The biggest day of the convention, with a lot of fun!

First panel I saw was at 10am, also Mike's first speaking gig: From Private to Public Realities. The panelists were Mike, Derwyn Mak, and author Guest of Honor Candas Jane Dorsey.

This started off a laugh. Candas had a very intelligent, literate opener. She then turned to Mike, his first words: "I... don't really know why I'm on this panel." LOL Mike and Derwyn started to talk about what they worked on (Mike on SRP stuff, Derwyn about his gig writing erotic SF for a stripper magazine from the States)... until Candas asked if they were trying to make it a sex panel rather than a literary one (from our experience, it would have to be a Babylon 5 panel to be a true sex panel *inside joke alert*).

Mike and I then headed to the Consuite for the second half of the chat with editors. It was really a chance to hear war stories about the publishing industry. Very interesting stuff.

Noon, lunch at The Room. 1pm was another Japanimation panel, Fad, Fetish, and Hegemony? A discussion about whether anime will ever be mainstream. Emru was on again. It was a very lively and interesting discussion.

2pm was our first Guest speech from Max Grodenchik (Rom from Deep Space Nine). He's a very funny guy. He showed us his prosthetic teeth (he said he knew the series was ending when the producers said he could keep his teeth :)) then put them on to demonstrate Rom's voice. Afterwards, I went to the dealers' room for his autograph. He got a laugh when I congratulated him for being another powerful Jew in space (No, not the Mel Brooks bit!).

Afterwards, I caught the second half of Janet's panel Comics as the new "heretical" medium. More interesting and enlightening discussion.

I also met up with Niall McConnail (a member of Comicopia from Ottawa). Glad he made it to the con this year. It just felt like something was missing when he couldn't last year.

I missed the auction at 5. A shame, because it was apparently a record maker. As a large part of the proceeds goes to the charity (MS Society of Canada. I'm the charity rep for the con) I would have liked to see the triumph of the auction.

I was playing hooky on my first panel then, having supper in The Room. I was scheduled for 3 in a row, but Mary-Catherine, our programming gal, said it was a scheduling gaffe and I wasn't obliged to make them all. Just as well, since it was The New SF; I'm years behind in what I read, so I couldn't really speak about what's new with authority.

My first panel was at 6pm, Science Fiction and Gaming. It didn't start out as I'd hoped... I was one of the panelists sitting in the audience, because two of them decided to take up the table. John Mansfield (as he often does) changed the topic to ways to make gaming work at a science fiction con. I just went along with it, even though I could really only offer reasons why we didn't do the things he suggested at Concept.

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