Smofcon 18

Smofcon 18 was held in Cocoa Beach, Florida, from December 1-3, 2000, and many fen arrived a day early to watch the night time launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-97) (voted "Best Opening Ceremony of All Time") and chaired by Joe Siclari and Edie Stern and sponsored by SFSFS.

After attending this, her first Smofcon, Tammy Coxen commented that it was too Worldcon-focused and had limited appeal since she didn't plan on running a Worldcon. Picking up on her comments, Steven H Silver organized MidFan with the purpose of running a regional-focused con-runners' convention, Midwest Construction.

Concom

The program book of SMOFcon 2000, as it was called at the time, listed the following Staff:

• Con Suite: Judi Goodman & Glen "Scruffy" Hammer
• Launch Passes: Pat Molloy
• Programming: Edie Stern
  • Program Staff: Joe Siclari, Ben Yalow
• Registration: Melanie Herz
• Treasury: Bill Wilson
• Web Site: Jack Weaver
• Chairman: Joe Siclari

Programming

The program included demos and workshops, discussions, and presentations. Several program items were also themed, as "Thinking it through," "Create a Con," and "Challenge Rounds."

On Sunday, Naomi C. Fisher gave a wonderful cheesecake cooking workshop, the results of which were enjoyed for the rest of the day in the Consuite. In her convention report, Anne K. Gay commented that she didn't know it was possible to be sick of cheesecake, but she felt like she wasn't going to have any again for a long time.

Publications

A single at-con publication included a welcome from the Chair, the programming grid, program descriptions, the membership list (printed straight from the website), a SMOF Experience Summary that the con hoped would be filled out and turned back in, and a set of Thinking It Through papers: "Financial Planning for Conventions," by Elayne Pelz, "Budgeting Worldcons and Other One-Shot Conventions," by Mark L. Olson, and "Some Thoughts on Negotiating with Hotels," by Ben Yalow.

The welcome from the Chair concluded with three rules of conrunning:

• Be sure you take running the con seriously.
• Don't take it too seriously.
• Be sure to have fun. (Stop when it's not fun so you can come back later.)

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Smofcon 17	Smofcon	Smofcon 19
	2000

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