Some comments on FilkConbobulated
Jul. 9th, 2026 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ericcolemanThis is an official notice from FilkCONbobulated headquarters in the Crowe & Dove House deep in the wilds of Iowa!
I haven't had the brain to do a con report.
I worried Lizzie the week before the convention. I said to her "I am feeling really optimistic about this". She almost took me to the ER (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, she did look at me amazed).
There were two small glitches. The popcorn for Friday night was never acquired. There were a lot of things to do Friday morning. We'll make it happen next year.
The Friday night circle was badly organized, it was a little too spontaneous. The rest of the weekend Andrea and Emily took over setting it up, and it went much smoother the next two nights.
That was it for things that went wrong.
We were right at the limit of our space. That was the only thing I was worried about. It was fine.
We learned a few things that will make next year even better, but it really went as well as it possibly could have. The response online has been marvelous, thank you so much everyone who made comments, whether on your pages or ours.
We have so many people to thank.
I want to start with Andrea Hawkins-Kamper. Andrea has been drafted for logistics next year.
Steven Willett for his help setting up and tearing down the PA and Jen Midkiff for her help with running sound.
The fabulous Rachel Esler for running our con suite and Jan DiMasi for all of the wonderfulness that she supplied for it. It was the one thing that neither Lizzie or I had ever been involved with.
My daughter Reilly for running Friday registration for us. We were both much too scattered to have been good at that.
Everyone who brought an instrument to the petting zoo. Jen Midkiff (again), Deirdre Murphy, Dave Stagner, Bryan Baker, and I know I am forgetting someone, remind me and I will add names. It was a marvelous success and I think will be a part of the con from here on.
The fabulous Interfilk team, Merav, Emily & Xap. We raised a nice bit of money at the auction, of course run by Bill Roper.
Oh, and Bill Roper for being our only huckster. I didn't want to set up a separate room for vendors, so we'll go with one for next year as well.
All of our Go Fund Me Corn-Conspirators for help us is raise the seed money to do this thing. And in the midst of that Brenda Sutton for her donation of the last of the Chambanacon cash. She has guaranteed more years of the con.
Our GOHs, Bryan Baker and Larry Kirby.
And of course our fearless leader, my partner in crime, the fabulous Lizzie Crowe! This is all her fault. She came up with the idea and the name.
The con was built on some pretty basic concepts.
What we wanted to do was give our Filk family a place to hang out in the summer. To have some interesting things going on during the day, and then give everyone space to sing at night. We wanted to keep it simple. And I don't see us changing that much over the next few years.
Our idea is to feature as GOHs people from the Midwest who may not have gotten out of the Midwest much. We're already pretty certain who we want for GOHs for year three. And of course Interfilk will bring in people from everywhere and anywhere.
But we want to keep that simplicity.
We asked the community if they wanted something like this, and the answer was a resounding yes. Then so many of you came and brought your smiles, your support, and your music. That is why next year is called If You Filk It They Will Come (plus I needed more Iowa references ... and more corn references, sorry [not sorry]).
This is absolutely the con that Filk built. We were covered in an embarrassment of riches in the form of convention running experience and help from this community. So much positive and supportive feedback, and literally all of the constructive criticism was useful. Much of it, we’d thought of, some of it was inspired. And this community continues to show up and celebrate together. We will be forever grateful for all of you.
Eric & Lizzie
I haven't had the brain to do a con report.
I worried Lizzie the week before the convention. I said to her "I am feeling really optimistic about this". She almost took me to the ER (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, she did look at me amazed).
There were two small glitches. The popcorn for Friday night was never acquired. There were a lot of things to do Friday morning. We'll make it happen next year.
The Friday night circle was badly organized, it was a little too spontaneous. The rest of the weekend Andrea and Emily took over setting it up, and it went much smoother the next two nights.
That was it for things that went wrong.
We were right at the limit of our space. That was the only thing I was worried about. It was fine.
We learned a few things that will make next year even better, but it really went as well as it possibly could have. The response online has been marvelous, thank you so much everyone who made comments, whether on your pages or ours.
We have so many people to thank.
I want to start with Andrea Hawkins-Kamper. Andrea has been drafted for logistics next year.
Steven Willett for his help setting up and tearing down the PA and Jen Midkiff for her help with running sound.
The fabulous Rachel Esler for running our con suite and Jan DiMasi for all of the wonderfulness that she supplied for it. It was the one thing that neither Lizzie or I had ever been involved with.
My daughter Reilly for running Friday registration for us. We were both much too scattered to have been good at that.
Everyone who brought an instrument to the petting zoo. Jen Midkiff (again), Deirdre Murphy, Dave Stagner, Bryan Baker, and I know I am forgetting someone, remind me and I will add names. It was a marvelous success and I think will be a part of the con from here on.
The fabulous Interfilk team, Merav, Emily & Xap. We raised a nice bit of money at the auction, of course run by Bill Roper.
Oh, and Bill Roper for being our only huckster. I didn't want to set up a separate room for vendors, so we'll go with one for next year as well.
All of our Go Fund Me Corn-Conspirators for help us is raise the seed money to do this thing. And in the midst of that Brenda Sutton for her donation of the last of the Chambanacon cash. She has guaranteed more years of the con.
Our GOHs, Bryan Baker and Larry Kirby.
And of course our fearless leader, my partner in crime, the fabulous Lizzie Crowe! This is all her fault. She came up with the idea and the name.
The con was built on some pretty basic concepts.
What we wanted to do was give our Filk family a place to hang out in the summer. To have some interesting things going on during the day, and then give everyone space to sing at night. We wanted to keep it simple. And I don't see us changing that much over the next few years.
Our idea is to feature as GOHs people from the Midwest who may not have gotten out of the Midwest much. We're already pretty certain who we want for GOHs for year three. And of course Interfilk will bring in people from everywhere and anywhere.
But we want to keep that simplicity.
We asked the community if they wanted something like this, and the answer was a resounding yes. Then so many of you came and brought your smiles, your support, and your music. That is why next year is called If You Filk It They Will Come (plus I needed more Iowa references ... and more corn references, sorry [not sorry]).
This is absolutely the con that Filk built. We were covered in an embarrassment of riches in the form of convention running experience and help from this community. So much positive and supportive feedback, and literally all of the constructive criticism was useful. Much of it, we’d thought of, some of it was inspired. And this community continues to show up and celebrate together. We will be forever grateful for all of you.
Eric & Lizzie
