Category Archives: WisCon 40

WisCon 40

WisCon 40 — Announcing our Dealers’ Room!

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Dealers’ Room

We’ll have thirty amazing vendors displaying their wares on nearly fifty tables this year in the Dealers’ Room. You’ll see your old favorite publishers and booksellers, as well as many new faces, bringing clothes, crafts, dolls, masks, jewelry, comics, accessories, and decorative arts for sale.

Want details? We’ve got details! Read on…

AFKcrafts
Creator of nerdy items including jewelry, keychains, plushies, and more from some of your favorites games, shows, movies, and other media.

Alex Heberling
An online comics artist who has been creating comics for over 10 years, and is currently publishing The Hues, a post-apocalyptic magical girl series. She takes custom commissions, and will also be bringing jewelry, prints, and posters.

Aqueduct Press
Publishers of feminist science fiction and related titles, with emphasis on work that stretches the imagination and challenges readers.

Book Lynx
Books: used, rare, and collectible. A large stock of hard covers and vintage paperbacks in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other interesting genres.

Broad Universe
Broad Universe is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting women writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

The Crafty Dyborg
Bringing beautiful art to the masses, The Crafty Dyborg specialize in modular origami balls and lamps, but don’t be surprised to see wire jewelry or duct tape creations as well!

Darlene P. Coltrain
Fine art craft wearable art in fantasy, science fiction, and visionary themes. Sculptural lost wax cast jewelry in precious metals, beads — glass, gemstone, and natural materials — knotted on silk, and hand dyed & painted silk scarves. Some of the images on silk are also made available on greeting cards.

DreamHaven Books
One of the oldest and largest science fiction specialty dealers in the world, with the largest and most diverse selection of books and ephemera found anywhere.

Dylan Edwards
A comic creator with a focus on queer comics, his work includes Transposes, a Lambda Literary Award finalist for Transgender Non-Fiction, and Politically InQueerect: Old Ghosts and Other Stories. His comics have also appeared in QU33R (2014 Ignatz Award), No Straight Lines (2013 Lambda Literary Award), and the Beyond Anthology. His current project is Valley of the Silk Sky, a YA science fiction webcomic that features a cast with queer, asexual, and trans characters.

Frugal Muse Books
Sellers of all types of books, DVDs, and CDs serving the Madison science community for 17 years, as well as providing a home to the Madison Science Fiction book discussion group.

Sadly, Geekiana had to cancel this year!

Geekiana
Intensely geeky clothing and accessories designed and printed by a geek for geeks. Geekiana references TV, comics, movies, and geek culture. Each design is meant to be a beautiful, funny, or inspiring beacon to other fans and fan-friendly folk, with work that appeals across genders and ages.

The Heathersmith
Erika Hammerschmidt, author of the science fiction novel Kea’s Flight and other works, makes a wide variety of fantasy-style wire-wrapped gemstone jewelry. Pieces include crowns and tiaras, elf-earrings that make the ears look pointed, jeweled-dagger letter openers, gemstone chess sets, rings, earrings, and necklaces made with crystals, geodes, meteorites, and fossils.

Interlude Press
A boutique publisher of exceptional LGBTQ fiction including science fiction and fantasy for YA and adult audiences. In its first 18 months, Interlude Press titles have garnered five Publishers Weekly starred reviews and kudos from the American Library Association’s GLBT Roundtable, Booklist magazine, Foreword Reviews, Library Journal and USA Today’s HEA book reviews. Three 2014 novels were finalists for five Foreword Indiefab Book of the Year Awards, including the winner of the Silver Indiefab for LGBT fiction. Rachel Davidson Leigh, author of the upcoming debut novel Hold, will be representing the press.

Lady Purl Designs
A geeky shop for knitters and fiber lovers. Yarns inspired by favorite fandoms and characters in geek culture, as well as sewn knitting accessories such as needle organizers and project bags with nerdy licensed fabrics. Lady Purl designs and sells original knitting patterns, all fandom inspired, and has recently fallen in love with making soap and lotion bars in geeky shapes.

