Have been trading e-mails back and forth with Scott Beale and I’m pretty excited to announce today that there’s good news today that our friends at the combination hosting company/art+culture+tech blog Laughing Squid will be sallying forth with us again to bring the internet culture craziness to San Francisco. Stay tuned: they’re coming on board to sponsor SF-ROFLThing!

Beyond being generally awesome folks, they’ve been helping us out as we find our way in the Big City, and we’re super happy to be working with them. As I mentioned the first time: totally, totally sweet.

 Totally bodacious!

Registration for San Francisco ROFLThing is officially open.

Just talked to the manager, and it looks like spots ARE limited @ Mighty (and we’ve already been giving out pre-regs), so get in today!

 – preliminary schedule available here –

We’ve also launched the ROFLThing preliminary schedules page, which’ll be updated as we track who’s coming, what’s happening, and where it’ll all be going down from city to city. For SF, there’ll be some open time during our open bar for people to propose stuff and bring things to do/display. If you’re interested, get in touch at tim AT roflcon DOT org.

Getting the final details on billing worked out on Wufoo today (we’ll be doing $10 reg fees to cover costs of admission AND open bar), and it should be opening up late tomorrow or over the weekend. Woohoo!

Good news today that the mysterious Cheez (that’s the one on the right), intrepid leader of the amazing and ubiquitous LOLCat aggregator I Can Has Cheezburger (and the recently opened Totally Looks Like) has confirmed that he will be coming to ROFLThing San Francisco and Seattle! Sweeeeeet.

We’re still doing some sorting out, but initial indications are that he’ll be giving a short address on the current worldwide State of the LOL in SF and another longer one on the business of microhumor in Seattle, which should compliment what we’re planning to put together in each of those cities pretty nicely. Now that we’re pretty sure that these remaining ROFLThings’ll be going down — tentative schedules will be posting tomorrow. Stay tuned…

(photo courtesy Kate Raynes Goldie, CC BY NC SA)

Sometimes a fail is a fail, but sometimes you can fail so epically hard that you become a cultural phenomenon.

The Fail Whale is one of those fails.

Happy to announce today that we’ve confirmed that Sean O’Steen, web developer and founder of the Twitter Fail Whale Fan Club (and its associated @failwhale) to speak at SF-ROFLThing on Aug 29th! He’ll be talking about his thoughts on the history, evolution and future of the Fail Whale meme, and will present some of the various ridiculous cultural tributes that have sprung up around it. He joins a line up with Andy Baio discussing the Star Wars Kid, so it looks like we’re going to have a sweet nice mix of memes new and old.

Deets on registering, coming up!

They all laughed when we said we’d be getting Miss South Carolina to MC at August’s upcoming SF-ROFLThing. But really, how else were we going to equal the sheer awesome of having Leeroy Jenkins hosting back in April?

We’ve done some sleuthing around the web. And I’m excited to report that we’ve heard back. No kidding. You heard it here first.

Nothing is definite yet — but we’re talking with her representation right now try to negotiate out the terms of getting her to appear, and one limitation is that we may have to do some extra fundraising to get her out to San Fran with plane tickets, etc. We only want to do it if people would be down for meeting her in person though and potentially paying some small reg fee (~$10) or so to cover it (depending on how our sponsorships turn out. if you’re interested in sponsoring this or another part of ROFLThing, check out the details here).

Thoughts?

Our general strategy with the ROFLThings this summer has been: throw many schemes and plans against the wall, and see what sticks. This has led to some real developing wins, but also some softer spots on the map. So, today, with great sadness, we’re kicking out Chicago ROFLThing from this summer’s schedule and pushing it later this year/next year. We’re sure we’ll be back to the Windy City though, those UChicago kids are too good to pass up for this sort of thing.

