In a few months, it will once again be time for CONsole Room, the new Doctor Who convention in the Twin Cities (now in its second year). Having fallen in love with the con scene after my first Gallifrey One in 2012, I was thrilled when one cropped up local to me, and I’ve been trying to get some of my Gally friends to join me here for CONsole Room (because seeing them once a year is just not enough!).

Its first year seemed to go pretty smoothly, and from what I could see was well received. Since I want to see it continue to thrive, I would like to do something to contribute to its success—without getting into any con ops/volunteer roles. (Sorry; simply not one of my strengths.) When the call for panelists came, then, I was happy to respond.

What I didn’t expect was to be put on all the panels I’d listed as interests.

To be clear, I’m happy to serve. Every time I’ve been on a panel in the past, I’ve enjoyed the heck out of it, and I wouldn’t have put my hat in the ring for those CONsole Room panels if I hadn’t felt confident that I had something to contribute to each discussion. I’m just having some trouble switching gears from Gally.

You see, Gallifrey One is the largest fan-run Doctor Who convention in North America. This year there were 3828 attendees, guests, & staff. In contrast, CONsole Room had 535 people in attendance last May—which is quite respectable for a first-year con; it’s simply more than seven times smaller. So when I’m used to an environment in which sometimes dozens of people request to be on a single panel, it’s a bit of a mental gear change to think that the organizers might really need every volunteer possible to fill their panels.

It’s been suggested to me that perhaps my platform here influenced the positive response I got, but I find that difficult to believe. While I’d like to think that my online ramblings afford me some “cred” within the fandom, the fact of the matter is I have no reason to believe I’m known outside of my small but regular base of readers. (And I appreciate you all so much! Thank you!)

Still, it’s nice to think that that base is slowly expanding, and that even a few people whom I hold in high esteem for their own Who-related work have read at least a few of my posts over the years. And who knows—maybe it’s a sort of feedback loop, in which I gain readers by participating more in events like con panels, which makes it more likely I’ll end up on con panels, which brings me to the attention of more readers, and so on.

Whatever the case, I’m proud of what I’ve built here over the last four years, and I’m glad for the opportunities it has brought me, not least being on a bunch of panels at CONsole Room. Maybe I’ll see some of you there. And for the rest, I’ll see you right here each week.