A Wheel of Time Retrospective Featuring Kitan Sedai
Author: Zandera Sommers
We’re quite blessed to have such a strong community here on TarValon.Net, and while we visit local events every now and then, it takes real go-getters to bring The Wheel of Time to others outside the community all on their own.
That’s exactly what Kitan Tataru Sedai did this May at a CONduit, Utah’s longest-running general science fiction, fantasy, and horror convention. Kitan Sedai spoke about the nature of high fantasy, revealed the premise of The Wheel of Time, (not too much because those are spoilers!) and discussed the themes of morality, gender identity, and the mutability of knowledge. She also gave public information regarding Robert Jordan's life and death and how the popularity of the series has created a growing trend in the formation and success of people coming together in their fandom in real life communities such as ours. Kitan Sedai finished her presentation with a collection of fan testimonials about the series, including quotes from many of us--our very own Mother Rhed al'Tere was among the testimonials shared with attendees.
The annual CONduit Convention is what most would consider a relatively small event, held this year at the DoubleTree Hotel. There were a few hundred people attending this modest gathering that covered a surprising range of topics with panels alongside Kitan Sedai’s ‘Wheel of Time Retrospective,’ from serious topics like ‘Geek Journalism’ to fun presentations like ‘Costuming Your Kids.’
How did Kitan Sedai get chosen for making a panel presentation? Upon being asked, she admits to it being a bit of a story. “How I got involved with CONduit basically started with me looking at their schedule a few months before the con, and thinking well, Brandon Sanderson has attended CONduit in the past, probably because they focus a lot on authors and so I thought, hey, maybe this schedule is a mock-up, and there’s a chance he’s going? So I emailed the folks at CONduit and said I was interested in seeing a WoT panel at the event in the hopes that they would--or already had--started to reach out to [Sanderson] for this year’s event. I went on a little about how I’m a member of this website and you know, it’s awesome, and I really hoped to see something neat.
“I didn’t hear from them for a while, and later I got an email back essentially asking, ‘Are you interested in running a Wheel of Time panel for us?’ I said, 'if Brandon Sanderson was there, he’d likely be interested,' but I didn’t think they were planning on putting me up there all by myself. 10 days before the event, I suddenly get an email saying ‘this is when your panel is, you’re the only person, Brandon Sanderson is not going,’ and I was really shocked.” There had been some sort of misunderstanding! Though she didn’t say it outright, after talking to Kitan Sedai about the con at length, I could tell that this was a pivotal moment for her because she had to decide whether to man up and run a panel all by herself--or let this really cool idea of a Wheel of Time panel, dedicated to a series that she greatly loves, go unrepresented and unknown to other nerds in her home state. After a little bit of contemplation and much gnashing of teeth, Kitan Sedai decided to go for it. She emailed them back and said yes.
So Kitan Sedai got to work and contacted some of the administrators at TarValon.Net and was faced with her first big challenge. Since the deadline was so close, there was no time to even attempt to coordinate with the site she knows and loves. Kitan Sedai was essentially told that TarValon.Net didn’t have the manpower or types of resources she could just pick up and take to a convention to share with other people. “In order to avoid making my presentation one big TarValon.Net advertisement, I talked about Theoryland and DragonMount too,” Kitan Sedai said. “The information I got from other sites was indispensable. I couldn’t have written my presentation without it.” Since Kitan Sedai was not working with the officers of TarValon.Net, she was told to talk about her own experience and not put herself forward as an agent of TarValon.Net, the legal entity. It began to sound like she really was alone in trying to make this panel a reality.
However, the community she knows and loves came through for her again. A close real life friend of hers with an extremely personal experience with the series agreed to share her story for the panel. But she didn’t stop there.
“I started collecting stories about how The Wheel of Time affected people’s lives, and I didn’t want those stories coming from just TarValon.Net people.” Kitan Sedai reached out to a member of Team Jordan, which is the group of people who helped the author write and release his books. “I asked if I could use The Wheel of Time logo on my slide show. [The Team Jordan member] talked with Harriet, and Harriet agreed to let me [use the logo]. Harriet even asked if it was going to be recorded because she wanted to see it! I was shocked!” Kitan Sedai’s real-life friend, Caitlin, lent her tripod, and they used Kitan Sedai’s phone to record the entire presentation. “Since Cait was coming to bring her tripod anyway, I thought well, why doesn’t she share her own story with the audience instead of writing it down?” Despite being faced with the fearful and intimidating task of sharing a very tragic and difficult story face-to-face with strangers, Caitlin agreed.
The day of the presentation, Kitan Sedai felt her spirits lift when she saw a familiar and comforting sign. The encompassing theme was ‘There and back again,’ and the symbol of the convention? “It was an ouroboros, which as you know, is the great serpent. It was on each and every badge. I was like, ‘my people!’ ...and then I realized it was the symbol of the con.” Kitan Sedai laughed.
Minus a few so’s and uh’s, and some unfortunate wrestling with tech equipment, the presentation went off without a hitch, and can see the whole thing yourself here. Afterward, Kitan Sedai added captions to cope with the poor sound quality. (Phone’s aren’t omnipotent, apparently.) Fortunately, Kitan Sedai is an excellent typist and put in tons of hours for some really amazing captions. You can see the testimonials of some of our fellow members, and the personal tale of Kitan Sedai’s friend Caitlin at the end of the video. The very next day after the convention, TarValon.Net felt a small wave from Kitan Sedai’s efforts when an attendee of the Wheel of Time Retrospective panel up for an account on the Boards. I had the opportunity to ask this member, Zalina al’ Vyrane, why she joined the site, and she said that when she saw Kitan Sedai, she immediately knew: hat woman is an Aes Sedai. Reportedly the White Unity Shawl was a bit of a giveaway, but Kitan Sedai also held herself with poise and grace, delivering a stellar presentation under a very short deadline with little help.
When asked about how she felt an event like this could be further executed in the future, Kitan Sedai replied, “I think the first step is finding out about local get togethers in your area. I am sure that there are a lot of geeky people in Salt Lake City who just don’t know about CONduit... There are a few other organizations I know of that run conventions, and they just seem to be big money makers with outrageous ticket prices--unlike CONduit which is a non-profit.” It took a lot of work on her part, but it really boggles the mind when looking at how much impact Kitan Sedai created as one agent operating alone. Can you imagine what kind of accomplishments a focused effort by TarValon.Net could make with an organized and well-supplied team of events volunteers?
Kitan Sedai certainly expanded her network through her experience at CONduit, meeting tons of people and having an awesome time. “I would definitely do it again!” She looks a little askance. “Especially with more notice. But seriously, I would love to talk more about The Wheel of Time and our communities. If you want to volunteer and talk at an auditorium or lecture, the worst thing [other organizations] can say to you is ‘no’. I would guess that there are a lot of people who need speakers among the nerdy communities and don’t have the money or resources to recruit.”
You can learn more about CONduit on their website and who knows? Maybe we’ll see more of our members at more local events running panels or recruiting in the future. If so, I hope they are at least as successful as Kitan Sedai’s visit to CONduit, which was an amazing, awesome event.