Lioness: Ornament for People and Places
Named jewelry that may make you want to write things or make art or sing for joy. Shiny goodness. Inspiration and delight. The creator of the Tiptree tiara, Lioness jewelry has been used as inspiration by many writers.

Maggs Creations
Lampworked glass critters and wearable art. Using a torch, simple hand tools, heat, and gravity, Maggs works glass into fun sculptural critters and pendants, making everything from exotic space aliens with googly eyeballs and tentacles to delicate seahorses and goddess pendants — and she loves talking about the science and art of glass.

MLPoliceBox221BagEnd
MLPoliceBox221BagEnd is devoted to expressing exactly what people love about their particular fandoms, and includes hand-knitted hats, scarves, and dolls inspired by fantasy, cult classic, gamer, and science fiction favorites.

OoohPretties
Hand fabricated sterling silver jewelry incorporating a variety of interesting, beautiful stones, and including many pieces that lend themselves to story-telling.

Philip Kaveny Bookseller
Books of high quality in the area of science fiction criticism, feminist theory, and fantasy, as well as art and idea books.

PM Press
An independent publisher that creates radical, feminist, and stimulating science fiction and nonfiction books, pamphlets, visual, and audio materials to entertain, educate, and inspire. PM Press aims to distribute important ideas and resources through every available channel with every available technology; they’re old enough to know what they’re doing and young enough to know what’s at stake.

Revolutionary Lemonade Stand
Clothing and gifts that are politically fresh and in season! Handmade peace and justice items including baby onesies, toddler, youth, and adult t-shirts, scarves, hats, cups, bags and totes, framed art, pillows & pillowcases, coasters, bandanas, bracelets, and more.

A Room of One’s Own
Madison’s independent bookstore, you can find them in the Dealers’ Room throughout the convention as well as in a beautiful new-and-used bookstore just a few blocks down State Street from the Concourse. RoOO provide people with great books by WisCon’s Guests of Honor, attending authors, and a variety of books discussed on panels and of interest to feminist SF/F lovers.

Rosarium Publishing
A fledgling publisher specializing in speculative fiction, comics, and a touch of crime fiction — all with a multicultural flair. Echoing a belief that talent does not inherently have a race, religion, gender, or region and that talent is everywhere, Rosarium combs the four corners of this globe to find it.

Sign Of The Unicorn
Hand-sculptured jewelry — mostly one-of-a-kind — designed in feminist, mythic, science fiction, and fantasy themes using lost-wax casting and incorporating sterling silver, bronze, 14k gold, and semi-precious stones, and including rings, earrings, and pendants in feminist designs. Additionally, Laurie Toby Edison’s books and photographs Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes, Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes, and Women of Japan, all works done in collaboration with social change activists and feminists, will be available.

Small Beer Press
Publishers of a few very good novels and short story collections every year, Small Beer Press also run a DRM-free indie ebooksite, weightlessbooks.com. This year we will publish WisCon GoH Sofia Samatar’s second novel, The Winged Histories, as well as books by Joan Aiken and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Strange Land Costuming
Tailor-for-hire with a focus on costumes and accessories, also selling fandom-related neckties, scarves, and hats, SLC is known for their line of Nerdy Neckties and specialty embroidery services. They also welcome clients who have been rejected by other less-experienced tailors for their size, and are eager to fit clients who wish to dress across gender lines.

Toot Sweet Ink
Woman-owned independent publishers crafting books with love who publish strong and unique voices in historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, contemporary fiction, and non-fiction.

20th Century Books
New and used books catering to WisCon-relevant interests and specializing in small press, comics, graphic novels, magazines, and fantasy related toys.

Twin Cities Speculations
“Welcome to Minnesota, where aliens go ice fishing, angels roam the streets of Minneapolis, and missing socks show up on a distant planet.” St. Paul authors, co-chairs of Geek Girl Brunch Twin Cities, and co-editors of HerStoryArc, Cecelia Isaac and Lindsey Loree will bring their recently published short story anthology Twin Cities Speculations, as well as Cecelia Isaac’s debut dragon infused fantasy novel Turquoiseblood. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover something amazing from Minnesota 😉

White Hawk Press
This local Madison area publisher and literary resource will bring books of fantasy and science fiction, poetry, literary biography, and other interesting stuff. This year, under WordWiz4You, they will also offer spontaneous skiffy poems on demand!

