If you are working in a customer-facing role for a convention, do try not to be rude to the members. And if you are going to be rude to someone, do try not to pick Nick Mamatas as your target.
And congratulations to Lucy Snyder for cleaning up the mess.
Of course it never ceases to amaze me that people think conventions have a bunch of paid staff…
It looks like we may have some good news on the wi-fi front. As per this discussion on the A4 LiveJournal, it appears that you can get an 8-hour/250Mb wi-fi account at the convention center for just $A20. If that is indeed the case you can expect me to have my iPad running every day of the con, and there will be live Hugo coverage of some sort.
Also we have a bunch of people who have allowed their feeds to be syndicated through ConReporter.com. Of course we could always do with more. I’m pretty confident that we will have live coverage of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards (thanks Errol!).
In the meantime, the agenda for the WSFS Business Meeting has been published. Kevin has a precis here. There are a number of interesting pieces of business in store.
Probably the most important is the motion removing the connection between the site selection fee and the initial membership rate of new Worldcons. The way things currently are, this rule causes Supporting Memberships to be much higher than they should be to cover costs, and keeps initial membership fees much lower than Worldcons would like (forcing them to escalate rates rapidly later on). Passing this motion (and ratifying it in Reno) will do a lot to enable future Worldcons to encourage participation.
Kevin’s electronic voting motion should go through easily, though there will doubtless be a few fuddy duddies who insist that everything must be done on paper.
Allowing the WSFS Constitution to be distributed electronically rather than on paper makes a lot of sense, though lots of people already get their progress reports electronically. It would be a lot better, of course, if we could revamp the WSFS website the way Kevin and I did for the Hugos, but I’ve been forbidden to touch it and no one else is doing anything.
The surprise motion is the one that would allow members of the following year’s Worldcon to nominate in the Hugos as well as members of the previous and current Worldcon. This seems a bit odd to me. The reason why the previous year’s members get nominating rights is because many of them join up too late to be able to nominate (but not too late for the final ballot) in their own year. To allow members of the following year’s convention to nominate seems reasonable, but to allow them to nominate and not allow them to vote in the final ballot is very strange.
As I’ll be heading out to the South Pacific in 8 days time (threatened Heathrow strike called off, yay!) it is time to get ConReporter.com out of hibernation again. I have just put out a call for reporters. If you are going to be reporting from Aussiecon 4, or from Au Contraire, or from Dragon*Con, let us know and we can add your reports into the coverage.
Help with the admin for those of you stuck back home would be especially appreciated this time as web access from Wellington and Melbourne may be difficult, and I’ll have Salon Futura #1 to worry about as well.
Lee Harris has been enthusing on Twitter about an iPad application called FlipBoard, which some of you may have. I’m not sure how generally useful it is, but for following a Twitter list of reports from an event it could be awesome.
I know I’m very lucky to be able to afford to go to Australia (Kevin and I are both doing the trip on frequent flier and frequent stay points), but I’ll do the best I can to make those of you stuck at home feel part of the action.
With only a week or two (depending on your travel plans) to go before people start leaving for Melbourne, questions are being asked. Yesterday Jay Lake inquired about mobile phone rental, as a result of which I discovered that the Vodafone phone rental store in Melbourne airport, which many of us used in 1999 and was still there last year, has now closed. Thankfully there are plenty of other options. Huge thanks to Donna Maree Hanson who responded to my Twitter plea and posted a lot of useful information on Jay’s blog.
The other question that everyone will be asking is how to get to the hotel from the airport. Don’t get a cab unless you have a big group, it will be at least AU$50. The convention has just put out PR#4 (download here) and they mention the Skybus service, which is only AU$26 return. However, that drops you at the Southern Cross railway station, which is 5 minutes walk from the convention center, possibly more if you have a lot of luggage and don’t know where you are going. A promising alternative is the VHA Shuttle service. If you book in advance it is a door-to-door car service and cheaper than the bus.
