sinpOZium slash gathering

Sinpozium is back in 2025!

Dates: Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th April 2025 (Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday).
Times: 9:30am to 5pm (with dinner afterwards for those interested)
Venue: Hyde Room, Level 5, Castlereagh Boutique Hotel.
This is a NEW venue, close to Town Hall station and Gadigal metro station. The Castlereagh Boutique Hotel and the function room are wheelchair accessible. There are a few steps to lobby but they have a portable ramp.
Cost: $60 for the weekend.

2025 Registration Form
This includes direct deposit payment information (please contact us if you wish to pay another way, or are an international attendee).

Like previous events, we hope it will be a great weekend of fannish fun and friends, with games, fandom pimps, discussions, vid watching and more. We will be starting to ask for volunteers/content suggestions in a separate post soon, and organising (opt-in) dinners on the Saturday and Sunday night.

More information about the venue and about Sinpozium in general is available here. Please ask us if you have any questions at all, either in the comments here (anon comments are welcome) or via sinpozium(at)gmail.com. Please ask us if you have any questions at all, either in the comments here (anon comments are welcome) or via sinpozium(at)gmail.com.

Registration cost is $60 for the weekend. Registration includes the hire of the venue and equipment, but not food or accommodation. We aim to keep costs low and flexibility high. Payment is required up-front, your registration will not be confirmed until we have received payment, and attendance numbers are limited to 35 people only. Full refunds will be available until 29th March. International attendees, please contact us at sinpozium(at)gmail.com to arrange payment.

- Lyn and Alasen

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/4…, please comment there (anon is available)

Everyone who has registered should have received an email from us now with Zoom links, timetable and other information. Please let me know if you haven't. A separate email will be forthcoming with individual Pictionary clues (possibly tomorrow night).

If you haven't registered, it isn't too late, just fill out this form.

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/4… (we would prefer to centralise comments there, but they are open here too for your convenience)

Only 6 days to go til Sinpozium 2022 kicks off!

We will not be posting the Zoom links publicly but will email them in advance, together with additional info.

Therefore, we are asking for everyone to register, even if you've previously told us that you're attending, or if you won't be attending for the whole time or may just drop in.

REGISTRATION FORM

We will be starting on Saturday and Sunday at 9:30am AEST/11:30am NZST. Timetable is forthcoming (but may be a guide only, we cannot guarantee it will be followed faithfully).

Additionally, we are stealing from our sister con, Get Together, and will be sending pictionary clues in advance. For those who haven't played before, Fannish Pictionary does not rely on being able to draw and in fact is better if you can't. With clues arriving in advance, feel free to prepare your drawing/create your interpretation of the clue in whatever medium you wish to share over Zoom, you don't have to do it live. We will not force people to participate, and if we send you a clue with references you aren't familiar with, please feel free to request a new one.

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/4… (we would prefer to centralise comments there, but they are open here too for your convenience)

Exciting update - thanks to the wonderful people who have volunteered, we are extending Sinpozium 2022 to both Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 April. Otherwise, it would be have to be a long (and rushed) one day event. We will still try to organise a picnic meetup another weekend, Weather Gods permitting.

We are thinking of starting at 9:30am AEST/11:30 NZST.

We will imitate Get Together 2021, and will probably schedule content mostly in one hour blocks. However, I encourage presenters to aim for shorter than that. The timing is to allow for group chat between sessions (and in case there's any technical snafus).

If people who have volunteered need their presentations scheduled for specific day/time, please let us know (and an estimated length once you know would be great).

If you want to participate and haven't put your hand up yet, please let us know, we might be able to squeeze some more in, though we are trying to plan some games/interactive content. You can see what has been already volunteered in the comments here (plus two vidshows).

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/4… (we would prefer to centralise comments there, but they are open here too for your convenience)

Online Sinpoz is confirmed!
It seems like there's enough interest to go ahead with an online Sinpozium this year. It will be held via Zoom on Saturday 23 April* (which means that if there's enough content/interest, maybe even extend it to Sunday 24 April?)

Content
I've got a discussion topic I'm planning, Meelie has volunteered a vidshow, but what we need is more content! Please suggest and/or volunteer! Pimp or celebrate a fandom (surely someone wants to pounce on Our Flag Means Death?)! Suggest a group activity/game! Suggest a discussion topic (that you either lead or would like to happen without you have to do that)!

First Times
Something I would like to do is a Celebration of First Meetings! We'll assemble clips, and reminisce/discuss and maybe people can volunteer to introduce the clip for their OTP etc etc. But for starters, need suggestions of first meetings (and make it specific, like details of episode, maybe even the timing of episode. Provising an edited video or link to youtube clip would be even better).

Picnic
We're still considering a picnic meetup on the Sunday for Sydney locals, but given Sydney weather for the last few months...it feels like tempting fate trying to plan it yet. And I would feel terribly guilty if our hubris in attempting to plan such a thing made Anzac Day a washout...

Unfortunately, the optimism that we had when planning Sinpozium 2022 (in those halcyon pre-Omicron days of October 2021) hasn't lasted. Understandably, there aren't sufficient numbers of people who are both able to attend and who are comfortable having an in-person gathering, so we have had to make the sad decision to cancel our venue booking.

