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

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I'm going!

I think coughingbear said 80 people were booked, but I can't seem to find *where* she said that, so I might have dreamt it or something. I'd love to know how many of those are us, and how many are people from girlsown or offline fandom.

It's probably a bit late to arrange 'Trennels Member' (and, of course, 'Trennels Anonymouse') badges, alas. :(

I tend to think of everybody by their LJ names and will probably have quite a lot of 'But I never thought of you as a Peggy' or 'But I always envisioned you as short and blonde' cognitive dissonance. I haven't real-life met anyone who's going except for antisoppist and frankie_ecap and a couple of people I used to know from a book group about six years ago, so I honestly doubt everyone else will already know each other. :)

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

I'm going, but I mostly lurk around here, so I'm trimmensely nervous about not knowing anyone.

[coughingbear]

I'm going. And though I do know a few of the people who will be there, I'm sure most of us will be new to each other, so you shouldn't worry!

Though I think we will have to volunteer our online identities if we want anyone to know. Unless someone wants to invent a special trennels handshake (and draw diagrams of how to perform it).

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

I'm going. And the handshake, of course, is performed with the left hand (for Guides), held above one's head, dangling at the wrist (to indicate a suspension from Guides), and with a falcon's (rather than a tiercel's)jesses dangling from one's wrist.

Alternatively, it is acceptable to say, "Hi! I'm [ x]. Did you have a completely dreggy journey? Me too."

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure I can't afford to get in the conference, but does anyone want to get together for coffee or something and tell me about it afterwards? I live in Bournemouth...

[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...