Knobcon Number Nine Coming Sept 10-12, With COVID-19 Precautions In Place

Knobcon Number Nine is scheduled for September 10-12, 2021.

Organizer Suit & Tie Guy has announced that they are taking special precautions this year, to align with state guidelines and to make the event as safe as possible for attendees. Changes include mandatory masks, larger rooms to allow for social distancing and eliminating the Saturday synth banquet.

“I would like to thank everyone coming this year for their enthusiasm and understanding, and for keeping Knobcon alive to see another year,” notes Suit & Tie Guy. “And if you can’t make it, I look forward to seeing you at Knobcon Number Ten. We already have a guest of honour!”

Here are the details that he provided:

Knobcon Number Nine COVID Precautions

On August 26, Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker issued new guidelines concerning COVID-19 that affects everyone in our state. Effective August 30, he has mandated masks for indoor settings. Since hundreds of our attendees come from other states, we want to make you aware of how this affects Knobcon and what steps we have taken to make our event safe for everyone.

Registration

Our procedures are changing a bit for this year. Our registration will be “contactless” this year. As you arrive in the registration area, we will ask your name, check you off of our registration list and then pick up your packet/bag at the next table.

Lectures

All of our seating will be safe distanced. We are using a larger room and all seating will be at least 3 feet apart.

Exhibit Hall

We will be using the hotel’s safe distancing guidelines to ensure the exhibit hall does not get overcrowded. The ballroom we use is over 9,000 square feet and has a rated occupancy of over twice the total number of people we expect to attend, and never is everyone in the room at once.

Banquet

To relieve COVID anxiety, there will be no banquet at Knobcon Number Nine. However, we are having a Lecture Luncheon on Sunday afternoon. Our speakers will be available for dining and further discussion of their topics. Seating will be safe distanced at larger than usual table groupings. If you have purchased a banquet ticket, you will receive a separate message that outlines the options we are offering to provide the value equivalent of the difference in cost between the two meal events.

Music events

Due to staffing issues stemming from the current situation, the JAMMspace will also be deleted this year and The Big Room moved to the big tent in which we also have our Friday night reception. The Chill Out Room is moving to a larger space as well, overlooking the pool. Some of you may remember this room was used as the exhibit hall during Knobcon 1 and 2.”

See the event site for full details on exhibitors, scheduled events and tickets.

19 thoughts on “Knobcon Number Nine Coming Sept 10-12, With COVID-19 Precautions In Place

  1. Cancelled my trip as have many others I know.
    All of us are vaccinated but have jobs and others we need to take care of.
    Hopefully we can go next year.

  2. I pass as well. COVID will have to go through another cycle or two before I’ll feel reasonably safe attending a big event. I took the vaccine, because I don’t think I could play much synth from under a ventilation hood. YMMV, but full hospitals seem like sufficient evidence that its serious. I miss NAMM shows & things like Knobcon. They’re like a comic con for synth nerds. Been there, modulated that, hoping for more.

  3. Hey Knobcon Face The Fact COVID IS HERE

    Wow more fools trying to get people to come out and die. No convention is worth getting covid!

    Hey all you CONS just stop tiring to kill people, there is always next year go virtual like John Waters scratch and sniff movie Polyester, make cards so people can smell the electronics or AR twist some knobs like nipples!

    Everyone Stay Save and Say NO To Meetings like this!

    1. It’s really on the states to ban in-person events if they are actually so worried about ICU capacity. If the state is allowing it, I encourage business owners to go for it. Follow laws and mandates certainly, but don’t capitulate to the vocal minority.

  4. It seems like organizers of both Superbooth and Knobcon have put a lot of thought into how they can make their events safe as possible.

    We are all looking forward to things getting back to normal, but reality tells us that ‘normal’ is at least a year away, and that many things will be permanently changed.

    In the meantime, we need to work out how to minimize the risks for people going to events like this, and also accept the reality that for a lot of people, minimizing risk is going to mean skipping big group events for another year or two.

    1. How can they honestly minimize the risk when they ask you to go there from all over the world?
      There’s simply no way to deny that meetings like these cause more risk.
      We should read “minimizing risks” from them as “we still want to do this no matter what, and we’re willing to make compromises knowing this would cause more people getting the virus.”

      1. I appreciate your skepticism, because right-wing politicians putting politics over fighting the pandemic have turned the US into a festering petri dish of infected anti-vaxxers.

        The US is 4% of the world’s population, but has more Covid cases, and more deaths, than any other country. It’s a clusterfuck.

        But it’s a completely avoidable clusterfuck.

        You’re 400 times more likely to get Covid and die in the US than countries that have effectively responded to the pandemic – demonstrating that the pandemic can be managed using science, logic and basic precautions.

        The solution is not to deny reality or to hide away, it’s to face reality and deal with it. Both Herr Schneider and Suit are doing exactly that. They can’t make an event risk-free, but they’re going to have a lot better precautions in place than you’ll see at your local restaurant.

        1. “The US is 4% of the world’s population, but has more Covid cases, and more deaths, than any other country. It’s a clusterfuck.”

          Would now be a good time to bring up that dirty I word that other countries are using to prevent covid deaths? Still verboten?? Only for horses?? Got it.

          It certainly couldn’t be by design that the country run by sociopathic billionaire free market capitalists refuses to use a pharmaceutical it can’t profit from. Or refuses to accept a cheap one-time antibody test in lieu of a mandatory uncancellable subscription to vaccines every 6 months.

  5. Careful Jason, that’s a badguy perspective you are spewing…shame on you.
    Doesn’t matter it it’s right or wrong because, ultimately, you aren’t participating in groupthink. Well, not the right kind of groupthink that is.

  6. The Covid-19 death rate is statistically insignificant, even in America – it’s under 2% in 42 states – which means there’s going to be a large percentage of the population who do not know anyone who has died from the virus. However, if you live, the long-term effects can have significant impact on your quality of life. Feel lucky, punk?

    1. Saying that the “Covid-19 death rate is statistically insignificant, even in America – it’s under 2% in 42 states” seems pretty callous.

      2% of the population US population is about 6 million people, and that’s the number of deaths that we’d expect if we didn’t do anything to manage it. The 650,000+ deaths in the US so far were largely avoidable (because Trump pretended the pandemic would magically go away and completely fucked up on the US response), and that’s tragic.

      Also – you’re talking about statistical significance, but it’s clear you do not really understand what it means.

      Getting Covid is avoidable. If you get it, you have a 1-2% chance it will kill you. If it doesn’t kill you, there’s a good chance it will cause brain damage and/or leave you impotent.

      Be safe people, unless you want your gear to be sold cheap on Reverb in a year.

      1. If it doesn’t kill you, there’s a good chance it will cause brain damage and/or leave you impotent.

        what the actual f????????? please, go outside and get some fresh air. mask off.

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