How do we encourage fandom?

[figmo]

Every year it comes up: Why aren't we seeing more younger fen at Worldcon (or any of the many other regional general SF cons)?

I remember seeing panels titled "The Greying of Fandom" back when I first got into fandom. It seemed like practically all my friends were into fandom. Many of my co-workers were also fannish. As the years have gone by,

Comments

[cat_herder]

They may have their own con-type activity that the Baycon crowd are not privy to. I see something similar with the Sierra Club and with the folk dancing community. They're all aging. However, things like Blizzcon and Maker Faire go batshit crazy. It's a combination of changing tastes and the crowds who do stuff together.

[nojay]

Another reason for smaller attendances at cons is the online "convention" experience. Time was I never got to talk to a lot of folks and interact with them except at cons but now I've got a lot of the social connections, book buying, discussions, movie watching etc. I only got access to through cons sitting here at my computer desk. I used to go to at least ten conventions a year, now I only do two or three mainly for this reason. The money saved is a bonus as is the travel time

[capplor]

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/king.html
?

[nojay]

Speaking of SMOFs:

www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/672/

[achinhibitor]

Of course, the way to find the answer is to talk to a lot of people you'd like to attract and find out what they like and don't like.

I'd guess that for younger fan types, the problem is that the cons are all run by their uncles, if not their grand-uncles. Not only is the culture off, but there's no way to become a big shot until the elders start dying off. (Hmmm, make a historical graph of the mean age of the con comm's members over the last 20 years. Does it rise by 20?)

Deeper, it seems like there's a loss of prestige associated with the mastery of technology, which seems to me to be due to the loss of the wage premium for engineers, and historically a lot of the interest in SF has revolved around the future of technology and its consequences. At one Arisia, the audience of the panel on the future of spaceflight all had greying hair, the audience of "Intro to BDSM" was overflowing with twentysomethings.

[patoadam]

I have no answers, only questions.

Have cons failed to adapt as tastes change? Are we Palm Pilots in a world of iPads and iPhones?

What does Burning Man know that we don't know?

What need did cons meet when they first came into existence? Does that need still exist?

Re: BayCon punks

[bovil]

Some of the "young punks" are regular convention-goers. They're pretty cool.

Some of them are just looking for free drinks at parties, and don't have badges. They get belligerent when they're told they're not welcome, because they're not members. It's a bigger problem with FC, which is downtown.

Check with the old punks, they can tell who is who.