WisCon 40

Hotel update #2 — Room block filled, overflow block still available

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Shayla
Hotel Liaison

We are 51 days away from the start of the best weekend of the year and our hotel block has filled up — but don’t despair!

The Concourse has an overflow block that is a slightly higher room rate than regular block: $145 single on the Concourse level and $225 single on the Governor’s Club level.  Overflow reservations will automatically move into the regular, lower-priced room block if there are any cancellations before April 25. Beyond that, there may also be some regular-priced rooms available. You can also ask to see if there are any Governor’s Club rooms still available in our regular room block, though be aware that all Governor’s Club rooms have a single king-sized bed. This might accommodate 4 if you’re very, very friendly. Happily, they also have room for a twin-sized (single) cot.

If the hotel does fill up or you desperately need a lower-priced room, you can check the fan-run communities on Dreamwidth and LiveJournal or the WisCon-Talk Google Group. As the con gets nearer, people often offer up reservations they can no longer use. The deadline for the regular block and the overflow block is April 25, but you can transfer rooms to other guests at any time while keeping the rate in effect when you originally made your reservation. Simply call the hotel to tell them you are transferring your reservation and give them the name of the person you wish to transfer it to. That person will then need to call to give the hotel their credit card information. Voila!

If you have a reservation that you don’t need, now is the time to call the hotel to release it back to the room block or offer it up on one of online venues listed above. Our hotel page also has an up-to-date list and a map of other hotels some of which offer shuttle service downtown for easy access.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, drop us a line at rooms@wiscon.net. See you soon(ish)!

WisCon 40

Hotel update — Do you need a room? We have rooms!

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Shayla
Hotel Liaison

As of this writing, we are 72 days away from the start of the pre-convention meeting with hotel staff (not that I’m counting…) and we still have rooms available in our hotel block at the Concourse.

Yes! We still definitely have rooms in our block at the Concourse. Ignore any rumors to the contrary! (As of our Feb. 26 update from the Concourse, there are also Governor’s Club rooms available, too.) The easiest way to book a room in our block to get our room rate is using our reservation link right here, but if that gives you any sass — it doesn’t connect or it claims there are no rooms remaining — then you can go ahead and call the Concourse directly and they’ll take care of everything (because we do still, really!, have rooms available!). Their toll-free number is 1-800-356-8293.

The WisCon group rate is available through April 25!

If you have reservations for more rooms than you can use, please contact the hotel to release whatever you don’t need. If the room block fills up, you can also transfer the reservation to another member. If you visit the LiveJournal community, the Dreamwidth community, and the WisCon Talk Google group people often post queries and offers for rooms as the days count down.

If you find that you need to cancel your reservation closer to the convention, we ask that you do so at least seven days prior to your scheduled check-in. It is the Concourse’s policy to charge one room night plus tax for stays canceled without a seven-day notice.

There are a limited number of cribs available for the use of our guests for a relatively nominal fee. As well as cots — also for a nominal fee — that are surprisingly comfortable and can, if properly situated, turn one bed in the room into a MEGABED. This is probably more exciting to me than it is to you.

(Did you know you can also rent a piano at the Concourse? Fee does not include pianist, but if you pay me enough I’ll play “Chopsticks” and “Heart And Soul.” In fact, I will keep playing them until enough people pay me to stop. Jackpot!)

If you have any hotel-related questions (or wish to book me for your piano bar party!), you can contact me at rooms@wiscon.net!

WisCon 40

Open call for games, game masters, and gaming volunteers!

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SarahTops
Gaming

WisCon Gaming is looking for tabletop games, game masters, and gaming volunteers for WisCon 40! On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, from 8pm to midnight, we will host board, storytelling, and role-playing games open to convention members. We are enthused to offer an alternative way to enjoy WisCon evenings in a (sometimes) quieter, more intimate setting… over dice and cards! Interested in playing with us? Read on.

