Everyone Expects the Fannish Inquistion

I attended a couple of the the morning program items at SMOFCon on Saturday, but had to skip those in the afternoon. ( Convention Center Tour )

We headed out early for dinner on Saturday night because we had be over at Room K of the Convention Center before most others in order to set up for recording the "Fannish Inquisition" — the presentations and Q&A for future SMOFCons and Worldcons (and bids for same).

( Everything but a trail of breadcrumbs )

There was no time for any Westercon discussions at the Fannish Inquisition, and fans headed back to their evening activities. Some folks were for the Beer tasting. Lisa and I were relieved that things ended on time because she had to break down the tripod and camera and we needed to beat it over to the Santa Vesta Room to set up the Statistics and Probability Seminar.

There's more I'd like to write, but I'm tired and I still want to say a few things about the S&P.

S&P 25 Success

I think the Statistics & Probability Practicum ($10 lab fee) went remarkably well. Lisa was able to get her laptop to display the countdown/round time on the big-screen TV in the Santa Vesta Room. (A good thing, too, as my personal laptop won't boot and my company-issued one doesn't have an S-video connector. Lisa remembered the S-video connector that I'd forgotten.)

( Poker? I hardly know her! )

I often get the feeling that there is a portion of the SMOFCon regular attendees who dislike my organizing these events, but I'm pretty sure it provided multiple useful functions here. Besides being a fun event that encourages socializing — because seats are randomized, you don't just sit near people you already know — but there's a practical issue here: There's no way we could fit 140 people into the Grand Suite. Having "counter-programming" made things work more smoothly. And speaking of smooth, I haven't heard how the beer tasting went yet.

Now I really must sleep. It's 4 AM. I think I'll have to skip the first tranche of program items on Sunday.

It's Amsterdam in 2011

Amsterdam, the Netherlands will host SMOFCon 29 at the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel on 2-4 December 2011. Online membership and other information about joining is available on their web site.

Putting SMOFCon 28 to Bed

This afternoon I skipped the panel I wanted to attend ("The Unopposed Worldcon Bid Effect"), but I felt rather obliged to go to "10 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Chaired a Worldcon." SMOFCon is one of the highest concentrations of former Worldcon chairs outside of the Old Pharts' Party at Worldcon itself. I may have missed someone, but I counted 13 former chairs and 2 current chairs. (I count each individual as 1 regardless of how many Worldcons s/he chaired or co-chair status, but only count those who were chairs at the time of their Worldcon.) That means a full 10% of the people at SMOFCon 28 are current or past Worldcon chairs.

For the list of things that we came up with, see my writeup on the panel, which is the first program write-up that I've posted. We plan to post all of the writeups I receive as I find the time for them.

( One more last-minute sign )

I sat in the Feedback Session and live-tweeted the feedback statements (look for #Smofcon), while Lisa videoed the session. I have a lot of editing work to do before I can post the video.

( Fewer onions and more roses than I expected )

( Pass-Along Funds for SMOFCon )

And then the convention was officially over. The Hospitality Suite remained open, though, and many people were staying over tonight (including me). Lisa invited Bill Parker to join us for dinner at Original Joe's, just a block from the hotel. (It had started raining, and we had no enthusiasm for going very far.) It was the first time I'd eaten there since during ConJosé. They still serve very generous portions. Bill couldn't finish all of his calamari steak, while Lisa had to get her calamari steak sandwich in a take-out box. I ate all of my spaghetti and sausage, but it was a lot of food. We sort of waddled back to the hotel after an enjoyable dinner and good relaxed conversation — something I rarely have an opportunity to do outside of events like this.

I hung around the Con Suite until about 10:30 PM, when I bade those left good night and headed back to the hotel room. Lisa had already started winding down. I decided I wanted some milk for my breakfast cereal tomorrow, but realized that the nearby Market by Safeway closed at 11 PM. I tossed on my coat, headed for the elevator, and trotted over the four blocks to the grocery. I was back in the hotel room a mere 17 minutes after I left, but my legs hurt from the fast walking.

Now we're trying to wind down sufficiently to get to sleep. Lisa is not feeling very well at all, and we do need to be up and out of here early enough Monday so that she can get her pickup truck from my office and get out of the Bay Area during the mid-day traffic lull. She has a long drive ahead of her tomorrow.

I agreed to pick up several SMOFCon attendees from the hotel Monday evening and take them to the BASFA meeting that evening. Some of them have been at BASFA meetings before, but always those at a convention, not those at the "home" location.

It feels like I'm leaving things out, but it is once again very late, and while I'm taking tomorrow off, I don't know how much rest, if any, I'm going to to get.