I love attending Science Fiction conventions–I didn’t know anything about “fandom” until I read David G. Hartwell’s book, The Age of Wonder, and then I had this Eureka moment: I was not alone! There were others like me, and they met each other at these things called “Conventions”

Even with the limited internet resources of the time (we are talking IBM dumb terminals connected to room-sized mainframes, the text based green-on-black the only way to connect through the BitNet to the rest of the world) I somehow found a convention–the EuroCon in 1994, “Convenția europeană de science fiction” taking place in Timișoara, România. I was living in Turkey at the time, and Romania was accessible–one of the few countries that had not, at the time, require a visa from citizens of Turkey. I saved my dollars, gave private computer tutoring to the diplomats at the Brazilian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, booked my flight, and landed in Timișoara, where the customs guy was surprised ANY “Westerner” would want to come to his city, and kept asking where I was travelling to.

Then I met a fellow SF fan from Romania, who took me in a Trabant to my very first convention, where I met, among others, the late John Brunner, Joe and Gay Haldeman, Herbert W. Franke and Roberto Quaglia–and I was hooked.

Since then, I have been going to science fiction conventions around the world, as attendee, volunteer/staff and occasional panelist/programme participant. Here’s a list of them to the best of my recollection:

LonCon 3, WorldCon 2014, London, England, UK (attendee, staff, panelist)
ReaderCon 2014, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA (attendee)
Ad-Astra 2014, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (attendee, panelist)
SF Contario 2013, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (attendee)
Can-Con 2013, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (attendee, panelist)
ReaderCon 2013, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA (attendee)
LoneStarCon 3, WorldCon 2013, San Antonio, Texas, USA (attendee, panelist)
Can-Con 2012, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (attendee)
SF Contario 2012, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (attendee)
Deep South Con 2012, Huntsville, Alabama, USA (attendee)
ChiCon 7, WorldCon 2012, Chicago, Illinois, USA (attendee, staff)
Can-Con 2011, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (attendee)
AussieCon Four, WorldCon 2010, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (attendee, staff)
Anticipation, WorldCon 2008, Montréal, Québec, Canada (attendee)
Con*Cept 2007, Montréal, Québec, Canada (attendee)
Denvention 3, WorldCon 2007, Denver, Colorado, USA (attendee, staff)
LA Con IV, WorldCon 2006, Anaheim, California, USA (attendee, staff)
Ad-Astra 2005, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (attendee)
InterAction, WorldCon 2005, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (attendee, staff)
Con*Cept 2004, Montréal, Québec, Canada (attendee)
Norescon IV, WorldCon 2004, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (attendee, staff)
TorCon 3, WorldCon 2003, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (attendee)
ConJosé, WorldCon 2002, San Jose, California, USA (attendee, staff)
Boskone 2001, Boston, Massachusetts (attendee)
Millennium PhilCon, WorldCon 2001, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (attendee, staff)
ChiCon 2000, WorldCon 2000, Chicago, Illinois, USA (attendee, staff)
Bucconeer, WorldCon 1998, Baltimore, Maryland, USA (attendee, staff)
Intuition, EasterCon 1996, Manchester, England, UK (attendee, staff)
Intersection, WorldCon 1995, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (attendee, staff, panelist)
EuroCon 1994, Timișoara, România (attendee)