CON.TXT 2020 Scholarships!

We're offering three scholarships for CON.TXT 2020!

Our Minotaur Scholarship is a memorial scholarship established by the CON.TXT concom for our friend and fellow fan Minotaur who was known for (among many other fine things) welcoming new fans and encouraging everyone to join in and have fun at fan gatherings and cons. This scholarship awards a full membership to one first-time CON.TXT attendee.

Our Diversity Scholarship was previously administered by Con or Bust and is inspired by their slogan, “Helping fans of color attend SFF cons." This scholarship awards a full membership and one hotel room night to one CON.TXT attendee of color.

Our Need-based Scholarship is made available partially through donations from fans; we will offer half-price memberships to fans who request them and, if possible, full memberships and hotel assistance. Need-based Scholarship recipients are asked to participate by volunteering for at least two hours during the con weekend.

If you are interested in one or more of these scholarship options, please email registration@con-txt.net with “CON.TXT Scholarship - [scholarship/s you are applying for]” in the subject line.

If you have already registered for CON.TXT, you can still apply for a scholarship. If you are selected, your registration costs will be refunded to you.

CON.TXT 2018 Roll Call and Con Reports

People mentioned at the Dead Duck that they would like to be able to find people from the con and match up the people they met with their social media. So that’s what this post is for! If you attended CON.TXT 2018, comment to this Dreamwidth post with your badge name and your DW, Tumblr, Twitter, or other place you can be found and want to share with people.

Remember, you don’t have to have a Dreamwidth account to post, just use the anonymous feature and tell us who you are.

While you’re at it, we’re collecting con reports and panel reviews here.

And don’t forget to fill out the Exit Poll.

CON.TXT Code of Conduct and Safety Policy

With CON.TXT just two days away, we want to draw people’s attention to our Code of Conduct and our Safety and Accessibility Policies which can be found on our website here.

Code of Conduct:

CON.TXT strives to be a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable space for all attendees. We count on you to help create that space by respecting your fellow con-goers' physical and social boundaries, accessibility needs, and identities.

Before you touch people or their personal effects—including clothing, assistive devices, and service animals—make sure you have been invited to do so, verbally or nonverbally. Respect others' use of shared spaces: moderate your volume, your use of scent, and your physical distance, and always leave a clear path to the exit.

Before taking any photos or videos at CON.TXT, get explicit permission from anyone in those photos or videos. In the interests of promoting a safe space, no audio or video recording is permitted during panels.

Similarly, when speaking or writing publicly about the con, refer to con-goers by badge name only, especially in panel write-ups. During panel discussions, please state your badge name when you begin speaking so that people who cannot see your badge are able to identify who is speaking. Name badges are to be worn in con space at all times. Badge names should not include slurs or threatening language; if you register with an unacceptable badge name, the concom may require you to change it.

Be respectful in your language. If an attendee has specified their pronouns, use them. Do not use slurs or make derogatory remarks based on any aspect of a person's identity. If you have a problem with someone's behavior you are not under any obligation to deal with it yourself, but if you choose to, call out the action rather than the person.

In summary: seek and expect consent in all interactions. If you don't know whether someone wants your presence, conversation, or touch, ask them and respect their answer.

During CON.TXT, if you experience or witness any harassment or behavior or other violations of our Code of Conduct, please email us at safety@con-txt.net or come up to any concom member wearing a purple sash. Similarly, if you have any accessibility needs during the con, please email us or speak to a concom member.

DIY Panels at CON.TXT

Did you miss the deadline for proposing a CON.TXT panel? Or did your panel idea not make the final cut? Have you fallen in love with a new fandom recently (BTS, helloooo)? Well, you're in luck! We've always saved a few panel slots for Do It Yourself panels suggested at the con, but because of our larger hotel space this year we're able to offer a total of 15 DIY panel slots! There will be 5 slots available on Friday and 6 slots available on Saturday, and 4 available on Sunday. (And if all of those fill up, you're welcome to meet in the Upsuite or Downsuite!)

To sign up to run a DIY panel, just write your badge name and panel title on the sign-up sheet on the Message Wall in the Downsuite. Since DIY signups are first come, first served, we have a plan to give latecomers a chance to claim one: all Friday slots and the first three Saturday slots will be available to claim when the Downsuite opens on Friday morning, but the three remaining Saturday slots and all of the Sunday slots will only be available to claim on Saturday morning when the Downsuite opens.

Once you’ve claimed your slot, tweet the panel title, what it’s about, and the time using the hashtag #CT18DIY, and we will retweet it to help you advertise it.

So start thinking about what panels you wish were on the schedule this year, grab a co-mod or two, and be prepared to sign up for a DIY slot at the con! (And seriously, please do a BTS panel!!!)

Want to have the con on your phone? There’s an app for that!

