Friday Morning: ChatRoulette Bingo, Swag, etc.

You may have noticed that in the schedule, there is a large chunk of time–10 AM to 1 PM–allotted for registration. You may think this is a vacuum in the otherwise incredibly busy schedule. YOU’D BE WRONG.

Dr. Beth Coleman and her CMS.100 class have created a ChatRoulette Bingo game for ROFLcon participants and fans of emoticon-based games everywhere. The first session will take place from 11 to 1 AM on Friday in room 633 of E14, right next to where reg is going down. There will be a repeat session on Saturday from 1 – 2 PM during lunch in the Bartos lobby of E15. Beth reports that initial playtests saw “lots of laughs, participation, and full frontal nudity…” What’s not to love??

Additionally, many of our guests will also be selling their swag. These include the people behind Chad Vader, Wondermark, Chainsaw Suit, Keyboard Cat (they’re bringing the sweater!!), Stuff White People Like, Regretsy, FU Penguin, and I Can Has Cheezburger. Meanwhile, MemeFactory will be asking you to participate in some “meme iteration” exercises for their performance. So far what we know is that it involves dancing, photography, and worksheets. A+++.

Dinosaur Comics, Dr. McNinja, Achewood = TITANS OF SMALL TOWN

Wow, it’s been awhile, Internet, what have you been up to? Sorry we’ve been taking so long to update on this here blog.

Rest assured, though, dear readers, that the folks over here @ ROFLHeadquarters have not been sitting around idly eating Funyuns and watching back episodes of Clone High like you might expect. If you’re in New York City on April 11th, we’ve been working with our friends over at The Barbarian Group to put together TITANS OF SMALL TOWN @ 303Grand in Brooklyn — a kickass one-night webcomics gallery event featuring work (and limited run, exclusive work only available at the event)  from:

* Ryan North, Dinosaur Comics

* Chris Hastings, Dr. McNinja

* Chris Onstad, Achewood

The artists (still working out the deets with Onstad) will be on site as well to do a Q&A about the work!

Tickets now on sale for $20. Due to the size of the gallery, supplies are extremely limited and we totally expect to sell out all the slots on this, so if you’re interested, definitely worth getting in ASAP.  More details to follow in the coming days! Drop a line at tim AT roflcon DOT org, if you’ve got any questions.

Want to see ROFLCon at SXSW?

Some of you lucky readers out there may be getting excited about SF ROFLThing right now, but I know the rest of you are wondering: where else can we get our ROFLfix?

Well.

Quite a few members of the ROFLCon crew are planning to attend SXSW Interactive 2009, and we’d love to see you there! In fact, we’ve applied for a speaking spot on a topic we hope you’ll find interesting. The talk is called Behind the ROFLs: Next-Gen Conference Organizing While Broke, and in it we promise to share all of our secrets, tips, and lulz about how (and why) we put ROFLCon together without failing out of school (yet) or selling our souls to large corporations (yet). If this sounds appealing to you, please click here and vote positively for us! It’ll make us feel really special.

In fact, since SXSW’s panel picker is so incredibly crowded, here’s a quick guide to what our friends are up to at SXSW. If you were a guest at ROFLCon and you’re not on this list, email us and we’ll put you on!

• Tim Hwang (ROFLeader): The State of the Internet Memescape: 2008-10
• Tim Hwang (ROFLeader): Obsolete? A World After Email (Ed. note: This from the man who Twittered like 18 times about Gmail being down–should be good!)
• Alex Leavitt (ROFLfriend): Blackboards or Backchannels: the Techno-Induced Classroom of Tomorrow
• Alexis Ohanian (Reddit): Inside Y Combinator: The YC Startups Speak

NYC Flash Mob with This American Summer!

We blogged about the wonderful “Where the Hell is Matt” 2008 video a while ago. We suspect you are now in one of two camps (it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure!):

1) You are lazy and haven’t watched it. Shame on you. Watch it! Go on, now! Once you watch it, you’ll probably be in…

2) You marveled at the greatness of our planet and the jiveness of Matt Harding. Now you are filled with warm fuzzies and also a slight twinge of jealousy and regret that you didn’t get to participate in such a wonderful project. Are there any cool projects like this now that I can participate in, you ask?

Well, does Team ROFLCon have the answer for you. Our friends at This American Summer have been roadtripping the country for almost a month now and documenting their wacky adventures online in the form of pictures, tweets, blog posts, videos, and even a constant update of what music they’re listening to in their van. Basically, they’re doing all the hard work so we can reap the benefits vicariously. Nice.

And now they’re taking it one step further. Check out this invite for a video flash mob they’re planning in NYC!

When: Monday June 30, 2008, 7 PM EDT
Where: Outside Grand Central Terminal on the southside (E 42nd St), across the street and under the pedestrian bridge
Why: It’s an interesting thing to do (and the footage should be cool).
Who: You!

Did you hear that? YOU! So if you’re in the area, grab a video recording device and join them! They’re a meme in the making, they were proud attendees of ROFLCon, and they’re wonderful people.