I have been saying for some time that it is very sad that literary festivals in the UK have completely ignored science fiction and fantasy (despite the likes of Pratchett, Rowling, Pullman, Gaiman, etc. selling huge quantities of books). Well, congratulations to Cheltenham for stepping up to the plate. Torque Control has a list of SF-related programme items. The discussion between China Miéville and John Mullan sounds particularly tasty. The panel discussion with Nalo Hopkinson, M. John Harrison and Toby Litt also sounds very promising.
Sadly I can’t be there. I have promised Dani & co that I will be in Dublin for Octocon. But hopefully someone will be on hand to plug Salon Futura, which will hopefully have a bunch of kick-ass issues out by then.
Firstly via Kevin I understand that Kansas City has launched a bid for 2016. The forward calendar now looks like this:
Secondly World SF News has an extended feature on the London site, courtesy of the Concatenation team.
A few people have been asking me when I will be where on my tour of the South Pacific. I don’t have final panel schedules as yet, but here is a rough guide.
From August 27th-29th I will be in Wellington at Au Contraire, the New Zealand NatCon. The preliminary program schedule is available, but note the warnings about it being a draft. If all goes according to plan I shall be on a panel with Elizabeth Knox, which I am seriously jazzed about.
On August 30th I fly to Melbourne [fixed stupid typo here]. I’m spending a couple of days holed up in a hotel catching up on the day job and getting Salon Futura #1 ready for release. After that it is into the madness that is Worldcon. I have been asked to do a few things while I am there. Once again nothing is set in stone yet, though I am very pleased with the possibilities.
In the week after Worldcon Kevin and I fly off to Cairns and then Sydney. This is a vacation. Aside from a long weekend in Monterey for my birthday a few years back, it is the first vacation we have had together since the last Australian Worldcon in 1999. Don’t expect to hear much from me in that week.
Louisville, Kentucky might not be everyone’s idea of the place to go when it comes to science fiction conventions, but their local con, ConGlomeration, has ambitions to become a big player on the con circuit. And they are not trying to lure you to Louisville, they are going to come to you.
In an article on SF Signal their programming co-chair, Jay Garmon, explains:
We have a 300-person ballroom at our disposal. It will have Internet access, a few laptops, some webcams, and a digital projector and screen. We’re going to have virtual guests (via Tokbox videochat, in all likelihood), and we’re going to do programming involving pros and fans from all over the planet. There is no reason to limit our panels to physical locations. All that’s required are willing participants with a webcam and the ability to stay awake simultaneously for an hour. We’re living in the frakking future of pocket supercomputers, electric cars, and free global communications. Let’s act like it.
Amen, brother!
The convention takes place over Easter weekend (Friday, April 22 to Sunday, April 24 for 2011). If anyone from the con committees of Eastercon, Norwescon, Minicon or Swancon is reading this I suggest you get in touch with Jay right now. His email is in the SF Signal article.
One of the topics that came up in my interview of Pat Cadigan at Finncon was that her son is now a successful musician. Performing as Nurvuss, Rob will be playing at the Drop Dead Festival in Vilnius in August which bills itself as “the biggest festival for Weird Wave, Deathrock, Art Punk and other mutant movements.” He’s also done some great benefit work for an LGBT charity. You can get samples of his music at his MySpace page. And here’s one of his latest songs, “Americanmade”.
I mentioned briefly in passing that the Finnish writer guest at Finncon, Sari Peltoniemi, is a former rock star as well as being a very successful writer. Naturally I had to check out her music. A fair amount is available on the MySpace page for her band, Noitalinna huraa!. Here they are performing a song called “Pikkuveli”.
I’ve finally stopped rushing around the world and can start catching up on last week.
Sunday at Finncon was a little more relaxed for me. I spent the morning happily sorting through some of the reaction to the launch of Wizard’s Tower Press, then headed off to the con. At noon I interviewed Pat Cadigan for her Guest of Honour slot. That was very easy. I just fed Pat some simple questions and she talked happily about them at length.
