If you’re looking for info about 2018’s conference, please click here. 

This post does exactly what it says on the tin – all the info you might need for Eroticon 2017, in one place. If I’ve missed anything out or you have questions that aren’t answered here, please do leave a comment and I’ll add an answer.

Eroticon 2017 – the venue and getting there

This year Eroticon will be held at Arlington House, Camden.

Nearest Tube: Camden Town (northern line). Also easily accessible from the Overground (10 minute walk from Camden Road or Kentish Town West).

Nearest Bus stop: There are plenty of buses that stop at Camden – if you’re coming from Euston hop on the 168 or the 253, if you’re coming from Kings Cross the 214 or the 46. This isn’t an exhaustive list – there are quite a few buses! Here’s a bus map for Camden Town.

Walking: if you’re up for a walk, Arlington House is roughly a half-hour walk (as judged by Google Maps) from Kings Cross, and about the same from Euston.

As an additional bonus, our US resident Michael has written a fantastic guide to London. It includes details on paying for transport and other things that might be helpful.

Eroticon 2017 – accommodation

If you haven’t booked accommodation yet, check out Molly’s guide on places to stay nearby.

Eroticon tickets/delegate forms

You do not require a physical ticket for this event. you should have filled out your delegate form to let us know the name you’d like for your badge as well as any dietary requirements you might have. You will need to know what your delegate name is to collect your badge. If you haven’t done this (or you think you haven’t!) drop us an email info@writesexright.com and we’ll check you off against the list.

Eroticon 2017 – photos and event behaviour policy

As we are a community of erotic creatives, there are many who would prefer to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. One of our own organisers – Girl on the Net – prefers to keep a certain level of anonymity, which includes no real names or photos. Because so many people prefer this, one of the most important rules of the conference is: no photos without express permission. To help people with this, when you get your conference badge, you’ll be given the choice to wear a red lanyard or a black one.

Red lanyard = no photos.

Black lanyard = I don’t mind being photographed.

While we cannot guarantee anyone’s anonymity, we can do our best to make sure that people follow this rule. There is more info on anonymity and events here.

Everyone must wear their badge at all times when inside the venue (this is to help venue staff as well so they know not to let anyone just wander in off the street), and abide by the rule on photos. If you’d like to take selfies or pictures with our sponsor products – that’s great! It is fully encouraged! Just please be aware of the frame of your shot, and make sure there is no one in it who has asked not to be photographed. While people may not be wearing their badges when they’re out and about (and at the social events), the rule still stands: no photos without express consent. That means you need to ask, and receive, confirmation from everyone in shot before you take a photo.

We also have a strict behaviour policy – it’s mostly common sense, based on consent and respect for all attendees. Please familiarise yourself with it before you arrive.

If at any point someone breaches the behaviour policy, please contact one of the Eroticon organisers at the registration desk.

Eroticon 2017 – the conference weekend

We have a packed schedule for the Eroticon weekend, with some absolutely incredible speakers. Some people like to spend the whole weekend in talks/workshops, others prefer to take a more chilled approach and go to a few favourites but give themselves time in between to wander around our sponsors’ area, or have a sit-down and a breather. It’s completely up to you, though we’d recommend taking at least one session’s break during the day to give yourself time to mingle, meet our sponsors and check out the fantastic books on the book stall.

We open the conference with a quick welcome and introduction to everyone, followed by a keynote panel. After that, we split the main conference space up and the rest of the talks/workshops happen in different rooms.

There will be:

• 1 room for workshops (including KinkCraft demos, rope workshops, sex tech hands on, etc)
• 2 rooms for talks (these hold around 40-60 people)
• 1 ‘chilled’ room (this is a place that will have some chairs/tables for people to sit down/take a breather/work on their latest erotic story)
• the sponsor area (this is the large corridor that connects all of the other rooms. It contains sponsor stands as well as the Eroticon book stall run by Victoria Blisse of SmutUK. It’s a nice place to hang out and wander around – come along and chat to our friendly sponsors or browse the books!)

