A Message from Derek Künsken, Programming Co-Chair: Don’t worry, I left Marie the Keys, or Hayden was right again

This weekend will mark almost eleven years that I’ve been involved with Can*Con and it’s a good time for me to step down as the programming co-chair. I am unbelievably proud of the scifi, fantasy and horror community that we’ve built together. I’m also proud of the ever-growing volunteer team, and I know they’ll carry this conference to new heights. 

In November of 2011, on the margins of SFContario in Toronto, I met with Caycee Price to see about running the programming for Can*Con. That meeting went well and by October 2012, I was doing all the programming and co-chairing along with one of the con’s founders, Farrell McGovern. I had lots of ideas I wanted to try. I had a multi-year strategy. I wanted the con to eventually be able to afford to bring agents and editors from New York. I wanted to bring the scifi publishing industry to Ottawa. I wanted to make Ottawa the kind of writers’ community I’d been looking for all my life. 

Around that time Hayden Trenholm, whose advice is always eerily accurate, said “Oh good, we’ll have a good con for seven years.” When I asked why he was putting a time limit on me, he said conferences follow seven-year cycles: someone new brings a new kind of energy, but after seven years that runs down. When there’s no one to replace them, the con folds. 

“Fie on Hayden!” I said to myself, or “phoeey,” or something to that effect. I set about recruiting volunteers to make the con sustainable. There are too many volunteers to list here and they all deserve immense thanks, but three in particular need to be mentioned. 

My excellent friend Marie Bilodeau began with hotel and budgeting stuff, but very quickly joined me as co-chair. That partnership has been solid and award-winning for seven years. Marie and I divide the work really well. We also make tough choices on the kind of community we want to foster. We worked especially hard on the code of conduct and making sure we enforced it. Being enforcers is no fun, but as co-chairs, we’re responsible for the experience of everyone at the con – young, mature, all genders, all sexual orientations, all ethnicities. It is our responsibility to make a conference where everyone feels safe.

As the conference grew, the programming grew beyond being a one-person job, so I recruited Brandon Crilly and Evan May. They’ve been with the con for six or seven years so far and since 2018 have been leading pretty much all of the programming. Much of what you liked since 2018 has been under their leadership as I focused more on chair duties with Marie. And I do mean leadership. Brandon and Evan first took on two additional programming volunteers, and this year the programming team grew to seven people they’ve trained and guided. I’m super proud of the programming they’ve built – they haven’t needed me as a net for a while. That’s one of the reasons Marie and I want to throw Brandon and Evan a party on Saturday evening for the launch of their new novels: Catalyst from Atthis Arts and Easter Pinkerton and the Case of the Heretic Blood from Renaissance Press. Brandon and Evan and their team of volunteers are great and full of ideas and ambition and drive. 

So this weekend I’ll be stepping down as co-chair. Marie will lead the conference to its next successes and glories. She’s got a great team, great ideas and she’s a community leader I would follow anywhere. I’ll remain a member of the board of directors, and I’ll suggest panel ideas from time to time and I’ll apply to be on programming and see if they take me 🙂 

Do I have a message for any of you reading this? Absolutely. I started volunteering because I wanted to  build up a community of cool writers and editors and artists in Ottawa. I was also a hungry aspiring writer, and as Hayden also told me (darn that Hayden!) who you know can help your career. I met a lot of people volunteering for Can*Con and that’s one of the things I try to offer all our volunteers. It’s about building the personal Rolodex, it’s those twitter conversations two months later, it’s the cheering each other on, it’s the late night coffees or beers at the con talking about careers and career opportunities. So if you want to help make our community better, volunteer. If you feel you need to network, volunteer. If you want to build some skills you don’t have yet, volunteer. Can*Con is a great place to do that. 

Thank you to all the friends I’ve made. Thank you to all the people who have panelled or discussed or moderated or attended panels. Thank you to all the people who cheered each other on. Thank you to all the people who mentored or chose to be mentored. This is the community we’ve made and this is where we belong. 

Derek