BayCon 2013 MiniMeet!

[Hrakkar]

I just finished a wonderful day at the BayCon 2013 Science Fiction Convention in Santa Clara, California. One activity planned for the convention was a meetup between David Peterson, Dothraki.org community members Daenerys and CrownOfGold, and myself. This would follow a presentation by David on a panel discussion about creating constructed languages for science fiction stories ad TV.

 The panel consisted of David Peterson, writer/linguist Juliette Wade, and a third person who is a television producer/writer. It was a lively and interesting discussion that covered everything from vowel harmony to communication by urine odor. There were about 40 people in attendance, which was a very good attendance for a medium-sized science fiction convention. (We maybe had 30 people for a panel on the Na'vi language back in 2010.)

Completely unannounced, LearnNavi community member Omängum Fra'uti and his wife Jennifer surprised me by showing up for this panel. After the panel, Omängum and Jennifer were invited by David to join us for dinner. We ended up eating at a restaurant that served Chinese dumplings and other tasty things. We finished our evening together at a Chinese pastry shop, where we enjoyed 'egg pastry' while playing a couple rounds of the card game 'Fluxx'. It was an exceptionally fine evening, and capped off what has been the most enjoyable day of 2013 so far!

Here are a few pictures. The first picture shows David during the panel discussion:


Here's a picture of (L to R) Jennifer (who is also a linguist), Omängum Fra'uti and David Peterson, taken while we were waiting for our food to arrive:


Finally, here's a picture of (L to R) CrownOfGold, Daenerys and myself (Yeah, I know I was wearing a Na'vi shirt!):

[Jenny]

Wow! Looks like you had a great time!
If I only did not live on the other side of the globe 

Also, you should wear your Na'vi shirt at all times! 

[Hrakkar]

Wow! Looks like you had a great time!
If I only did not live on the other side of the globe 

Also, you should wear your Na'vi shirt at all times! 

I don't wear this Na'vi shirt all the time, but I have about six of them that I wear frequently in rotation, to make them last a long time.
A shirt with some Dothraki would be fun, too. I have thought about making a sirt that just says 'Me Nem Nesa' in large letters.

Even if you live halfway around the globe, you can jpin us for our IRC chat every Monday evening, 7 PM Pacific time. You can find an IRC client you can use on the Dothraki website, or download your own client (much better!).

[Havazhyol]

Wow! Looks like you had a great time!
If I only did not live on the other side of the globe 

You stole my words, and certainly those from a lot of people living on the old continent.

I hope someday I'll be able to have an IRL meeting with some of you guys.

[Jenny]

I don't wear this Na'vi shirt all the time, but I have about six of them that I wear frequently in rotation, to make them last a long time.
A shirt with some Dothraki would be fun, too. I have thought about making a sirt that just says 'Me Nem Nesa' in large letters.

Even if you live halfway around the globe, you can jpin us for our IRC chat every Monday evening, 7 PM Pacific time. You can find an IRC client you can use on the Dothraki website, or download your own client (much better!).

Oh, I'd love a shirt like that!

I'll definitely join in for the chat next time 

[Hrakkar]

This particular minimeet scenario occurs almost every year, as David frequently speaks at BayCon. Its a unique situation and works only because some of us live close by (4.5 hours by car in my case).

However, a real meetup of Dothraki/Valyrian fans would be a lot of fun. There are a couple of ways this could happen. Let's examine a couple of them:

There are enough ASOIAF fans out there that I would not be surprised if there isn't already a meetup of them. Or else, they might be meeting at a major 'Con. We could hold a meetup of Dothraki/Valyrian fans at the same time, or just before (Like the Klingon Language Institute did for a while).

The other interesting idea-- and this would have to be David-driven-- would be to hold a 'GoT Language Workshop', like Paul Frommer did with the Na'vi community in September of 2010. It would be a several day get-together at some place where the main purpose would be to 'teach the teachers'. (I missed being invited to the actual workshop, but all the materials from the workshop have been put on line for all to benefit from.) In addition to this, some problems and misunderstandings with the language were worked out. People were invited from all over the world for this meeting, but had to travel on thheir own dine. A few people who were invited, but couldn't travel participated via teleconference.

Although the workshop happened only once, there are 2 major Avatar fans gatherings every year, where the Na'vi speakers community has a large involvement in. So, there is some value to both of these ideas.