Smoking is of course not allowed in the venue, but you can smoke outside the building on the main street. If you’d like to remove your badge while you’re outside, you need to put it back on when you return inside.

We anticipate there will be around 120 people attending Eroticon over the course of the weekend – though some have day tickets, so each day there will be around 100 people, spread over the rooms and the other areas.

Eroticon 2017 – accessibility and finding things!

The venue (Arlington House) is accessible by wheelchair – there is both a lift and a stair lift that go from the entrance to the ground floor. The Friday night drinks venue is accessible by wheelchair, however there’s a raised dais on half of the room which is not. All the main bits – bar, toilets, etc – are though. The Saturday night venue is accessible by wheelchair.

In the venue itself, most of the activity happens off the main corridor, where the sponsor stands, book stall, and registration desk are, and there will be signage to direct you to each of the rooms. Toilets are off the main corridor, and lunch is served in a dining room which again branches off the main corridor. There should always be someone (either an organiser or a volunteer) near the registration desk in the main corridor – they are your first port of call if you need anything, and if you can’t find something during the weekend, please do ask! It’s the first time we’ve held Eroticon at this venue, so though we’ve tried to anticipate all questions/needs, there are bound to be some things that haven’t occurred to us, so we welcome any questions/suggestions!

Eroticon 2017 – special workshops + pre-registration

There are a few things over the weekend that require pre-registration. These are:

– the rope workshop on Saturday (register here)

– the website workshop on Saturday (register here)

– the readings on Sunday (registration closed)

If you’re planning on attending the fantastic Steel and Stilettos Fitness Class on Saturday, you might like to bring some clothes you’re comfortable working out in as well as some heels you can feel sexy in. These aren’t compulsory, though! You should be able to join in no matter what your clothing/experience/level of fitness – just join in and have fun!

Eroticon 2017 – the Friday night social

Although the conference officially begins on Saturday morning, there’s also a Friday night Meet and Greet event. It’s a great chance to get to meet other attendees, and chat to them in an informal setting, before you get stuck into the conference on Saturday.

The Friday night Meet and Greet will be held at the Holiday Inn Camden (just round the corner from Arlington House), and we have a private room with a private bar. There’s a smoking terrace outside, and bar/toilets/tables/chairs inside for everyone. It also has a lovely view of Camden Lock.

At the Friday night meet and greet, we’ll also be letting people pre-register before Saturday morning. So if you’d like to pick up your event pass a little early (and have a bit of a lie-in on Saturday/avoid having to queue for it on Saturday morning), please do come and pick up your badge at the drinks event.

Can I bring extra people on the Friday night? If you’d like to bring a partner/friend to the Friday night social, please email us info@writesexright.com or DM on Twitter. Please don’t extend invites without checking with us first – there should be space to accommodate extra people, but it’s a private event so isn’t open to all.

Eroticon 2017 – the Saturday night social

The Saturday night entertainment is being held at a pub near Kings Cross St Pancras. It’s accessible from the conference venue either by tube (2 stops on the northern line via Bank) or bus (241 bus) or walking (around 30 minutes measured by Google Maps). Details of the Saturday night venue will be in your conference programmes – if you’re planning on coming but you have a Sunday ticket, contact info@writesexright.com for details.

You’ll be entertained with comedy from our incredible compere Chris Coltrane, the fabulous comedian Ros Ballinger, and amazing burlesque performer Rubyyy Jones. There’s a bar at the venue and they also serve food if you want to grab a bite to eat before the show.

Feel free to come any time from 6:30pm. The show starts at 8 and will go on until about 9:30, after which there’ll be plenty of time to chat to your fellow attendees or head to bed if you’re tired after a long day!

Can I bring extra people on the Saturday night? Unfortunately, we have to close tickets for Saturday night now as we think we’ll have quite a full house.

Eroticon 2017 – food and drink

On each day of the conference there’ll be tea/coffee breaks (marked on the schedule) where there’ll be a choice of teas/coffee/decaf coffee etc.

In the middle of each day there’ll be a catered buffet lunch of sandwiches, wraps, crisps, fruit, cupcakes, that kind of thing.

