 Hello! This is Julia Bloom, host of Fandom 101. Just wanted to let you know that the original interview we filmed with Matt had some technical difficulties, so I am recording his part of the interview separately on Zoom. Welcome to Fandom 101. My name is Julia Bloom. In this show, we take a look at what fandom is, what its aspects are, and what issues exist today in the fan community. After two years of cancellations and virtual cons, in-person cons are returning to convention centers and hotels around the country. But with changing safety measures and varying rates of COVID, what should fans expect from cons today, and how can they keep themselves safe? Joining me today are Brian Cutler, the con chair of Otacon 2022, and Matt Daigle, the founder and staff lead of Connecticut. Thank you for being here. So you're both on convention staff. How did you get started as upper ranks of con staffing? So I started attending cons, and then my wife actually got roped into staffing, and when she did that, I got roped into staffing, and then I realized that I really like staffing, and just sort of worked my way up where I could, and eventually became the convention chair, and now the president of Otacon. 2002, when I was a college student, was one of my entrepreneurial studies degree programs requirements to come up with a business plan for a potential business, and showed it to some of my friends from college, from the guild, and they're like, yeah, why don't we just start that, make it happen? Oh, right, cool. Okay, sounds good. We've got nine months till next summer. Let's do it. You planned the whole thing in nine months? Yeah, 2002 was a very different time. Not as much online ticketing and all of that? No, it was almost all mail-ins, people sending checks and things, a lot of manual data entry back then. And how did this con go? The first year in 2003, we had about 800 people show up, which wasn't bad for a first-year convention at that time. What was the name of this convention? It was Connecticut. Oh, okay, so you started it back then? Yeah, I started it when I was in college. I was 21, 22, when we started it. Nice, yeah. Yeah, I've been to Connecticut a few times, but for our audience who might not have gone, could you explain Connecticut in a nutshell? I would say it's kind of a kitchen sink convention where we have a little bit of every type of fandom. We don't go super deep into any one fandom. So if you like tabletop gaming, we've got that. If you like video gaming, we've got that. If you like anime, we've got that. If you like US animation, we've got that. If you like science fiction, fantasy, novels, media, comics, everything's included. A little bit of horror. We've got panelists who come every year and do heavy metal rock panels. These are the cool bands and the coolest shows I went to in the last year. And 100 people show up to that panel every year. And the fans love it. We just want to be open and encouraging and let people enjoy and share their fandoms with each other. Some in-person cons returned in the winter of 2021. What was your experience in 2021? And what measures did you take against COVID? And also, do you think those measures lowered the number of attendees who later tested positive? Our con actually returned in the summer of 2021. We were the first large events to occur in Washington, D.C. post-pandemic. We made face masks mandatory. And because the vaccine was still new, we knew that we couldn't feasibly require it and hold a show that would allow us to continue holding Otacon. So we really enforced the mask mandate and post-con, at least to my reckoning and my knowledge, there were no positive cases following our 2021 con. Well, that's good to hear. I was at Otacon this past summer and I had a pretty good experience. My parents are still a bit nervous about me going back to cons, but I haven't gotten COVID at a con. I did get COVID in mid-September, but that was just going around normal day-to-day life. Yeah, I think I actually managed to get COVID at a con. It was not Otacon, but it was another con that I will not name. How effective do you think your safety policies have been in reducing the spread of COVID and other illnesses at your con? You did mention that there were no positive cases. At least in 2021. So we've had two cons post-pandemic. This past year, we required face masks as well as COVID vaccination proof or a negative PCR test. I think that just based on the size of our event, we had 40,000 people in the building. We got eight reports that there were positive cases following that. So I honestly think that our efforts as well as the efforts of our convention centers, because I know that there have been so many upgrades to convention centers in the past few years to make high-touch surfaces, be treated more often, do for more frequent cleanings of the rooms in the areas. Different air handling systems have been installed in some of these buildings to really cut down on the spread of disease in those spaces. So overall, I think that we've done a lot. They've done a lot. And generally, it's been okay. As long as there's that, as long as both parties are making effort. Do you think cons can manage long-term with the possibility of future pandemics? It really depends on the type of pandemic as an airborne surface-based, contact-based, monkeypox was a thing for six months this past summer, but that was more of a contact base. As long as you didn't touch people, you're okay. So if there's something major worldwide or even just within North America that gets really widespread and is really dangerous, I think some events can postpone or push back. Most of the events learned online conventions are not a thing anybody wants to participate in. Conventions are largely meeting in person and being socially in person. We hosted one event for charity, the Saturday of 2020, when we were going to host our convention. A couple of us got together in our office that we have here and we wore our masks and some of us were vaccinated up to that point that we could be. And we all kept our distance and we have 2000 square foot work warehouse. So we were all in different spaces with cameras set up and like zoom calling each other from different rooms in the office. It's kind of weird, but it worked. Yeah. And then we had panelists remote in and run remote panels and things. And it was, it was fun, but it was a massive amount of work for 100 people that participated for free because we didn't charge anybody anything for that. We're just like, we want to hang out with our attendees and interact with them. So I think there's definitely a lot of conventions we'll be able to survive or whether another pandemic storm if one happens. I know personally our venue in Connecticut was used, was set up for the field hospital, but even during that time, they updated their air handling systems with much better air scrubbers to neutralize things in the air and just suck more dust particles out. And they added UV cleaners to all the escalator railings and everything. So the building is a lot better. I think they, the old system refresh the inside air every four hours cycle. And now it's every 45 minutes to an hour on a cycle. So you're not breathing any recycle there after an hour, everything gets fully refreshed within an hour in the venue, which helps a lot because, well, if it's an airborne virus, if it gets sucked out of the