroth

Why not have it in Dublin/Dun Laoghaire
Dun Laoghaire has alot of places to choose from, after hosting the Festival of World Cultures, i'm sure they can accomadate somehting along those lines in the comming future..
Also you have the HSS Ferry that could bring in the People from England..
and we could get a sponsorship from them...
Since i'm based around that area i could go into a few of the hotels and even the Co. Council (i got one of the "Big Wigs" in there into Pratchett) so i could always broach the idea to him..
you know it never hurts to ask...
Getting hold of Pratchett could be a bit of trouble, but i know he knows about his irish fan-base. and would be more than willing to Talk and answer questions..

i'll keep an eye on this tread and get back to you...

Sheena99

Count me in, would adore this. Have not been able to get off my ass to go to the UK for any, but could not let this pass.

Nichololas

I've never been a convention of any kind - what exactly goes on at these shindigs?

idwc2009

So glad you guys are interested, Zageroth, Sheena99 and Enlil_Nick.

In response to Zageroths suggestion of having it in Dublin/Dun Laoire, I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible as myself and the rest of the committee (that we have at the moment) all live in the west of Ireland. We need to try at least to keep it there and be able to go to the hotel and all suppliers/supporters and talk face to face if anything comes up.

I love that you have gotten interested and are suggesting things, please don't change. As we have said before, we need you guys.

Sheena99, it'll be well worth coming, thank you for supporting!

And as for you Enlil_Nick, at the moment we have no set programme but I can give you and all those who need the info an outline.

--

Everything is optional.

Official talks: Between guests and Special Guests. We can't tell you who at the moment so don't ask.

Games: Discworld games, currently being thought up by our Games Master Torak. Will involve fun, danger (though he was told no physical or mental harm, it may still be quite scary). Anyone with a game idea, send us a pm!

Play: We're going to perform a play, open to all the convention members. We've decided on one already and are just waiting for the Play Master to adapt it from the adaptation! If you're interested in this give us a shout.

Misc: We haven't everything decided yet, so, again, if you have any further ideas or suggestions, send us a pm. We would love to hear from you. Plus, you will be credited!

And then there is the usual Convention 'usuals': very little sleep, much talking, laughing and possibly music if people decide to bring their instruments out. There will be alcohol. You have been warned!

mud

sounds great! will this be over a weekend or wha? would love to get involved!!

oooooooook!

idwc2009

We're planing for a weekend. 2:00pm Friday to approx. 6:00pm Monday. Also for anyone interested there will be a party to top it all off on the Monday night

idwc2009

Thanks for sticking with us. Small update. We have a logo. We can't put it in our profile yet, since we haven't yet reached the prequisite 25 posts for these 'non-important', or some such, items.

If you want to take a look at it it's hosted here! Thanks!

Zageroth

Quick Plugin,

i'll offer up a small prize..ish, well maybe a big..ish prize for any of the competitions..
i've got about 4.49GB of Pratchett Books on my iPod..|

one of the Prizes could be a 5GB key with all the books on them...
or a 5GB MP3 player with all of them on it...
just a quick idea for prizes, i've also got all the Potter Books too, they could be a choice for the Prizes...

yeah i can see why you would want it there, oh well i'll keep my suggestions comming... i'd walk 500 miles for Pratchett!

Bonzodog

Ooh...yes, looking forward to this. I am a member of the mostly UK based afp (alt.fan.pratchett) group, but have never been able to attend any of the DWCon's in the UK.

I will be keeping an eye on this.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Unless you have a licence to those books, and are giving the licence to someone as a prize along with those files you can't do that.

idwc2009

Organisation of the first ever Irish DiscWorld Convention is proceeding apace, but we've come up against some obstacles - namely, we're running out of people.

If you have any experience of running a fan convention, and/or you want to get involved, please contact us, and let us know.

Positions we currently need to fill:
Dealer liason
Ops Manager
Gopher Chief
Head Watchman
Stage Manager/Head of Productions
Membership Secretary

Zageroth

hey, oh well it was a good try anyway(audiobooks)
well i'm still on board for this convention...

what do the jobs entail?

Dealer liason
Ops Manager
Gopher Chief
Head Watchman
Stage Manager/Head of Productions
Membership Secretary

bigjigwig77

Definatly up for it! And I know quite a lot of other people who will flip when they hear this.

I would be up to doing some Volunteer work, but nothing thats very, very important to be honest.

Corcaigh84

All I can say is 'wow'. I was just thinking today (while reading DWMonthly) that it sucks that there's DW conventions everywhere else but here!

Set a date and it's going on my calendar

idwc2009

Sorry 'bout the absence folks. Heres the details ye were looking for:

Dealer liason
- We will be having a dealers room for people selling their own handicrafts etc. Will have a table for a local bookshop. This person will have to liaise with them, re applications for the room, room space, table space, whether they need help or not. And so on.

