if the main thing people want is dressing up, chatting up and partying.
Oh I think people do want workshops. It's just that the workshops they want aren't necessarily the ones I would want nowadays. E.g. there are people every year who want an intro to polyamory or a beginners' BDSM workshop, or one on coming out as bi or discussing biphobia. And for me it's not that those aren't interesting subjects, it's more that there are basic things that have to be covered for the beginners every time, and those don't change much. I have wanted, and been to, workshops like that in past years, and nowadays I can pretty much guess what would be covered in them and I don't feel the need to cover that ground again. But lots of people at BiCon are in the relatively early stages of exploring bisexuality/bdsm/poly, and lots of them don't have a strong bi community at home and so BiCon is their big chance in the year to ever talk about that kind of thing.
Also I don't think the politics has disappeared, though obviously I wasn't around to experience in comparison the earlier time of which you speak. I did go to an explicitly political workshop as well this year actually - it was on bi activism in unions and political parties. And last year I went to one on the possibility of setting up a new bi phone line (although it didn't lead to the phone line actually starting - see my article at the time (http://www.material.demon.co.uk/2004/biphonelinethoughts.htm)).
Mind you in a way I would say the experiential-discussion workshops are political in themselves - I mean that creating the space to talk about those things is a political act. But I know what you mean, they're not directly activist in the same way.
I'm curious - if you did see a timetable that was juicy enough to attract you back, what would have to be in it?
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-05 12:18 pm (UTC)Oh I think people do want workshops. It's just that the workshops they want aren't necessarily the ones I would want nowadays. E.g. there are people every year who want an intro to polyamory or a beginners' BDSM workshop, or one on coming out as bi or discussing biphobia. And for me it's not that those aren't interesting subjects, it's more that there are basic things that have to be covered for the beginners every time, and those don't change much. I have wanted, and been to, workshops like that in past years, and nowadays I can pretty much guess what would be covered in them and I don't feel the need to cover that ground again. But lots of people at BiCon are in the relatively early stages of exploring bisexuality/bdsm/poly, and lots of them don't have a strong bi community at home and so BiCon is their big chance in the year to ever talk about that kind of thing.
Also I don't think the politics has disappeared, though obviously I wasn't around to experience in comparison the earlier time of which you speak. I did go to an explicitly political workshop as well this year actually - it was on bi activism in unions and political parties. And last year I went to one on the possibility of setting up a new bi phone line (although it didn't lead to the phone line actually starting - see my article at the time (http://www.material.demon.co.uk/2004/biphonelinethoughts.htm)).
Mind you in a way I would say the experiential-discussion workshops are political in themselves - I mean that creating the space to talk about those things is a political act. But I know what you mean, they're not directly activist in the same way.
I'm curious - if you did see a timetable that was juicy enough to attract you back, what would have to be in it?