ConSYDeration FAQs

Con is short for ‘science fiction convention’, which is historically understood to be a gathering of fans of sci-fi literature. They are not just restricted to sci-fi nor literature. Speculative fiction and all its subgenres are included. The biggest of these is Worldcon.

ConSYDeration is a not-for-profit writers con, which means writers are both the feature and the primary audience. (There are also commercial cons like Oz Comic-Con and Supanova, but they are run very differently to not-for-profit cons.)

It’s a con tradition to include the letters ‘con’ in the event name. The names often reflect a theme or a place; ours refers to our location in Sydney. Other cons in Australian include Conflux (Canberra), Genrecon (Brisbane), SwanCon (Perth) and Continuum (Melbourne).

A con is more collegiate than a writers festival. Writers festivals tend to separate the writers (on stage) from the readers (in the audience) whereas at cons you’re likely to find people who are on stage in one session are in the audience in another and vice versa.

Cons also run on a system where all attendees (bar the Guest/s of Honour) pay a fee to attend, usually a few hundred dollars, and volunteer their time and expertise to appear on panels and run workshops – they do not get paid. The organisers are also unpaid volunteers.

ConSYDeration is attempting a hybrid of this system where workshop presenters are paid but panellists are volunteers, while keeping the costs down for attendees. The Sydney Speculative Scribes team is completely volunteer.

A few reasons:

• Availability of key personnel
• Availability of the venue
• Alignment with Sydney Fringe

We understand the date coincides with other major events including a commercial con and a religious holiday, but we decided that all things considered we would rather hold a con over these days than not at all.

ConSYDeration is a joint effort between Sydney Speculative Scribes and WestWords, in particular Stephanie Johnson, Adeline Teoh and Mandy Munro from Scribes, and Ally Burnham and Michael Campbell from WestWords. Scribes has provided most of the programming elements, WestWords has handled the bulk of the administration.

Our ticketing partner is Sydney Fringe and our venue partner is the National Trust.

The con was conceived based on the interests of the Scribes team with a writing-first focus. We were particularly interested in the confluence of speculative ideas with literary craft; Stephanie Johnson wanted Siang Lu as Guest of Honour, he said ‘yes’, and we built the initial list of panels from there.

We then opened up to expressions of interest between 21 July and 3 August where panellists could nominate themselves for the initial panels we listed and /or propose their own. That was the prime time for [topic] to come to our attention. If there wasn’t enough interest/expertise indicated by other panellists, it wasn’t programmed.

This is Dharug land.

ConSYDeration takes place at Old Government House, which we recognise as a key site of colonisation. We acknowledge the traditional custodians, the Burramattagal people of the Dharug Nation, where the con takes place. We recognise that they have told stories here for millennia and that sovereignty was never ceded.

The areas where the con will take place are accessible for people who require mobility assistance, including accessible parking, ramps and an accessible bathroom. However, there are no handrails along the pathways. We regret that there is no hearing loop at the venue.

Should you wish to visit Old Government House (not part of the con ticket), please be advised that it is a heritage building and the upper floor of the house is only accessible via stairs.

The onsite cafe is currently being renovated but you are welcome to bring your own picnic and take advantage of the grounds.

The closest food venues are Club Parramatta (an RSL club) and Good George (a kiosk), both 300 metres away by their direct routes, about 5 mins’ walk. Other food outlets are further afield including Marsden Street (650 metres) and ‘Eat Street’ on Church Street (700 metres), about 10 mins’ walk.

If you need to pray/chill out/write quietly there is an indoor quiet space in the Laundry that we’re fairly sure isn’t haunted. Otherwise, Parramatta Park provides a wealth of outdoor space away from people.

On Saturday 12 September there’s an NRLW game at Commbank Stadium (Eels vs Cowboys); on Sunday 13 September there’s a Walk4BrainCancer.

Tickets are handled by our partner Sydney Fringe. See this guide on how to purchase the pass you want.

No, you can’t come to a workshop until you’ve bought a pass (that’s a day pass, weekend pass or three day pass). We’re able to offer the workshops for a great value price because it’s supported by the infrastructure of the con, so that means supporting the con. See this guide on how to buy a workshop ticket.

If you are still logged in to your Fringe account you can add a workshop. Otherwise no, the Fringe platform treats this as a completely new transaction. However, if you find yourself in this situation, let us know and we can issue a workaround in the backend.

Yes you can, but you’re still going to have to do it through the Sydney Fringe site as it breaks the terms of our agreement with them to process tickets outside of their platform. See this guide on how to purchase the tickets you want.

Firmly against. (I can’t believe we have to explicitly say this, but such are the times we are in.) Our vision for this con is to support writers who have good ideas with ways to improve their craft; good craft takes effort and skill, it is not ‘writing better prompts for AI’. We will never knowingly use AI in our content.

Yes.

Yes.