I couldn't believe it. Less than a month after leaving my home of five years (Vancouver) to live in the other centre of the universe (Toronto), I found myself gazing down at the sparkling 'burbs of Greater Vancouver as the last throws of daylight reflected off the mighty (polluted) Fraser River. I sat anxiously, with my cheek pressed against the window of the fat DC-10 airliner. If it weren't for the generosity of a recently out friend, I could never have considered this brief weekend foray.
While squinting at the lights of Grouse Mountain, I mulled over the events that would unfold, the friends I would see and, of course, the conference I would attend.
Just over one year ago I had returned from Europe after having happily bumped into IBIS '96, the 3rd International Bisexual Symposium held in Berlin. When I did return, to my surprise, I discovered that Vancouver (well, BiNET BC) was having its first annual Bisexual Conference. What excitement! After having the time of my life and after meeting so many Bi people at Berlin's IBIS '96, I walked (not so) straight into a promising local scene. Since then, in addition to its various bi weekly meetings, BiNET BC had held two fund raising dances and now was holding its second annual British Columbia Bisexual Conference.
Overall the conference was a good one. Colin U. and his merry band of organisers expanded the structure and scope of the conference. Rather than housing the conference in a single large hall, where events and topics were handled consecutively, this conference tackled perhaps twice the topics by offering concurrent workshops. People could choose specific workshops they were interested in as opposed to sitting through condensed presentations of everything under the sun. This was made possible by holding the conference in Yaletown's Roundhouse community centre. (Yaletown is a gentrified Vancouver neighbourhood full of high rise condos.) This community centre had a huge hall where registration and opening ceremonies would occur, but it also had a variety of small rooms where the myriad of workshops could take place.
Morning workshop titles included:
Afternoon topics included:
There were plenty of familiar faces amongst the ranks of the facilitators. Colin U. (of course!), Joanne S., Shawna M., Craig M. and Karen H. were all there as well as the new faces of Tracey C., Debbe G., Peter H. (also an organiser), Sharolyn L., Heather K. (Queer FM broadcaster) and Carolyn R. (my replacement as Vancouver's correspondent for Bisexual Options).
The workshops themselves, at least the two I attended, were quite intimate affairs (no pun intended). The workshops were essentially discussion groups where most of the input came from the attendees themselves. At present this is a good arrangement. In a city -- heck, in a country -- where bisexuals have not had much opportunity to speak about themselves nor to hear the experiences of other bisexuals, these discussion groups contribute greatly to our consciousness.
I do think, though, that in the future the organisers of BCBC should consider organising some seminar type workshops where local or guest speakers discuss their particular fields of bisexual-related study or expertise. For example, at IBIS '96 Ron Fox, a prominent psychologist, presented his findings that homosexuality tends to be a stage towards discovering that one is bisexual, which counters the prevailing assumption that bisexuality exists as a stage towards discovering homosexuality.
I believe that Vancouver's bisexual scene would benefit from the potential depth of bisexually related academic study, whether it be scientific, literary, sociological, media based, or what have you. I, therefore, also believe that the knowledge and perspectives gained outside of our country would only enrich Canada's bisexual experience. Our neighbour, the USA, has had a bisexual movement for over 2 decades. Canada's is still in its infancy. If BiNET BC, perhaps Canada's most active bisexual scene, can swing it, they should eventually consider inviting international guest speakers.
It is good that Colin and the gang pushed forward and organised this concurrent format. By arranging more workshops and having people sign up for specific topics, the conference was able to go into greater depth on its array of topics than was possible last year. It also permitted greater interaction between the facilitators and the people attending, such as through the asking of questions, the interjection of comments and so on. The results were topics which were much more engaging and interesting to take part in.
Unfortunately the pace of the conference sometimes lagged quite noticeably. Transitions between speakers were often quite slow, sometimes leaving the microphone unattended for moments at a time. However, this really only occurred during the introductory and closing procedures. BiNET BC could afford to tighten up on its "scene changes", but this seems to be a mere teething pain and I am sure that experience with future conferences will smooth out such things.
All this said, it can't be denied that BCBC has some great personalities at the helm. These are warm people who succeeded in making the individual workshops and the whole conference completely accessible and comfortable. A particularly welcoming event was a "get acquainted" survey organised by Sharolyn. We played this out in the morning before the workshops got under way. During this survey Sharolyn would ask a variety of questions and we, as individuals in the crowd, were to respond by going to different areas of the hall. So, she asked, "How do you rank yourself? If you're mainly 'homo' go to that end of the room. If you're mainly 'hetero' go to that side. Everyone attracted to women and men equally stand in the middle." Amongst other intriguing inquiries, Sharolyn asked us who were tops and who were bottoms. I figure this last survey was in preparation for the dance later that night.
A bunch of media arrived to cover this conference. Most of the community papers wrote about the conference including The Westender, The Vancouver Courier, The Vancouver Echo and Angles. Angles, a local LGB publication, gave BCBC a full page write-up. (It is curious that Xtra West, a prominent gay/lesbian paper with branches in Toronto and Ottawa, did not cover the conference.) Local radio CKNW-AM checked it out and CBC TV (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) aired a report on the 6:00 pm news on the following Monday.
Yours truly, along with Heather, Jensen D. and a number of other people, were videotaped by CBC at lunch hour. A mock "Bi 101" workshop was set up and we were taped as we spoke our opinions or about our experiences as bisexual. This mock workshop was set up to avoid inadvertently taping anyone who was not yet out. The taping was really fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly (being a bit of a ham). More importantly it was good to see the media take this interest and come out (so to speak) as they did in the numbers that they did.
The day's events closed with the results of BiNET BC's fund raising art auction. It took the form of a silent auction that continued throughout the day. Paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures and multi-media pieces were displayed all day while prospective buyers left their bids for fellow bidders to see. It seemed to be a success, as I believe all the works sold. An artist myself, I submitted an oil painting of a male nude. I was pleased that my beloved Homo Erectus (pun intended) was bought by an enthusiast who truly appreciated the sentiment of my work. One couple wanted to auction themselves as slaves, complete with collars, but the idea didn't fly with the organisers.
Admittedly, the dance was the highlight of my day. I'm afraid I missed the bulk of the performances, as I did last year, but the dance itself was a good one. In this our merry band of organisers excelled and improved over last year's dance party. The music was much better, the space was much better -- with more open space -- and the dance actually went beyond midnight! I think it wrapped up around 1:30 or 2:00 am. It was also much more fun for me personally, because I was there with friends whom I made at last year's conference and with friends who had since come out as bisexual. I hadn't danced so hard in ages. There just isn't anything like dancing to good music in a relaxed bisexual crowd I tell you.
. . . Anything goes!