Who goes to BiCon?
Up to a couple of hundred people at the moment. It's been more than twice that, but the event is recovering from the gap in in-person BiCons caused by (and continuing presence of) Covid-19.
They have a variety of sexualities, gender identities, ethnicities, ages, and typically many other interests. From the start of the event back in 1984, it's always been a majority female-presenting group.
It'd be surprising if there was no-one like you.. and unthinkable for everyone to be the same.
Do you need to identify as bisexual to attend BiCon?
Absolutely not!
Most attendees do identify somewhere that's part of the bi+ umbrella – bi / pan / queer / flexible / curious / polysexual / multisexual /omnisexual / fluid and many more – but BiCon has never cared what you identify as so long as you're bi-friendly and behave.
Can I bring a straight or lesbian/gay partner?
Yes, of course – so long as they behave.
Do I have to arrive at the start and stay for the whole thing?
No.
Because the first day's a Friday, it's quite possible some people won't be able to make it for the daytime things then, for example. We're expecting a bunch of BiCon attendees to want go to Nottinghamshire Pride nearby in the centre of the city on Saturday lunchtime / afternoon too: it's a lovely reasonably sized non-commercial community event.
And even if you are at BiCon the whole time, you can just relax in the social spaces rather than go to any sessions.
What will happen at BiCon?
I don't know – it depends on what attendees offer.
They'll offer a host of possible sessions..
.. some serious, some not..
.. some talky, some more practical..
.. some where most people just listen, some where most people get involved..
.. some with a very bi topic, some with no connection apart from it being at BiCon..
.. and we'll pick a balanced programme from them.
We don't 'make' BiCon, you do!
I've heard BiCon is 'academic', is it?
No. There's a podcaster – who's never actually been to BiCon as far as we know – who's said that it's too academic but they're completely wrong. (That shouldn't come as a surprise, given that they spent a long time saying they're the only male bisexual activist.)
BiCon's used universities in the past for residential ones because they do self-catering accommodation, not because they're 'academic'.
It's used schools for this year's and last year's non-residential ones because they're inexpensive, not because they're 'academic'.
A session or two might be (see previous answer!) but the vast majority won't be. You'll very probably learn stuff though, even in the silly ones.
Will there be any women-only / men-only spaces?
There might be – again, it depends on what's offered.
Note that BiCon was an early adopter of accepting people's self-identified gender for all purposes, including single-gender spaces.
We had the discussion back in 1993 and to our knowledge, there have been zero problems as a result over the past decades. It is not up for debate. If you disagree with it, we suggest you do not attend any BiCon.
Do I have to prove my income (or lack of one!) to get the lower prices?
No!
The actual cost to BiCon per person is expected to be around twice the lowest rate for a weekend ticket, so if you could easily afford to pay one of the higher prices but don't, you do risk there not being a future BiCon because we don't have the money to book a venue.
Will there be an online BiCon this year?
Yes.
There will probably be a single option of what to do in any 'slot' rather than having a choice, as you'd have with the in-person event, and it may not be for the full three days, but it will be on at least two of them.
Sign up for the BiCon News mailing list to know more when we do.
I don't live in or close enough to Nottingham to 'commute' there and back each day, do you know anyone I could stay with?
Needing to sort your own accommodation if you're not in or near Nottingham is one of the downsides of being non-residential this year.
Sorry. It does make the other bits much more affordable though and the whole event much more easy to organise.
Nottingham has a range of accommodation options. If I look now, finding somewhere near the venue costing around £50 per night is easy.
Haven't I seen that logo before?
Yes, the year is new, the typeface has changed, and there's no squirrel, but apart from all that 🙂 it's the one last used by BiCon 2022.
It started life as the logo for BiCon 2020, before that was forced to be online-only thanks to Covid-19. BiCon 2021, which also ended up as being online-only, changed it to add brown and black in the style of the inclusive Pride flag, and BiCon 2022 added the squirrel!
For some reason, every other BiCon has decided to have its own logo, if it's had a logo at all (the earliest ones and last year's didn't!) This time, Ian looked at all of those he could find, and picked this as one of his all-time favourites. Let's see if having a consistent logo catches on.
Why does it clash with…
There are only so many weekends in the year. Last year's BiCon was at the end of November / start of December, so it's extremely unlikely that the two will clash with the same things.
For this year, the venue had two weekends available over the summer, and it was likely that the other one would clash with Bi Pride. We didn't want that to happen, so that left us with one option.
It does clash with Nottinghamshire Pride, but it's in the same city and people can go to both.
It also apparently will clash with London Trans+ Pride, but at the time of writing (mid-March) their website still doesn't have an official date for this year's event and the trains between Nottingham and London are good enough that you could do both.
Is there any race training needed to attend BiCon 2025
No.
We don't have the rights to the recordings made of previous years' excellent training. Even if we did, making it compulsory would make it difficult to offer day tickets in a city where we're hoping a bunch of people attending the area's pride event on the Saturday daytime may want to come in the evening and/or on Sunday.
The four years of training has generated a large body of white attendees – in 2024, where it also wasn't compulsory, over half had done it before – who should be much more able to spot inappropriate behaviour and realise the importance of speaking out about it, including reporting it, at the time. (If it hasn't, it is arguable that making the training mandatory hasn't worked and another approach is necessary.)
Will there be any WiFi at the venue?
Yes.