Next up was lunch with Irma, during which I ate moose stew and chatted about possibilities for fund-raising for the translation awards. Then it was back to the con for a panel on “Building Your Dream Convention.” There were some interesting things discussed, but I’m always a bit unhappy when I hear fans saying that their ideal convention is one that appeals only to themselves and people just like them. A “broad church” event such as Worldcon is always harder to run, and can be frustrating if some of the groups being catered for don’t pull their weight. Ultimately, however, we are all the poorer if we stick in our own little ghettos. My dream convention is one at which a wide range of different fannish interests is represented, and everyone has a good time. Sadly it seems you can only do that if some of the groups are able to pretend that they are the only ones there.
I had an hour free between 15:00 and 16:00 during which I was planning to work on ideas for the final panel. All I knew was that I was moderating it, that Ellen and Pat would be on it, and the topic was “Dreaming of Reality.” I found Jukka Halme and moaned half-heartedly about the difficulty of handling such panels. Jukka put on his best mournful face and asked, “Didn’t they give you my brilliant panel description?” Oops…
So, after 10 minutes or so with Jukka I at least had some ideas going in, and as it turned out both Pat and Ellen were more than able to talk about anything I threw at them, and make it interesting. I think the discussion went very well.
The result of the site selection vote was an overwhelming victory for Tampere. I’m delighted to say that the Moon bid came second. As Eemeli wasn’t there, I’m assuming that was entirely down to me (and possibly the Moon Nazis).
The dead dog party was, as usual, at a sauna. I handed out samples of Death Whisky and Illuminati Whisky. (Click through on the links and you’ll see where the names came from.) I must say that Illuminati Whisky has fast become a favorite of mine.
Many thanks to all of the Finncon crew for a wonderful time, especially Otto, Paula, Tero and Kati for some excellent guest-wrangling and Irma for staging a wonderful event. I have some follow-up posts to do, which I’ll get to as soon as I can.
The official start of Finncon is on the Saturday. I missed opening ceremonies because I was busy getting the Wizard’s Tower press release out, but I got to the convention by noon and was busy for pretty much all the rest of the day.
First up was a session about Iron Sky. It was mainly in Finnish, but Jarmo did do a lot with the web site from which I learned much. The most interesting thing about the movie is that it has a budget of €6.5 million. That’s a heck of a lot of money, but with usual Finn-fan efficiency Jarmo & crew have raised €5.6 million. They are looking to get the rest of the cash from crowdsourcing, and are already 31% of the way towards their target. If you want to help, go here.
Next up I moderated a discussion on cyberpunk. Pat Cadigan did most of the work, but I did add a moment of pure 21st Century by calling up Jonathan Dotse’s blog on my iPad and reading from it. I also did a plug for Lauren Beukes’s Moxyland, which is a fabulous book.
I was down to interview Ellen Kushner in her GoH slot, but she had a whole presentation prepared, including several songs, so I was only needed right at the end. Ellen was fabulous and charmed everyone.
From there I went to a presentation on forthcoming conventions where I did some PR for the London in 2014 Worldcon bid. As Eemeli Aro was in Canada on a business trip I also ended up fronting the Moon in 2012 Finncon bid. I noted that the bids for Helsinki and Tampere had not yet got facilities contracts, whereas our bid had a splendid Moon Nazi base available for use as all the Moon Nazis would be leaving in 2011.
Finncon will be in Turku in 2011. The Guests of Honour will be Nalo Hopkinson and Richard Morgan. Provided that the Moon Nazis do not conquer Earth before then.
My schedule had a gap between 16:00 and 17:00 but I spent some of it interviewing Jarmo and his colleague, Antti Hukkanen. The video from that may end up elsewhere in a day or two. I’ll keep you informed.
At 17:00 I did a reprise of my “How to run a masquerade” presentation, complete with some new video from Montreal. That was followed by the actual masquerade. The quality of costumes at Finncon has been going up each year. There was some fabulous make-up work this year, but by far the most impressive entry was this one: a Lorien warrior in full armor. The young man who wore it told me he made everything himself except the bow, sword and trousers. Pat was taking a lot of photos and I’ll point you at them when she gets them online.
After the masquerade we headed off for dinner at Harald, the viking-themed restaurant. Here’s Ellen tucking in to some red deer. iPhones in low light don’t take the best photos, but I think you’ll get the idea.