Games

WisCon needs games! Please email us at gaming@wiscon.net if you have a game or are interested in seeing a particular game at the table this year. Please answer the following questions as relevant to your offering or request:

Are you bringing a game you’d like to keep with you, but run in the public Gaming Space? Please share a description of the game and what night(s) you’d like to run it.

Are you bringing a game you’re offering to leave with Gaming through the course of the convention, for others to play at the public Gaming Space? Please provide a description of the game. We will take the best care we can with your game, but there is always risk in loaning games to a public gathering.

Do you have a game you’d like to donate to WisCon? To make sure we have the storage space to accept your offering, please provide dimensions of the box or book, as well as the game’s condition. We are also accepting dice, pencils, and other gaming supplies.

Do you have a game you’d like to see at WisCon? Please share a description of the game, how to find it, and if you’d like to play or run it should a copy be found. We are happy to put a call out for specific games attendees request!

Popular board games tend to be those with simpler mechanics or rules and those that take two hours or less. Get in touch to share your ideas!

Game Masters

WisCon is looking for people who want to run storytelling and role-playing games! Please email us at gaming@wiscon.net if you’d like to run a tabletop RPG or LARP. To help us reserve space for your game, please email us before our March 18 deadline. (But do feel free to get in touch after; we may be able to cast a Location Spell.) Some of the information we’d like from you includes:

  • a description of the game
  • how long the game will take
  • how many players you’ll need
  • evening(s) you’d like to run the game (Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday)
  • any other logistics we should keep in mind to make the game happen

WisCon is especially interested in games that fit well within the convention’s themes (e.g., feminism, identity politics, and social and cultural theory). Rules that are familiar or easy for new players to learn tend to be the most successful. We look forward to hearing more about your adventures!

Gaming Volunteers

WisCon needs Gaming volunteers! If you’d like to volunteer in the public Gaming Space, and/or help with Gaming before the convention, please get in touch with gaming@wiscon.net. Let us know if there’s a particular game you’d like to play or help teach on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evenings.

Stay tuned for games we will be offering at WisCon 40, to be announced in April!

WisCon 40

$2,500 matching donation met

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

We did it!  YOU did it!!  Yesterday, we met Jed Hartman’s matching donation.  In just five days’ time, we raised $5,000 for the WisCon Member Assistance Fund.  This means that in the 10 days since Wrdnrd announced their matching donation, we’ve raised a total of $7,300!  This is completely unprecedented for the Fund and just shows what a strong and caring community WisCon has.

This year, WisCon made a very deliberate effort to raise awareness of the Assistance Fund, because attending a convention like WisCon can be quite expensive (Madison is not cheap to fly into, and the Concourse is a very nice hotel).  WisCon does what it can to make attending the convention more economically feasible — from providing Childcare for just $1 to offering free snacks and meals in the Con Suite — but by far the most valuable is the Fund, which puts money exactly where recipients need it.

And now, thanks to the outpouring of support from the WisCon community (and beyond!), the Fund will be assisting almost 30 people attend WisCon 40 this May.  Many of the recipients will be attending their first WisCon!

Our active fundraising is going into hiatus for the time being, although you can donate to the Member Assistance Fund at any time.  All money donated to the Assistance Fund from yesterday afternoon (Madison time) will go toward seeding the Fund for WisCon 41.  And at WisCon in May this year, we’ll be continuing to raise awareness of the Fund for potential nominees and also talking more about various ways to keep the Fund funded on a regular basis.

We are deeply grateful to Jed and Wrdnrd, and to everyone who donated in the past few weeks — especially to the donor who took us over the finish line yesterday.  We’re thankful for everyone who signal-boosted our fund drive and for everyone who worked in the background to encourage donors from all corners.  Thank you for helping to make WisCon a reality this year for more people than we ever thought possible.

See you in May!

WisCon 40

Let’s fund the Fund — $966 and 31 hours to go

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Allison Morris
SF3 Fundraising Committee

We are amazed and thankful for all of the generosity that our WisCon Member Assistance Fund’s fundraising efforts have been met with this year — it’s truly inspiring to be a part of this community, and to know that we are all committed to seeing WisCon, and WisCon’s principles, continuing to benefit from a variety of voices.