Ops Manager
- There is a saying during conventions, if you need a question sorted "go to ops", if you're lost - "go to ops", if you want to help out "go to ops". Ops is the centre of management. "Operations" as it were. Good organisational skills are needed here.

Gopher Chief
- Gophers are the lifeblood of the convention. They help keep the place running and the jobs get done. By the time the convention comes around it is out of the hands of the chairpersons as it were, and over to ye! Again good organisational skills needed. But on the plus side, not much work to be done until that weekend.

Head Watchman
- Some things are not allowed happen at the Con. We do not allow people to run around with edged weapons. Or any weapons for that matter. It is the job of the watch to hold onto these and also just to keep order in the queues.

Stage Manager/Head of Productions
- Ok, sorry but if I need to explain this one to you, odds are, we won't pick you. We will be hosting a number of large staged events. The Stage Manager will be the main boss for these one the day. If you've been stage manager before, or know someone who is interested in DW and has been, get them in contact with us.

Membership Secretary
- Application minder. Checker. Making sure-er. We will need someone to keep an eye on the applications etc.

Let me know if you need further detail. Also, if you want to offer your skills will you email us at idwc2009 - @ - hotmail - . - com. We will have domain emails soon but they're taking their time getting ready.

Sofiztikated

I can almost say I'll be going. And one of me muckers will be up for it as well.

I'd like to offer up my time for one of the jobs, but as it is, paying job is taking up too much time as it is.

Excellent, well done that chap for the idea.

Is there going to be a Wizards breakfast? :pac::pac: I might make myself ill.

idwc2009

Good to have you with us. As we said, some of the jobs won't come into play until just about on or near the date so don't count yourself out of the game!

Excellent, well done that chap for the idea.

Which chap?

The chairpersons are all of the female persuasion.
All three of us.

All hail the tri-chair!
:cool:

Sofiztikated

All chaps involved. Male and female.

idwc2009

Please excuse the excitement but this is important!

THE WEBSITE IS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not in tip-top yet but it will be!

www.idwcon.org

---

Also, since our webmaster general has upped and left us - moving jobs and such - we are in need of someone with top webmastering skills. We got a friend to put up the page you can see at the moment but he can't commit to anything more at this point.

All cv's to info @ idwcon.org

WizZard

Oooh interesting. I'd be up for going to this

What kind of webmaster skills do you need?

Zageroth

sorry for the absence myself. sure i'd love to keep the watch duty jobs, or for the Ops Managers job, i have a touch of the old OCD, so i'm a touch fanatic about the little things in life, keep me in mind for that one.

catch you laters..
~Z~

idwc2009

Sorry WizZard but the part of Webmaster is actually gone now but if you contact us at info@idwcon.org we can sure use your help possibly on the Website and on other things!

And also to Zegeroth I'm afraid we have the Heads of those departments but there is sure alot of room on both the Watch and Ops teams! Contact us at info@idwcon.org


Thanks so much again to everyone who is marking dates in diaries and planing on going! We're looking forward to seeing you at the Falls Hotel, Ennistymon, Co. Clare on the 6th - 9th of November!

idwc2009

Just so you guys know we are still looking for:
Dealer liason
Gopher Chief
Stage Manager/Head of Productions
and
Membership Secretary

If any of you guys feel you are up for some volunteer work or feel that you can volunteer a friend, who's interested of course, then please contact us at info@idwcon.org

firefly08

I will definitely go to this anyway.

I don't know if i'd be able to help with any of the volunteer positions you have (no experience with this kind of thing), but I am from the area and am frequently back there at weekends - if that means I can be of any use, let me know! (Although in this electronic age it probably doesn't make any difference...)

I can also help with anything Web/IT related if the need arises, although you seem to have that covered.

aerosol

Just come across this,well done all involved,I'm very much looking forward to coming along.

Gizmodeon

will be there with bells on
This is a brilliant idea!

idwc2009

www.idwcon.org

Friday 6th November - Monday 9th November 2009
The Falls Hotel, Ennistymon, Co. Clare, Ireland

Following a serious bout of post-Convention enthusiasm last August, we are pleased to announce that the first ever DiscWorld COnvention in Ireland will be held in November 2009, in a very nice hotel in County Clare.

We have invited Bernard Pearson, Colin Smythe, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen, Diane Duane and Peter Morwood to be Guests, with Sir Terry Pratchett OBE and Stephen Briggs as Guests of Honour. Bernard Pearson and Jack Cohen have confirmed that they will be attending, as has Sir Terry (health permitting).

The website is now online, where you can find out about the hotel, some of the events, and there are also forums available for discussing things. (Don't worry about the colour, it' being seen to.)

Membership will be open from February, in various varieties.

