Reimagining the Possible for 2022

It has been about five and a half months since we hosted our 8th annual convention for a global, virtual audience. The event was a huge success and we are thrilled that so many of you chose to join us virtually. You have our sincerest thanks for helping us bring this wonderful Whovian community online for a packed weekend of great discussion and great company!

Since then, and alongside hosting a handful of #WhoItYourself LIVE events, we have been busy gathering information and evaluating the outlook for next year. We appreciate your patience as we worked to reimagine what a convention could be and determine the best steps forward that put the health, safety, and well-being of this community first and foremost.

As such, we are excited to announce that the ninth regeneration of our convention, “Satellite 9,” will be proceeding in a hybrid format on January 21-23, 2022.

We realize that a lot can change between now and January. While we are excited to reimagine the CONsole Room experience to include both in-person and virtual community members, we are continuing to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in our communities and utilize guidance from state and world governing health systems to prioritize the health and longevity of our attendees and this organization. We are dedicated to staying transparent about any decisions we make about the 2022 convention and other upcoming events and will continue to share updates as they are available.

In the meantime, we do have a few main points to share regarding the format and policies for the 2022 convention:

  • All in-person attendees for CONsole Room 2022 must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This means that, regardless of age, you must have received your only dose of a single-dose vaccine or your second dose of a two-dose vaccine no later than January 6, 2022. You will be required to show proof of vaccination when picking up your badge.
    • We understand that this decision impacts families with youth 11 years of age and younger and individuals with medical concerns in particular. Please know that we do not make this decision lightly but it is important that we prioritize the health and safety of our attendees and provide the safest environment possible. If you are not able to attend in person, we will have multiple ways for you to participate in our convention in a virtual setting.
  • At this time, we will be requiring masks for all in-person attendees. Based on the latest global health information, masks are currently being recommended for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Additionally, the common spaces of the hotel will be shared with non-convention goers who may or may not be vaccinated. We will continue to monitor health and safety guidance and update accordingly.
  • We will not be offering registration refunds for the 2022 convention, but will be able to facilitate badge transfers. We recognize that it is challenging to plan ahead with so much uncertainty – it is for us, too! However, CONsole Room Events is a nonprofit and we are able to continue doing what we do because of the support of this community. While we were able to provide some wonderful virtual programming over the past year with the help of your generous donations, and moving to a virtual format for our 2021 convention was certainly the right move for our community, returning this year to our standard “no refund” policy ensures some financial stability this year so that we can continue creating these events for you for years to come.
  • We have two virtual tickets available: Cybermite and Cyberman. This community is the heart of our convention, and we wanted to make it easy for anyone to attend in some way while still supporting the financial needs of the convention. To support this effort, our new Cybermite ticket is FREE and will provide limited access to online content. The expanded Cyberman ticket will provide access to additional digital content that will not be available to Cybermite ticket holders. We are still determining specifically what types of content will be available for each ticket and will keep you updated as decisions are made, but our goal is to focus on in-person and digital content equitably and still provide an immersive, fulfilling virtual experience. All in-person tickets will also include Cyberman access to digital content.

We have added our COVID-19 policies to our Policies page on our website with the latest policies and will continue to keep you updated. Additional registration information can also be found on the Registration page on our website.

So, what can you expect from our 2022 convention?

While aspects of the convention might look a little different, you can certainly expect a lot of the same great things you’ve come to expect from us in the past! We are still in the process of determining exactly how some of the spaces will function, what will need to be changed and what will remain the same, and the differences between in-person and virtual tickets. However, you can expect standard offerings such as panels, Guests of Honour, photographs, and autographs to be available, along with many of our unique fan favorites such as our Escape Room and ConSuite.

Ultimately, our goal is to provide a full and safe convention experience for all of our attendees, no matter where you’re joining us from.

We know it’s going to be a bit different, but we’re excited for the possibilities that a hybrid convention presents and are looking forward to joining all of you, whether in person or virtually, in January!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our co-chairs by emailing chairperson@console-room.org.

Allons-y!

CONsole Room Board of Directors and Convention Committee