I’m someone who believes in the power of the stories that communities tell themselves. Those stories create our reality, set forth our dreams, and define our worlds. It’s crucial that those stories include many voices. The WMAF is one of the ways that we work to make sure that it’s possible for the people who want to be a part of our conversations to join us. Our stories suffer without them there.

We’ve been very lucky this year to have two amazingly generous challenge donors in Wrdnrd and Jed Hartman. They have both staked their money in the belief that others would join them to help meet the wonderful number of requests for assistance we received this year. I know that we will meet the challenge. That’s the story I am telling, and I believe in our power to create that reality.

As I write this, we’ve raised $1,533.94 out of our $2,500.00 goal. There are 31 hours left before our challenge deadline of 11:59pm Saturday night in Madison.

Give now to make our dreams become reality.




WisCon 40

Assistance Fund matching fundraiser — this one goes to 11

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

We had an amazing week last week with Wrdnrd’s matching fund drive, raising $1,500 for our Member Assistance Fund in just two days.

This week we have even more incredible news:  Our Member Assistance Fund is about $5,000 away from being able to fund everyone who qualifies, and Jed Hartman wants to help make that happen.

From now until the end of the day (11:59pm Central Time) on Saturday, Feb. 27, Jed is matching dollar-for-dollar all donations up to $2,500.

This is an unbelievable opportunity that would give us the chance to help more people than we’ve ever been able to help before.

This week, if you have just $10 to donate to the Fund, thanks to Jed that means $20 into the Fund.  And so, bit by bit, maybe we can make it all the way to $5,000.

What do you think, everyone?  Can we do it?




WisCon 40

WisCon 40 panel sign-up and interest survey open!

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Tanya D., Joanna Lowenstein, K Tempest Bradford, Stef Maruch
Panel Programming

YES!! The moment we’ve been eagerly awaiting is here. The WisCon 40 panel sign up and attendance interest form is now open!

(Viewing the survey does require an account.wiscon.net login, but they’re quick to get right here!)

Traditionally, WisCon programming has been divided into separate tracks to provide some visual organization in the at-Con programming pocket guide. However, they serve other purposes. By grouping like concepts together, we hope to prompt you to think of fascinating and important directions to take programs. The tracks are listed below. Click “More»” to read each full description to aid you as you fill out the survey.

Changes for WisCon 40! This year we have a Gaming Track as well as a Teen Programming track. Remember these new tracks, and when we announce that panel suggestions for WisCon 41 are open, please give us plenty of suggestions!

Please review your panel interest expressions on the panel sign up and attendance interest form!

For your convenience, we also provide a full list of proposed panel items. You may wish to open this link in a separate tab or window for ease of reference.

Thank you for your continued attendance, feedback, and support of WisCon as we finalize programming for this year.

Cheers!

Official Announcements, WisCon 40

Matching donation reaches its goal!

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Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Wrdnrd’s matching donation to the Member Assistance Fund was 100% successful!  We are incredibly grateful for the community’s support with this fund drive this week, and humbled by the outpouring of generosity.  This WisCon is the first that we’ve run a dedicated fundraising campaign for our Fund, and we’ve been blown away by the response.  Not only did we meet Wrdnrd’s match in under two days, but we were almost half-way to the goal in only twelve hours.

Another notable thing about this fund drive is that many of the donations were in the $10-$15 range.  All donations add up!  You absolutely don’t have to make “big” donations of $100, $500, or whatever dollars to make a difference.  If you’re able to toss in only a few dollars, it all adds up and helps one more person.

With Wrdnrd’s donation, this means $1,500 into the Fund to help members who have requested assistance to attend WisCon in May.

Thank you all, so, so much!

But wait, there’s more!!  We’ve had another incredibly generous donor step up to challenge the community to see just how narrow we can make the gap between the money in the Fund and the amount of requests we have this year.  Stay tuned for details on Monday!

WisCon 40

WisCon 40 Art Show call for artists

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Tahlia Day
Art Show

Applications for this year’s WisCon Art Show are open until the end of February.

The WisCon Art Show focuses on art exploring themes related to SF and feminism/social justice, work by women, and work by Midwestern artists. We’re interested in seeing work in any medium (past shows have included painting, drawing, photography, comics, sculpture, fiber art, and jewelry, among others).