building and you get fresh air, it's a little bit better for everybody. So a lot of venues have also up their game on how to keep people safe. Some conventions have been criticized for unclear or changing policies regarding COVID safety. Did this affect how you planned your con this year? It did a little bit. We saw some of those complaints happening in real time towards the end of 2021 as events in southern states in particular went from, well, we're not going to require vaccination or negative tests, but you're going to have to wear a mask indoors and then it just wasn't enforced at all. So a big thing I think is, is that conventions, if you're going to have a policy, you have to enforce it. When we had our policies in 2021, it was heavily enforced. You couldn't get your badge in the building if you didn't have your documents ready. And then I think we did have to boot one person because we gave them one warning for pulling their mask down for a photo. And then five minutes later, they were somewhere else taking a photo and they pulled their mask down like, we're taking your badge, we're going to uncheck you in and come again when it's safer and you don't have to wear a mask. We can't have you run around with no mask. It's just building policy event policy in America. All right, they were very mad about it. And that's also why for our 2022 event in January, we decided to make the policy. It's going to be whatever the local, state, and federal guidelines, like the requirements were. Because those were constantly changing, it wasn't something we wanted to like, oh, we forgot to update the website this week, something changed. It was, here's the links to those government agencies pages, where that information will be. And we will codify it two weeks before the event. But as long as you pay attention to these three pages, you'll have a good idea of what our policy is going to be. And I felt that was probably the best way for us to tell people, this is how it's going to be for six months of the year, because we didn't know. We honestly didn't. Like a big wave or a spike could have happened and we would have had to go, oh no, everybody needs to be fully vaccinated and we need a negative test for you to walk into building. Or it could have been everybody has to wear a mask or nobody has to do anything. It really depends on local health officials, state health officials, and federal requirements. And what changes can we expect for the safety policy at Otacon in future years? So I think that's something that we're evaluating. I think that as we move past the pandemic, we're probably going to move away from requiring vaccines. But the face masks are definitely still on the table as a requirement. I think we're going to monitor numbers and monitor the situation as we get closer. But that's probably going to be the last thing that we're going to remove as far as safety precautions there. Do you think that cons can manage long term with the possibility of future pandemics? I think that there, this is sort of a new paradigm for conventions. There's been, I've been saying that there's been a con bubble leading up to the pandemic. It seemed like every single weekend there were multiple cons being held everywhere across the United States. I could drive two hours and be able to be at three different conventions. But that's definitely not the case now. And at the same time, I think that we as con runners need to be a lot more cognizant of the fact that next year's show might not happen because of circumstances way beyond our control. And we need to be able to plan for that. And what would you say to fans who want to come back to cons but are concerned about safety? So I'd say that you really need to pick and choose which con you go to based on the safety protocols that that con is having. And the way that the con perhaps enforces those rules. And go where you're comfortable. If you're not comfortable being in a crowd of thousands of people, don't go back to con. But if you're okay with that and you're okay with everyone wearing masks, or if you're okay if everyone is masked or if there's a vaccine mandate, then go where you're comfortable. But I've seen both sides of the spectrum where we can have a very safe event. And I've also seen events where it was not so safe and there were lots of people who got sick after it. So if you're worried about safety, health safety in particular, just read the policies for the conventions that you're interested in attending. Read the local and state guidelines for the state that you're going to be traveling to or the country you're going to be traveling to. Take a look at the case load, active case loads and things like that. And, you know, if you're eligible to be vaccinated, I strongly recommend you get vaccinated. It should just benefit you short term and long term, although you got to get those boosters to keep the long term up. And it's really a personal choice to take that risk. I mean, you walk outside your door every day, you drive behind the wheel of a car. You can't control all the other cars driving around you. You just have to do the best you can to keep yourself safe and stay alert for risks. And is that socialization or that experience at a convention worth it to you to potentially risk getting sick? My whole family actually got COVID, one of the kids brought home from school, January of 2022. I had recently got my first booster dose. I had a runny nose for a day. That was my COVID experience. Everybody else in the house was quite sick because the kids had only had their first dose at that point of the vaccine. And my wife was fully vaccinated, but she had headaches for three days. And the kids were just, they were out for a week. And then did homeschool, remote school for another week after that. The only other thing I would say if COVID is really still active, before you attend a large event, take a home test. And if your home test is negative, feel free to go out and enjoy. If it comes back positive, stay home please. Don't get anybody sick. It's literally that simple. Home tests are still free at least in my area. So if I go to, if I'm planning on going to a concert or a big event for multiple hours with a lot of people, I'll take the home test if I'm feeling any kind of sick. So I don't go get other people sick. That's the last thing anybody I think in fandom wants is to be the cause of someone else getting sick. So that's all the time we have for today. But thank you for talking with me, Matt. And if people want to contact you, where can they find you online? Online? I don't really exist on the internet. I tried, I tried to keep my internet life kind of private. Best place to find me would be Connecticut.org and just email us to the contact page. I actually read most of those emails every day. I'll, 20 of them in the slow season and 200 of them in the busy season. You can actually reach me through odacon, odacon.com, at odacon on Twitter and odacon on all of the social medias. Well, thank you again. Hopefully we'll see you at Connecticut sometime in the near future as well. Yeah, I definitely want to come back. So I'll try to make it. It was my pleasure. Thank you for joining us to learn about fandom. I hope to see you next time to discuss the ins and outs of fan culture. And remember, never stop being passionate about the things you love. I'll see you next time. Thank you for watching.