Is Philcon Dying? The Pros and Cons of Being the Country's Oldest Sci-Fi Convention

Let me preface this whole piece by saying I like Philcon and the Philcon people have been nothing but nice to me.  I write this column, not to complain, but in hopes of enlightening fans and maybe giving the convention organizers a new perspective to help them improve Philcon.

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm waiting for my panel to start so I can shamelessly pimp my webcomic.  As I look around the Crown Plaza hotel in Cherry Hill, NJ, I wonder about the future of Philcon.  Ironically, my name tag says, "The Future is better than it used to be!" and features illustrations of classic sci-fi pics and ads from Philcon's heyday.  That must've been a great time to be in the country's oldest Science Fiction Society. 

But in 2009, the hotel lobby is chock full of white-haired grandpas carrying trade paperbacks, bearded guys with wheelchairs or walkers and very obese fans with canes.  What is the median age in this room?  A thousand?  I'm 43 and when I'm the guy that is going to have to lift the boxes, that's usually in a room of my elderly relatives.  I don't know if many of these people will make it to see Philcon 2010.

In the old days, what seemed to drive Philcon were fans who read books.  Trade paperbacks and hardcovers were big sellers and the fandom was relatively unified.  You had Star Trek, Star Wars and whatever came out in the bookstore.  Pretty much everyone read The Hobbit, saw the Terminator movies and at some point in time, met Harlan Ellison.

When I walked into the panel room early to wait for my discussion to start, I found the previous panel was about the TV show, Lost.  "Lost?" I thought.  "Why the Hell are they talking about that show?  Is this where geekdom lives today?  On the island?" 

No offense to you Lost fanboys (I don't mind the show much myself, although I find it extremely manipulative), but Lost isn't really big enough to rate a panel.  And it's not a geek panel.  Lost is waaaay too mainstream.  Any watercooler in America could've had that panel conversation about Jack and Kate and the other hunky stars.  Worst yet, the panel was seemingly made up of fans with no other connection to the show other than that they watched it.  Where's the Lost writer?  Actor?  Director?  The panelists were interchangeable with the audience, so why not hold the conversation somewhere else and save the room for something "important"?

As the Lost panel ended and my began to form, some of the older authors drifted in.  They were old school geeks dressed in corduroy jackets with patches on the elbows.  I pictured them 30 years prior dressed the same way looking just as geeky only younger.  These guys were all smart and wanted to talk about big ideas like "Will there be nation states in the future?" or "Will there be money?"  I thought maybe I'd have to school them on the Internet during one of my "Print is dead" rants, but one had a Kindle and the others talked about the business models for short story websites.  We had some awesome discussions.  Sharp guys.

But there were more people in the Lost panel and the median age of the fans in our room was Methuselah.  Am I the only one that sees the endgame here?

After my panels, I drifted around the hotel.  They have the usual dealers' room, but it's small.  There's gaming and a whole lot of other panels.  I hear rumors of Filk concerts and parties, but even Filthy Pierre's board looks a little empty.  The whole convention feels like it's running on fumes.

Five years ago, the con was in a hotel in Center City and before that, in the Adam's Mark on City Ave.  The dealers' room was bigger, the gaming fluctuated year to year, but one thing has always stayed the same---  Each clique of geek does their own thing.

Maybe that's part of the problem.  Each part of the convention feels so separate and disparate from the rest, I've never even seen the room where the Philcon art show is held and I've been a guest at least seven or eight times. 

But beyond that, the volunteers, while extremely friendly and nice, seem to automatically assume you're one of "them", i.e. an insider with perfect knowledge of everything at the con.  Where is a friendly "guide" to say, "Sir?  Are you looking for something?  Panel discussion?  Next floor."  Sci-fi fans are natural introverts, you need to draw these people out.  Unfortunately, I don't think the well meaning volunteers from the Society are up to the task.  They are, after all, introverts too, focused on their geek clique or hobby.  It's understandable that they don't want to spend all weekend working.

And what if, God forbid, a new fan arrived to check out the convention.  Maybe they're just a fan of Lost and they want to get in on this panel action to pontificate their latest theories.  How the Hell are these supposed to navigate?  And a day pass is $25 for Friday or Sunday and $45 for Saturday.  Couldn't there be a "panel" pass or a "first timer's" pass?  $25 is kind of a big investment for someone who has never been to one of these things.

I'm just saying.  If Philcon is to survive into the future, they need to attract new attendees or they need to shrink to a manageable size with manageable events.  Comic book conventions are shrinking, the could pick up a nice section of fandom that reads.  They already have plenty of webcomic guys.  Okay, we don't make books, but books are dying too.  Could this not be a sensible replacement or, at the very least, a stopgap measure?

Personally, I use Dragon Con as the bar for doing things right.  Dragon Con is always fun, has plenty of guests and is run like a well-oiled machine full of half-naked goth girls.  I don't expect Philcon to turn into the Mardi Gras of Geekdom overnight, but they could learn from their business model.  Their volunteers are well-coordinated with walkie-talkies and shifts.  Their guests range from interesting to famous to both.  And while there are a few amateurs in the mix, the weight of the panel isn't on them.  No one seemed to want to moderate any of the panels I was on at Philcon, but they reluctantly did so.

I'm not saying Philcon's bad, I liked my panels and had fun, but I'm just saying it could do with some reorganizing and marketing.  What about insisting that all your volunteers know where all the sections of the convention are going to be held in the hotel?  And being extra friendly, especially to newbies?  (Not that they're unfriendly now, but going the extra mile and not assuming they know where everything is.)  What about a cheap pass for "first timers" to encourage new fans?

And please, how hard would it be to put out veggies and apple slices instead of donuts, cheese curls and soda in the green room?  When you got fans pushing 450 lbs plus, you may want to encourage something just slightly healthier to eat.  Seeing some of these fans make me want to give up processed sugar and become a vegetarian.

Above all, Philcon needs to be more aware.  Print is dying, so plan for the future.  Philcon needs some kind of computer system on site for fans to download books or check out new websites or purchase CD's and flashdrives with info.  Get some video game systems in for the gamers, don't just rely on the paper and pen players.  They're dying out too.  Get some video on the Philcon website of the costume party, the filk parties and just the general parties.  Everyone likes to hang out and get drunk.

Philcon seems to be showing it's age.  The Gray Lady of Science Fiction Societies must either change with the times or die a slow, dignified death like the original Admiral Adama.