Finncon

Convention
Name:	Finncon
Dates:	1986-present
Frequency:	Annual (originally every other year)
Location:	Finland (location changes every year)
Type:	Fan-run, professional and fan guests
Focus:	science fiction, fantasy, (anime/manga)
Organization:	Finncon ry and local SF societies
Founder:
Founding Date:
URL:	http://www.finncon.org/
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Finncon is Finland's biggest science fiction and fantasy convention. The con was originally organised every other year, but became annual in 2003 (due to lack of organisers, Finncon will skip a year in 2015 and will be replaced by Archipelagon instead). The location of the con rotates between Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Turku, and Tampere, and the con is organised by the local scifi societies of the city in question under the umbrella of Finncon ry.

Though Finncon is a general scifi/fantasy convention, it has a strong literary focus and most guests of honour so far have been either authors or fans.

Finncon has no membership fee, meaning that the con and most related events are free (the con is funded with sponsors and government subsidies), and because of this it has become one of the biggest SF-cons in Europe. Between 1999 and 2009 Finncon was organised together with the biggest anime/manga con in Finland, Animecon, attracting as many as 10 000 visitors and since the two were separated, Finncon alone attracted 3500 visitors in 2010.

Previous Guests of Honour

Brian Aldiss, Iain M. Banks, Terry Pratchett, Vonda N. McIntyre, Connie Willis, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Baxter, Jonathan Carroll, Johanna Sinisalo, Michael Swanwick, Jonathan Clements, Robin Hobb, Gwyneth Jones, Jeff VanderMeer, Justina Robson, Ellen Datlow, Joe Haldeman, Elizabeth Hand, Cheryl Morgan, Gay Haldeman, Farah Mendlesohn, Charles Vess, M. John Harrison, George R. R. Martin, Alastair Reynolds, Ellen Kushner, Pat Cadigan, Nalo Hopkinson, Richard Morgan, Liz Williams, Lois McMaster Bujold, Peter Watts, Aliette de Bodard, Elizabeth Bear, Hannu Rajaniemi