Tag: Octocon 2020

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Octocon 2020 is over

Octo holding banners that say WE DID IT and Congratulations to everyone who volunteered their time and made 2020 a success

Despite all the challenges thrown our way this year, Octocon 2020 was a great success! We ran on Twitch, Zoom and Discord, with:

  • 300+ people on Discord from over 20 countries
  • 400+ unique views on Twitch
  • 70+ programme participants
  • over €1500 raised so far to cover our costs and to donate to our chosen charity Jigsaw (full details at the end of October after the tip jar is closed)

Thank you so so much to everyone who gave their time and energy and money to help make Octocon 2020, especially our Guests of Honour Michael Carroll, Helen Ryder and Philippa Ryder; our incredible set of producers and volunteers; our programme participants who appeared on panels, hosted fan chats, and gave workshops, talks and readings; our dealers who showed off their wares on Discord; Punctuation and the Glasgow in 2024 Worldcon bid who hosted Zoom parties; the programme team who worked incredibly hard to put together our set of panels, fan chats, talks and readings; and of course the committee, with special thanks to James Brophy for all the incredible artwork (and the convention of Octos).

Bonus thanks to Marc from Fingal Libraries for coining ‘Octoe’en’ as the night before Octocon, and Ruth from the Glasgow in 2024 bid for suggesting that this is an ‘octumnal’ time of year.

Many of our panels will be available to watch on Twitch for the next 2 weeks, with bonus clips from our chair Raissa’s attempt at playing Untitled Goose Game for the first time during a break in panels!

Discord remains open for a short while longer, and all the panel/fan chat/talk channels have been made visible again for you to check through the lengthy lists of recommendations!

Finally, our 2021 site is now live, and so is registration – for supporting memberships of €20 only. We hope to announce our 2021 date and venue as soon as possible.

Remember that if you bought membership for 2020, that has been rolled over and you are automatically a member for 2021. If you have a supporting membership you will be able to upgrade when we open full registration.

See you again next year!

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Join us on Discord

Although our panels will be streamed on Twitch, all the other parts of Octocon will be accessed through our Discord server:

  • Links to fan chats, talks and readings
  • Fan tables
  • Trade hall
  • Gaming
  • Social spaces

Join us on Discord now

You can access Discord through your web browser, or download the Discord app

Once you have joined our Discord server, there is a 10 minute waiting period before you can interact with the rest of the server. Please use this time to read our Code of Conduct. Once the 10 minutes are up, click the ? at the bottom of the post to accept the Code of Conduct and enter the con.

Octo with screen, tablet, laptop and phone
Octo is ready to use Discord on all their devices!
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How to attend Octocon 2020

5 days to go: time to explain how Octocon will work this year.

Panels will be streamed live on Twitch. Talks, workshops, readings and fan chats will take place on Zoom.

You do not need a Twitch account to watch the panels on there. If you wish to take part in the chat there and ask questions of the panel, you will need to create a Twitch account and log in.

To access the links to the talks, readings, workshops and fan chats when they go live, you will need to have a Discord account and join us there. You won’t need a Zoom account.

Both Twitch and Discord have apps but they also work in a web browser so it is your choice to use the apps or not.

We will have moderators on the Twitch channel chat and on Discord. Both online spaces have terms and conditions of service and we hope everyone will join us in abiding by our code of conduct to keep Octocon a fun, friendly event.

Our Twitch Channel is already up and running, and you can rewatch our taster panels. We will be launching our Discord space (which is called a server) later this week to give people a chance to log in and get familiar ahead of Octocon starting.

If you have any questions about accessing the convention, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us through this website or on our social media.

We are excited to bring you Octocon in this format. Both platforms are robust and have been tested by thousands of gamers and viewers over the last year.

Links to help you get started

Octo with screen, tablet, laptop and phone