Full record for con n.

Definition a convention of a group of (usually and originally science fiction) fans
OED requirements antedating 1940
Earliest cite Astounding Stories
Comment Abbreviated from convention. Often used as a suffix, as Worldcon, Mexicon.

Geri Sullivan submitted a 1959 cite from Fancyclopedia II.
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1944 cite from the original Fancyclopedia.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite for "Pacificon" from a 1975 reprint of Anthony Boucher's [pen-name of William White] "Rocket to the Morgue": Jeff Prucher verified this in its 1942 first publication.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1942 cite for "con" as a standalone word, from a letter by Larry Shaw to Planet Stories.
Fred Galvin submitted a cite for "Chicon" from an editorial in Astounding Stories for October 1940
We would like to get examples from the 1930s, as in the names of various conventions/conferences held at that time (e.g. Chicon).

Added to the OED in September 2002 with an earliest cite of 1944
Last modified 23 July, 2009

Citations for con n.

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1959 R. Eney Fancyclopaedia II (1979) 33 Coming together of fans from various localities, usually at a call issued by some organization or local group. And the designation is used as a combining word to make up some distinctive name for the brawl—either ‘con’ itself or its completions, -vention, -ference, -clave, or -fabulation. These words are not equivalent, for convention usually refers to the principal annual gathering; other formal get-togethers are conferences or conclaves.
1972 J. Blish Star Trek 5 116 No, I'll come down, Sulu, take the con.
1977 S. Marshak & M. Culbreath Price of Phoenix (1985) xxiv. 181 Take the con until further notice.
1983 S. Marshak & M. Culbreath Triangle ii.21 Captain, I recommend you give me the con and report to Doctor McCoy.
1986 J.M. Dillard Mindshadow i.26 Sulu rose from the con.
1988 Locus Apr. 37/3 If you want to know who those people are you keep running into at cons‥you keep reading Locus.
1988 S. McCrumb Bimbos of Death Sun i. 7 You here for the con?
1989 Nova Express Spring 9/1 Karl‥was far more interested in New Orleans than in the con itself.
1990 Thrust Winter 30/2 For many years, I've tried to be a simonpure fan, never charging for a fanzine‥refusing payment for the occasional contribution to a large con's program book.
1990 Thrust Winter 4/2 Noreascon II was the best run and most enjoyable Worldcon I've attended, and I managed to get to much more of the con than last year.
1991 L. Niven et al. Fallen Angels 21 Not Fandom. I was reading the true quill long before I knew about Fandom and cons and such.
1991 L. Niven et al. Fallen Angels 89 A public venue was naturally out of the question; and very few fen owned homes large enough to house even a small con.
1991 Fantasy Spring 50/3, I also go to cons occasionally, where I can be found filking late into the night.
1991 Locus Sept. 54/2 Many highly-respected and/or best-selling authors got only a few votes—no one wanted to meet frequent con-goer Jack Chalker, for instance, though he got votes in all three of the other categories.
1993 Locus June 68/1 We had some fine times—parties, cons, all-night Canasta games.
1993 Locus Oct. iv. 41/3, I was reading all the sf I could get hold of, but I'd never heard of fandom or cons.
1994 Interzone Mar. 26/2 People who go to cons and meetings, write fanzines, who consciously think of themselves as fans—would still be a tiny minority of the reading public.
1994 Interzone Mar. 26/2 There's plenty of people out there who read sf and fantasy as part of a balanced reading diet and who don't think of themselves as fans, and who'd probably go pale at the thought of spending a weekend at a con.
1996 SFX May 21/1 Ten years ago, Tony Luke and I were simply a couple of fan-boy Hitchiker's Guide fans going to cons and writing for fanzines.
2001 Sci. Fiction Chron. July 46/1 I'm convinced that, largely through cons, science fiction deserves to be considered a literary movement, wherein each writer interacts with others.