You wrote: 

how about setting up a link to IRC??  - Now I know that this might 
seem like a bit of effort (it's not really that hard if you know what 
your doing...) - but it would give people a say even if they arn't 
there in person...

I really don't know about that.  I'd have to ask the people running the 
con.  Even if such a thing could be set up, I'd have to find someone 
willing to sit at the terminal and type everything in...

------RM