Category Archives: News

BiCon 2007 handbook available for download

The BiCon 2007 handbook is now available to download, including important information on the venue, the event and how to get there.

The BiCon 2007 handbook is now available for download:

Microsoft Word version (linked file not on archive.org)

PDF version (for Acrobat reader) (linked file not on archive.org)

This includes important information on the event and the venue, so please download and have a read – and print it out, if you can. We've also got special information for first time attendees, and a draft schedule, with the exact schedule to be posted at the event.

Workshops!

Well, the workshop schedule is filling up nicely, but there's still slots left. So if you're interested in running a workshop and haven't yet let me know, please do!

Well, the workshop schedule is filling up nicely, but there's still slots left. So if you're interested in running a workshop and haven't yet let me know, please do! Either email workshops@deleted, comment on this post, or fill out the workshop form at (linked page not on archive.org)

If you volunteered to run a workshop and haven't given me your write-up and bio yet, the deadline for getting things into the programme is THIS THURSDAY, so get your skates on.

We have a few workshops that have been suggested that don't yet have organisers for them.

Fun & Games – these light-hearted, energetic workshops are usually run as two or three sessions, sometimes with different organisers per session. If you would like to take one or all of these, let me know!

Singing – BiCon wouldn't be properly Welsh without a bit of singing! Ideally we'd like someone with choral singing and some teaching experience for this one – but enthusiasm is the main thing.

Drag Kings – are you a woman who dresses as a man? Full-time, just for fun, or for special occasions? We'd love to have a workshop on how to "do" F-to-M drag, and the issues around it.

Dance – got those happy feet? Want to teach some moves? All sorts of dance welcome – tango, belly-dance, jive, modern etc.

Right – back to the programming grindstone for me! Only 10 days to go!

xxx Karen Workshops Co-ordinator

BiCon support service

As in several previous years, we'll be offering support over the bicon weekend in the form of counsellors/trained listeners and first aiders. This service can only run if we can get volunteers, so if you have experience in either of these areas, please read on…

Hi all

I'm Camel and I'm going to be running the Bicon Support Service at BiCon 2007. The service will offer on-call cousellors/skilled listeners and first aiders through Bicon weekend.

To run well, this service needs skilled volunteers.

If you are a qualified counsellor, a part-qualified counsellor with experience, or have done significant amounts of listening skills work in a welfare/mental health environment and this work has involved some training, then I'm looking to hear from you.

(examples included volunteering for MIND/other mental health or LGBTQ support charities, university Nightline service volunteers, phone helpline workers, Community Mental Health Team members, Samaritans, facilitators user-led mental health groups etc)

In addition, qualified first-aiders are required.

The listening service will provide casual(non-appointment-based, call anytime, day or night) on-call listening and support according to the following basic principles as well as others to be agreed by the team once we’re on-site:

Non-judgemental one-to-one listening

We have no political, religious, ethnic, cultural, gender or sexuality-based or moral bias. Beyond the general ethos of bicon, we will listen and respect the views of all users without judgement.

Anonymity for users and workers

We won’t refer to your use of the service outside of the space, eg in bar or workshops. If we don’t know you outside of the service, we won’t greet you in public situations. We ask you to do the same for us. Anonymity is important to volunteers also.

Confidentiality

With won’t share anything from your session including your identity/use of the support team to anyone outside the service. (The only exceptions are extreme cases in which the user is of imminent danger to self or others or in the case of a Child Protection issue)

Non-directive

We won’t try to steer you towards any particular course of action or push on viewpoint of your situation. Your situation is yours to decide about.

Non-advisory

We do not provide advice, although we will provide local sources of professional advice and further support should you require them.

As a service

This means:

  • you'll probably speak different members of the team at different times, we can offer a maximum of approximately an hour with a specific member of the team, after which time another member will take over in order that the counselling team are also able to relax and enjoy their bicon. All the team will be working to the same principles, regard us as interchangeable.
  • if the on-duty listener is someone you'd prefer not to talk to for personal reasons, another member of the team will be on-call to subsitute and we urge you to make use of this if this will make you feel safer. If you are interested in volunteering, I'd love to hear from you at support@deleted.

Please list qualifications, institutions awarding them and give referees as well as describing any informal and relevant experience you have (eg voluntary work) with again, if possible, referees. Official qualifications are good, but less important than a proven record of work and experience in these areas.

I'll contact each of you individually to discuss the service and your suitability to volunteer.

Looking forward to hearing from you and meeting you at Bicon!

Cheers

Camel

Online payment for BiCon 2007 is open

Online payment for BiCon 2007 is open from now until 16th July, 2007.

At last we can announce that we are now taking PayPal payments for BiCon! We thank you immensely for your patience in this matter, thank you again.

Please go and log into the BiCon website with your booking number & password and click the "Buy Now" button. For those of you who've applied to the Helping Hand Fund, there is information there for you too.

If you haven't adjusted who you would like to share a flat with on your booking form, please take a couple of minutes to re-add this information as due to a technical hitch we may have lost your preferences earlier this month (an email was sent out at the time about this.)

Due to the nature of Paypal, there will be a small fee for paying in this manner – unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this but we have tried to keep the fees to a minimum per booking transaction and scale. If you would like to pay without fees, please remember that we can still accept cheques (made payable to "BiFest" don't forget) and sent to the address on the site.

The deadline for booking for BiCon is Friday 13th July 2007 – tell your friends. The deadline to pay and secure your booking is noon on Monday 16th July 2007.

So what are you waiting for? Give us your money (please?)!! And we look forward to seeing you all there.

Thanks Laura xx

Update on payments

IMPORTANT INFORMATION for anyone who is paying or has paid for BiCon 2007 by cheque.