The venue should be able to cater to everyone’s dietary requirements (vegan, veggie, gluten-free etc) as written on your delegate forms. If you’d prefer to go out for lunch, there are lots of restaurants/shops nearby in Camden.

Eroticon 2017 – dress code

There is no official dress code for the event, though some people have asked us for guidance before they pack, so here’s what people usually wear:

– During the day (i.e. at the conference). Jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, skirts, dresses, trainers, heels.

– In the evening (i.e. at the social events). Sometimes people like to get a bit dressed up/glamorous. You’re more than welcome to of course! But for those who might be nervous, it is not compulsory at all. The venues we’re in are essentially pubs, so whatever you’d feel comfortable in at the pub will be perfect for Eroticon.

Eroticon 2017 – book stall

Victoria Blisse from SmutUK will be running a book stall at Eroticon this year, so do come and browse to see some of the great titles from SmutUK authors and from our own speakers at Eroticon! You can also pick up a copy of the brilliant Eroticon anthology – a collection of work from Eroticon speakers and attendees.

If you’re speaking at Eroticon and you’d like to include some of your books to sell on the book stall, please do bring some along! You need to make sure that your author name, book title, and the price are written on a post-it note inside every book (every copy not just every individual title). This is so we can keep track of what’s sold and money owed etc!

Eroticon 2017 – meeting people

The crowd at Eroticon is super friendly and you should be able to find lots of people to chat to! However we know lots of people are shy, so if you need a hand get in touch with our Eroticon ambassadors – we’ll point them out on the Saturday morning, or ask one of the organisers to introduce you. You might also want to check out some of the online meet and greet posts (and write one of your own!) as that’s a good way to say hello and meet some of your fellow attendees before you arrive at Eroticon.

Eroticon 2017 – sponsors

We couldn’t have got even 10% of the way towards putting this event on if it weren’t for the generous support of our Eroticon sponsors. It really does make a huge difference to the event, and it makes even more of a difference if our attendees can come and chat to, learn about and promote the brilliant companies that will be showing off their products in the sponsors’ area.

At the event itself, you can come and meet:

• Hot Octopuss (who make the incredible PULSE penis vibrator, and have a brand new sex toy for clitoral stimulation to show you).
• Doxy (who make the legendary Doxy massager, and might have something special to show you as well)
• Ceramic Pleasure (make gorgeous handmade ceramic dildos, and will have plenty of them to show off at their stand during the weekend)
• Godemiche (beautiful silicone toys in every colour of the rainbow – they’ll even be creating a brand new toy at the conference itself!)
• Fuck.com (an online dating site that’s based on community – and uses great content to spark discussion)
• Freedoms Shop (run by the NHS, Freedoms Shop is one of the best places to buy lube/condoms and home testing kits for STIs)
• The Ruby Glow (pleasure for the seated lady – a unique sit-upon sex toy designed by erotic author Tabitha Rayne)

And though they won’t be at the conference in person, both of these companies have been incredibly generous in their support for the erotic creative community…

• The Rabbit Company (though they can’t be with us in person, they’ve sent some of their amazing products which will be available to look at – and win in the raffle!)
• Chaturbate (though they can’t be with us, the fantastic people at Chaturbate have generously covered the cost of lunch on Saturday as well as tea/coffee breaks on Sunday at Eroticon)

Also huge thank you to our delegate sponsors and supporters, who chipped in extra to the ticket pool to make sure that more people could attend.

Eroticon 2017 goodie bags/raffle

As ever we’ll be giving out goodie bags to all attendees (no spoilers, but we think you’ll like ’em!) and they will all include conference programmes as well as fun bits and pieces from our sponsors.

There will also be a raffle, with a number of prizes contributed by fantastic companies. To enter the raffle, just pick up a raffle ticket from one of the places in the sponsors’ area, then visit the prize table to see if you’ve won. Tickets will be issued in 2 batches (Saturday and Sunday) so that Sunday ticket holders still have a chance to win!

Girl on the Net