New Zealand fan, Joffre Horlor, has produced a lengthy report on ConScription, including a lot of pictures. You can read it here. I’d like to quote a few short bits. First:

Julie [Czerneda] came across as having irrepressible enthusiasm for science and for explaining it to kids.

Oh my, yes she does. Julie is magnificently enthusiastic. And secondly:

The committee organizing next year’s convention, Au Contraire!, gave a spirited talk. The committee consists mostly of women under the age of 30, and they started off by asking a question that I’d wondered at myself: given that there are clearly thousands of people in New Zealand interested in Star Trek, Buffy, paranormal romance and other genre works, why do so few people go to cons? So the committee has set themselves the ambitious goal of reconnecting SF&F fans with the convention circuit. They plan to do this by keeping the registration fee very low, but actively promoting the con, and by shifting the emphasis of the con from guests towards the fans themselves, by covering activities such as fanfic.

Wellington next year, everyone. Let’s give them plenty of support.