Whats a Consuite?
The word Consuite is science fiction fandom lingo. It is not like you have seen in a film such as “Trekkies”. Those are autograph shows– mainly giant flea markets that make you buy concessions at stadium prices. All-volunteer fan-run conventions like Penguicon are a different type of event from that. We have a hotel suite for hospitality, called Consuite, with bowls full of salty and sweet snacks, lunchmeats, a bathtub full of canned beverages, and free beer and hard cider. Penguicon’s Consuite is open non-stop from 3PM Friday to late Sunday (when the rest of the convention ends, we all eat the leftover food). It’s all complimentary. Yup, the beer is “free as in beer”. Our first year, some hackers who were new to fandom didn’t quite believe this, and lingered outside warily. So instead of telling them it was free, we started saying “you already paid for it in your registration, now go eat it”. To honor our hacker connections we serve Water Joe (caffienated bottled water), homebrew Ope
