vidukon_cardiff | Jan. 17th, 2016

Greetings, vid fans! We've got a bunch of updates for you today.

Brainstorm and submit your programme ideas
Auction open for volunteers
Extra time at the con
Scholarship

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1. Submit your programme ideas now! We are now open to your ideas for programming for this year's Vidukon. We're always particularly in need of panel ideas, and remember you can do a vidshow and panel combo if you'd like. Priority will be given to attending members, but supporting members can put together vidshows for us as well.

Veteran VJs are welcome and so are first-timers - if you'd like to put a vidshow together but don't know where to start, get in touch and we'll be happy to help. Want to brainstorm? Get feedback on your ideas or suggest them for someone else to pick up in the comments on this post at the livejournal comm or dreamwidth.

The deadline for submissions is 11.59pm GMT February 11th. The final schedule will be announced a few days afterwards, and you will then have until March 12th to submit all content for your vidshow. More detail will be available when the schedule is finalised.

Submit show ideas here and panel ideas here. Email me at such.heights at gmail dot com if you have any questions!

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2. We’re holding the second VidUKon auction o/ Our goals this year are going to look eerily familiar to anyone who saw them last year (badges! more usb sticks! life-giving tea!), with the addition of something a teensy bit more ambitious: a projector to call our very own. The hotel’s AV system does a fair job considering half its circuitry was chiselled on rock using stone age implements, but for vid show enjoyment in general and the sanity of the concom in particular, we’d really love not to have to rely on it. Should we manage to exceed our target, the charity we’ve chosen to donate 50% of any additional funds to is Médecins Sans Frontières.

If you’d like to offer a vid (thank you! thank you! thank you!) you can sign up here (closing 10PM 23rd January). Bidding will open midday 25th January and run through until 8PM February 7th.

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3. Extra Time We took a gamble a few years ago, and started running programming on the Friday night of the con weekend, as an opportunity for everyone to socialise and make introductions. That's gone really well, and has proven pretty popular over the years, so we've decided to try something new. The bulk of our attendees tend to arrive on the Friday, and those who arrive early tend to spend a lot of time vidder-spotting in the hotel foyer or bar. We've decided to pay a bit extra, and book the con rooms from the lunchtime on Friday.

There probably won't be any programming until the usual time, but this'll give the techbunnies more time to hyperventilate and ask the important questions in life, like "But why is it doing that?" and hopefully give those who want to arrive earlier in the day somewhere to hang out, relax, and get to know everyone as they arrive. We hope this'll be useful on several levels - from the option of maybe getting earlier trains and saving on travel, to more chance to hang out and chat before the vidshows start, right through to hearing more exciting stores about the weird and wonderful things that those who arrive even earlier for the con have been up to.

Even More Extra Time If you're thinking of coming down even earlier than Friday lunchtime, there will still be people around; last year, beccatoria, BrokenMnemonic, doccy, LithiumDoll and Isagel spent some time off looking at dinosaurs, watching Mad Max: Fury Road, eating huge slabs of cheesecake, watching Mad Max: Fury Road again, spending loads of time talking about Mad Max, watching all those vids that never quite fit in any of the shows, converting other people to the joys of Mass Effect and Banshee... There also tends to be people around on the Sunday afternoon and even the Monday, if you want to chill out after the con, and while the concom may be partially comatose, there are always giant slabs of cheesecake around somewhere.

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4. The VidUKon Scholarship is funded by donations and intended to offer support to one fan that is a Non-UK resident, has not been to the con in the past and would like to attend.

The scholarship includes:

Attending membership for the con
Accommodation for 2 nights (Friday & Saturday) on the basis of 2 sharing a room.
Saturday dinner ticket

Nominations open on 1st of Feb, if there are no non-UK applicants by 15th of April the scholarship will be open to UK residents as well. All the details are on the website.