I-CON To Leave Stony Brook in '09
By Will James This weekend, I-CON, Stony Brook University's staple science fiction convention, will take place for the last consecutive time on Stony Brook's campus. In 2009, I-CON will move to Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus. Renovations at the sports complex, a key facility for the convention, are not certain to be finished by spring of 2009, when the next convention is set to happen, said Stony Brook officials and I-CON coordinators. The 27th I-CON, which began as an outgrowth of Stony Brook University's science fiction forum in 1981, is taking place this week, between April 4 and 6. This winter, convention leaders said they decided to move the 28th I-CON to Suffolk Community College, in light of the construction planned on the sports complex arena. The convention features three days of science, science fiction, fantasy, anime, technology and comic book-related programs and events. In recent years, it has attracted between 6,800 and 7,100 paying attendees, and guests like director Roger Corman, Star Trek actors George Takei of Star Trek and Kevin Sorbo of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. This weekend, I-CON will feature appearances by actor Ernie Hudson of Ghost Busters, writer Harlan Ellison, and actors Tim Russ of Star Trek and Ray Park of Star Wars. The convention is a massive production, taking about eight to nine months of planning, said coordinators, and occupies facilities across campus, including the sports complex, the Javits center, the Union and the Student Activities Center ballrooms. Next year, Suffolk Community College's smaller Brentwood campus will provide less space for I-CON, prompting them to plan to spread programs to a pair of hotels – the Holiday Inn in Ronkonkoma and the Hyatt Regency in Hauppauge. The convention will undergo major changes, said Brad Hausman, assistant event coordinator. Hotels, he said, offer attendees a more classic science fiction convention experience. "They're more used to the hotel-con atmosphere. You know, where you get up in the morning, you're in your slippers and you go down to the convention." I-CON has deep roots at Stony Brook – 2009 will be the first year the convention will not be here since its inception. "For a lot of my social circle it has very strong ties to the university. That part's a little disheartening," said Aakin Patel, I-CON's event coordinator. He has been involved with the convention on and off since he was a student at Stony Brook in the 1990's. Kerry Skadl, who will be running the information desk at I-CON this weekend, has been with the convention since 1991. She graduated Stony Brook in 1994 with a double major in psychology and anthropology, and associates the convention with her college years. "There is the nostalgia of coming back to where I went to college," she said. "We've always been a part of the campus and I think a lot of our identity comes from Stony Brook University." I-CON coordinators say conventions beyond 2009 could return to Stony Brook, remain at Suffolk or move elsewhere. "2010 is still up in the air," Hausman said. He said that they plan to make a decision about 2010's convention by October. The biggest factor, he said, is whether or not construction at the sports complex will be done by spring 2010. |
