BayCon

BayCon News

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Artist Guest of Honor Gary Villarreal

Our interview with artist guest of honor Gary Villarreal was delayed by a series of missed connections, and then lost when a MacBook didn’t survive a six-foot drop. He remained patient through it all, and the takeaway is that the BayCon programming staff made an amazing choice in inviting the guy.

Maybe Villarreal’s small-town (Bryan, TX [pop. 85000] is 150 miles from San Antonio) upbringing had something to do with it. His job at a supermarket meat counter ("it was actually a lot of fun", he said) led to a design gig with the market.

Three years after graduating from Texas A&M, he ventured to southern California to pursue his art career. "After growing up in the country, it was definitely a culture shock, but I treat people the way I want to be treated", Villarreal said. "Humility and an ability to get along with people helped get me here".

Villarreal’s day job is concept art for Super Bit Machine, which develops real-time multiplayer games. Otherwise, he cultivates his freelance experience, "always creating characters".

Villarreal’s BayCon schedule taps into his creativity, while involving him with attendees. "I look forward to meeting new people, and the live drawing will be fun", he said.
[Read more…] about Artist Guest of Honor Gary Villarreal

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Program Schedule is Live

Great news! The ninjas have come out of the shadows to share the programming schedule for BayCon 2019! (They quickly disappeared, but are probably still around somewhere.)

BayCon 2019 has a lot of programming to offer, from panels, to gaming, to dances and filk. We also have a Makers Workshop to satisfy your DIY and costume repair needs, a room dedicated to the spaceship bridge simulator Artemis, and room parties, LARPs and other events in the evening.

View the PROGRAM SCHEDULE.

Get to know our Guests! View the full list of program participants.

Have a smart phone? You can view and customize your own schedule for the weekend! Download the Grenadine Event Guide app on your mobile device and enter code “baycon19”.

Send any feedback or questions to programming@baycon.org.

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Brianna and Frank Wu are Coming to BayCon 2019

BayCon 2019 is extremely pleased that Brianna and Frank Wu will be joining us for the weekend as featured guests!

BayCon 2019 is extremely pleased to announce that featured guests Brianna and Frank Wu will join us for the weekend!

BRIANNA WU

Brianna is a Democratic candidate for the United States Congress in the Massachusetts 8th District. She is a computer programmer, cyber security expert, and small business owner with a proven track record of standing up for progressive values.

Brianna founded and runs her own independent technology firm in Dedham, Massachusetts. She also hosts several long-running podcasts on both tech and culture, including “Rocket” on Relay FM. Brianna came to national prominence when she and other women working in the tech industry were personally targeted by alt-right hate groups, including one spearheaded by Steve Bannon, ex-Chief Strategist to Donald Trump. Despite multitudes of threats on her life and her family, Brianna has never wavered as a voice for the marginalized, including women, people of color, and LGBT individuals. The story of her continuing fight for social and economic justice has been told and fictionalized in several media, including an episode of Law & Order SVU.

When getting away from politics and technology, she enjoys personally restoring and maintaining her classic car, racing her motorcycle, and watching the New York Yankees lose with her loving husband Frank.

FRANK WU

Frank Wu earned a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then parlayed that degree into successful careers in biotech patent law and science fiction art and writing.

In the course of winning four Hugo Awards for his art, he often pointed out scientific errors in the stories he was illustrating. And in his own art, he painted dinosaurs playing guitar and giant space chickens, which are totally scientifically plausible. His art can be found in Amazing Stories, Realms of Fantasy, Fantastic Stories, Chris Garcia’s Drink Tank and other venues, including his website.

More recently, he has embarked on a writing career, with three stories appearing in Analog, the top magazine for hard science fiction. One story, about a deep sea submersible in love, won the Analog award for Best Short Story.

Frank lives in Boston with his wonderful wife Brianna, a software engineer and progressive Democrat running for Congress, along with three little dogs that should know better.

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Toastmaster JC Arkham

Toastmaster JC Arkham

BayCon toastmaster JC Arkham has a varied, extensive, and eye-catching experience in nerdy pursuits.

“I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy, as far back as I can remember,” he said, citing Logan’s Run and Planet of the Apes among the first. “Then Star Wars came out when I was 8, and that led to a another level of fandom.”

Star Wars

Star Wars inspired Arkham to design costumes. “Every year while growing up, I made highly-detailed Star Wars costumes for Halloween.” In a few years, he discovered conventions (along with BayCon art design, Arkham has served on the Con-Volution board, and developed brand design for WorldCon).

“In the mid-80s, I attended BayCon at the Doubletree in San Jose. It was the Red Lion Inn back then. I did costuming there for a number of years, and a lot of creating and building props,” Arkham said.

“My passion for building turned into collecting: Props from science fiction and fantasy, props from movies and TV.”
[Read more…] about Toastmaster JC Arkham

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Fan Guest of Honor Wanda Kurtcu

BayCon, as a convention run by fans, has a yearly tradition in which we honor someone who has made significant contributions to fandom. This year, we welcome Wanda Kurtcu, a Bay Area convention veteran, as our Fan Guest of Honor. We sat down with Wanda for a short interview to help our members get to know her before BayCon 2019.

BayCon Fan Guest of Honor Dr. Wanda Kurtcu has been a regular panelist on issues of equality and inclusiveness in fandom for more than 10 years, but her honored guest status was unexpected. “I’m honored to be the Fan Guest of Honor, but I was surprised to be asked”, she said. “In my experience, this is usually not a person of color. This broke a barrier.”

[Read more…] about Fan Guest of Honor Wanda Kurtcu

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BayCon 2019 Charity: Computer History Museum

Computer History Museum at BayCon 2019

BayCon 2019 is proud to announce our charity for this year: the Computer History Museum! Located right here in the Bay Area, the Computer History Museum is a non-profit dedicated to preserving and collecting computing technology since the inception of the earliest hardware.

From their website:

The mission of the Computer History Museum is to preserve and present for posterity the artifacts and stories of the Information Age.

The Computer History Museum is a nonprofit organization with a four-decade history as the world’s leading institution exploring the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society. The Museum is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of computer history and is home to the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, encompassing computer hardware, software, documentation, ephemera, photographs, oral histories, and moving images.
[Read more…] about BayCon 2019 Charity: Computer History Museum