Apr 12, 2006 - Site Downtime - Some of you may have noticed problems with the I-CON site over the past few days. We have been having hardware issues with our server, which have now been resolved. All site functionality should now be fully restored... if you notice any issues, please email webmaster@iconsf.org. Thank you.

Mar 22, 2006 - Important Travel Update! - The Suffolk County Half Marathon will be taking place this Sunday, resulting in closures on Nichols Road between the Long Island Expressway and Rt. 347. Please use these directions to get to the convention on Sunday.

Mar 22, 2006 - New I-CON Community - ICON Science Fiction, Inc. is proud to announce its new project, community.iconsf.org. Designed to encourage community involvement and the open sharing of ideas and information, community.iconsf.org is our new hub for everyone who is interested in Science Fiction, Fact, and Fantasy (and Gaming, Anime, and everything else you might see at I-CON - and likely a whole lot more!). We encourage you all to stop in, take a look, and speak your mind - this site was created to allow you to immerse yourself further in the things that matter to you (and us).

Mar 22, 2006 - Indie Film Schedule - In addition to the main schedule and gaming schedule linked from our home page, the Indie Film schedule is now online. Also, an HTML (webpage) version of the schedule is coming soon, we thank everyone for their patience.

Mar 21, 2006 - Schedule Coming Soon Posted! - We know that many of you were anxiously awaiting the schedule for I-CON. Well, it's here! Go to the site index and check it out to see everything what I-CON 25 has in store for you!

News Archive

Alumni Programming- A Reminder of How Times Have Changed...
A Little History Lesson

It's hard to believe that we are planning our 25th I-CON!

Yes, it all began back in 1982, so to today's college seniors that means we were inviting guests, planning logistics and sending out publicity at least three years before they were even born!

Back at the dawn of time, "the elders" (our forefathers and mothers who were mostly Stony Brook students) put together the first I-CON without the use of: voice mail, fax machines, PC's, the internet, email, cell phones, text messaging, desktop publishing, PDA's, DVDs, projection video, plasma TVs or digital cameras. I-CON did not have it's own office, and all phones in the Polity student government suite were rotary dial. Financing came mostly from other student organizations such as COCA, SAB and the Science Fiction Forum as did the staff/volunteer. The first few cons only utlized 2 or 2 buildings on campus with home base at the Lecture Center (not yet named after Senator Jacob K. Javits).

As far as content: cable television was in it's infancy and not available everywhere, and there was very little original programming on it anyway, much less an entire channel devoted to SF. Broadcast TV offered very little in the way of science fictionn good or bad. There was only one Star Trek show, the original one with good old Captain Kirk (only 79 episodes) and it had already been in syndication for over 10 years. The Tom Baker episodes of "DR. WHO" are probably the only ones anyone in the NYC area had seen. The third film of the original Star Wars trilogy had not yet been released. Movies on campus were still watched on 16mm film with the sound and picture quality less than stellar and very dependent on the experience of the student projectionist.

Anime was not really available in stores and home video (coming in two flavors, VHS and Beta) was only just becoming "mainstream." You had to know someone to get a hold of most "Japanimation" and most of it was still in Japanese (exception being "Speed Racer", "Kimba", "Gigantor" and a few others.)

Gaming fans had D&D but I'm not even sure I-CON hosted any roleplaying or any gaming at the first con (?) Card games like "Magic" etc.didn't yet exist and computer games were something teenagers played in an arcade or on a primitive Atari system or Commodore at home. Perhaps a few dozen fans wore costumes but there were no live action medieval demonstrations or Live Action Role Playing.

People still read books and the written word hasn't changed that much. However, there were no supersize Barnes and Nobles and no Amazon.com to purchase books from. There were plenty of well-known authors willing to come out from NYC. Some of the biggest names in SF like Asimov were still alive and appeared at that those early I-CONs. It was also a time when a lesser known writer still had a chance to get noticed without having to write movie, TV or gaming tie-ins and he/she was not at the whim of the main buyers for the big chains. Mom & Pop stores still thrived and could steer you to the works of some up and coming new talent.

