I spoke at Kimikon, a convention I’ve never worked before, and the third time I’ve presented my panel on “Fanfiction Rehab: Creating Your Own Story”.
I learned some things during this season of public speaking, some things I hope I can share with my readers.
Define yourself
I spoke at Kimikon 2019, I was there, and I still don’t know what the convention is about.
I couldn’t even give an accurate description of the convention to the ticket-taker at the neighbouring Antique and Vintage show.
I liken Kimikon to a slower-paced Anime North; many of the attendees dress up in costume, or cosplay, and many of the vendors and panels are centred around Japanese animation (I sat through a screening of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure while waiting for another event).
My question: why don’t the organizers advertise themselves as a small-scale anime convention? In its inaugural year I recall seeing flyers for the Kimikon. This year? I didn’t see any advertisements AT ALL.
One thing I’ve learned, from work and in life, if you don’t define yourself, someone else will do it for you (and maybe not to your liking). If Kimikon wants to attract a bigger audience for subsequent years, it needs to be more explicit in defining what type of convention it actually is, or at least what it wants to be.
Kill Your Darlings
For my speaking panel, I’ve created a Powerpoint deck that I’m quite proud of. It’s chockful of audio and visuals, as well as actionable advice for aspiring writers.
After doing the same panel on three separate occasions at three different conventions, I can conclude that there is some fat to be trimmed from my presentation.
There’s a clip I’ve showed in my panel, Half-Life: Full-Life Consequences. It’s a 4-minute Youtube video of a humorously-rendered interpretation of a poorly written Half-Life fanfiction.
I enjoy the clip, but I’ve been told that it may run too long, and that not everyone would appreciate the humour of the video. This wasn’t an issue the first two times I presented, as there was at least one person in the audience who got the humour of the clip.
This third time, however, I had a very small audience, one which made the clip seem unbearably long. What’s more, I had actually shaved a solid minute off the video, and it STILL felt too long.
Lesson learned: going forward I’ve decided to cut Half-Life: Full Life Consequences from my panel. It slows down the pacing of my presentation, and if the gamble doesn’t pay off (and usually doesn’t) it tends to crash and burn with my audience.
Make the Most of a Situation
So my panel didn’t go so hot this time around. But rather than go home with my tail between my legs, I decided to make the most of the situation.
As I mentioned above, I killed some time by checking out the Vintage show going on in the neighbouring space within the same building, and I even stuck around long enough to participate in karaoke at Kimikon.
Things didn’t work out for my panel, but I didn’t let it get me down. I was there, and I wanted to support the people who put their time and energy in making Kimikon a success.
As creators, and especially as writers, it’s important to expect the unexpected. Even if things don’t go as planned, we must take things in stride and learn to adapt in order to make scenarios work to our advantage.
Hey, if nothing else, I chatted with some interesting attendees, and I at least I got to try out some songs I wouldn’t normally sing at karaoke.
And those are my biggest take-homes from attending Kimikon as a speaker. What do you think? Do you agree with my thoughts? And, if you live in Toronto, do you believe Kimikon stands a chance of surviving for a third year? Enter your thoughts below!