BayCon 2009 Preliminary Schedule

SATURDAY, MAY 23

Join us for a morning session and cleanse the fatigue poisons from your body.

Community led Saturday morning Shabbat Torah service.

Mexican immigrants report a rise in discrimination in the wake of the swine flu, yet the media broadcasts reminding us to take basic precautions are credited with helping to reduce the spread of the disease. The constant news stories about Tamiflu stockpiles have helped to spike the price and started a profitable (and illegal) on-line resale market. What is the role of a responsible media establishment in covering a potential pandemic event? And how can the media help reduce the severity of such occurrences?

Have you ever wanted to learn how to make your own chainmail? Come join our veteran BayCon staff members and expert ring-benders in a hands-on workshop where you too can learn the at of metal-fu. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to take home a sample of their own work. There will be a $10 materials fee and the number of participants is limited to 20.

Learn more about this year's charity: The Alex Foundation.

You were there for Part 1, right? Quick! Time travel! In this part, we go over the plan, figure out the gear, work up a story, write the script, plan the shoot, and pretty much anything else we can think of. That's right, from soup to nuts, we're going to make an entire movie here at BayCon. This is your chance to be a part of the annual fun and learn how to make a movie on a budget so tiny calling it "shoestring" would be an insult to shoestrings. The key to making a movie, of course, is good planning!

St. Michael's Salle D'Armes will be presenting a demonstration on the historical and proper use of weapons from the 15th, 16th, and 17th century. Their knights will fight for your entertainment, followed by a demonstration of Cut-and-Thrust (Side Sword) and Rapier. Audience members will also have the opportunity to take a brief lesson with the long sword.

The cost of gasoline has gone through the roof. The UK is planning a new series of nuclear power plants. Wind farms are being challenged by environmental activists. What is our energy system going to look like in ten years time?

One Laptop Per Child is a growing force for global basic education. Join like-minded folks for a casual discussion.

Join others of like mind to discuss Christian Fandom.

Join our experts as they discuss tips and tricks to get the best possible result from a costume photo shoot. As a bonus, the panel will be able to use the actual BayCon Masquerade stage for examples.

Watch as a panel of expert costumers takes half a dozen of the most popular & readily available "steampunk" accessories and applies them to audience members to demonstrate how the right accessory can make ANY outfit look Steampunk. If you're looking for a way to "Steam Up" your party outfit for this evening, this is the place to start.

It's been a year since we checked in on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. Join Bridget Landry (a real rocket scientist!) as she discusses the latest news from one of NASA's longest running missions.

Zombies are everywhere - in science fiction, in fantasy, even in romance novels. And what about Pride and Prejudice with Zombies? These shambling corpses, once reserved for the depths of the horror stacks, are popping up in the darndest places. Have the living dead crossed genre lines? Or have they evolved into their own subgenre?

Military science fiction frequently features characters, politics, and technology that have the feel of something from several centuries in the past. Does history really repeat itself? Is the reality of future warfare is too boring to make good fiction? Or are the writers just too lazy to be creative?

19th Century Italian dueling sabre, also known as the Radaellian Sabre, embodies everything that was characteristic of traditional Italian fencing: efficiency, speed, and mobility. Dynamic attacks combined with extraordinary light cuts and thrusts make this an exciting exercise. Different from modern saber fencing, the classical Italian dueling sabre observes the original intention of the weapon: to hit and not be hit. Classical fencing is a return to efficient, elegant, and safe swordplay. In this seminar, a basic Italian sabre lesson and fencing bout will be demonstrated. Audience members will be able to participate in a basic group lesson with sabre in hand. (All equipment supplied.)

With Twitter and Facebook on our phones, we can surf the web from our car and find out what celebrities are having for lunch. Of course, we can also look like a clueless n00b from our hot tubs and accidentally send nude pics to our entire company. While our panelists are qualified to discuss the perils of massive connectivity, they do not promise that the proceedings will be available on-line.

Join other fans of Diana Paxson's Westria stories for an unstructured discussion.

Join former BayCon Toastmaster James Stanley Daugherty as he interviews both of BayCon's Author Guests of Honor! Watch with bated breath as one man tries to handle Larry Dixon and Mercedes Lackey at the same time!

Join Tim Kirk as he presents a survey of his work.

Do you like the Pyrocumulon script? Would you like to see your initials in pyrocuniform? Come join us and make a rubber stamp with your choice of initials (maximum of three letters). Workshop participants will get to keep their stamp.

Are adults playing Animal Crossing pedophiles? Should a teenager be able to purchase Grand Theft Auto without a note from a parent? Or, in the wake of several lost court cases, should the government scale back their efforts to legislate our leisure activities?

Join Tim Kirk as he presents a survey of his work.

We survived 1984 without it looking like 1984, but have we avoided such a fate, or did Orwell just get his dates wrong? Our panelists will compare legal realities, and potential realities, to the fiction of today and yesterday with an eye toward where both the real and imagined legal systems are heading in the future.

Members of the Chateau de Camville demonstrate their medieval weapons, armor, and fighting styles.

The newspaper industry is staggering; papers are folding across the country and more people are turning to blogs and podcasts for news. Is this a good thing? Is traditional media being replaced by a mass network of citizen-reporters, or are we sinking into a chaotic mess of agenda-driven websites. What happens to investigative journalism in the next 20 years?