Creatives from the world of comic books were also willing to come out from the city. Their popularity had not yet peaked and crashed. The books were still mostly printed on newsprint and graphic novels were not yet a mainstay. At that time, the comic book store was still the center of the universe for many fans. Some store owners supplemented their comic book stock with SF and fantasy novels, D&D type merchandise, Star Trek books and other movie related trinkets helping to bring together diverse communities at the neighborhood comic shop.

Sci Tech was well represented in the early days. Stony Brook was and still is a science based university and a number of professors spoke on panels regarding diverse topics. There was plenty of technology to discuss but back then, the space shuttle had only flown for the first time a few years earlier and there was no Hubble or space station. And, though the Internet was used by grad students, scientists and professors the general public knew little or nothing about it.

The dealers room was less than 40 tables. Yes, it's hard to believe. Collectibles were mostly stuff you had held onto from decades earlier because you couldn't part with it, not something to be horded and never opened for possible future sale on Ebay. It's current home in the Sports Complex was years away from being built (we started using it at I-CON 10). Instead, the dealers were shoe horned into the Javits Lecture Center along with the Art Show. When the crowds grew, the temperature rose from all the body heat crowded into one room.

Think of how different things were back then... Not quite "stone knives and bear skins" but certainly not "a walk in the park".

We'll be taking a look back to see how things came together in those early years --both how they did it, what their goals were and how far we've come. No doubt we'll all learn how much we owe those earlier pioneers of SF fandom on the SB campus. Believe it or not, a handful of them who helped put the first I-CON together in '82 are still actively involved and continue to help out. We value what they have to say as they deserve to be heard.

We are also hoping that a large number of "retired" staff members from a variety of time periods will see "25" and 2006 the year to "come back to the future" at I-CON and relive their misspent youth running New York's favorite con. We look forward to seeing them all, so help us spread the word!

We'll be holding panel discussions, hosting displays of memorabilia and listening to those stories which currently only exist in "oral tradition" --handed down but not yet permanently recorded (at least not yet). It will be loads of fun for the people who were there in those seminal days and a history lesson for the rest of us, particularly the kids who can't imagine life without instant communication and gratification (yes, many guests used to be contacted by an actual letter sent via U.S. Mail -some still are!)

While we can't invite everyone to be a guest and speak on panels, we can encourage you to attend and sit in the audience and set the record straight if someone's memory is faulty -- or, if perhaps they never heard the true version of the story. (Just what was that cosmonaut asking about the Sunday night after I-CON 10..? How did George Takei end up at the G-Quad party? What did happen to all the Heineken beer from the "Meet the Pros" party at I-CON IV? And where is the pit key!?)

We're hoping to host some get togethers with people who attended Stony Brook as students and we are particularly looking forward to meeting everyone who is attending who helped out at any of the I-CONs. At this early date many things are still in the planning stages. We may ask for people to send us their best I-CON stories for posting on the web but we're dropping the contest we held last time. We think all the stories are equally important. We're also making clear that we want to hear the amusing but less offensive anecdotes! Let's keep it polite, clean and relatively family friendly.

We're hoping to have an online form/survey for everyone to fill out, but we especially want to reconnect with people who lived and ran the "con of cons." Yes, we'd like to put together a database of all our old I-CON staff. Whether you were a vice chairman or a gopher, whether you graduated with honors or never attended classes at SB, we want to hear from you and have a way to contact you. Most of you broke ranks long ago, and many are scattered across the country in a variety of professions. Now it's time to call back the troops and assemble for one mass reunion.

We'd also like to see you at the con, but for those who might not be able to make it, we might be able to post an update so people can find each other and reconnect via the web page. (open a yahoo or similar email account for yourself so we can eventually post all the email addresses of the old timers online..)

As any Stony Brook graduate knows, the university has never been famous for its well attended reunions. Let I-CON be the exception!

Drop a note to alumni@iconsf.org if you have any interesting suggestions, have found or are one of the "old timers" or would like to volunteer. Stay tuned to the web page for updates!

Be there at #25, #50 will be too long a wait!