LOST Conference Cancelled

Even though there's a lot for "LOST" fans to be excited about this month, some bad news emerged this week: "LOST: The Conference" has been cancelled.

The event was the brainchild of David Lavery and Lynnette Porter, and was planned to run alongside the Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities in January. But the pair reported yesterday that they received a "very disappointing response" to their Call for Papers.

Yes, Call for Papers. This was going to be a serious conference. Lavery is an English professor, author, and blogger who co-founded the journal Critical Studies in Television. Porter is an author of several books, and collaborated with Lavery on "Lost's Buried Treasures: The Unofficial Guide to Everything Lost Fans Need to Know."

They said that the poor economy, coupled with the location and January date of the conference, were probably major reasons why the conference didn't get off the ground. But they're not giving up, and hope to announce a new location and date by October.

"Our goal is to piggy-back with another conference (we have one in mind) possibly in October 2011 and on a beach (Atlantic, not Pacific) in the mainland US," they write. "The cost of attendance should be significantly lower."

Of course, I had no problem with the original location or date, as it was here in Honolulu and would mark the first anniversary of our epic "LOST Weekend." On the other hand, I feared I wasn't quite smart enough to participate. Hopefully the delay will give me some time to finish my degree in "LOST" studies.

Frankly, "LOST" is too awesome to not have its own fan convention. I know of at least two initiatives to make something like this happen. Meanwhile, I guess, there's always Comic-Con. Only 340 days to go!