BUT places that are sticking quite nicely. San Francisco is starting to pull in the confirms (reg will be opening up next week), Seattle is about to announce its big event (just tidying up the details), and NYC has got a killer crew starting to work on it (it’ll probably be our latest event in the summer/early fall). More news as it comes in over the weekend…

Damn, bad at keeping promises of blogging every day — sorry about that (now it’ll be daily, cross my heart and hope to die), been doing some big behind-the-scenes negotiations on snagging guests for SF-ROFLThing and getting everything set up to start the process rolling for Seattle and NYC (details soon to come — if you want to get involved with planning etc, shoot me an e-mail at tim@roflcon.org).

In any case, good news coming in that Ted, magnate mastermind behind the incredibly expansive Catster and Dogster pet interest communities has signed on as event sponsors with SF-ROFLThing! They do some kickass awesome work and we’re superbly happy to have them on board. More details on some of the stuff we’ve got planned with them to come.

Some of you who attended the original ROFLCon back in April may remember the presence of Pete (a certifiable genius) and our friends over at Brawndo, the energy drink based off of the film Idiocracy. Been catching up with them and I’m happy to announce that it looks like they’re set to roll out with us again as sponsors and thirst-mutilate the ROFLThings this summer!

Also, the mixed drink they were pushing at the music show with vodka? Superbly delicious.

Though really, for a drink that is like shaving your chest with a lawnmower, or having sex with a tractor trailer, could it be any other way? Expect more cans of the stuff wherever fine-ROFL products are sold.

I’m going to have to formally apologize for the long delay in posting about how events are going for this summer. BUT no need to fear, dear readers, planning continues apace behind the scenes, and there’s some general badassery emerging for events coming in the near, near future. You can expect this blog to be updated largely daily from here on in.

Most along the line right now is our plans for an evening of talks/open bar extravaganza ROFLThing in San Francisco. We’re happy to announce that it’ll be going down @ the absolutely swanky Mighty (119 Utah Street) on August 29th. We’ll have details on how to register for the event coming up within the next week or so (if you’ve already e-mailed me, sit tight, we’ll be getting in touch directly).

Also, more excitingly, as of this weekend we’re starting to confirm some A+++ Would Buy Again Great Shipping brilliant speakers for the event. Namely, we’re happy to drop the news that Andy Baio (Waxy.org) (!) has confirmed to talk about the anatomy of the Star Wars Kid phenomenon and his research on the spread of memes in general. Kick. Ass.

Our final set of speakers is still floating, so we’re open to other suggestions — comment here!

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.

There’s only one outdated phrase one could use for ROFLCon’s recent feature article in the latest edition of Wired Magazine: freakin’ bodacious.

If you’re coming to this site and you’d like to reserve a spot at the next ROFLCon event during this summer, send an e-mail over to tim AT roflcon.org with your name, e-mail address, and location (we’re working on being all over the country over the next few months). We’ll keep people posted on how things are coming along on this blog — for now, know that San Francisco will definitely be happening. Details to follow.
Get in while you can — we’ve been taking informal requests for the past few weeks and spaces will run out.

(photo credit: Wired Mag, Angela Cappetta)

Kyle Macdonald, the genius behind the One Red Paperclip project and superstar panelist at ROFLCon, is finally picking up and trading his house! He’s accepting open offers for the cute three bedroom, two bathroom place that the internet built until July 11th.

At present, we can only speculate how far Kyle’s going to end up going with these new round of trades, but from his past performance, we’re pretty sure he’ll be getting his new personal spacecraft any day now…

Matt Harding, who had a sweet panel with Tron Guy at ROFLCon, has just released his 2008 “Where the Hell is Matt?” video, and it’s awesome. 42 countries in this one! Pretty astounding - take a look and see how many places you recognize. Or have heard of.

Writers have Pulitzers, musicians have Grammys, the Boston Celtics have the NBA Championship, and scientists (& Al Gore!) have the Nobel Prize. Today, the ROFLCon staff was surprised with accolades of similar magnitude in our own field—that of running really freakin’ geeky conventions.

