Yes, TetZooCon 2023 is happening right now… more or less (I’m writing this on Thursday 30th November)… and that explains the lack of action here lately. A summary of what will be happening at TetZooCon 2023 has already been published here, but here are random thoughts before I leave.

**Caption:** I don’t think it’s a secret that TetZooCon 2023 is, in part, based around Mesozoic marine reptiles, mostly because it’s the year in which I published *Ancient Sea Reptiles*. The montage, designed and compiled by John Conway, features many illustrations that appear in the book.

TetZooCon, the vision. My plan for TetZooCon – right from the first event of 2014 – was to get it to the point where there might be several talk sessions happening in parallel, where on-stage panel or roundtable events would be happening here and there on the schedule, and that it would be more ‘con’ (as in: convention) and less ‘conf’ (as in: conference). That last point means tables, stalls, things on display, books for sale and for signing, art exhibitions and so on. Incrementally, we’ve gotten closer and closer to that end. And here in 2023, we’re there, basically. This year, we have three parallel sessions, a foyer full of stalls with merch, books and more on sale, and several roundtable and Q&A sessions. This year’s TetZooCon is also the biggest in terms of attendance, though I don’t have a final count as we’re in the throes of getting things sorted as I write.

**Caption:** the first TetZooCon happened in 2014 (**you can read about it here**). It should be obvious from this montage that I’ve relied extensively on pulling favours from friends and colleagues: the speakers here (l to r) are Mark Witton, Paulo Viscardi and Mike Taylor.

TetZooCon is a big enough event on the calendar that part of the year now revolves around it, and it isn’t going away. Due to excellent co-operation we have with Dr Chris Manias at King’s College, we also have an excellent venue, and indeed the biggest challenge for running large events seems to be that very thing. The prohibitive cost of venues has killed other, seemingly successful events in the recent past.

A public event. I really hope that TetZooCon is understood as the outreach event designed for non-specialists that it is. It is not a technical conference where specialists talk to other specialists, but a publicly-facing event, open to anyone interested, where specialists do give talks, but present them to a general audience, often for the first time. We would like to see that point emphasized more. Here I should mention the fact that even technical conferences are, in theory, ‘open to the public’, but they typically have a structure and promotional model that very much relies on the attendance of active and working researchers (mostly PhD students, post-docs and teaching staff).

**Caption:** field outings have been a regular feature of TetZooCon right from the start, though the nature of our operation means that these are generally informal, ad hoc, and arranged at the last minute. We’ve been to Crystal Palace a few times. I love this photo, showing Mark Witton with one of the *Iguanodon*s… though it’s actually from a non-TetZooCon meeting, details details. Image: (c) Mark Witton.

Another point on being public-facing: this year, more young people (children and teenagers) are attending than ever. I welcome this and seek to expand on it.

Going abroad, or not. Discussions on social media often highlight how much interest there would be in holding TetZooCon outside the UK, most obviously in the USA. Those who attended our zoom-based events – ha ha, we called them TetZooMCon – generally enjoyed them and liked being part of the collective. While we would love to be more international, it ain’t gonna happen. This is a shoestring thing run by two people (myself and John Conway), there are no appreciable profits, and just flying across an ocean would cost enough to put us into negative equity. In future – if special funding of some sort were obtained – I would love to run a non-UK thing. But, clearly, there are serious limitations preventing it.

**Caption:** another point of success for TetZooCon (err, in my opinion) is that we now serve as an important venue for the sale, and sometimes even the launch, of relevant books. These ones – among others – were available for sale and signing at the 2022 event, and will be on sale again this year (though I regret that only *one copy* of *Mesozoic Art* is up for grabs!).

As for running the in-person TetZooCon meeting as a pay-to-view streaming event (something else that gets suggested a lot), we just can’t do it. Too few of us are running this, and the profits are nowhere near grand enough to cover the costs. So: nice idea, but we don’t have the time, the staff, or the finances for this to work, not yet.

**Caption:** that’s the 2023 banner at top, but this montage gives some idea of what happened at TetZooCon 2022. It was the biggest TetZooCon ever in the history of the universe (**you can read about it here**), but 2023 has it beat by some margin. Yes I am a little scared.

That’s where I’ll end things. I look forward to seeing many of you there and hope things go well, despite the worsening situation with British transport, the bad weather, the financial cost of doing anything in central London, the looming threat of continuing issues with public health, and the general circling the drain of all we hold dear. Come back soon for a post-TetZooCon report!

Much is due to be published here soon: there is constantly a long list of articles I’m hoping to get finished and published when workload allows. Topics receiving coverage soon including Australian feral mega-cats again, wolves, a tale from the forests of Madagascar, an overview of new(ish) cryptozoology books, zebras part 3 and more.

For previous articles on TetZooMCon and TetZooCon, see…