Harry Potter 2008 Conferences Updates: Terminus, Convention Alley, Portus and More

With a new year comes a new series of Harry Potter conferences, and we have some updates on the following events due to be held in 2008.

Terminus, the Harry Potter conference to be held August 7- 11th in Chicago, Illinois, has now announced a unique fandom challenge. The Artists and Authors Night that is to showcase fan fiction, podcasts, fan art, crafts and other fan works, will be sponsored this year not by a corporation, or groups, but by you the Harry Potter fans. Setting a total sponsorship goal of $2,500, Terminus is now asking for donations to help sponsor this event, with a portion to benefit Book Aid International. “Fandom Sponsors Fandom is a great way for Harry Potter fans to be involved in Terminus,” said Amy Tenbrink, lead event organizer of the conference. “Donations allow us to expand our conference and recognize people for their work in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. It’s incredible that the fan community has been so willing to support our conferences in the past, and we hope that they’ll be as excited about supporting our night dedicated to the fan community and Book Aid.” For more information about the fandom sponsorship, current calls for papers(deadline Feb.1) and registration for Terminus, please click here.

Convention Alley is set to return again, as the second Harry Potter conference in Ottawa, Ontario Canada will take place June 19-22 at the University of Ottawa. Registration is now open, and a call for papers is now underway, with more information about this event that is sponsored by HPforGrownups (HPFGU) available via this link.

Harry Potter fans interested in attending Portus, the Harry Potter Symposium set for July 10-13 in Dallas, Texas, have just a few days left to submit programing proposals until January 21. In addition, the HP Education Fanon, Inc. event has announced that author Ed Kern (The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices) will be one of the featured speakers at the event. To find out more about Portus, please click here.

There will be a new Harry Potter conference set to take place at Northern Illinois University November 14 -16th. Along with their popular Wizarding Rock Yule Ball, this new conference will be geared for both children and adults. They are currently holding a contest to name this conference, which will be revealed when they launch a website for the event next month. For more information on this contest and conference, click this link.

Finally a reminder that Accio 2008 will take place July 25-28 at Magdalen College, Oxford, England. The conference has announced their two guest speakers, with more information available via this link.