At 21:00 we had to be back at the con for the evening party at which I got to present the masquerade prizes and the Finnish filikers serenaded the Guests of Honour. I don’t have the lyrics available yet, but hopefully that will be sorted soon.
It was, as you might have noticed, a long day.
The Friday of Finncon is traditionally the day for the academic conference and the Finnish SF Writers’ Association meeting. Here’s what went on.
I didn’t manage to attend the academic sessions, but there were some interesting papers. Amongst the ones I liked were a look at the changing portrayal of gender in science fiction television, an analysis of cultural appropriation issues in the use of Sámi people in fantasy fiction, and an attempt to construct a semiotic framework for use in translating fiction.
With regard to the Sámi paper, I was surprised to discover that the term “Lapp” is now regarded as offensive. The issue is that “Lapp” is not a word that the Sámi use for themselves. It is rather like the term “Welsh”, which is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “foreigners”. But we Welsh have had centuries to get used to being called Welsh and it no longer rankles for most people. The Sámi take the issue more seriously.
By the way, Finnish has two words for Sámi people, one of which means people who come from the part of the country still known as Lapland, and who may have some Sámi blood; and the other for people who are of pure Sámi descent. I’m sure that Native Americans would like to be able to make that distinction.
The writers’ conference was mainly for professional fiction people. Ellen and Pat gave expert advice, as did the Finnish writer guest, Sari Peltoniemi, who I was delighted to discover is not only a fine exponent of fantasy, mainstream and children’s literature, but also a former rock star. However, we did find time to do the panel on this year’s Hugo nominees.
Going by last year I had expected the Hugo panel to be a fight between Jukka Halme and myself on one side, and Tommy Persson on the other, with Marianna Leikomaa trying to referee. Tommy is the sort of guy who will dislike a story because it has small errors in the science, whereas I will forgive almost anything except bad writing. Interestingly, however, the entire panel was in agreement that Robert Sawyer novels are not for them, and that they wanted The City & The City to win, even though it seems like The Windup Girl is the favorite.
(Personally, of course, I would love to see Palimpsest win, but realistically I suspect it will be too weird for many voters.)
The news coverage has been excellent. The media have been all over Pat, for reasons I will explain shortly. We even made the evening TV news. In this broadcast (starting about 4:35 in) there’s an interview with Pat shot during a visit to the particle accelerator at Jyväskylä university and also a short piece with my pal Jarmo about Iron Sky.
In the evening I was treated to dinner by Pat Cadigan’s publisher, Tero Norkoloa of Avain. He’s a happy guy, and deservedly so. Pat’s book (a translation of Mindplayers) was only launched on Thursday and has gone to a second printing already. It is a huge hit here, at least in part, because it shares themes with the current blockbuster movie, Inception. Tero was also smart enough to snap up a hot young writer called Barack Obama, and that may have helped him treat Pat and I to such a fine meal.
Talking of the food, the restaurant had bear on the menu. At €58 a portion I wasn’t about to impose on my host’s generosity. I’ve had a comment on Twitter that bear is available in restaurants in Russia too, and tastes very good. Irma assures me that there are plenty of bears in Finland and hunting is strictly controlled.
Today I’m very busy. I’ll be catching up on developments on Iron Sky, moderating a panel on cyberpunk, interviewing Ellen, giving a presentation about masquerades, judging the masquerade, going for dinner at the local branch of Harald (the Viking theme restaurant) and participating in the traditional Saturday evening fun (no sign of a mad scientist laugh competition yet, but you never know).
Sorry for the lack of bloggage yesterday, it was a bit mad. I was supposed to have a relaxing day touring Helsinki, but I ended up booking 7.5 hours of paid work on the Daye Jobbe instead. Fortunately I did get to do the dinner cruise, which was delightful, with excellent food (though the beer drinkers were unhappy).
This morning we did the traditional Helsinki press conference. It went very well. Pat in particular is getting a lot of attention. She has a book just out here (Mindplayers) and it happens to address similar themes to the new movie, Inception. Her Finnish publisher is clearly a genius.