Hi there,

Despite our best efforts (and the best efforts of those who kindly helped us out), we here at BiCon 2007 have not been able to set up the bank account we wanted for all your lovely money.

With immense thanks to the London BiFest team, they have offered to lend us theirs as our time was growing short and we were growing skinter.

So we can now announce that we are now taking cheque payments for BiCon 2007 – HOWEVER you have to mark your cheque for BiFest – otherwise we cannot pay them in. If you would like to pay by cheque then please send them to us (or when you see one of us) with your name, address, email address and registration number (so we can match them up), and send them to –

Bicon 2007, old BM address deleted

If you are one of the lovely people who gave us a deposit at a previous Bi event, just deduct that amount from the cheque amount and let us know. We will be checking up, but every little prod helps at this stage.

If you have already given a cheque marked BiCon, then please drop us a line at finance@deleted and we will either give your cheque back to you at bicon or destroy it with your permission. Of course this means that you will need to send us another made payable to BiFest.

We're sorry for the delay and appreciate your patience more than you know. We are still trying to get a paypal set up and will let you know as soon as we can.

It's all go innit?

Laura xx

[To review your booking and see how much to pay, visit this page (broken link to online system)]

End of early bird – and last registration date

The earlybird prices of BiCon 2007 are coming to an end, this Sunday the 24th June 2007 to be exact. So if you haven't registered yet you've got till midnight Sunday to take advantage of our generous offer! The absolute final date for ALL registrations is midnight on July 13th 2007.

Evening,

The earlybird prices of BiCon 2007 are coming to an end, this Sunday the 24th June 2007 to be exact. So if you haven't registered yet you've got till midnight Sunday to take advantage of our generous offer!

Remember that even though you haven't paid yet (and we are working on that believe me) you will still be eligible for the earlybird prices as long as you've registered.

After Sunday you can still register but the prices will have gone up, so tell your freinds and family (if you are that way inclined) and get them to register with us asap! The absolute final date for ALL registrations is midnight on July 13th 2007. Anything after that will be at the mercy of the venue so people will need to contact us at BiCon HQ.

And please please use the lovely icons available (link to page not available on archive.org) to tell people about us on your journals/myspace/facebook etc…

More news as it arrives

Laura xx

Workshops update

The workshop requests and ideas are coming in thick and fast, but there are more we'd like to see – and we have some ideas in need of volunteers.

Greetings from your friendly BiCon Workshop Co-ordinator.

Well, the workshop requests and ideas are coming in thick and fast., and filling up my timetable. So far, lovely people have volunteered to run:

  • First-timers
  • Massage for beginners
  • Naked Lunch
  • Writing Erotica to Share
  • Bi Research
  • Laughing Yoga
  • Storytelling
  • Old-timers
  • Cuddle Party
  • Paint BiCon
  • Body Image
  • Fetisher than Thou – on a budget
  • Disabled Labels
  • Bisexuality in Film and TV
  • Self-identity through Lego
  • The Future of the Bi Community in Wales
  • Trans-glamour
  • Bisexuality & Censorship
  • Massage for beginners

And there’s a lot more in the pipeline. But keep ‘em coming! We’d particularly like to see some dance and movement workshops, and more on disabilities, sexual health, gender roles, and trans and gender-queer issues.

We still need volunteers to run:

  • Fitting & Misfitting
  • Bisexuality for Beginners / Introduction to Bisexuality
  • Bi History
  • Polyamory for Beginners
  • Advanced Polyamory
  • Bi Activism
  • Fun & Games (probably two or three sessions)
  • Meeting People
  • Speed Dating
  • Bi Parenting

If you’d like to suggest a workshop topic you’d like to see covered, or discuss anything, drop me an email at workshops@deleted

If you’d like to run a workshop (either one of those above, or something different), please go to http://www.bicon2007.org.uk/bicon/workshops and fill out the workshops form.

Many thanks

Karen.

DIY Disco Rules and Regs (Saturday Night 7pm till 9pm)

AKA "The B*stard Offspring of The Old DIY Disco and a Lot of Caffeine"

We have made notes on people reactions and comments on the DIY discos of old, and have come to a couple of conclusions – the first one being "You can't please all the people all the time" and the other being "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", however we would like to add a couple of rules to this traditional fun theme for this year –

Cd's must not be longer than 15 minutes

As they will be played at the beginning of the Ball – we are looking for Movie based songs, maybe your favourite song from a soundtrack or a theme based on a selection of movies (80s brat pack anyone? Bond Movies?)

Quality over quantity – think of songs that people would dance to!

The top 8 CDs will be played at the beginning to the ball at 7pm, with the #1 CD being played before the evening DJ takes over at 9pm.

All CDs must be given to the reception desk, with a write up what they are, artist and featured film, by last orders on the Friday night; unfortunately there will be no exceptions to this rule! Voting will take place on Saturday and ends at 4pm, giving us time to count the votes and place the top CDs.

Good Luck!!

Laura X

Call for Workshops

Workshops are a vital part of the BiCon event. Let us know which workshops you would like to see on the programme, offer your services to run one, or suggest a topic.

Workshops are a vital part of the BiCon event. We will be running a full programme of workshops on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and we want to cover as many aspects as possible of bi lifestyle, culture, sex and sexuality.

WE NEED YOU!

Let us know which workshops you would like to see on the programme, offer your services to run one, or suggest a topic. They can be as fun, serious, or silly as you wish them to be. Remember, this is your BiCon – let's make it great!

If you are interested in running a workshop, or i f you'd like to ask a question about workshops, please do not hesitate to get in touch at the following address: workshops@deleted