Holy shit!

[dagibbs]

As some of you may know -- and others may not -- I'm going to be the fan guest of honor (GOH) for Confusion 2010 - I See By My Confusion. (Y'all should come, it's a great convention.) In doing up a bio for me, some questions came up and resulted in me going through my old badges. (I keep my convention badges as a sort of record of what cons I've been to. I may have lost a couple along the way, though.)

Cangames 3 in (I think) 1983 was my first convention -- it was a gaming convention, though,
so I don't count it in the SF convention records. (I have a 1984 Cangames badge, the Cangames 3 badge is older, I think it was the year immediately previous.)

Maplecon 7 in 1985 was my first SF convention.
Ad Astra VI in 1986 was my first out-of-town convention.

I have been to (at least) 137 SF conventions. By the numbers:
Ad Astra - 21
Confusion - 18
Conclave - 15
Con*Cept - 10
Worldcon - 8 (first was Chicon V in 1991)
Contradiction - 8
Contraption - 7
Arisia - 7
Maplecon - 6
Penguicon - 6
Bachanal - 5
Wilfcon - 5
Others, less than 5 each: 21. (Including, but not limited to: Lunacon, Pinekone, Disclave, Philcon, Marcon, Windycon, Apollocon, Rivercon, and Pseudo-Opuscon.)

In my busiest year, I attended 13 conventions.

Comments

[ckd]

I do know, and that is actually one of the reasons I decided to go to ConFusion this year.

(Also, congratulations on the GoH slot.)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

(Thank you.)

[popelaksmi.livejournal.com]

I did not know you were invited as a FGoH at a con! SWEET! Congrats!!!

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/niall_/]

Congratulations on FGoH! That level of activity, plus your knowledge and the capacity to impart that knowledge, is a good reason to make you FGoH.

And woo, sharing guest status with Peter S Beagle! Some I know would be green with envy. :)

I counted my cons two years ago (and kept the count going in my LJ memory entry), and since 1989 have basically half the SF cons you have (71). Thirteen in one year is insane.

Amusingly, if I can attend a con that weekend, it wouldn't be ConFusion but one called Further Confusion (in San Jose) - and I wonder if the naming is coincidental or not...

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Thirteen in one year was pretty crazy, yes. But, there were more conventions around back then. Or, maybe more correctly, more general SF cons in the reasonable travelling distance from here.

It wouldn't surprise me if Further Confusion was aware of Confusion when they named their con. But, the only way to know would be to ask someone involved in the naming.