Yesterday, Farpoint released their preliminary schedule. Farpoint is a science-fiction convention held outside Baltimore every February, and this year’s convention falls from February 18th to 20th at the Crowne Plaza in Timonium, just off Interstate 83 at exit 16. This year marks my fourth year attending Farpoint as an author guest and my sixth Farpoint overall.
I’ve always found there’s a certain “first day of college” quality to getting a convention’s schedule — “Did I get this panel? I really wanted it” “Is there room for me on that panel? It’d be super-duper-cool…” “What was the registrar thinking? I don’t have the right prerequisites for that!” This year’s Farpoint schedule was no different, and I quickly found myself spotting panels I’d like to be on that I’m not presently assigned to.
For the five people attending Farpoint who might be stalking me, my Farpoint schedule this year looks like:
2010 Comics In Review
Saturday, 12 Noon — Dulaney 2
Blogging Roundtable
Saturday, 1 o’clock — Ridgely 1
Doctor Who: Coming to America
Saturday, 4 o’clock — Chesapeake 1
Web Comics Roundtable
Sunday, 12 Noon — Dulaney 2
Autographing
Sunday, 1 o’clock — Atrium
Two of these panels are, at present, unconfirmed; I’ve requested adds from the registrar — that whole “first day of college” thing 😉 — but I’d think they’re likely to happen and so I’ve added them to this handy stalker’s guide.
There are some interesting things on the schedule this year.
For technofetishists, there’s “All Wired Up: Technology in Science Fiction Erotica” on Friday at 7 o’clock.
Steampunk aficionados are well served with “Steampunk Your Look” on Saturday morning at 10, “Climate Change: The Hidden Hazard of Steampunk Settings” on Saturday at 5 o’clock, and “Steampunk on a Budget” on Sunday at 1 o’clock.
LEGO builders would be interested in “LEGO Robotics” on Saturday at 1 o’clock; I’d attend this one myself purely as an interested person, but alas, the blogging panel interferes.
For writers, there are panels on podcasting (Saturday at Noon) and going about getting published (Saturday at 2 o’clock).
And, of course, there are panels on some of today’s hottest genre shows, like The Walking Dead (Saturday, 1 o’clock), Being Human (Saturday, 10 o’clock), Fringe (Sunday, 10 o’clock), supernatural (Sunday, Noon), and Warehouse 13 (Sunday, 4 o’clock).
There’s also some interesting stuff on the fan film track. In addition to The Hunt for Gollum Sunday afternoon at 4, Friday night they’re showing Doctor Who 2009: Fire and Ice which, judging by the trailer, looks pretty snazzy.
It looks like Farpoint is going to be a fun and exciting weekend, and hopefully this year we won’t have massive amounts of snow on the ground like last year in the wake of Blizzardammerung.
See some of you there!