OryCon

Orycon is Portland, Oregon's annual science fiction/fantasy convention, held in November since 1979.

Event history
The one-day Symposium in 1978 was held at Portland State University. OryCon was held at the Lloyd Center Sheraton in 1979, at the Portland Hilton 1980-83 and 1985, at the Portland Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1984, at the Red Lion/Lloyd Center (formerly the Lloyd Center Sheraton) in 1986, at the Red Lion/Doubletree Columbia River Hotel from 1987 to 2003, at the Marriott (waterfront downtown) from 2003 to 2008, at the Red Lion/Lloyd Center beginning 2009.

Highlights
Orycon promotes science fiction and fantasy works of all kinds.

There are many panels and workshops discussing topics from how to write a great science fiction novel to current events in science, as well as numerous filk sessions and concerts. Some of the recent panel topics have included:


 * Writing
 * When is enough research too much?
 * How to write about something you don't really know about
 * Using Your Imagination to Write and Draw
 * Inventing Languages: Alien Linguistics
 * Balancing Writing with Family/Real Life—Deadlines vs. diapers
 * Current events
 * What impact does technology really have on history
 * Murdering stemcells and frankenfood: modern biology and the far left and right
 * The web in 2015 - a look ahead
 * The rest of the world's last year in space/Japanese Space Program. What they've done, what they are doing, what they have planned.
 * Costuming
 * Making an original costume: What you need to get started
 * Fabric manipulation-How to twist, dye, stitch, fold, pleat and otherwise bully your fabric into submission
 * Period costumes beyond Victorian and medieval: Why don't we see more eras?
 * Costuming 101: Pattern bashing for beginners
 * Art
 * Art Jam - Everybody Draws
 * Selling the Offspring: Your Emotional Investment in Your Art and How Much do You Charge for It?
 * The Business of Art
 * My inspiration - My art: Why I did what I did

The Susan C Petrey Scholarship Fund Auction awards scholarships to the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop (both in the East and West)

The Endeavour Award
The Endeavour Award is presented to a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.


 * Finalists for 2012
 * Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Tor)
 * City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Pyr)
 * River Marked by Patricia Briggs (Ace)
 * Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday)
 * When the Saints by Dave Duncan (Tor)


 * 2011 Winner:
 * Dreadnought by Cherie Priest