P-Con News

The latest news from the Phoenix Convention can be found on the front page of the P-con website and archives of earlier news items, including P-Con progress reports, will be available in the News section.

You can also subscribe to the P-Con Newsletter, the monthly progress report by filling in the form below and pressing the subscribe button.



(Your email address will only be used for the newsletter and will not be passed on to other parties.)


Contact P-Con

Got a comment? Got a gripe? If you want to contact the P-Con organizers, you can use the feedback form or email us directly at



P-Con Newsletter #2 now available

The latest Newsletter/Progress Report has been added to the site. Just go to the Newsletter/Progress Report section, where you can also find the first newsletter.

Better still, you can sign up for the e-mail version by using the form on the right, and get it a few days before it reaches the website.

Added by the webmaster 22/03/2003.


P-Con tries for guest record

In what seems to be an attempt to have the highest guest to member ratio of a convention, P-Con is glad to announce that there are a couple of new guests that have agreed to come to the convention.

So, in a nicely democratic alphabetical order, we welcome Jon Courtenay Grimwood, John Meaney, Ian McDonald, Colmán Ó Raghallaigh, and Steve Westcott to P-Con.

As always, guest profiles of all our guests are available in the Guest Section.

Contribution by the webmaster 06/03/2003


Phoenix Convention website getting a makeover

As you may have noticed, the Phoenix Convention website is getting a bit of a makeover for what we laughingly call Spring. Apart from a few cosmetic changes, the main alterations at present include

  • moving the news up to the more logical position on the front page of the site
  • linking to the guest profiles from the front page
  • making it easier to find more information about the various sections of the site.

As well as tweaking the site, we will also be rolling out additional sections in the site over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for further developments. First of these to appear is the P-Con newsletter/progress report, which has already been sent to members. This is now available in the Newsletter/Progress report section

You might have also noticed that our cute and cuddly logo has disappeared and there is more news of this in the next story....

Contributed by the webmaster 06/03/2003. Updated 11/03/2003


Phoenix Convention website getting a makeover

We regret to inform you of the passing of the original Phoenix logo.

Known affectionately as "that fascist looking thing on the top of the page" and as "a stopgap until we can find someone who can draw", the logo was widely tolerated and was cause of the occasional shudder of appreciation.

However fans of logos based on mythical creatures can take heart as we have a replacement courtesy of Donal Casey.

Donal kindly offered to do one for free and considering that we have no way of paying him, and that, like everyone else helping out at the con, he is also paying for the privilege of attending, we were very touched by his offer, especially after looking at his site at www.donalcasey.com

Contrbution by the webmaster and Anne M Kletcha 06/03/2003
Original and superannuated logo by the webmaster

Contributed by the webmaster 06/03/2003.


Charlie Stross nominated for Nebula Award

We are delighted, and some of our Dublin members might even be delirah and excirah, to find out that one of our guests, Charlie Stross, has been nominated for a Nebula Award.

Barely a few weeks after Charlie said he would be attending P-CON, his work "Lobsters" is in the running for the Best Novelette award. (Not that both events are necessarily connected in a causal relationship.)

We wish Charlie all the best.

Written by the webmaster.


P-Con announces our Guest of Honour

The Phoenix Convention is delighted to announce that our Guest of Honour at P-Con 2003 will be Ken MacLeod.

For more information, including Guest Profiles of all our guests, you can check the Guest Information section.









Website Update 1 January 2003

In an act of either stunning originality or monumental folly, we have decided to replace the Noticeboard with the Members Profiles section. That's right folks. We are throwing open the doors of the P-Con website and letting the people who are going to the convention write it, or a lot of it at least.

All right, to be honest this is hardly a new concept on the Internet in general although we haven't come across an SF convention website that has tried it yet.

Essentially members of the convention, whether attending or supporting, can, if they want, write their own page on the P-Con site, which can include links to other sites, photos, images or whatever takes your fancy, within reason. Barring a few conditions, to keep it clean and legal, the page is yours.

Now we haven't seen this done on a convention website before, so we really don't know how it is going to turn out. That said, anyone who has been to a con before will know that your average convention has more writers, whether actual, aspiring or potential, than the average literary awards ceremony, and quite possibly more concentrated creativity per cubic inch.

Anything you contribute remains your own property. You can change it or remove it at any time. So if you want to give it a try, you are more than welcome. Just visit the Member Profiles section.


Website Update 18 December 2002

We have added a couple of new sections to the site, including an Acknowledgements section and a "Help out at P-Con Section" which will be referred to as the Gopher section.

These pages are a bit bare at present, but will start to fill up as P-Con approaches.

We have a few other sections planned, some of which will be available this week, so stay tuned.