Has anyone ever thought of organizing a Gay Spiral Stories/Gay Kinky Stories convention?
I was rereading Acts of Worship
by Derek Williams yesterday, and in the comments he mentioned having a convention. So, has there ever been a GSS/GKS convention? Would there actually be interest in a convention? What would be some topics you’d like have at a convention? Like, sky’s the limit, not holds barred, where would it be and what would we be doing?
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Many months ago we briefly discussed a real-life come-together on the Discord server.
The problem, of course, is the distance. Since most users are US-based and that would make the USA the proper place for such a meeting, but the rest of the world would be pretty much left out, including me.
As much as I’d love such an event, I’m afraid, it wouldn’t attract enough people willing to travel that far to justify the cost and effort involved. It’s really unfortunate, and if anyone thinks differently or has a better idea how to organize this, I’m all ears!
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I swear, I’m normally the guy that stands in the back of the room and let everyone else do the talking. I’m almost certain that if this already came up then this solution has been mentioned as well.
But just in case it hasn’t…
There are other online communities that I’ve hung around the peripheries of that do a blend of live and onlne conference events. I couldn’t tell you what platform they use, but a quick search brought up these comparisons. Best Virtual Conference Platforms for Online Events
If I’m saying too much, please just tell me to go back to my corner and I’ll stick my thumb in a Christmas Pie. I’ll even do better research if you need me to…but something that could be both live AND online would be a reasonable solution. Reasonably Great! that is. 
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I suspect an in-person conference would be financially impractical but an online conference should be feasible. (I’ve discovered in the past few months that many, many people read or know of this site.) There still is the problem of figuring out times where both the US and Australia could be comfortable, but perhaps “talks” can be spread out over the course of “a day” (or days) so that everyone can be accomodated.
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Having a physical Con would be impractical for me as well unless it was in Vegas or something. I guess on-line Con would be the best alternative. 8 pm would be like 10 am in parts of Australia. So like 4 hours there. Over a weekend you could have 8 hours of programming. And break out groups as seen fit? I don’t know. What do you all think?
@spoonboy, I really liked your suggestion and think you should stay out of the corner forever. No one puts baby in the corner!
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I guess an online convention is actually the only option, but it’s not nearly as exciting. Still, why not?
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It actually works out pretty well when you do a mett-up online. In the denim community there have been global denim hangs that they’ve held on Zoom; they went 24 hours and people come in and go out when they want.and it was good to meet members in the denim community all over the world. I know a few of the denim heads got a kick out of me speaking Japanese with the Japanese denim makers and their shock at my ability and how it came out (and how it was used at the time). It would always be great to meet up in person, but the online meets are the next best thing IMO. So I’m for an online meet-up.
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@New_Guy, the 24 hours thing sounds like a great idea!
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In my opinion, the only way to realistically (and easily) do something like a convention or meet up, is to find an already happening ‘Gay Thing’, perhaps a Pride event in Germany for instance, and “we all agree” to (those of us who can, or wish to) go to it and meet up there.
It removes all organization and all pressure, except for organizing your own travel.
It’s a cover story.
It’s a Gay event.
It’s no pressure (if half the people cancel, it won’t affect the rest of those who still may go.)
It leaves the meet-up open and set for whomever might travel, but if 70% of people get colds feet and it’s just Martin, me and musclehypnojock, well, we can have a drink, the three of us, say hello, then explore the rest of the event we’ve bootstrapped out meet up on to, and our trip won’t be a waste of time.
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Actually a really good idea.
I’d be game with about any CSD/Pride in Europe. We’ve been travelling to CSDs a lot in the last years anyway. My husband would be there, too, but I’m sure that’s not a problem for you guys.
But it might already be too close a call for this year. But maybe next year? And which place would come to your mind?
I’m a fan of Spanish Prides (I’ve been to Prides in Madrid, Barcelona and Sidges). But there are so many countries I haven’t been to, so I’m open to everything.
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This isn’t helpful for the guys who can’t easily travel to North America, but it’s a possible supplement for the other ideas. Hypnocon is an annual m4m convention of guys who are into erotic hypnosis. It’s focused on real life hypnosis, but there’s no reason guys from here who are attending it can’t set aside some time to meet up. As a former organizer, I imagine future organizers might even be interested in making it an official event/presentation. But it would be trivial to pick one of the bars many of the attendees hit outside of Con hours on Friday or Saturday nights to meet up at too. The next one will be in Palm Springs,October 6th–8th, 2023. Every year, the attendees pick a new city in North America to have it next time.
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this sounds very cool! is there a registration/itinerary for this year’s con available? Does the hotel have a special rate for hypnocon? What’s hypnocon like?
Hypnocon is a very casual gathering of like-minded guys into guys (trans and any non-binary folks who feel comfortable in an m4m environment are welcome) into erotic hypnosis. Every year it’s in a different city, organized by different people. Some years it has a schedule full of presenters, demos, and group hypno activities. Other years, it’s more of a very loose, unstructured Uncon.
Everyone is a volunteer, and so far all twenty-four of them have been free to attend - relying on donations to cover the cost of whatever meeting room(s) are used.
Some years there has been online registration just to get an idea of the number of attendees and what they’re interested in seeing/doing (we can often get a discount on the meeting room if we book enough rooms at the hotel), but you can always just show up and register (if needed) on the days of.
Everyone is responsible for booking their own room, but there’s a place in the Discord server for guys to find people to share the rooms and costs.
The focus is on sharing knowledge and getting hands-on experience with hypnotizing and/or being hypnotized. Discussion of expectations and informed consent prior to any hypnosis is mandatory, but I’ve never heard of any predatory behavior, ever. I think the most attendees we’ve ever had was a little over 50 guys.
I organized the San Francisco Hypnocon two years ago. People arrived for a basic meet & greet Friday, split into groups for dinner depending on tastes in cuisine, then some went off to the local leather bars while others went to a small play party hosted by a couple in their room. Or just socialized in the hospitality suite.
On Saturday we had a packed schedule with informative presentations (beginning with a hypno 101 intro class and one on negotiation and consent), demos, times to split up into pairs or small groups for hands-on stuff, a group catered dinner at the restaurant followed by a stage hypnosis show in the evening, followed by two more play parties - one by the same couple, plus a last-minute cigar/hypno/bdsm thing in San Francisco’s last public dungeon space.
Sunday after breakfasts, we got in a couple more presentations we couldn’t cram into Saturday, then had the annual vote on where it would be next year before noon (the official stuff traditionally ends at noon on Sunday so people can make their flights home). The rest of us got together again in the afternoon for some really fun group hypno activities (the round robin Fractionation Station was a personal favorite) before splitting off into group shopping trips (Mr. S was on a lot of people’s to do list), bars and restaurants, etc.
Throughout the whole thing, there was a separate hospitality suite where people rested and socialized at different times, and of course people were pairing off for hypno fun or whatever in their own rooms all weekend.
Last year’s was in Vancouver BC, and the organizers chose to not schedule anything. I decided not to go, so I can’t tell you how that went. Other years were somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.
Discord apparently doesn’t do permanent invitation links anymore, but this one is supposed to be good for seven days: Hypnocon Discord server
If it’s not working for you, email me at meatheadosis@gmail.com and I’ll send you a new one (I don’t check on here very often).
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I would love to be able to join the hypnocon. I"m afraid there is just no way.
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