Naturally, the minute I admit to myself that I’m not quite ready to face next year’s schedule, part of my brain does exactly that. So here is a listing of my currently scheduled public events. There are some additional events which may pop up, but they’re tentative, so I’ll not list them yet.
LTUE Life the Universe and Everything Symposium at UVU (Orem, UT) February 9-11
This one is only about five weeks away. The LTUE crew had to switch venues at the last minute, so they’re still scrambling to get everything arranged. However I have never been disappointed by LTUE as an event, and this year is going to be great. As soon as I know details on registration or panel scheduling, I’ll pass them along.
LDStorymakers Conference (Provo, UT) May 4-5
I’ll be teaching a class on Finances for Creative people and co-teaching a class on cover design. Howard will be teaching World building and Talent vs. Practice.
Deep South Con (Huntsville, AL) June 15-17
This is a relatively small and low-key convention, but I’m really looking forward to the chance to go and just hang out with Howard. He’s a guest of honor and will be on programming. I’ll probably just be hanging out and visiting. We can probably arrange for away from the convention lunches and meetups if there are folks interested. I also want to see some of the southern landscape. I’ve passed through Atlanta before, but all I saw was the airport.
Additional events to which I will NOT be going:
LunaCon March 16-18 –Howard is a Guest of Honor there. New York area folks don’t want to miss him.
GenCon Indy August 16-19 –Howard will be running a booth there again.
And in the tentative category I have:
Chicon (WorldCon, Chicago) August 30-Sept 3 –This one I have mixed feelings about missing. I love attending WorldCons, but the timing on this one is bad. My kids will have just started school. I just have to get closer before deciding.
No CONduit? Alas and alack. What a shame to lose Howard.
Howard is already booked for another event that same weekend. I’ll be at CONduit for at least some of the time. My daughter Kiki will be exhibiting in the art show. The question is whether I’ll turn CONduit into a public appearance and be on programming, or if I’ll just wander through at my leisure. I’ll know more after LTUE.
Wait, what? LTUE is no longer at BYU and now is charging? Wow…that really sucks. I looked forward to it every year, but there’s no way we can go at $20+ each. What the heck happened?
For the last several years LTUE has struggled to find a home at BYU. No department wanted to sponsor it. Last year they went through Conferences and Workshops in order to keep it alive. This meant that they had to start charging again. (Long ago there were entrance fees for LTUE, but BYU disallowed them.) This year BYU simply would not give LTUE the space. I’m actually happy to see LTUE move off of BYU campus. Charging an entrance fee is hard on those for whom money is tight, but it means that LTUE can be independent. They can start planning ahead, reserving space, and flying in prominent guests again. I really think this switch is LTUE’s best chance to last for another 30 years.
I hope it works out for the organizers. I’m definitely going to miss getting to go, though. I thought we had gone this year, but maybe we didn’t, because we sure didn’t pay anything.
In 2011 there was an entrance fee for non-students. If you had a student ID, any student ID, you got in free. There may be the same sort of deal available through UVU, but I don’t have any details yet.