Great Googly Moogly

[akirlu]

Another Tun, successfully weathered, brought the disturbing smoffish rumor that Seattle will definitely be launching a bid for the 2011 Worldcon. Waugh! Arrrrgh! And, furthermore, Aiiiiiiiii!

Okay, in case anyone is unclear on the inclination of my sentiments, let me just explicitly say that this sounds like a rilly bad idea. Pragmatics are key. Merely wanting a Worldcon in your city because it hasn't had one in a long time is not a good enough reason to bid for one. A committee needs to have big-con experience, competence, national smof connections, and enough emotional distance to take a hard look at their facilities & resources and make their decisions accordingly, in order to field a bid that doesn't threaten the physical and emotional health of the fans who eventually make the thing fly. I deeply suspect that Seattle has none of those, really. And you know, I watched people giving themselves ulcers trying to salvage NolaCon II. I'd rather not have to bear witness to that sort of thing again.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm skeptical on the facilities. I think the convention center itself is probably fine, though someone who knows the square footage needs of a Worldcon-sized dealer's room and artshow plus general display area would need to vet that. But I don't see a good way to do a Worldcon here without using the Sheraton as the primary convention hotel, and unless the Sheraton elevator situation has changed -- a lot -- or they have got corkage-waiverable suites somewhere other than the very top of the hotel -- then I think you're looking at a flow-management problem like that of the '97 Westercon, only cubed and squared due to much, much larger numbers.

[saphyre-blue.livejournal.com]

Good information here - we are working on it. I do remember the elevators at Con Jose, Torcon and even Noreascon - all vertical hotels with issue -- we will watch for these pit falls. Though the Sheridan may not be our choice of party hotels.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Speaking of facilities, I just got back from Bead & Button in Milwaukee and their convention center would be lovely for a worldcon. And there's a huge arena right across the street for the masquerade and Hugos. What I don't know about is the availibility of hotel rooms. And I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed with the Hyatt where I stayed, but still. Really nice convention center. Not a huge fan base, but Madison is just over the way a bit....

MKK

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Did you have time to meet my friends? Did you have fun?

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Yes indeedy. Sandi is a sweetheart and was very nice to me. The Saturday night dinner and bar session was lots of fun and I wish I could have stayed up longer! Thank you SO much for setting up the introduction. I really appreciated it.

MKK

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Glad it worked out! I have dinner with Sandi on Minicon Mondays, come to Minicon next year and you can join us! (I buy beads at her store before we go to eat.)