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Con Chair announcement for 2021

Greeting PenguiCommunity! The Penguicon Board of Directors is happy to announce Dave “Ska” Green as the Convention Chair for Penguicon 2021, to be held April 23-25, 2021 at the Westin Southfield Detroit hotel. We are excited to see what he will bring to the convention next year. Please join us in welcoming him to his new role! As always, please contact the Board with any comments or concerns at [email protected].

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Statement on George Floyd and Black Lives Matter

The Penguicon Board of Directors believe that Black Lives Matter, and believe in racial equity for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). We grieve for the lives lost in the continuing systemic racism and violence, as shown in recent events including the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery,  and refuse to be silent. We think that the philosophy behind Open Source requires supporting the education and participation of a diverse group of people. Though we…

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New Board Additions

Last Sunday the Board of Directors was tasked with the difficult decision of choosing from very capable candidates to join the Board. It is really wonderful to know that we have so many passionate people in our community. It is our great pleasure to announce the following additions to the Penguicon Board: Scott Kennedy is joining as a new Board Member Paul Keyes will take on the role of IT Officer (which, like ConChair, is a titled role and not…

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Virtual Penguicon

We’d like you to join us at Virtual Penguicon this year! What is Virtual Penguicon? Since many presenters for Penguicon this year worked on their event presentations ahead of time and wanted some way to share that with our Penguicon attendees, we decided to help make that possible.  This weekend, you can join presenters via their streaming method of choice to see a small portion of what was planned for this year. How can I find out what is happening?…

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Penguicon 2021

It is with great pleasure that we’d like to announce we have signed a contract with our hotel, the Southfield Westin, for 2021!  Our event will take place April 23-25 next year, and we can’t wait to see you then. There is still time to throw your hat in the ring for ConChair for 2021 by filling out this ConChair Interest form. If you have any questions about what a ConChair does, just ask! If you are interested in being…

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Direct Donations

How to Donate to Penguicon Penguicon costs between $60,000 and $80,000 to put on each year. Luckily, most of that money is spent on the weekend itself and we will not have most of those costs this year. Our Souvenir book and schedules, for instance, as well as all of the food and beer for ConSuite, and rental of the actual programming spaces in the hotel, are all large expenses we will not have. However, the convention also pays for…

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Moving Forward

Dearest Penguicon, As you probably just saw, the board made some Rather Important Decisions this past weekend. Now that those decisions have been made, the crew of Penguicon 2020 can share with you our plans for the near future. We will be hosting the first-ever Virtual Penguicon on the same weekend we would have been meeting, April 24-26! Presenters are encouraged to give a virtual version of the presentation, workshop, panel, talk, etc that they would have given at Penguicon…

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Board Statement for April 5

The board met last Sunday to discuss our options moving forward, given current data, and we’d like to share with you our conclusions. We have heard many of you requesting that we try to host a form of Penguicon online, and we completely agree, if it is within our means.  We have empowered Bagel, our 2020 ConChair, to assemble a team and put together the first virtual Penguicon experience this spring.  If you are interested in helping make this happen, please…

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Penguicon 2020 Has been Canceled

Penguicon Family, We bring bittersweet news today. As you know, we have diligently kept our eyes on the situation surrounding COVID-19 in order to determine what we should do about Penguicon this year. It is with sadness, but also hope, that I am able to announce that the Westin has offered to move our contract to April 2021. This means that Penguicon 2020 has officially been cancelled. We think this is in the best interest of our community, our organization,…

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Board Statement for March 22

Penguicon Family, We continue to monitor the situation in the world and, in particular, Michigan.  As of March 22nd, the Governor has extended the ban on public gatherings until April 13, 2020 – 11 days before Penguicon. We are in the process of reaching out to the Westin executive staff to see if we can work with them on a compromise that is equitable to everyone involved; that is being sent out this week.  The event staff that we were working…

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