I haven't been this sleep-deprived since I had an infant, but I'll do my best to write something about this lovely weekend.
First up, I need to thank my fellow
lubricus concom members, who all worked so hard to bring this together.
chaeche is our fearless leader, without whom none of this wonderfulness would be possible. Her leadership, experience, ability to delegate, and legal/business savvy were totally indispensable.
samwise_sam gets shit done, and had fun doing it. She rocked registration, took on the craft fair with just two weeks to go, and was a continual source of fun and humor at the con.
pennswoods helped design the look of the con last year, and we did our best to replicate everything without her there this year. She organized the art on display and set up the format for the art gallery that
djin7 took on and totally rocked.
treewishes had to cancel her trip to the con at the last minute, but she completely rocked as my programming co-chair. She took on the big job of scheduling panels and confirming with mods while I was out of the country in June. We missed the presence of
springfrost this year, who is the web mistress and general artistic/web wizard of the concom. We got to see
stupid_drawings briefly, and really appreciate her help!
Others who deserve massive thanks are:
tripperfunster, whose art for the program cover was fantastic, but who will likely be remembered most for her cock drawing that she literally whipped out upon arrival at the hotel, then took down to the front desk of the hotel (!) to have them make copies. Tripper was also my roomie for the con, and I think I laughed more at 2:00 am than I have in a long time!
dacro stepped up to help out in any way she could, always with her fantastic sense of humor. She was responsible for the hilarious
quote wall, among many other things.
elenauial kept the con suite running, which we really appreciate! Thank you so much for all your help, and for bringing your sweet little boy along too. :-)
I spent most of the con running around and stressed out, and I didn't get to talk to many people I'd hoped to. Still, I had a blast! Here are some of my favorite memories from the con:
The cock decorating contest was a last-minute idea. The icebreaker activity was going to be run by Tree, and when she learned she couldn't come (with just days to go), we all brainstormed what to do instead. The idea of decorating penises came up, and I emailed Tripper to ask if she could draw something for us to use. We bought supplies at Michaels on Wednesday night and then let the attendees loose on the activity. I was STUNNED by the creativity everyone put into their cocks. Seriously, it was amazing! You can see the results of the cock decorating contest
here. We'll be posting individual shots on Tumblr for Penis Fridays, so stay tuned for that. ;-)
Bedtime stories was an idea that came out of last year's con, and it was also a highlight. It's fun to sit around with other slash fans and hear snippets from everyone's favorite stories. We've often described Lubricus as a fandom pajama party, and that night it felt exactly like one!
I didn't have time to participate in any of the crafting, but I love the fact that crafting is a big part of this con. There was the big Craftapalooza night that started it off, and then the craft supplies remained out for the rest of the con. The paper wands people made were truly jaw-dropping, and there were so many other fantastic things produced.
I didn't have time to attend all the programming sessions I wanted to, but all the ones I went to were fantastic. As usual, Tripper's panel was a highlight. She read badfic, and it was gloriously funny. I will never be able to think about Hedwig or Flitwick quite the same way again!
The Blue Ball was a lot of fun. I dressed up as Slash Girl and
chaeche dressed as my cohort in slash, Plot bunny. We (with help from
dacro) wrote cracky plot bunnies on slips of paper, and during the Ball,
chaeche hopped around, bit people, and then handed them a plot bunny. Everyone who got one was supposed to write or draw something for it, and many people did! I think we'll be posting the art for that on
lubricus and on Tumblr. Some of the ficlets are already being posted, as I see from my flist. I still have to write mine, which was H/D with surprise daddy!kink. :-o
The Morning After breakfast and the subsequent Dead Squid panel went really well. As always, we got lots of good feedback from everyone. One thing that was very heartening to me was that most of the attendees love the HP-centric format of the con and want it to stay that way. There are lots of big HP fandom cons and there are lots of small multi-fandom slash cons, but there aren't any other small HP slash cons. It's a particular niche, and I love it. I love that we can be raunchy and porny. I love that we literally had penises all over the walls, that we even decorated our cardboard Hogwarts with cocks, that we gave away sex toys as door prizes and lube samples were in every bag. I love that this corner of the HP fandom, which unashamedly loves its porn, has a place to go.
So thanks to everyone who made the con happen, to everyone who ran a panel, led an activity or a meet-up, or who stepped up to help us clean or set up. This is absolutely a con by fans and for fans, and I'm incredibly fucking proud of that. ♥