PantheaCon 2014

Feb 14 – 17, 2014

San Jose Double Tree Hotel

2050 Gateway Place, San Jose CA

Admission fee: $55 (till Sept 1), $65 (till Jan 1); $75 after Jan.1 and on site;

Pre-Reg closes Jan. 15

(includes all events for the entire four day conference)

$35 for a full day, $20 for an evening only

Theme for 2014: Networks of Community & Diversity, Pleasure & Service

Join our huge and varied Pagan, Heathen, Wiccan, Reconstructionist, Indigenous, spiritual and magical groups in education and celebration. As usual we fill the whole hotel with over 14 function rooms for workshops, rituals, and presentations including 4 ballrooms for Vendors along with open house parties.

On line Registration (with PayPal) will open July 1, but closes Jan. 15, 2014; after that register on site. A pdf Registration form for printing and mailing will also be on the website. Mail must reach us by Jan. 15.

Parking at the hotel is $5 a day for attendees with their badges. Only hotel guests get in-out privileges. A shuttle van (rented especially for PantheaCon attendees) will go among the hotels.

Important Dates for PantheaCon 2014

July 1, 2013 – Registration opens,
July 1 – Vendor Applications open (Vendor deadline Oct 15)
July 1 – Presenter Applications Open
Sept 1 – Round 1 Deadline for Presenters
Oct 1 – Round 2 Deadline for Presenters (Programming closes to submissions)
Oct 1 – Hotel Room reservations opens
Oct 15 – Deadline for Vendors

Hotel Room Reservation System opens Oct.1

No Lottery this year. On Oct 1 regular DoubleTree reservations for hotel rooms will go through the DoubleTree booking system – you will be able to book a room online or call the hotel directly from that day on to reserve one room. The hotel is contracted to have blacked out all rooms this whole weekend for us to reserve.

For a specific room number assignment or a special-needs room, please contact special-needspantheaconcom, starting in August. Special-needs rooms include families with small children and physically challenged people. (We reserve the right to jury this area, if you have questions please email special-needspantheaconcom to be considered for this block.) Any DoubleTree hotel rooms reserved before Oct 1 will be void. No more than one room reservation per person will be allowed.

Overflow hotels – We plan to contract with various hotels for some blocks of discounted rooms. Let us know your favorite hotels. Details will be posted on the website and in the next newsletter as we get them.

We are also looking for my 2/4 wheel convertible hand truck (dolly). I put a call into Faeble from Logistics but haven’t heard anything yet.

Thanks – Don Barks, Tech Head

Please email feedback at pantheacon.com if you know the whereabouts.

2. Room service with Dine-In Menu is available from 6am – 11pm.

3. Sprigs serves Breakfast, lunch and dinner starting at about 6am till 1am.

4. Spencer’s (a very expensive restaurant). Lunch Menu, Dinner Menu, Dessert Menu
Friday, February 15th – Lunch 11:00am-2pm; Dinner 5pm-10pm
Saturday, February 16th – Dinner only 5pm-10pm
Sunday, February 17th -   Dinner only 5pm-10pm
Monday, February 18th -   Lunch 11:00am-2pm; Dinner: 5pm-10pm

5. Sushi bar will remain open from 12p.m. - Midnight or later depending the demand.

6. Lobby Bar (2050 Lounge) – some limited food – available 12noon to  10pm.

In communities throughout Europe, stretching back as far as 2500 years or more, folks have gathered during the dark season, donned grotesque masks and bestial costumes, and wildly cavorted through their towns to drive out evil spirits and the doldrums of winter. Let’s prepare the hotel for PantheaCon properly with a good, thorough and time-tested European cleansing tradition. Bring your furs, antlers, horns, masks, grotesque costumes, rattles, drums, bells, and brooms. Join the Furious Revels for a wild cavort, and let’s cleanse the Doubletree from evil spirits and ill-meaning wights the old way!

Each morning has two 90 minute sessions (9 AM–10:30 AM & 11 AM–12:30 PM) and each afternoon has two (1:30 PM–3 PM. & 3:30 PM–5 PM), with a one-hour lunch and a two-hour dinner break. In the evening events are scheduled at 7 PM, 9 PM and 11 PM. You can find scholarly, ritual and entertainment presentations in almost every time slot. So no matter what mood you are in, there will be something to get you excited and get you going. The Con runs from 1 PM on Friday to 4 PM on Monday and has over 200 presentations.