We intend to make this the biggest, best and most fun DiscWorld event in Ireland, so come along and join us for the best weekend you'll have in November!

idwc2009

The BBC is screening a documentary called Terry Pratchett: Living with
Alzheimer's on Wednesday 4th February, at 9pm on BBC2 (with part 2 the same
time next week). Some footage for this was filmed at last year's DW
Convention in Birmingham.




He's also given a brief "What I'm watching" interview in the Radio Times:




Like most authors, I spend most days sitting in front of my computer, which
means that I end up listening to radio rather than watching TV. Classic FM
has been my default station for many years - classical music tends not to
interfere with my hallucinatory thought processes! But, just recently, I've
discovered Birdsong on DAB [a digital station that plays nothing but
birdsong]. There's something about the sound of the outdoors that adds
texture to a room. It cools the room down, makes you feel relaxed.

I'm not what you would call TV's biggest fan - I have no time at all for
soaps and couldn't give a stuff who won Strictly Come Dancing - but I do
enjoy randomly grazing through channels. If I finish work at a reasonable
time, I start flicking and, more often than not, end up on Dave.

A lot of people expect me to be a great fan of science fiction, but I spend
all of my working life caught up in alternate realities, so I prefer my TV
to be a bit more ... ordinary. Top Gear always makes me smile. Not because
I have a great love of cars, but because Jeremy Clarkson seems to be very
good at annoying the people who deserve to be annoyed. He enjoys rattling
cages, which I heartily approve of.

Then there's QI, of course. I'm sure I've seen most episodes about 50
times! Personally, I prefer the old-fashioned quiz shows. Something very
pure and simple, like Mastermind or University Challenge. The ones that
attract the real eggheads.

(Reproduced from Radio Times 31 January - 6 February 2009)

Corcaigh84

Does anyone have an ETA on the Membership(prev. post says some time in Feb, but just checking) booking on idwcon.org?

Also, will you be accepting Laser as a method of payment... it'll be another month yet before I get some real plastic

idwc2009

The membership is now open and ready for you to dedicate your allegiance to the First Ever Irish Discworld Convention. Sign up quick quick because we have a membership limitations

From the membership page you can apply and volunteer for tech, ops, watch or gophering (if you wish) and you can sign up for the posh dinner (approx. 35 euros).

But be weary, here be dangerous monsters.

You may know that you membership number will allow you to avail of the hotel rooms. The hotel room prices are 65euros per person sharing per night with under 14 (half price) and children (under 6 go free). We are hoping to have a better prices but that'll be decided later.

firefly08

Do you need to join up just to attend the convention?

idwc2009

Ya, you do. Membership is relatively cheap.
€35 for full adult membership.
€28 for students and U18
€15 for child (U12)

These prices are for full weekend memberships. We're also hoping to have day memberships. But won't have a price on those for a while.

Blackhorse Slim

So membership is/includes admission for the weekend? Just to clarify

idwc2009

The membership cost is the admission price for the weekend. Full membership is for the whole weekend from Friday to Monday. Day Memberships will be available on the door, and only valid for one day.

We do not accept money on behalf of the hotel. Room charges and food are not included.

Hope that helps.

idwc2009

Earlier in the week, numerous IDWCon committee members went and talked to the hotel people about the room prices. We have successfully renegotiated them to be a bit more attractive to con-goers.

€50 per person per night bed and breakfast (was €65 pppn b&b).

There is a €20 single person supplement.

There is no option for dinner, bed and breakfast.

If you have already booked your room, do not worry. Your bill will automatically be changed to the new rate.



To reduce room costs many people will be wanting to share a room during the Con.

Originally the Con staff were going to organise the room shares on a same-sex basis. However this raised some issues on LJ which we had not anticipated. Therefore we have decided that we are not going to be regulating room shares. However if you do want to ask the Con staff for help in arranging your room we will help where we can.

maggie797

this is brilliant, when i lived in the uk I always wanted to attend one of these conventions! I am a BIG fan of terry pratchett and have been for nearly 20 years!! great someone thought of setting this up.. I will defintely come along ...with my broom!! Will defintitely bookmark the website!!

Daith

Have to go to this. Well done to the organizers!

purple_hatstand

I live in Lahinch and work in Ennistymon - if there's anything you need a hand with on the ground here in the run-up to the convention.....send me a PM.

daveyboy_1ie

Would defo go to this, and my gf who is as big a fan as me

watty

Sounds good.

I even know how to get to Falls Hotel. The electric Turbine/watermill on the river feeding the Hotel (or used to) is like something from Discworld. Ennistymon is very olde Worlde or used to be.

Doctor DooM

I would like to attend this. I reckon I could get half the Nocturnal forum to go, too.

Elevelyn

Just saw this thread and should definitely be going to this.

paperclip2

I am so going to this!!

What are the rates for non-members?