Antonia Forest Conference

[leapingirbis.livejournal.com]

The Antonia Forest Conference is rapidly approaching ... and as this is my very first non-work-related, non-professional, purely-voluntary conference EVER, I am starting to get slightly nervous. It occurs to me that I have no idea what sort of people go to such things. Will everyone there know one another except for me? Will they all be madly intellectual or greet one another with secret handshakes? If you meet people who are members of AF forums, will they identify themselves as such or are internet personas secret identities which are never to be revealed in Real Life?

Therefore my question - how many Trennels members will be at the conference? Does anyone know how many attendees there will in fact be? And if there is a special handshake - can someone let me know how it goes???

Comments

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

I'm going too, and as I'm from Australia I won't know anyone there either, except in fictional form through LJ. Some people from trennels have kindly said they'd like to meet me, and I'm slightly worried about (a) how I'm going to identify them, and (b) whether I'll be able to meet and spend Quality Time with them all. But hey! I'll figure it out.

I've never been to a convention of this sort before either, though I've heard tell of them from other people. I expect the AF one will be more academic than most. Even dubbing itself a "conference" rather than a "convention" suggests as much...

[(Anonymous)]

Well I hope it will be fun - it should be as there are some great speakers - and know that the committee have spent absolutely ages trying to arrange the programme but think that everyone will be a bit apprehensive. I'm meant to be organising some discussion groups and am absolutely terrified that either a) not one person will come or b) people will come and say nothing at all and I will look very silly indeed... Charlotte

[leapingirbis.livejournal.com]

Australia - goodness! And I thought I was making quite an effort by coming over from Germany - clearly this is very low down on the scale of AF-devotedness!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm so jealous of you all! The conference is right when I'm travelling with my 3 kids and graduate student between Rome and Amsterdam. I seriously considered rearranging my entire summer so that I could nip across the Channel for Antonia, leaving the kids with the grad student, but I just couldn't justify such madness. I hope that people will report on every possible detail. I will be with you in spirit!!
(This is Elizabeth, by the way, from an internet cafe in sweltering Rome)