Registration for the Conference opens at 10 AM on Friday, Feb. 15th, and is at the Convention Center Entry on the ground floor farthest from the hotel elevators. After you register and pick up your badge, you will receive a complete program guide, pocket program, and up to date changes. Look each day for our Panthea-Con Daily Oracle for the latest about changes to the program and upcoming evening parties.

Badges will be required for participation in any presentation or for admittance to any official PantheaCon party floor. Badges will be checked. Please wear your badge at all times. Lost badges will have to be purchased again, but your money will be refunded if you find the old one. [See badge policy]

A short Opening Ritual with Glenn Turner and friends starts the Conference at 1 p.m. (Hotel room check in is typically at 3 PM, but bags can be left with the hotel bell service people.) Then at 1:30 PM the Con gets going with lots of wonderful presentations. We will have up to 14 different simultaneous workshops going on at any time. Keep your eyes open on the official posting spots to hear about parties or informal meetings. Every time slot is full of magical and fabulous presentations. One of our biggest “complaints” is that there is no cloak of bi-location available for people.

And don’t forget Monday, it may be the last day of Con but it has some of the best stuff. You can wrap up the weekend with the Closing Ritual at 3:15 PM.

Dress up, have fun. Bring your dancing shoes for all the great events with dancing, wear red and black for the Friday night Pomba devotional, and robes and finery we can only wear in a hotel, but not outside. (A word of caution: we share the hotel including the elevators and First floor areas with a few non-Con hotel guests and visitors to Club Max on Friday and Saturday. Please, be covered as if for the street when traveling through the public areas of the hotel. This is not to discourage dazzling costuming.) You may also want to bring a drum to join in a drum circle one evening, or bring ritual robes, or a kilt, or pirate garb, or finery for parties or just relax as your self.

We again have the use of the bar called Club Max all day Sunday. Look for the events scheduled there. No bar there this year.

The Ballroom Mezzanine area on the 2nd floor above Reg will have a food cart with tables and chairs.

A Book Signing table is in the hallway outside the Vendor room. Find the schedule of the authors doing signings at the Vendor Central table. Books can be bought at the Ancient Ways booth where you can also find books and CDs the presenters bring to us to sell for them. (Presenters, wanting to sign up to do book signings do so at Vendor Central. Presenters, please check ahead with us by email store @ ancientways.com; don’t just drop off books or CDs at the Ancient Ways booth without prior permission.)

The San Martin Hallway can be used as a place to go after an exciting workshop to continue the discussion. Sometimes the Con Suite is a good place to gather to discuss a good topic. Check with them first by phoning 7954.

The Conference Hospitality Suite (Con Suite) is in the Ninth floor Presidential suite, Room 954, has snacks, tea and coffee and is a place to go to relax a bit. It is open much of the time or as we can staff it. If you wish to bring something to contribute, by all means, do so. We also have a nearby Kid Friendly room – kids must be with an adult.

As requested by a Teen petition, this year we also have a Teen Lounge on the 2^nd floor in the Chardonnay next door to the Health Club. It will be open from about 9 am till midnight.

Party Rooms and Hospitality Suites: The 2nd, 9th and 10^th floors are where parties are held. All will host discussions, gatherings and parties. Look for the details of these groups with their times and days further on in the program book, and at the Information table and Bulletin board. All groups hosting parties should give their information to the Info table and check in with Ops for guidelines.

Please help us make this Convention better by using our General Event Evaluation form and send it back when you’ve filled it in. We want you to have the best possible time with your peers as possible. You can always send us feedback at feedback@pantheacon.com. We will have a feedback form posted on the website too.

A Convention membership is not required to visit the Vendor Room.

The map of the Vendor Room is posted in several locations, including just inside the main entrance to the Room. The Vendor Room Staff (located at the Vendor Coordinator table, “Thalassa Prime,” just inside the main entrance to Vendor Room) will be happy to assist with questions.

Welcome and bright blessings from Thalassa, Vendor Coordinator/Onsite Hotel Liaison, and the Vendor Room Staff

We ask that no animals be brought into the Vendor Room

Vendor Room hours:
Friday: 1:30 (approximately) – 6:00
Saturday & Sunday: 10:00–6:30
Monday: 10:00–2:00

Vendors in the area outside of the Ballroom (listed as “Bayshore Foyer”) may have different hours.

PLEASE NOTE THAT VENDING BY PERSONS NOT SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY PANTHEACON, AND VENDING IN AREAS NOT AUTHORIZED BY PANTHEACON, IS NOT PERMITTED. YOUR COOPERATION IS APPRECIATED.

