From: lmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Laurie Mann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Convention Diversity (Re: Arisia vs. Boskone)
Date: 16 Dec 1992 13:35:12 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA
Reply-To: lmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: ansible.pubs.stratus.com

Lynn Gold writes
>There are two cons in the Boston area in the winter.
>
>Apparently, there's some kind of rivalry between them, based on the
>msgs I've seen.
>
>Not being familiar with east coast fan politics, what IS the
>difference between Arisia and Boskone (other than their names, dates,
>and locations)?  What is the "battle" all about?

I wouldn't say there's much of a battle these days.  It's more
of a major case of "different strokes for different folks."

(People who were reading rec.arts.sf-lovers back in the spring of
1987 can skip all this---it was hashed to death there at the time.)

When Boskone lost its hotel after a 4200 person overload in 1987, we (Jim and
myself, who were the '88 Boskone chairs) made a series of very strong
proposals to create a 1500--1800 person Boskone.  Part of this was because
we wanted to see a con aimed at readers and art enthusiasts.  
But, mostly it was because there was no hotel in southern New England 
that could have handled another massive
"winter Worldcon" (sic) and would deal with us.  So we had to look at
hotels far away from Boston, that could, at maximum, hold 1800 people.

In short, we had to loose nearly 2/3rds of our previous membership.

With the consent of NESFA, we sent a letter to the '87 attendees, basically
saying the con was changing dramatically and would be semi-invitational
for at least a year.  This started a major bru-ha-ha, but given the choice of  
no Boskone or a redirected one, we believe we did the right thing.

Anyway, some fans in the Boston area decided to start their own convention.
More power to them.  Arisia emphasizes media and tech much more than
Boskone does.  I think the main sense of "rivalry" is over their choice
of another con name related to E. E. Smith (Arisia), their insistence
on being a winter con, and their constant snipes at Boskone in their
advertising (though this got slightly better last year). 

Fandom is big enough for all kinds of conventions. I believe strongly
that diversity and specialization is better for conventions than a few
big, overgrown cons.  While I love going to Worldcons, my favorite cons
tend to be Boskone, Readercon, Smofcon and Corflu.

There's roughly a 20% overlap between the Boskone and Arisia committees, 
and probably about a 30% overlap in their convention memberships.  Arisia is
a little bigger than Boskone these days, and attracts something of
a younger audience.  Boskone emphasizes program, runs one of the best
art shows around, and has started to run interesting special events.

BTW, there are many other cons in Massachusetts.  There are at least
two Star Trek cons, several comics cons, at least one Creation,
Readercon (Worcester, early summer, attracts about 400 people), and,
Necromonicon (a new con, August, run by Frank Hummel).  Massachusetts
was also home to Gaylaxicon for the first three years of its
existence.

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