Jun 182013
 
Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Edgeplot

Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Edgeplot

Our Con Chair and head of Programming, Nuri and Janet, will have a summer BBQ on July 7th at 4:00 pm in Livonia!  It will follow our monthly concom meeting.   We’ll provide the burgers (veggie), corn on the cob, beer, and ice cream for sundaes… people should bring either a summer BBQ side or an ice cream topping and lawn chairs. They have no pets, and kids are welcome!

Please email Janet @ [email protected] to RSVP and get directions.

Jun 042013
 

ErnieClineWe’re very pleased to announce our first Guest of Honor for Penguicon 2014 – Ernie Cline!

Ernie wrote Ready Player One – an awesome book every gaming-friendly nerd should check out.  He also owns a DeLorean, and recently sold a new book AND film called Armada.  Previously, he wrote the screenplay to Fanboys, and regularly competed in poetry slams.

If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to see him talk on at con, please email [email protected]!

Check out the video below for a quick description of Ready Player One (and its movie chances) by the author himself.

 

 

May 242013
 

Those of us who frequent Penguicon know how amazing it is every year. We know the incredible array of programming it pulls off, the great parties, costumes and socializing amongst thy fellow nerd. How, though, do you describe it to people who’ve never been?

This video is our answer.  Please share it far and wide – to encourage you to spread the word, we’re going to have a contest for a free 2014 Penguicon T-shirt!  Post in your favorite social media referencing the video or this post and your answer to the question, “What’s your favorite memory from Penguicon?”, and email [email protected] with a link!

The winner will be chosen by the end of June.

what-is-penguicon

 

May 212013
 

We’ve made our official photos available on our Gallery page! We will have even more official creative commons licensed photos after Dave Hogg reports in – he was in many places I could not be on Saturday.

pcon_photo_gallery
Once you register, you can upload your own photos from this year to the 2013 Attendee Photos folder, if you’d like! Feel free to comment on the individual photos, too.

Also, did you know we have an IRC channel? You can easily connect by just going to http://chat.penguicon.org/ .

May 092013
 

Penguicon had a hotel this year that went above and beyond, and we wanted to credit them, so we made a video for them to remember us by.

Now that they’ve shown it at their “Staff Appreciation Day” (for those who busted their butts during Penguicon), we can show it to you!  This is also the first thing we’ve produced with the photos and HD video we recorded during con – more to come! (P.S. – we captioned the video for your viewin’ pleasure.)

nuri_thanks_vid

May 082013
 

Hello PenguiCon Foodies!

Many of you have requested the recipes from the Pastamaking panel, so here they are…

The pasta recipe that I have superlative results with can be found here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/chef-annes-all-purpose-pasta-dough-recipe/index.html

My favorite pastamaker is made by an Italian company called Imperia. It can be found in person at Williams-Sonoma and online at Amazon.com.

Tomato Basil Recipe
3 large beefsteak tomatoes
3 small cans tomato paste (or 1-1/2 larger cans)
2 cloves garlic
2 oz. fresh basil (about half of a fresh Trader Joe’s container)
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of cayenne pepper powder
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Blend all of these ingredients in a food processor until it gets to your desired consistency and let it simmer until your pasta is ready. I like the taste of fresh tomatoes, so I only let mine simmer for about fifteen minutes.

2. Add the freshly boiled, drained pasta right to the sauce and simmer it for a couple minutes, until the sauce starts to hug the pasta. Enjoy!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Jess

May 072013
 

nuri_upcloseHi, everyone! Nuri Gocay here, ConChair for Penguicon 2014! I’m thrilled to be here, and plan on taking all the enthusiasm we’ve already generated and rolling it through to an incredible 2014 event! Please accept my heartfelt thanks for all the great suggestions and feedback posted to the Facebook Group! If you haven’t already, join the official Penguicon 2014 Event! For those of you who don’t use Facebook, we’ll be sure to keep you informed using all the methods at our disposal.

If you missed the thread on Facebook or the announcement at closing ceremonies, we will not be going back to the Auburn Hills Marriott due to space issues. The hotel was extremely easy to work with, and a ton of fun, but we had penguins popping out of panels at a problematic pace!

The new hotel is the Westin Southfield, and the official dates for Penguicon 2014 are May 2nd – 4th, 2014! To get a better understanding of our group, and how they can be as awesome as the hotel this year, the Westin sent over hotel ninjas to go to panels, visit room parties, and walk around the convention. They may have been sitting next to you! They’re extremely excited to work with us, and I think the space will be great for this year (and maybe more…?)

Our first official meeting at the new hotel is on Saturday, May 25, at 1pm. The meeting will be in the WINDOVER room. Come visit the new hotel, check out the space, volunteer to help out, talk about your ideas, and get next year rolling! Captain Sparrow will also be in attendance to help with the transition and finish up any business from last year.

If you’re interested in helping out in any way or have great ideas for next year but can’t make the meeting, email me and let me know. We’re only awesome because you’re awesome.

TLDR: Hotel Ninjas

Nuri Gocay
2014 Penguicon ConChair

May 032013
 

We’ve made available “Sci-Fi on the Radio” via Soundcloud, check it out!

Sci-Fi on the Radio is a performance of two classic Science Fiction radioplays – a section of HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Slurp Goes the Amoeba. Performers this year were Nuri Gocay, Scott Kennedy, Nick Farr, Matt Arnold and Heather Smith, with special foley effects from Karen Corbeill.

Recorded Friday, April 26, 2013. Please join us for our next performance (or perform with us!) at Penguicon 2014!

 

May 022013
 

Penguicon 2013 etchThe Con Committee, staff, and volunteers would like to thank you for attending Penguicon 2013, which was a smashing success, particularly in the face of a hotel and date change at the last minute.  Please take a moment to thank our 2013 con Chair, Sarah Slovik, for helming this ship and seeing us safely back into harbor.

This year’s hotel loved having us, and they did so much to really make us feel welcome, but solely due to their small size, we had to select another hotel for 2014.

That hotel is the Westin Southfield, and the date for Penguicon will be May 2 – 4, 2014.

Stay tuned as we gear up for the next year’s con – our new Chair, Nuri Gocay, has very ambitious plans, and YOU are essential to making them happen for us all!  We are a community organization rooted in open source – we need your input and your effort to make every year a success.

Please contact [email protected] with a link if you have photos or video from this year’s con that you’d like to donate to Penguicon – we will get our own photos and video up as soon as possible.

Apr 242013
 

This year, we’re planning to do some professional videography in order to put together some really nice videos on what we’re all about, for future years.

That means you’ll see bearded men wandering around the con with a fancy camera, asking for interviews and lurking at the back of the action. Most of the time, it’ll be Skennedy (hi!).

A few things about it:

One, I’ll have ribbons on me for those willing to do a very quick interview on camera! Super easy questions about your con experience – if you want to share the love, we need your voice! If you’re feeling shy, get your friends to join you.

Two, please don’t feel like you need to pay any attention or settle down during filming – Penguicon is crazy fun, after all, and our microphone is very good. If we’re interviewing your friend, you’re totally allowed to heckle. ;)

Three, and though we’ll try to have signs up to reinforce this, _please_ come up and talk to us (politely) if you’d rather not be in the background of a given shot. We want to respect your privacy, and this is a safe place for you to be yourself.

Four, dang, I should have made a penguin hat for this.

SO EXCITED!