Re: [Conlangs-Conf] Second Language Creation Conference - Pre-pre-registration!

On 4/29/06, Donald Boozer <donaldboozer@...> wrote:
> --- Sai Emrys <sai@...> wrote:
>
> > I hereby declare that there WILL be a LCC next year
> > or (worst case)
> > the year after. I don't know when or where yet, but
> > I'm saying there
> > will be one, so there will.
>
> Hear! Hear!
*grin*

> > * What physical area you would be able to attend
> > (e.g.: Bay Area, East
> > Coast, West Coast, Anywhere US, Anywhere Europe,
> > ...)
>
> It would be nice to see a U.S. Midwest or U.S. East
> coast venue in '07 or '08. I think the idea of moving
> it around somewhere other than California next would
> be a good idea. Hopefully it would increase the
> diversity of attendance?
Hopefully, and in principle I agree.

It does come down, however, to whether I have people volunteering to
run the backend there. If not, then it won't happen. Only after that
do I get to consider which location would be most popular. *shrug*
Pragmatics.

> > * What year(s) you could attend ('07 or '08)
>
> It sounds like you're asking whether it should be an
> annual or a biennial event. Having a biennial
> conference would allow for more planning and more
> anticipation. Can the conlang community support an
> annual conference?
Yeah, that's partially the question. Partially I'm just hedging my bet
about the declaration that there will be one (dammit). :-P

IMO, we can support an annual conference... but I'll find out simply
enough, by seeing how many people respond as interested in
attending/speaking.

I don't think that anything over, say, 8 months of
planning/anticipation will make much of a difference. Perhaps that's a
symptom of my youth though, that 8 months still seems like a fairly
long time.

To turn the question around: would anyone NOT attend an annual event,
because it *is* too frequent (vs a biennial)?

> > * What month(s) you could attend
>
> Since a large university contingent appears to be
> interested, having it at an "off-time" might be best.
> Not around finals, etc. However, hotel rates (and
> other costs) might be higher in the summer. Winter?
> More open vacation times then?
Possibly. Of course, the difficulty is that (AFAIK) there isn't all
that much agreement between schools in when they have
winter/spring/fall breaks - just the summer is reliable.

Also, next time around we can  try to coordinate roomshares to bring
cost down. I didn't do it this year becasue it just would've been too
much work, and not enough request for it.

> > * How many days long you'd want (1, 2, or 3)
> 2 days might be best. Longer sessions, time to get
> from one session to another. That might also allow for
> people to only have to spring for one hotel night. I
> would suggest starting later on 1st day, go into the
> night (with a dinner and speaker?? Party?), and
> getting going early (8am next day?) and ending around
> 3pm on Day 2? Any thoughts?
Partay!

("40 conlangers walk into a bar...  No, onto. Within? In contact with?
The bar? *confusion ensues*" :-P)

I think we can fill a full (heh) two days at least. Not as much
benefit gained from just splitting one day's worth of content over two
days.

> > * What topics, format, people, or etc you'd like to
> > see (different
> > from this year's)
>
> I would concur with the other poster that since many
> people didn't get to come to this year's, a repeat of
> some (especially Sally Caves) of 2006's offerings
> would be justified. Maybe Marc Okrand would be willing
> to attend a 2-day event? May someone willing to
... to ...?

Will try pinging him again; got no response whatsoever previously.

As I mentioned elsewhere (don't remember if in an email to list or
not), I'm not opposed at all to bringing people back, but I'd like to
see all the talks still be interesting to people who've seen this
year's. So, possibly on related topics, but still substantially enough
different to be worthwhile.

> > * How much money you could contribute, and/or how
> > much money you'd
> > require in reimbursements for YOU to talk at it
>
> Personally, nothing to tiny $. However, if I could get
> my institution to co-sponsor the event, that would
> change things drastically.
What institution is that? How likely / how much / what strings attached / etc?

> > Most importantly:
> > **** What topics YOU can talk about
> I don't know if this would be appropriate to the
> language construction conference, but I'm scheduled to
> present a program on an introduction to "imaginary
> languages and how to create your own" to a group of
> librarians involved in teen services soon. I'm also
> presenting a "how to create your own language"
> workshop to a group of teenagers the same weekend. One
> might think of it as "spreading the gospel [godspell]
> of conlanging." So the topic is something like
> "becoming an evangelist of the secret vice" (venues,
> audiences, etc.)
Nifty gigs. Let us (and me!) know how they go; I'm curious of the
reactions both of the kids and the hosts.

FWIW, another person suggested having a side-by-side "ling 101
intensive" and "create a conlang in small groups" workshop, say 4
hours long, which I think is a pretty good idea.

What could you say about conlang evengalism? I'm open to the idea, but
it doesn't seem offhand to be something that would make for a
longer-than-5-minute talk.

> > **** Whether YOU can help organize it by:
> I'm between positions at my institution right now
> (i.e., applying for a supervisory position), so I'm
> not ready to plunge in with help in organizing.
> Depending on how things work out, it might be a
> possibility. I'll keep reading the posts in relation
> to a 2nd conference with much interest.
Understood. Please keep me updated.

 - Sai