Timetable

Saturday

	Red Room	Blue Room
10:00	Opening Ceremony
10:30	The Staff Recommend Our erudite panel of exalted and distinguished experts provide you with a guide to the best creative work in the comics genre plus they reveal some overlooked gems	Are We Cool Now? Heroes, Harry Potter...mainstream shows now have fans and science fiction and fantasy references! Are we actually cool now? Is it good to be king or better to be an overlooked niche?
11:30	The Politics of Empire If it is a fantasy the government must be feudal and if it is science fiction it is of course an empire. Why is this? are there exceptions? Are there good reasons for the stereotypes? Come vote or accept an overlords dictates. Part of our college of controversy series.	Community No not a meeting of the Communitarians, but an examination of fandom. From fanzines to internet forums. Conventions to kaffeklatches. See where the Science Fiction community came from and where its going.
12:30	So these three martians walk into a bar... Fantasy has Pratchett's Discworld, but where is Science Fiction or Horrors' equivalent? Humour is part of everyday life, but how many funny characters are out there? Is being funny harder than it looks?	Take 2 "I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille" Join Octocon's select group of directors as they fix all of last year's movies. All this in only 50 minutes? hmmm...we'll give them 55 just to be sure they finish all of them, but you know these movie types ain't working through lunch.
13:20	Lunch You are the star of your own show, but it needs to be 40 minutes or less. A quick break in the schedule to grab a bite to eat, but be really quick or you'll miss the next programme item...	Lunch
14:00	Guest of Honour Presentation Alastair Reynold's presentation on Science Fiction.
15:00	A Planetary First Elements still secret as we go to press. But there will be a writer, director and actors involved. Come by for the who, what, where, when and why of this stunning first time on the planet event!	Culture & Civilization Not a lesson in how to behave while time travelling. Instead our panelists will be looking at the creative difficulties as well as rewarding challenges of inventing whole civilizations and cultures. How much do you need for a believable setting? Where to look for inspirations?
16:00	A Pacifists guide to Alternate History. The challenge for our panel: no bombs, no bullets no swords...no violence. Alternate history without the crutch of war. What economic, social or technological alternate events could make for good change points to history.	Fear Beyond the "gotcha". Looking at how to really scare the viewer/reader....this hour we examine invoking real fear. Are there differences in how to do this across genres? Tricks that work anywhere? Methods that are out of bounds? Boo!
17:00	F.A.N.D.O.M Cup Julian West presents this fast paced game show style quiz. No pondering; it is fastest with the answer that gets the points. Come see if University College Cork can defend their title.	Sex and Stereotypes Someone wanted to call this panel Girls, Girls, Girls, but please this isn't a Buffy convention and a saner head prevailed. Join the panel for a discussion of both male and female stereotypes in literature. Damsel in distress to Red Sonja. Skinny wizards to brawny barbarians. Are these stereotypes shortcuts or legit. And what about sex scenes? Leave in the romance novels or need to be there for real characters? Part 2 of our college of controversy series.
18:30	John Vaughan's Video Vault of Horror A quadraphonic stereo spectacular...well there are two sound systems anyway. Some members of the committee mark the Octocons not by year or sequence, but what film John showed. Not to be missed. Years from now your grandchildren will ask where were you when this years Vault was opened. In the Mauve room /Dave Lally video room	You should be at the panel to your left.
20:30	Saturday Night Extravaganza. The whole convention gathers for some snacks on the house. Plus a night of fun and games. There will be casino games where you can win tickets to the end of convention raffle. Plus a real cash poker tournament in support of our charity. For the risk averse there will be some just plain old fun games and activities throughout the evening....and did we say there would be snacks!...get there on time or miss out.

Sunday

	Red Room	Blue Room
10:00	The Sunday Morning Rant Had a great Saturday night, but still feeling sleepy didn't want to miss breakfast so you're up wandering around. Stop by for John Kennedy's now annual rant. See what has set him off this year. The person that can get John to rant the longest wins a prize!
11:00	Tail wags dog Is the film industry having too much influence on comics today. Are comics still a good source for cinema "tales" or is Hollywood more than suggesting current story lines in the comics genre...and if so would it be such a bad thing? stop in for a debate that may be livelier than the one just to the right of this :)	Guest of Honour Reading By Alastair Reynolds
12:00	Trailer Park So your company has cut off Internet browsing while at the office? Eircom hasn't enabled your phone exchange for broadband? Smart Telecom was your provider then collapsed. Have no fear! As we have an action packed hour of trailers for upcoming genre films.	David Stewart Memorial. A year ago many of us lost a great friend with the passing of David Stewart. Come by and share memories of David.
13:00	Trailer park completes followed by auction setup.	Relevance of the Great Masters.No we aren't talking about alien invasions, nor will you find them in an art museum. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. Can you be a SF fan without a grounding in the masters. If you've only read fiction from the last 20 years is that really okay?
14:00	Charity Auction. Come by and help support this year's charity the Esophageal Cancer Fund while picking up some very cool items. Talk about a win-win.
15:00	Science of Science Fiction. Our merry band of mad scientists is at it again this year. They promise to bring back the people misplaced in last year's time travel experiment. I'm told that for safety reasons one should avoid the back row this year.	Religion: Science Fiction & Fantasy Is the future nothing but godless heathens?That or only small fanatic cults. Are religions sometimes "off camera" but still there. Fantasies seem to "get away" with religion, but is that true? Is there a Scientologist in the house? Join us for the third segment of the college of controversy.
16:00	Conventions What is coming, what is going, what might be and news of the world. Come quiz committees and get the inside scoop.	Quiet on the set. Join our panel of authors as they pick one of their works and make it into a film. Why that one and who would they cast for all the main roles. The tabloids can't wait for the scoop. Be there first!
17:00	Closing Ceremony. Time to say so long and farewell, and get news from the future. Plus the chance to use winning raffle tickets to get some fun prizes.