One of Us

[kevin_standlee]

I appreciate all of the people who sent me birthday wishes yesterday on my 46th birthday; however, what with moving and all I wasn't really in the best position to appreciate things. We're just too busy. But as I mentioned earlier, we did go to the Atlantis and had their big seafood buffet. As usual, travelswithkuma sat between Lisa and me looking at his keno ticket. While Lisa was going back for seconds, a woman in a familiar-looking t-shirt walked by and said how cute the Bear looked. Lisa came back and I chased down the passing woman, who was looking over some of the selections. Sure enough, she was wearing a Renovation t-shirt.

I said, "You didn't give me a chance to say thank you — we're part of the same tribe!" I explained that we'd also been at the Worldcon, and she remembered hearing about Match Game SF and thus had a reference for me. She was a local who attended the convention; it was her second Worldcon (ConFrancisco clear back in 1993 was her first), and she said she had a great time. Unfortunately, she said, "I hope you guys decide to bring it back here again soon," having utterly missed how Worldcon sites are selected. I did try to give her the brief outline, but (as I've found before), the fact that we don't have a Board of Directors selecting sites by some Master Plan of Rotation is mind-boggling to many people, including plenty of fans. People assume that of course there's some distant central organizing group that is In Charge making the plans, and all of this bidding stuff goes right over their heads. As I pointed out to her, "In one sense, if you want Reno to host Worldcon again, you probably have to go out and bid for it yourself," a prospect that did not fill her with joy.

Still, it was nice to see more locals who enjoyed the convention. I just hope we can convert them to stay interested and/or travel to conventions more than commuting distance away.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

On the flip side, a few minor grouches I had with the Atlantis (all ruthless fixed quickly by hotel management) I thought it made for a good worldcon venue.

I think, generally, it's helped UK fandom to settle on a few hotels nationally that are prepared/equipped to handle an Eastercon sized convention, with occasional attempts at other locations, rather than try from scratch every time to persuade a completely new site to deal with what is a rather odd sized event.