Don’t know if you check out the Pulp.Events listing on ThePulp.Net’s front page. But if you have looked at it the past few days, you might have noticed the appearance of second Pulpcon listing.
Shortly after the end of this year’s Pulpcon, Pulpcon 39 was announced for Aug. 14-16, 2009, in Dayton, Ohio. But apparently, things weren’t going as smoothly as they seemed.
There has been a growing disatisfaction with the steady decline in attendance at Pulpcon the past few years. And there was a sharp dropoff this year, which worried many regular, longtime participants who saw this as a sign Pulpcon was languishing while other pulp gatherings, particularly Windy City Con, were booming.
At the annual organizational meeting, members of the Pulpcon committee discussed ways to better promote Pulpcon, considered moving Pulpcon to another city (since Dayton is relatively small and difficult to reach if you’re flying in), and, in general, how to stem the decline. According to folks present at the meeting, it was decided to investigate these options more, then make a decision on next year’s Pulpcon.
Well, that’s when things went awry. While some committee members were exploring options, a unilateral decision was made by other committee members – Pulpcon’s “old guard” – to commit Pulpcon to the Dayton Convention Center for next year. Essentially keeping things at status quo.
So three members of the committee, who have been pushing to keep Pulpcon relevent – Jack Cullers, Barry Traylor and Mike Chomko – decided to strike out on their own with a new, improved pulp convention. Earlier this month, the group settled on July 31-Aug. 2, 2009, in the more accessible Columbus, Ohio. The name? Pulpcon 2009.
(Click here to read the official announcement.)
The Pulpcon controversy has generated a lot of discussion on the PulpMags group at Yahoo, most of it positive in regard to Pulpcon 2009. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
I’ve been to only one Pulpcon (in 2006), but I’ve paid my annual “membership” most years for the past decade or so, even when I haven’t been able to attend. So I’m eager for Pulpcon to succeed, in either form.
But if attendance at Pulpcon is dropping as fast as the stock market these days, then something needs to change. Hopefully Pulpcon 2009 will be what’s needed.
Update: Since this was posted, the name of the new pulp convention has been changed to PulpFest. I’ve added the new logo, but left the entry otherwise intact.