Readings Available with PantheaCon Presenters: Several of the PantheaCon presenters will be available for readings in the Vendor Room and Bayshore Foyer. There will be sign up sheets at the Thalassa Prime/Vendor Coordination table (just inside the main entrance to the room, immediately to your right as you enter) noting readers and their time availability. Be aware that compensation must be negotiated directly with the readers. We ask that this exchange of service and energy be conducted respectfully.

Booksigning by PantheaCon Presenters: There are Convention Booksigning Tables located in the Bayshore Foyer (across from the Information Area). Llewellyn Worldwide will also be offering promotions and booksigning for its authors in the Bayshore Foyer across from the Vendor Area. A schedule of presenters signed up to do booksigning is available at the Thalassa Prime/Vendor Coordinator table.

You may also find some of the presenters’ books and CDs for sale at the Ancient Ways booth.

A note about vending for 2014 – the information and application will go on the website in August of 2013. The deadline for receiving applications is October 15, 2013.

Vendors for PantheaCon 2013

Air& Fire
Amber Moon
Ancient Ways
Ancient Circles
Ardantane Pagan Learning Center
Blue Moon Designs
Blue Star Creations
Celtica (Bayshore Foyer)
Coyote Tales Symbol Makers
Dancing Tree/Artemis Archery
Daylight Artworks
Discover the Goddess
DragonQuest Treasures
Dragon’s Treasure
Eclectic by Design
Eyescream
Faery Odd Mothers
Feeling Great Now (Bayshore Foyer)
Firebird Fae Couture
Gaean Allusions Pottery (Bayshore Foyer)
Goddess Z
Hoodoo Roots
House of Wormwood
Just Rewards
Katya Madrid – Henna (Bayshore Foyer)
Kitchen Witch Gourment.com
Lauren Raine/Rainwalker Masks
Legba’s Crossroads – The Vodou Store
Llewellyn Worldwide
Magic Velvets
Magical Journey
Margaret Mannatt Fine Books
Myth & Magic
Mythic Images
Phoenix Obsidian Designs
Practical Rabbit
Raven & Rose
Rob Carter Inc
Royal Publishing/Celtic Jackalope
Serpent’s Kiss
Sew Magical
Shadowscapes
Sign of the Hawk
Simply Salma’s Treasures
Spirit of the Goddess
Stone Circle Studio
Tarot Media Company
The Amber Wolf
The Different Drum (Bayshore Foyer)
The Everday Goddess
The Mystic Drea
The Sacred Well
The Weaving Monk
Toadstool Farm
Tombo Studio
Washburn – Celtic on Cloth – Woodcuts
Wheat Goddeses
Windwalker Blades
Wizardcraft Technologies
Wolfsisters Creations/Windwolf Studio
Wytche Krafts Jewelry
Xcentricities Corsets

December 25, 2012, 8pm PST: I have sent out an update email to everyone who either has not received a room to date or is someone hosting a party or affiliated with a party (assuming of course that their record is complete and I have to date not had a bounce on their email). That’s a total of 344 recipients – hopefully the email will get through to everyone. Please check your spam/junk folder as an email going out to that many people at once is almost always treated as spam by email providers.

This means that everyone I can contact SHOULD have received SOMETHING. If you or anyone you know has not heard anything in response to their room request (and you know for a fact there was one completed) PLEASE send an email to hotelrooms AT pantheacon DOT com so that we can check into it.

Saber is pulling numbers for the lottery and will be notifying people in small groups over the course of the next few days.

You all have my sincere apologies for the room process not going nearly as smoothly as we had both intended and anticipated.

We all know that Murphy, and life in general, just cannot resist messing with the best laid plans & intentions. Between Life, Family, House, Work and Health, it’s been a heck of a Summer and Fall for several of us on the PantheaCon staff.It’s also been an amazingly busy season for the Doubletree, and our deadlines and their ability to be as responsive as we needed them to be to meet some of them just did not always mesh seamlessly.

You’ve all been amazing about this, at least some while being terribly unhappy, and for that I thank you. 

Saber, head of Ops

PS

We have good plans to make next year’s room reservation process much improved with timely responses and a more transparent process. 

Happy Yule everyone,

Glenn Turner, Con producer & organizer

programmingpantheaconcom

https://pantheacon.com/personalschedule

Please email programmingpantheaconcom if you would like to tell us what you think of the schedule. See you at PantheaCon 2013!