[HPFGU-Catalogue] Re: Accio programme..

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

Oh dear, this isn't my week for feeling loved by the HP-fandom. Having
been roasted for a work project over on The Leaky Cauldron's readers'
comments section (
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/MTarchives/005553.html and
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=55
53 ) I then come here to find that the conference I'm on the organising
committee for is attracting much criticism: "what are other people's
reactions? you can probably guess mine", "can't see anything there
that'd tempt me". Luckily I didn't give up reading the thread, and got
through to Ginger's call out for my presentation and Potioncat's
reminder that we should be the last group on the planet to complain that
others take fan theories about the HP books too seriously.

Obviously you'll have to take my thoughts on the matter with a pinch of
salt since I am spending loads of time helping to organise Accio (you
can see me at the first committee face-to-face on the website at
http://www.accio.org.uk/about_accio.shtml ). My main reason for
attending is the late night discussions with people over a beer. These
will be fans I've read and respected on-line and I'm really really
excited to meet some of them in the flesh. It's such a shame that most
of these events (Nimbus 2003, Convention Alley 2004, The Witching Hour
2005, and Lumos 2006) are all in the American continent. Surely British
and other European fans deserve a conference of our own. There is a
tension between treating it as a fan get together or as a more academic
discussion of the books and the cultural phenomenon, but I hope we've
got the balance right. If Accio is a success (I hope it is, despite some
of the comments here) then I'm sure we'll have learnt loads about how to
do this and could put on an even better do in the future (Edinburgh 2007
is in our minds).

I really thought this was the kind of group that would relish an
opportunity like Accio.

Cheers,

Dumbledad