After that we drove up to Jyvaskyla. It is very warm here, and Niki, Mistress of the Universe (Otto & Paula’s cat) was very unhappy. Being in a travel basket is undignified, but hot days are murder when you have a thick fur coat. Thankfully she is now in her holiday home with relatives.
I’ve just come back from a civic reception to open the Jyvasklya Arts Festival. Next stop is a sauna party for the guests. More tomorrow.
I am on my way to Finncon, and being somewhat leisurely about it. I’m spending this evening in Oxford because my Brazilian friend, Fábio Fernandes, is here on business (at an academic conference on cyberpunk). This was a perfect opportunity to meet up, and I enlisted the help of local guide Juliet McKenna. A fine evening has been had.
Dinner was in Wagamama’s (who turn out to do the most wonderful duck gyoza), after which Juilet took us to The Turf, a very old pub that is just the sort of place you should take foreign visitors (unless they are very tall). We have discussed evil plots, saving the world from the foolishness of publishers and all the other things that writers tend to talk about when they get together.
I’m now back at the hotel, and am happily running both the laptop and the iPad off the MiFi. This is the way technology was supposed to be. Much better than having to take a router with you because the idiot hotel wants to charge per connection (and yes, Kevin and I have done this on many occasions).
Tomorrow I meet up with Pat Cadigan at Heathrow and we fly out to Helsinki. Finncon will follow.
Finnish fandom is normally very calm and civilized about selecting the venue for Finncon. There has never been a contested vote for the site — until now.
For the first time in Finncon history there will be a site selection ballot. Fan groups from Helsinki and Tampere are both bidding to hold the convention in 2012. When news of the election became public they were soon joined by two more bids: one for Espoo, a city to the west of Helsinki, and one for the Moon.
I know which bid I’m supporting. I want to see Eemeli make that happen.
There will be bid presentations on the Friday night at Sohwi. Sadly I think I am having dinner with Pat Cadigan and her Finnish publishers at the time. The results will be announced on Sunday.
The programme for this year’s Finncon is now online. You can see the English-language programme here. I appear to be fairly busy.
In the best Finncon tradition I have no idea what the final panel is about. I suspect we will get to make it up as we go along. At least it doesn’t mention sex, though to be fair I can’t imagine Ellen or Pat being fazed by that.
My congratulations to Tero for some imaginative use of WordPress there.
Hugo-nominated fan artist, Dave Howell, is in the UK at the moment. He’s attending some sort of conference at a hotel in Hinckley. Much to his surprise, he discovered that the place is a famous fannish venue, but having read my Eastercon report he realized that the place has changed a lot. Some of you may know this, but I haven’t been to Hinckley for several years and it was news to me, so I thought I would share it. Dave says:
So I was curious enough to follow links back to your entire trip report for the 2001 National Convention. Good lord! We’re in the same hotel! I would never have recognized it from your description if you hadn’t mentioned the “Hackney Carriage Museum.”
It’s now the Barceló Hinckley Island Hotel, and has clearly been completely redecorated. No more Atlas/Neptune, no more flickering lamps. The bar still has wooden beams, but it’s been re-themed the Triumph bar, featuring a Triumph motorcycle behind the bar and various motor parts in the windows. The restaurant food seems reasonable. I haven’t heard too much complaining, and given that this convention is a crowd for whom “organic” food is generally a minimal standard (one attendee is a raw food vegan, for example), that means they’re doing fairly well.
I could totally go for an Eastercon in a hotel that had a motorbike theme. We could make Jon Courtenay Grimwood the Guest of Honour.
By the way, if anyone in London has a spare room and can put up a couple of traveling fans from the US Sun/Mon/Tue next week then Dave and Eric would be very grateful. Let me know and I’ll put you in touch.
As I mentioned in my con report, Alt.Fiction had an entire stream given over to panels intended to be recorded for later podcasting. The first two are now available. There is a chat with Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell, and a panel on “Dark Fantasy v Horror” featuring Kim Lakin-Smith, Tim Lebbon, Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. Listen to them here.
My Alt.Fiction report is now done, and available here. Con runner people please note.