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20th October, Year of the Backwards-Facing Artichoke

UNSEEN UNIVERSITY OPEN WEEKEND AFTERMATH

Alas, two weeks have now passed since the start of the Unseen University Open Weekend. We Scroungers Rummaged, we puzzled and quizzed, we met friends old and new, we drank a lot of drinks, and we raised a tremendous amount for charity (over €6715 from the Charity Auction alone!). We'd like to thank our wonderful guests, our hardworking committee and convention staff, and everyone else who volunteered their time to help us run the convention — and most of all, we'd like to thank everyone who came along: we couldn't have done it without any of you.

While it may seem like a long way away now, rest assured that IDWCon will be back in two short years – preliminary plans are even now a-brewing! In the meantime, however, we'd like to encourage everyone who took part in IDWCon 2017 to help us make the next convention even better, by taking a couple of minutes to fill in our post-convention survey

We hope to see you all again next time. That's all, folks!

23rd May, Year of the Backwards-Facing Artichoke

ANNOUNCING THE INAUGURAL ‘TOWN AND GOWN’ GAUDY GALA AND CONVENTION MERCHANDISE PRE-ORDERS

The Acting Faculty are delighted to invite all attendees of the Open Doors Weekend to join us for our first ever ‘Town and Gown’ Gaudy Gala, where an exclusive menu of Roundworld cuisine will be on hand to tickle our taste buds for the night. We invite all the citizens of the Disc and our visiting magical colleagues to dress to impress, as Gaudy Night features the Tradition of our attending wizards trying to outdo their fellows in the splendour of their robes. However, in a rare break from Tradition, we will not be following this year's Gaudy Night with a dance – if you’re fit to move after a U.U. feast, we won’t have done our jobs right! If you would like to attend, please head to this page to purchase a ticket, where you’ll be able to select your menu choices, add wine, let us know of any allergies and seating preferences, and indicate what drink you would prefer at the pre-gala drinks reception. Please note that this event does have a limit on numbers, and is not included in the membership for the rest of the Convention. We hope to see many of you there!

As well as our wonderful gala, today we launch the sales of our pre-order convention merchandise. We highly recommend ordering your merchandise in advance, to avoid the disappointment of not getting any of the wonderful items on offer. We have T-shirts, polo shirts, magic mugs and Fluffy Teddy Bears (everyone knows Hex won’t work without an FTB enabled, who would expect con members to do so?), all of which feature artwork by our wonderful art and design team. The proceeds of our merchandise sales all go toward the running of the convention, with any extra to charity. Pre-orders for all items will close on 6th September 2017.

Please note that you must be a member of the Convention to attend the Gala dinner or to order Convention merchandise.

18th January, Year of the Backwards-Facing Artichoke

NEW GUEST PROFESSOR AT OPEN DOORS WEEKEND

The members of the Acting-Faculty are delighted to announce an addition to the list of visiting speakers at the upcoming Unseen University Open Weekend. He has had many academic titles, including assistant, business manager, and guardian of Sir Terry’s literary estate, though he generally answers to Rob Wilkins.

At the first Irish Discworld Convention, Rob strolled into the gala dinner in full black tie, statue in hand, after collecting Sir Terry’s BAFTA and hopping on a plane to Ireland. He has only gotten busier since then, working as Sir Terry’s business manager. Between his work as one third of production company Narrativia and his guardianship of the Pratchett legacy, he has somehow availed himself of the secrets of L-space to find time to attend the UU weekend. While Rob is currently involved in several projects to bring Discworld to the big and small screen, he must keep production secrets locked up tighter than the seals on the Dungeon Dimension — though he may be persuaded into releasing a few titbits through careful application of those potions known as beer and whiskey. That said, all attendees are warned of his most powerful spell: “It’s really great but I can’t tell you about it!”

Rob Wilkins is not the only addition to the University. As the Open Weekend grows closer, the main faculty have all discovered terribly pressing duties that make it completely impossible for them to contribute to the organisational efforts. As a result, the planning has fallen to the Acting-Faculty and the truly magical team known as the Irish Discworld Convention Staff. The staff team will be using their specialised knowledge of dramatics, pointy things and gopher wrangling to make the Open Weekend run as smooth as Nanny’s famous scumble.

19th December, Year of the Sneezing Panda

U.U. OPEN DOORS WEEKEND SOLD OUT!!!!!

Well, we’ve made history. All of you wonderful wacky wizardly folk have done something we did not expect and signed up for the Irish Discworld Convention in record time. Hexcellent work! 300 lucky people will be gathering together in Cork in October 2017 to celebrate all things Discworld, and have a great time meeting new friends, listening to talks, playing games... it's hard to believe that it’s so close and still so far.

But never fear, those of you reading with sinking hearts who realise they haven’t yet managed to purchase a membership: we do have a waiting list! There are still many moons to go until the convention itself — and unfortunately for some people, Real Life may yet get in the way of attending. So make an account, log in, sign up, and follow our news and updates and perhaps you can join us after all.

25th May, Year of the Sneezing Panda

UNSEEN UNIVERSITY OPEN DOORS WEEKEND ANNOUNCED

Our glorious Alma Pater will be holding a ticketed Open Doors Weekend on 6th-9th October next year at its Roundworld branch (the Cork International Hotel), it has been announced. The Patrician's Palace recently issued a statement that the University has been ordered encouraged to accept differently-talented students (even those without magic), as previously reported. To launch the new initiative, we will be hosting an official Open Doors event to promote openness and fraternity amongst academics, magical practitioners and the rest of the population.

As the Archchancellor and the other senior faculty members were unavailable to comment, it fell to Acting-Archchancellor Shivers to make an official response. She enthusiastically welcomed the project, saying: “We at the U.U. have always encouraged a healthy educational atmosphere, not to mention the importance of meals, and with that in mind we welcome anyone — be they visiting academics, local people, or interested tourists — to come and join us for this historic event, where everyone can get a taste of what it’s like being part of the oldest and most prestigious University on the Disc,” she said, then muttering “whatever those upstarts at Braseneck might think.”

She went on to encourage all those interested to sign up to what will be known on Roundworld as the fifth Irish Discworld Convention, mentioning that “our website has been updated and should tell you all you need to know - but if you have further questions, drop us a clacks at info@idwcon.org. For more updates, point your omniscopes at our Facebook group or our Twitter.”

To mark the announcement of the Open Doors Weekend, we at the Group of Unseen Alumni and New Occultists have enlisted the aid of a Mr Chalky, of The Scours, to produce a suitable garment to herald the occasion; don’t forget to order yours!