PANELS &
PROGRAMMiNG
TriCon offers a diverse slate of lectures, workshops and panels, booked continuously from 1pm-5pm on Friday, 8am-5pm on Saturday, and 8am-1pm on Sunday. All attendees will be given the opportunity to participate as presenters, panelists, or students in programming according to their interests and expertise.
NOTE (FEB 2026): Programming is still under development! The panels listed below are just a little teaser of what the con is currently working on! We are still collating suggestions and collecting feedback. Send us you ideas here!
*Programming subject to change due to scheduling conflicts and attendee interest.
Collective Power in Self-Publishing
Symposium, Friday May 15th
Towards a movement for collective action within self publishing.
Becoming A Better Reader
45-minute Panel
Even the most rigorous writers can struggle to find time to read in today’s attention economy. This panel will explore the importance of good reading to good writing and discuss how to create fertile reading lists, expand our tastes, and read with an eye towards creative enrichment. We’ll help you get beyond the stage of building a voluminous TBR that you’ll never touch.
Mapping the Short Fiction Ecosystem
Workshop
Drawing on data from the Submission Grinder and Locus, this session lays out the scope of the short fiction ecosystem at all rates of pay. The session aims to equip early- and mid-career writers with new options and perspectives on markets worth exploring, and how the landscape is shifting.
Genre is a Construct
45-minute Panel
Are genres simply marketing categories, or are they defined, historical constructs? How can genres feel so porous and so rigid at the same time? Why is it so easy to write a fantasy book with mystery elements, but so hard to write a mystery with fantasy elements? This panel will explore what different genres have to learn from one another, how to find an audience for genre chimeras, and how to break the rules we can’t articulate.
The Responsibilities & Powers of Cultural Institutions
45-minute Panel
In a rapidly changing landscape where technology and global upheavals promise to change the literary landscape forever, more and more weight will fall upon our cultural and professional institutions to maintain continuity and imagine a new future. This panel seeks greater coordination and integration between federations, magazines, awards, etc., especially within the Canadian national context.
1000 Word Flash Fiction Bootcamp
Workshop
In this hands-on workshop we’ll explore how to use prompts and imaginative frames to write a one thousand word story in just sixty minutes. An experienced flash fiction writer will lead the workshop in a sequence of writing games to show how to transform a picture or quote or a novel observation into a total concept. By the end of the session, you’ll have completed a piece of flash fiction yourself!
The ABCs of Franchise Writing
45-minute Panel
Games, comics, tie-in novels, tabletop campaigns… the world of IP writing is a massive market rife with opportunity and exploitation. This panel will help you sort it out- exploring career paths, identifying your relevant skillsets, and actually finding good work. Many of The Greats cut their teeth writing about characters and worlds that didn’t strictly belong to them; we’ll dig into what writing in shared worlds can offer, and what it can cost.
Fanfic House Style
45-minute Panel
What exactly is “fanfic house style”? You know it when you see it- the presence of quips, of present tense, and something so distinctly itself… Fanfic has had an outsized influence on the current generation of speculative writers, the significance of which is still being metabolized in the public square. In this panel we will trace the history of the medium’s distinctive, autodidactic literary traditions, and explore their multimedia origins.
Writing with Tarot: Symbols, Archetypes, and the Creative Journey
Workshop
From the Fool’s Journey to the Hero’s Journey, the 78 cards of the Tarot provide a multitude of archetypal symbols that can guide the creative process. These Tarot symbols are drawn from diverse sources ranging from Arthurian legend and astrology to early 20th century mysticism, providing an exciting framework for personal and creative exploration. In this generative workshop, we’ll explore the meaning of Tarot symbols and write! Participants do not need previous experience with Tarot or their own Tarot deck to participate.
The Deindustrialization of the Final Frontier: Proletariat Themes in Science Fiction
45-minute Panel
The fate of the working class is tied to technological progress, with every epochal development offering tools of both oppression and freedom. In this sense, sci-fi has always been a genre concerned with resolving the class tensions of Industrialization, from the transposed 19th century conflict between the Morlocks and the Eloi, to The Expanse’s hardnosed evocation of the American rust belt. This panel will discuss the history of working class themes in science fiction and find out what the genre can teach us about the changing class relations of the 21st century.
Social Media Presence, Audience Building and Self Promotion
45-minute Panel
Building a brand is increasingly important in today’s literary landscape, especially in the growing independent market. This panel will discuss how to optimize your visibility, set boundaries with your curated audience and what outsourcing looks like if this sounds overwhelming to you. Learn from a panel of authors on what they’ve done and what they wouldn’t do, and how to enjoy it while you do it.
And many more to come…
Want to be a part of TriCon’s Programming?
If you are an attendee of TriCon, you are also a guest!
Anyone can suggest a panel and participate!