Tropicon

(Did you mean an Orlando convention?)

Tropicon, the South Florida Science Fiction Convention, ran 20 years from 1982 through 2001. Initially created to take advantage of the writers and artists imported for the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, it was run by a small but dedicated group of science fiction fans headed by Joe Siclari and Edie Stern. In addition to Joe and Edie, the starting group included Judy Bemis, Diane Goldman, Tony Parker, Becky Peters, David Singer, Sue Trautman, and Craig Newmark.

Subsequent Tropicons were put on as independent entities with many of the same people performing the multitude of tasks that make such undertakings a success. In 1985 this same group of people formed the South Florida Science Fiction Society and SFSFS formally took over the sponsorship of Tropicon. SFSFS was the sponsor for all Tropicons from 1985 to 2001.

In addition to convention sponsored guests, Tropicon often had special filk guests. Expenses for these guests were raised by the local filk community, rather than the convention, and involved donations by the usual suspects, calls for donations during the convention, and a limited but sincere amount of arm twisting.

A frequent Tropicon and in fact SFSFS symbol was a flamingo with a propeller beanie. That image appeared woven into many program book covers and other artifacts.

Photos

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Convention
	1982—2001

This is a convention page. Please extend it by adding information about the convention, including dates, GoHs, convention chairman, locale, sponsoring organization, external links to convention pages, awards given, the program, notable events, anecdotes, pictures, scans of publications, pictures of T-shirts, con reports, etc.