It’s no annual event and there’s no red carpet, but that can’t stop us from basking in the glory of being named the #2 Most Pathetic Geek Convention by Cracked.com.

In and of itself, this ranking would be no big deal. After all, most geek conventions are slightly puzzling to behold and take some concept or another “to a whole new, frightening level.” What makes this honor truly epic is the other conventions we’re sharing it with. Guys, we beat out Klingon Feast, a furry convention, and the Ohio Valley Filk Festival (which, incidentally, is happening in my hometown. And I thought there were no nerds here!), and we did so with reasonably good overall conference hygiene. If that doesn’t mean we just leveled up as a ‘Con, I don’t know what does.

We don’t usually do guest-specific news here, but this one was too good to pass up and bears mentioning. ROFLCon guest Jay “The Tron Guy” Maynard, who ended up being a huge superstar at ROFLCon and gave a kickass talk with Matt Harding, recently purchased a plane.

For real. More pictures on his LiveJournal.

And yes, if you’re thinking it, the paint job IS matched with his suit.

It looks like you are being late. Would you like help?

Sorry for the false alarm yesterday, kids. I am such a loser sometimes. NOW all the video is up. Here’s the missing ones:

-Surviving Internet Fame with Jay Maynard and Matt Harding

-Opening Keynote with Alice Marwick

-Making It Big with Red vs. Blue, Brad Neely, Homestar Runner, and Cyanide and Happiness

All available here on Archive.org.

[Also, we hear you out there dear Twitter-ers, we’ll be working on putting together some torrents immediately, now that we’ve got all the video in our grubby paws.]

So while you people have been out enjoying your summer and stuff, the hard-working dependable kids from Respectably French have been processing all the video from the conference as fast as possible. Thanks to this, we’ve been able to get it up at lightning extra kick-you-in-the-ass fast speeds (visual aid above).

And so, now, almost a month ahead of schedule, I’m happy to announce that ALL (all but two, see below) the video from the conference is up and online for viewing, commenting, remixing, and general tomfoolery.

SEE Ryan North, moot, and Randall Munroe’s boyish good looks!

MARVEL at the assembled might of the Anonymous Panel!

ENJOY Drew Curtis out there rocking that Fark action!

DISCOVER what What White People Like !

All this and MORE available up here on the Internet Archive. Enjoy! (True to our Free Culture stripes, all video available on CC BY SA 3.0)

<3,

Tim

[Turns out I lied: we’re still missing the Saturday keynote by Alice Marwick & the “Making It Big” panel. These will be up soon though! Gawd dang.]

Looks like we’re running a bit slow to catch this bandwagon, but the ROFLCon team’s been trawling through all the e-mail it hasn’t been reading for a few weeks now and recently caught wind of Andy Baio’s incredibly granular and nuanced data analysis of the Great Star Wars Kid Meme Crisis of 2002. Superbly worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing. (as if you haven’t seen it enough already: that video here)

(thanks to Coustan of Extraface for the catch)

There’s a somewhat pervasive belief that the super tech-savvy, Web 2.0, internet aficinado, 21st century hipster types tend to congregate on the coasts of the country rather than concentrating at all in the middle. We, however, don’t believe this is true. For that reason, we’re hoping to throw a fiesta of some kind in the third largest city in the country, Chicago, the home of the best damn pizza in the country and two of the best baseball teams in the league.

We’re enlisting the fine soldiers of the middle for help and advice, whether you’re a company who might consider sponsorship, an internet celebrity who missed out on the Boston extravaganza this April and wants to jump on the fun train now, or just a fan of the tubes. So, troops: what kinds of things would you like to see come to a theater near you? Any thoughts on where you might like to see something happen? Do you just want to help in some way? Hit me up at carrie AT roflcon dot org with your ideas, thoughts, and love.

as a side note: I realize I may annoy the south Chi-town crowd by posting a picture of Wrigley Field rather than the Cell. In honor of year 100 for the Cubbies, I felt I had to. Sorry.