This year the Art Show will be moving to a bigger room on the first floor of the hotel, so we may be able to accept more artists and/or give each artist more space!

We prefer and encourage that artists in the show also attend the con, but mailing in art is an option if you are comfortable with us hanging and handling your work. The Art Show operates like a gallery or store — you set the prices for your work and customers can purchase it during the show’s open hours (Saturday through Monday during the con). WisCon takes a 4% commission on all sales (8% for mail-in art).

Our artists page has more information and the application. Completed applications (including images of your work or a link to a website with images) must be submitted online by Monday, Feb. 29 (11:59pm Central Time).  Artists will be notified of acceptance in mid-March.

WisCon 40

Matching donation to Member Assistance Fund fund drive

2 Comments

Wrdnrd
for WisCon Member Assistance Fund

Hi.  Wrdnrd here.

I’m the one who’s been muttering bitterly in the back of class panels for years.  I started coming to WisCon in 2005, before there was a Member Assistance Fund (though i’ve lost my program book from that year so i’m going off pure memory here).  By the time i knew about the Fund, which was originally called Scholarships, i was at a point in my life where i felt financially secure enough to not request help.

This was undoubtedly a straight-up lie that i told myself.  And it wouldn’t be the first time.  When i qualified for food stamps back in the ’90s, i told myself that groceries were one thing i was always able to buy or get from family and that other people needed the help more than i did.  I came by this idiocy honestly — growing up, when our single-mother-led family was below the poverty line and on the school lunch program, my mother didn’t apply for food stamps.  Other people needed the help more.

These days i’m lucky enough that i’m able to donate to WisCon’s Member Assistance Fund.  It’s a little weird — something of a mental shift for me.  But other people need the help.

I do get super mouthy about class issues, as all 160-ish poor souls who follow me on Twitter know.  The other year i was able to put my energy where my mouth is by co-founding Friends of Dennis.  This year, i’m able to put my wallet where my mouth is by offering a last-minute matching donation to the Assistance Fund’s fundraiser.

Here’s the deal:  For donations made to WisCon’s Member Assistance Fund from now until Saturday night (11:59pm Central Time), i will match every dollar up to $500 — TWICE.  So if you donate $5 to WMAF this week, i’ll donate $10.  If we all pull together, this could mean another $1,500 to help bring people to WisCon 40 this May.

Also, for every membership donated to the Fund, I’ll donate another one.  If you’re interested in donating a membership, please email treasurer@sf3.org.

On Sunday, the SF3 Treasurer and i will tally it all up, i’ll PayPal some monies over to WisCon, and we’ll announce here just how much damage we did to my tax refund.

Okay … GO:




WisCon 40

Parties open for proposals

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Gretchen & Sooshe
Parties

Hey Partygoers!

Welcome back to WisCon! We are looking forward to another year of learning, growing, and partying together. Speaking of parties, one of our grand traditions, Parties, is getting an update. Here’s the scoop:

First, as many of you know, WisCon has party suites on the sixth floor and in the Conference rooms on the second floor. These suites are available for the free use of any convention members who request the space. We love giving our attendees the space to throw these parties, especially when they are long-running annual parties, book/author promotional parties, WisCon promotional parties, and ones that promote other cons and/or SF groups.

Second, if you are thinking about hosting a party, sign up RIGHT NOW. Space is limited, and we need your requests no later than March 15 so that we can send confirmations by the end of March. We will try our best to accommodate all party requests (so really, the sooner, the better). Just log into our parties page and make your request!

Third, we have updated the alcohol policy for all of our parties. This is a non-negotiable update and it will be enforced. If you wish to have alcohol at your party, you may not serve it yourselves in the party rooms. Rather, it will need to be legally purchased by party hosts, then turned over to and dispensed by the Concourse’s bartending station. Please read the new policy before considering including alcohol as part of your party plan.

If you are signing up to host a Party, please read up on these changes so you can be a responsible host of a fun party. We appreciate your help in making WisCon a stronger, faster, better convention for everybody, and we are so excited to see you all, soon!