This year at CON.TXT, we have an app for your phone. To get the app, just download EventsXD for free in your chosen app store, then search for “CON.TXT”. In our event pages, you can see a full schedule for the con, search content by time slot, track type, panel room, or moderator. You can fave the panels you want to attend and then click on “My Agenda” at the bottom and it will give you a personalized schedule for the con. There is also a floor plan and if you click on “Pulse”, you can see a feed from Twitter of people using our con hashtag. Go download the app and enjoy!

Speaking of Twitter, just a reminder that our official general con hashtag is #contxt2018. There is also a specific hashtag for each panel located in the program if you want to live tweet a panel.  We encourage panel mods to write the hashtag at the top of your easel pads at the beginning of your panel. We will once again have the paper wall for announcing room parties or to leave notes for people and for the always popular  “Overheard at CON.TXT” quotes. But also remember you can tweet those things as well! If someone says something hilarious in a panel or the Downsuite, tweet it using #OverheardAtContxt or #contxt2018. (But please remember to make sure it’s ok with the person you’re quoting, and use people’s badge names, not real names)

Games & Gaming at CON.TXT 2018

Whether you're into board games, quizzes, RPGs, or party games, this year's con has even more opportunities to play, watch, and discuss games with your fellow fans:

  • Only Connect quiz. For the first time, we're running a round of fannish Only Connect, based on the BBC quiz show, at 9 PM Thursday during the registration icebreaker! Two teams of three to seven players will compete to find the connections between groups of seemingly random clues. You can sign up at registration.
  • Duck Duck Games. Friday night after the vid show, from 10 to midnight, we're playing another round of Encore!, the singalong game from last year. No need to sign up for this one in advance--you can drop in and play for as long as you like.
  • Game Room. Saturday night opposite Disco Duck. Take a break from dancing and come play board, card, or party games! We'll have a wide range of games to choose from, including storytelling games like Slash, Euro board games like Ticket to Ride, and word games like Rewordable. Feel free to bring games of your own, too!

This year's panels include the return of Fannish Pictionary on Sunday and a special how-to panel on Beginning Dungeons and Dragons on Saturday. And if you want to play, demonstrate, or geek out about something that didn't make the schedule, we've got DIY panel slots on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday--sign up at registration to claim a room!

One way to spend free time at the con…

Feeling creative?  We'll have a stack of boxes on the Crafty Ducks table in the Downsuite, where you can:

Bling your badge - pronoun stickers, a rainbow of markers, stickers of joy (and fandom), and badge extenders in case there's not enough room to proudly display all of your fandoms and quip

Bling yourself - a stash of temporary tattoos, body jewels, hair extensions and baubles, body glitter, and there may be a tiara or two for general con festivity. The box will also be available in the Upsuite from after the Saturday panels are over for Disco Duck prep!

Coloring - an assortment of coloring books with crayons and colored pencils

Ducking - blank (white) rubber ducks and paint markers to create your ducky masterpiece

Naughty origami - paper and instructions. Also regular, but really, why?

... and a box of general crafting supplies to make a perfect panel pimping page or room party announcement!

CON.TXT is in ONE WEEK!! Are you as excited as we are?!?

Here are a few bits of info and reminders:

Hashtag shout-out:  If you are tweeting about the con now or at the con, be sure to add the hashtag #contxt2018 so we can all see it! We will also have hashtags specific to each panel at the con, which will be listed in the program.

Transportation news:  Just a head's up for people, the Red Line on the DC Metro will be under renovation during the week of the Con and there will be no Red Line service between Fort Totten and NoMa Gallaudet stations. Metro will be running shuttle buses between the stations, but please build in extra time for yourself if you have to travel through that section.

Reminder about hotel rooms: Remember if you are booking a hotel room at the last minute and you missed out on the con rate, send us an email with your name and the nights you booked and we will talk to the hotel about getting you moved to the con rate.

If you're looking for a room to share, there's a post for that here.

If you're looking for a ride share or have space in your own car, there's a post for that here.

Pre-order the exclusive CON.TXT 2018 t-shirt for one week only!

This year’s CON.TXT t-shirt is designed by the awesome Ninjaomelet!

image on white background of nyanduck logo and dates of con.txt 2018

Wear it with pride to advertise your Big Duck Energy :D.

We will be accepting pre-orders HERE for ONE WEEK only! Then, collect your shirt at the con. The nyanduck design is printed in full color on a white, 100% cotton, short-sleeved Hanes tagless tee. Sizes run S through 6X, as described on the Hanes size chart:

hanes size chart

A screenreader-accessible version of the size chart can be found here.

Pre-orders will close at 5 p.m. on TUESDAY, JULY 10. There may be a few extras for sale at the Orphan Table at the Fan Fair on Saturday, July 28th, but we can only guarantee you a shirt if you pre-order! Shirts are $20 each, payable in cash at CON.TXT’s registration desk; the proceeds will support the con. We will not be taking prepayments.

Celebrate the joy of fandom–and support CON.TXT–while you zoom through the cosmos with nyanduck!