What and when is OpenCon UK?
OpenCon UK is a brand-new, now-annual unconference on non-monogamy that runs over a weekend in the autumn. The third conference will be in 2012, running from Friday 5th til Sunday 7th October.
I’ve only just started thinking about poly. Can I come?
Sure. Anyone who is interested in or has experience with non-monogamy is welcome. That said, we envisage this weekend as an opportunity to move and discuss a little beyond the basics: it provides the time and space to have more in-depth conversations than are usually possible at shorter events. If you’re new to the idea, we especially recommend that you attend PolyDay in London, an event that is more geared towards beginners and novices and will run several introductory sessions. You could also consider the annual BiCon (for bi people and their allies), which will usually have a few workshops on non-monogamy. At OpenCon, you’ll probably meet people who range from beginners to more experienced people – and everyone is learning all the time, so you’ll be fine!
My wife and I are looking for a third. Have you lots of hot bi chicks we can choose from?
OpenCon isn’t a space for cruising – it’s intended for discussions and socialising in a non-sexual, low-pressure manner. The conference probably won’t sort you out for a third, but hopefully you’ll learn lots more about how polyamory actually works and that’ll help with dating in the long run! In the meantime, feel free to check out Poly Speed Dating for poly-specific dating nights in London.
I’m a journalist looking into poly: I’d like to create a well-researched and positive documentary. Can I come?
We’re really glad to hear that the media is looking to provide honest, positive accounts of non-monogamy: thanks so much! That said, it’s vital for non-monogamous people to have a space in which we can share our experiences without the complications of having researchers present. It can be quite tricky to create spaces free of media in which poly people can have conversations, and so we feel like the most respectful thing researchers can do is to help us create such a space, and not attend.
We recommend contacting the Poly Media Association, who can put you in touch with poly people who are happy to chat with the media. PolyDay, in London, is also a journalist-friendly space and a great introductory event. All the best!
What’s the venue like? How’s the wheelchair accessibility? What are the sleeping arrangements?
OpenCon UK is run in a large communal house in the Dorset countryside: the residents hire out their home to conferences, and we are their guests. The venue comprises a large main building and several outhouses we use as workshop space.
The main building has step-free access to all of the ground floor. This includes a reception area with sofas for socialising, a dining room, one of our large workshop spaces (which we also use for evening events and the opening and closing ceremonies: it’s called Zorba), a bar (with a piano!), a cafe (which we turned into a chillout space last year) and a wheelchair-accessible residential suite. Two friendly cats roam around this building, but can easily be shut out of the workshop space.
The upstairs of the main building is dorms: most OpenCon attendees will sleep here, and this year we’ll be providing a choice between taking single-(binary)-gender and mixed-gender rooms. It also contains communal, same-gender showers which are shared with the residents: if you’re staying in a dorm but need access to a private, gender-neutral shower, get in touch.
There is a second large workshop space in an outbuilding close to the main building: it has four steps leading up to the door. Private accommodation is available in trailers and pine cabins a two-minute walk from the main building: these will be private double or twin rooms, with a shared bathroom and living area. The living areas in the three pine cabins will be used as smaller workshop spaces – the rooms do not lock, and so should be considered as being as open as the dorm rooms. The private cabins also have three or four steps leading up to the front doors.
It’s also possible to camp at the venue: there are campsite showers, and the fees are reduced by £10 per person if you camp.
We know that the amount of step-free access around this venue is not ideal. Our dream venue includes step-free access throughout, is easily accessible by public transport, is cheap, friendly, serves varied food, has an induction loop, has gender-neutral loos, and a host of other factors that we don’t know about yet! This venue is the best we have found so far – if you know of a better venue, we’d love to hear your suggestions!
What’s the food like?
The conference fee includes three meals a day, cooked and served by the residential staff (mostly volunteers: the fee goes towards helping the centre run.) The food is all vegetarian, delicious and varied (we had lots of vocal, happy feedback on it last year) and there are clearly labelled vegan and gluten-free options. There are also around a dozen kinds of tea on tap, with several different forms of milk (cow, soya, rice etc) available. The private cabins have their own kitchens: we suggest that anyone with more specific dietary requirements than vegan or gluten-free make their own culinary arrangements, as the venue cannot accommodate more specific requirements. You’re very welcome to cook your own food and bring it to eat in the communal dining room!
What will happen at OpenCon?
OpenCon is run using the unconference model – every attendee is considered an organiser, and if you have a cool idea, you’re very much encouraged to make it happen! The basic format of the weekend is that there’ll be a mostly-empty daytime workshop schedule, which people can fill in as they offer workshops, and there’ll be participant-run evening entertainment as well.