Join other fans of Science! to display your creativity, plot wholesale destruction, and show off your Really Spiffy Hat!

Are you entered in the Masquerade tonight? If so, you MUST attend this meeting. Scripts and music will be checked, presentation order will be set and all your questions answered. Costumes are not required, but if you have a particular concern (ceiling clearance, for example) you may bring it along.

Come see the BayCon 2009 Toastmaster as she engages in verbal sparring with a former BayCon Toastmaster. The sparks and witticisms will fly.

Come one, come all to the Charity Auction. Bid on one-of-a kind items you've never seen before and never will again. For the first time, the Saturday auction will feature reserved seating for the Masquerade. Be the envy of the huddled masses as you sit in luxurious splendor in the front rows. And remember, all of the money goes to The Alex Foundation, so it's good for your karma. Bid early, bid often!

Battlestar Galactica has ended, but there are still questions. Was it a fitting end to the best show of television? Was it a long-overdue mercy killing? Was that the conclusion of the story or just a cop-out by tired writers? If you loved it, hated it, or just want to hear someone else's opinion on the subject, come watch our panelists fight it out.

SARS. Swine Flu. Anyone watching the news knows that we've had a number of close calls this century. Is a global pandemic inevitable? And what steps can be taken to contain or mitigate an outbreak when one occurs?

Raptors are common elements in sci-fi and fantasy literature. Come meet the real-world inspiration for gryphons, dragons, and Crucians. Our experienced handlers will be showing their birds and explaining the differences between having a "bondbird" and sharing your life with a raptor.

The mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe. Join SETI Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak as he brings us up to date on the project.

Join others to talk about the show, how the current season ended and where you think they're going in future seasons.

If half the 'Verse was settled from Asia, where were the Asians in Firefly? Is media casting changing to better reflect global diversity or has progress effectively stalled since the original Star Trek? Does Hollywood need some sort of "affirmative casting" plan?

Battlestar Galactica isn't the first show to draw on current events. Watchmen was also written as political commentary. Can the authors of a modern story truly divorce themselves from the current events? And when do they need to step down from the soapbox?

It's been more than 40 years since the series started, the Doctor has regenerated 9 times, had a host of companions (including K9) and visited time and space as no one else has. The show is back and the new version is more popular than ever, and has even sired several spin-offs. What next for the BBC's favorite show(s)?

Art is beautiful on a book cover or hanging on your wall, but what else can we do with it? How can art be translated into other media? Is there an inherent separation between "flat" art and art with three physical dimensions? And are there tricks that are only possible if you're working in a particular format?

Everyone knows that editing is a critical part of the authorial process, but many people are unaware of how complicated editing can be. Our panel of experienced authors and editors will discuss the importance of continuity, pacing, and other issues that require more than just running a spellcheck.

Geeks are everywhere in the media these days, but different characters get vastly different treatment. The geeks on Big Bang Theory are socially inept, Chuck is lovable, and the SyFy Channel wants to shed the image of the acne-afflicted on-line gamer in the basement. Are geeks getting a better image in mainstream media? Or is fandom creeping back to the basement to die of acute embarrassment?

Join the rest of those who were bumped off Oceanic Flight 815 and discuss the fates of the poor souls who actually made the plane.

Comic books have been providing Hollywood with source material for years. Now, comic books are a place to continue the storyline after the camera stops rolling. With the 8th Season of Buffy in print and the third season of Pushing Daisies on the way, what's next? And, as the line between screen and print continues to blur, is the official comic adaptation of Gossip Girl far behind?

Just exactly how do you go about designing a toilet for a gryphon? What about an alphabet that can be written by humans and dragons? How do you prevent your fur from getting caught in the cracks of a chaise lounge? Our panelists speculate on how physical form impacts the underlying psychology and artistic design of buildings and furniture.

As we creep closer to being able to download a personality into a computer, the discussion about how to define gender is heating up. When a body is only temporary, how does one determine their gender identity? Science fiction has been discussing these issues for years. Our panelists will bring their views to the table and we'll see if we can find a consensus.

Has polite society finally gone the way of the dodo? Can public conduct be saved? In the wake of recent public behavioral lapses, there is a growing movement to codify what is considered unacceptable behavior. Is it possible to legislate manners or is there a better way to get us all to play nice?

On Sunday, May 25, 2008, The eyes of NASA and JPL were on Mars, as the Phoenix Lander was scheduled to touch down. Several of our "regulars" have been involved in this process. Come and listen to Bob Kanefsky share his personal involvement with this expedition.

Twelve-step members only, please.

Welcome to the Imaginarium, where anything is possible. Join us as we showcase the creativity and costuming talents of our members.

Join the Raven Players as they recreate the famous radio broadcast of H.G.Wells' classic novel.

Come join us in The Imaginarium — "Where Anything is Possible." Creatures big and small, feathered and scaled used to roam these corridors, and share their wisdom and creativity side by side with our ancestors. Engineers and Inventors created fantastic creatures of clockwork and magic, spectacular airships were conceived here, and we find bits and pieces of the many wonders that were once brought into being in this place. But The Imaginarium is not totally abandoned! Little did we know that as we restored power and life to this city, marvelous things would come to pass! Tonight we find ourselves Inside The Imaginarium, and truly, anything IS possible!

The Eye of Argon is arguably the worst piece of fiction ever published (possibly worse than the Federal Budget). Come join in the reading and be your own judge. You only have to read until you laugh!