Winkie Convention Countdown: 9 Days to Go

Laura here!

I'm filling in today because today I did something for the Winkie convention that I've been doing for two years now, and my memory is about that thing. In 2009, at the end of the convention, there was a forum about how to improve the Winkie Convention. One of the topics that came up was increasing communication between Winkies. I don't know who first suggested it, but I recall standing up and bravely volunteering to put together and send out a newsletter to Winkies, as long as somebody else provided the material. I had the tools on the internet, the know-how, and the time. What I didn't and don't have is the specific knowledge of Oz that everyone else at the convention has, since I'm an Oz widow more than an Oz fan. A few weeks later the first edition of the Winkie Newsletter came out, and I've been trying to put out a monthly newsletter ever since.

At the last Winkie Convention, I set up a little newsletter station in the back of the conference hall and took notes, Tweeted, and even reported live on the Eisner awards. Each night I wrote up a newsletter to send out to people who weren't at the convention, which I then printed out and posted in several places in the morning. One of my greatest pleasures of all Winkie conventions was seeing a crowd of people around one of my reports, reading about what had happened the day before. And not just Winkies, the staff at Asilomar were reading and enjoying them as well!

I'll have a newsletter station at the convention again this year, with my trusty old computer. I'll be Tweeting live from the evening events, hopefully writing up nightly reports and posting them, and keeping tabs on the outside world while everyone there is happily in Oz. I may even manage a bit more this year, depending on my technology and how reliable an internet connection I can swing.

And today I sent out the last official Winkie Newsletter to go out before the convention. So if you are subscribed, check your e-mail. And if you aren't and are a Winkie... what are you waiting for?