Last year, we had thirty-three workshops run, only five of which had been arranged in advance. Many people also chose to spend time socialising and informally chatting on the sofas or in the venue’s grounds, rather than in workshops. On the Friday evening, there was a disco in Zorba, the bar was open and most people spent time socialising. During Saturday daytime, several people discussed arranging evening entertainment, and the evening brought a community cabaret and open mic as well as a fully facilitated cuddle party (a lunchtime meeting had worked out the rules for it!) In addition, a disco ran again, the bar was open, people socialised on the sofas. The venue also opened up their sauna for us on both nights, and many attendees made use of it.
As well as discussions in workshops and informally, a few conversations happened by way of message-board. On Friday night, a communal wishlist was written and pasted up in the dining room, where people exchanged notes over the rest of the weekend. A sheet of paper asking for reading recommendations also grew significantly.
Everyone’s experience of OpenCon is different, and no-one knows what OpenCon will be like this year, because it’ll be arranged when we get there! That said, here are some accounts of last year’s OpenCon:
http://polytical.org/2011/10/opencon-a-new-kind-of-poly-event/
http://polytical.org/2011/10/a-tale-of-opencon/
http://polytical.org/2011/11/another-view-on-opencon-2011/
How can I help get involved?
Awesome question! The basic answer is: if you’d like to see something done, make it happen! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Before the event: publicise and spread the word, book early (that’s really helpful!), contribute to the access fund and encourage others to do so. Think about stuff you can contribute, and sign up on the Google doc – in particular, you could help with rideshares from your city or area, as well as lifts from the station.
During the event, you could offer a workshop, arrange evening entertainments, sit on the desk (it’s always useful to have a friendly face there), tidy up when needed, offer people on the desk tea… Running a workshop isn’t complicated: if you’d like to chat about something in particular, just put a note on the schedule saying ‘discussion about X’ and people will show up. If you’d like it to be more structured but don’t know how to start, you could start off the workshop by asking ‘what would you like to talk about?’, write the answers in a list, and then work through them. Sitting to chat in a circle works well for keeping things non-hierarchical and low-pressure.
Here’s a publicly shared Google doc with a list of tasks: anyone can edit it, anyone can volunteer for tasks or add requests. To keep things realistic, we’ve asked that anyone who adds a task also sign up to help with something!
This is far too expensive. You should make it cheaper.
The venue charge us £80 per person for bed and full board, and slightly more for a private room. We charge £10 on top of that which goes into the OpenCon funds, covering publicity, stationary and any extra costs. Anyone who contributes to running OpenCon is a volunteer: everyone buys a full-priced ticket, and no-one is paid for their time. £90 for a weekend conference, including food, is relatively cheap – although if you can find a cheaper, accessible venue that is just as homely, we’d love to hear from you.
This year, we’re running an access fund for the first time to help cover the costs for people who would otherwise not be able to afford to come. You can donate to the access fund using the donation button on the booking page. If you’d like to make use of the access fund, email ludi at opencon dot eu with the subject line ‘OpenCon UK 2012 Access Fund’. Please do so early so we can match up contributions with those who need them!
You can also reduce the costs of attending by arranging a liftshare from your city: use the OpenCon Facebook page to ask around, and if you’re driving, it’d be fabulous if you could offer lifts from your area.
Who runs this thing?
You do.
Well, okay: but, like, who is writing this FAQ? Who runs the website and takes bookings?
We’d really like to move away from the idea that the people who are facilitating the infrastructure here are the organisers: we’d like to see everyone involved and everyone responsible for the event, and the idea of being big shiny organisers comes with more social capital (ie. power and privilege) than we’d especially like to have. This is all far more awesome arranged as a skillshare.
That said, it’s also nice to introduce the people who are writing this website and maintaining the online networks: we don’t want to appear like some shadowy, nebulous ‘we’ here!
Ludi and Erich facilitated the infrastructure of OpenCon UK last year, and will be doing so again this year.
Erich runs the back office. He liases with the venue, deals with all the accounting and designed the website. He’s the one at the end of the info at opencon dot org email, and can try to answer specific questions about the venue. Erich has been an alternative sexualities activist in the UK for over ten years and has been involved in creating lots of cool stuff. He highly recommends getting involved in making cool stuff happen as a fantastic way to improve your poly dating life.
Ludi runs the front office. She does advertising, publicity and outreach, which includes designing and distributing flyers, engaging with people on various social networks, and persuading journalists that they really shouldn’t attend. She wrote this FAQ. She’s used access funds before, and so she’ll be facilitating this access fund. She wrote the empty schedule last year and filled it with a few pre-arranged workshops to start it off. She runs around a lot encouraging people to run workshops and make evening entertainment happen, and has a habit of jumping in to do stuff wherever it needs doing, often triple-booking herself in the process. Last year, this found her being a desk greeter, a DJ, a cabaret compere and a speech-maker. (She’s glad that she managed to hold herself back from running five workshops as well.) When not running OpenCon UK, she runs other poly and queer events, and writes a lot about sex.
