On behalf of Can*Con, we would like to officially close Can*Con 2019 and thank all guests, special guests and attendees! It was a wonderful year, emotionally moving (thank you for the Aurora win!), smart, hilarious, friendly, supportive and energizing. We are unbelievably proud to be able to host this meeting of the community and we're already planning for next year! But first, some stats from 2019!
– 7 Guests of Honour
– 22 Special Guests
– 10,000 pieces of paper saved by using sched.com
– 21 attendees who couldn’t have otherwise joined us without the Can*Con community fund
– 1 award ceremony
– 1 inaugural science literacy track
– 4 game and prose writing workshops
– 2 features on CBC’s All in a Day (thank you, Alan Neal!)
– 164 panelists
– 134 sessions
– 1 madhouse at our inaugural karaoke party
– 5 parties at the Sheraton
– 30 vendor booths
– 1 Can*Con Aurora win (thank you!)
– 1 exhausted committee
Many, many people were supportive (and surprised!) when we capped Can*Con 2019 at 450 attendees. We're happy to announce that we'll be at the Sheraton in downtown Ottawa again in 2020 and that we'll probably be able to raise the cap past 500 attendees with new space being built.
We will be opening registration sometime in January, but you can mark your calendars now: Can*Con 2020 will be from October 16-18 at the Ottawa Sheraton. In January, we'll also be announcing our first three guests of honour, the staff for 2020, and which specific volunteer positions that will be open for applications.
In February, we will be opening programming applications, where you can submit panel ideas or apply to be a panelist. As with the previous two years, we will do our best to give panelists 1-3
program items, but due to continuing high demand, we might revise down that number later to make sure the everyone has time to see the panels they want and meet the people they hoped.
In the meantime, if there was something you loved or hated, please let us know at can.spec.lit@gmail.com . We love fan mail, and also want to know where we can improve.
We would like to thank the 2019 volunteers for their dedication and professionalism. And thank you all again for a wonderful year.
We can’t wait to see you in 2020.
Much love,
Marie and Derek
Co-Chairs
Can*Con