However, if people are interested in attending (and volunteering/suggesting content), we would be happy to coordinate a one or two day online Sinpozium via zoom for the weekend of 23-24 April 2022 (which is a long weekend in both Australia and NZ).

If you are interested in attending an online Sinpoz, please comment here, and if there's something you'd like to volunteer to present (or suggest that you'd like to see), please also comment here. If you want some ideas about types of content, check out this post.

Additionally/alternatively, we were thinking we could have a picnic meetup in Hyde Park that weekend (weather permitting), please let us know if you'd be interested in that.

If you've paid and would like a refund at anytime (now or in a few months), please email sinpozium(at)gmail.com with your bank account details. Otherwise, we will keep track of who has paid $50 in advance for the next in-person Sinpozium!

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/4… (we would prefer to centralise comments there, but they are open here too for your convenience)

Alasen and I are happy to announce that Sinpozium will be back in 2022! It will be held at Castlereagh Boutique Hotel on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th April. Please save the dates, further details coming soon!

We will be in touch with people who paid for Sinpozium 2020 and rolled their registrations forward until we could hold it again.

Unfortunately since our last post, it has become obvious that Sinpozium 2020 cannot go ahead in April as originally scheduled.

We are determined that Sinpozium will be back, either later this year or next year. If you've paid and would like a refund at anytime (now or in a few months), please email sinpozium(at)gmail.com with your bank account details.

Otherwise, we will keep track of who has paid $50 in advance for the next one.

For the sake of transparency - we have received a full refund of the booking fee for the venue.

We hope you and your families are well, and that you have plenty to watch, read, make and/or listen to if you are in a full or partial shutdown situation.

Erilyn and Alasen

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/1…

Like everyone, we're watching the COVID-19 situation cautiously. Hopefully, Sinpozium will go ahead (with sensible general precautions - please don't attend if you are unwell, please wash hands regularly etc etc).

However, if the situation/government advice changes, it may not be possible to have it.

For full transparency, the hotel has kindly extended the deadline when we can cancel at no charge until two weeks beforehand. After that, we are liable for the full payment. So that will be a key date in making decisions and we will keep you updated.

In the mean time, we will go on in the assumption that Sinpozium 2020 will occur. So please register if you have not, and volunteer/suggest content!

Please ask us if you’ve got any questions at all, about contingency planning or just in general, either in the comments here (anon comments are welcome) or via sinpozium(at)gmail.com.

x-posted from https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/1…

It's less than 10 weeks until Sinpozium 2020, so its time to talk about what we're gonna do! We need people to lead discussions, pimp fandoms, and suggest content/activities you'd like to see at Sinpozium. To jog memories, here's the 2017 and 2015 draft timetables.

++ Doesn't have to be tv shows/movies, all types of source material welcome. While we prioritise slashy/queer fandoms, other fandoms/source materials that Are Relevant To Our Collective Interests have also been included. If you're not sure if it fits, please ask in comments or via email!

++ Fandom pimps will probably be limited to a maximum of half an hour (if you want to do less, that's fine, and they don’t need to be fancy). We strongly recommend keeping video portions of pimps (if you wish to include them) to only about 15-20 minutes - this should be enough to give a feel for the fandom, anything longer and interest can really start to lag (always leave 'em wanting more!). If you can get someone else to look over a presentation, a second pair of eyes really helps, particularly if you’re having problems trimming it.

But we can't emphasis enough - you don't need to be a video editing expert to do this and you don't have to do a long presentation - you can take 5-10 min to tell us why Fandom X rocks, and show us 1 clip if you want (or do a slideshow, or whatever suits the source material). Your love for your fandom is the important thing, and if you need help with technical side making some clips or something, just holler!

++ Presentations/videos/slideshows will be shown via a laptop hooked up to a data projector, so will need to be brought on disc/USB stick/external hard drive (we don't want to be switching laptops around if we can avoid it). A variety of file formats will be acceptable (but if it can be played by VLC, that's a good indication it will be ok).

++ Suggestions for games are welcome, but from experience, they need to be simple and interactive. Participation is strongly encouraged but not mandatory in slash pictionary, but no one is excused on the grounds they can't draw (that's the point).

++ New or old, it doesn't matter - some of the most interesting fandom pimps we've seen at past Sinpoziums were for shows from before we were born, take us down nostalgia lane from 10 years ago, or introduce us to the hot new thing.

++ Discussion topics that are multi-fandom are particularly good (as they're inclusive). Topics might range from serious discussions of writing or fannish trends, to which characters look the best in tight jeans. Lengths will be 20-60 minutes, depending on topics, number of suggestions and structure of final timetable.

++ Suggestions for discussions/panels are more than welcome, even if you don't feel like leading the discussion yourself. If you're having a complete mental blank, I find reading about other fannish events and cons can really get me thinking about what I'd like to participate in.

++ Vidshow - there's already 1 on the draft timetable, but of course you're free to use vids during fandom pimps etc, and if there's some vids you are passionate about showing, please volunteer!

So let us know what you want to do (or would like to see happen) this year at Sinpozium, and if you have any questions you'd prefer to ask privately, please hit us up at sinpozium(@)gmailDOTcom. We also have a dedicated channel in slack for discussion if you'd like to brainstorm!

x-posted to https://sinpozium.dreamwidth.org/1… (we would prefer to centralise comments there, but they are open here too for your convenience)